whats the benefit to a horiz. belt sander?

[SkaerE]

i see some folks talking about them. what benefit do they offer other than making the grindlines in line with the length of the blade?

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

A friend of mine has one. The work rest is paraell with the belt so when you grind finger groves and profile a blade everything is square and flat.

 

[DC KNIVES]

Striper's right.I built my own for that very reason,and love it.It has helped me greatly as I tend to use alot of curves and finger grooves.Dave

 

[Darren Ellis]

Hey guys,

Quick question... what about adding a jig/tool rest to the work rest on a horizontal grinder such that it oriented the work at a 45 degree angle to the belt direction of travel when using the platen? Would this allow you to grind dovetails on bolster and handle material easily and allow one to get rid of a dedicated vertical disk sander with tilted table? Just a thought, I'd be interested in hearing opinions.

Rob Frink's site has a picture of the new horizontal belt grinder he is going to offer now. He had it with him up at Harley's Hammer-in and it looked to be a pretty nice machine...it's going on my short list of tools to buy!

-Darren

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

Darren,
I think that the belt speed and the width of the platen will affect your angle. It might have the tendenancy to want to "walk". A disk grinder pulls the material down, the horizontal grinder might pull it off to one side.