Which 2x72 Grinder

Sgt_Bobbo said:
Does the north ridge come with a contact wheel? All I am seeing is a flat platen and a small contact wheel. Maybe I could get one from another company.
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I would email them direct. I contacted them a while back, and they had some in stock IIRC but not listed in stock on the site. I know he was having them made, but you can get them from a lot of places.
 
Sgt_Bobbo said:
Does the north ridge come with a contact wheel? All I am seeing is a flat platen and a small contact wheel. Maybe I could get one from another company.
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I order mine from a vendor on ebay...good quality fast shipping and way better pricing than I've seen elsewhere.
 
I have a Pheer and its been an industrial son of a gun. 1.5 hp, VFD, rotating platen, 8", 2", 1" and 3/4" wheels. Jose's service has bewen exceptional. I have made many, many knives on it, (I have 70 on the bench I'm putting handles on, have another 64 at HT and am profiling another25 or so havn't counted, right now). I use it A LOT. That being said I've heard absolute nothing except outstanding stuff about the Northridge. I'd do my homework and really look at these two. Do not consider less than direct drive and a VFD.
 
I think I am going to go with the northridge standard package as I get pretty much everything I want. I will have to save up to buy a small and large contact wheel attachment. The flat platen should be good enough for now. I am almost ready to pull the triger but I want to do a bit more of a comparrison between it and the Esteem grinder.
 
Sgt_Bobbo said:
I think I am going to go with the northridge standard package as I get pretty much everything I want. I will have to save up to buy a small and large contact wheel attachment. The flat platen should be good enough for now. I am almost ready to pull the triger but I want to do a bit more of a comparrison between it and the Esteem grinder.
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I have an Esteem grinder, and I'm quite pleased with it. There isn't much for bells and whistles on it, but it's a solid basic machine. If I were buying again, I'd probably seriously consider a Northridge, but that's not to say that I'm dissatisfied with the Esteem in any way. It's just that there are a few of the "bells and whistles" that I'm finding out would be really nice now.
 
Sgt_Bobbo said:
I think I am going to go with the northridge standard package as I get pretty much everything I want. I will have to save up to buy a small and large contact wheel attachment. The flat platen should be good enough for now. I am almost ready to pull the triger but I want to do a bit more of a comparrison between it and the Esteem grinder.
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I have an Esteem and love it. A couple things you want to consider: The Esteem has a single tool arm slot, Northridge has 2. If you plan on using a workrest a lot 2 slots are better. I don't really care for the Esteem work rest, the Northridge work rest is magnificent. The Esteem has a Bader style small wheel set up, which I like. I have the double sided one on my Esteem. It allows you to use the entire surface of the wheel when using smaller wheels without the forks getting in the way. I find this to be a real plus and don't understand why the forked small wheel attachment seems to be the standard.
It all comes down to what is most important to you and your style of working.
 
I'm still using my GIB with 2hp vfd. It's a fine machine, but if I did it again, I would just buy the Northridge. After sourcing all of the wheels, nuts and bolts, welding rid, paint, time spent tapping holes, and adjusting tracking, I would have been ahead with the north ridge. The GIB is fine, I'm not complaining, but I don't see how you can do better than the Northridge for the price. If you are broke and piecing it together, you can't get much cheaper than the GIB if you get a good deal on the wheels. I will make a second hogging grinder with minimal adjustability and 5hp then move to the GIB for finer work.

The Oregon Blade Maker grinder looks like a fine machine for the price. You probably can't do a GIB much cheaper.
 
I have a Grizzly 2 X 72, a Hardcore 2 X 72, and a Pheer 427.
All are good grinders. I use each for specific purposes.
 
I have a KMG style grinder that I build my self off the plans that where floating around. I like it but I machined every part square and true. It runs good but the one thing I dont like is that it's not direct drive. I'm hoping to correct that issue soon but till then I'm direct driving it with a lovejoy.
 
Can't believe I didn't see the burr king 960-272. How would this stack up against the north ridge?
 
My limited experiences with them showed them to be remarkably smooth, but switching from platen to contact wheel, etc, was arduous. That's one of the biggest advantages with tool-arm-swappable designs. Doesn't sound like it would be a big deal, but it crushes your workflow if you're wrestling with your machine in order to quickly clean up a finger groove with a small wheel, only to have to repeat the process to switch back to a flat platen, etc.



Sgt_Bobbo said:
Can't believe I didn't see the burr king 960-272. How would this stack up against the north ridge?
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Greenberg Woods said:
I'm a big fan of my pheer
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Horsewright said:
I have a Pheer and its been an industrial son of a gun. 1.5 hp, VFD, rotating platen, 8", 2", 1" and 3/4" wheels. Jose's service has bewen exceptional. I have made many, many knives on it, (I have 70 on the bench I'm putting handles on, have another 64 at HT and am profiling another25 or so havn't counted, right now). I use it A LOT. That being said I've heard absolute nothing except outstanding stuff about the Northridge. I'd do my homework and really look at these two. Do not consider less than direct drive and a VFD.
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I also have a Pheer and it works great. It was between Northridge and Pheer and Jose had much better customer service when I was looking at both, so I went with the Pheer and have no regrets.
 
I have used a home built for a year, which worked fine. Mostly small alignment issues that irritate after a awhile called for a switch. The Readder chassis appeared to be the best deal and was my first choice but did not care for the tilt. After much thought, decided on the Northridge Mode ll. Made my own tooling arms for accessories. Nice precise machine. I also bought the ratcheting tension arm, which is real nice. Rich
 
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I met Greg Reeder of Reeder grinders today at a show up in Ohio. Super nice guy and the grinder looked badass.

I'd seriously consider them if you don't want to spend the extra money on the Northridge or the TW-90.
Very clean design and the work tables were very well made.
They had lots of options too if you have your own motor and wheels already.

They have a new work rest coming out soon for the grinder in the horizontal mode. He was very friendly and helpful too. If I had the extra money I probably would have walked away with one today.
 
For the money, Inthink the Esteem package is the way to go. Precision and built like a tank, excellent tracking with no vibration.
I added a second tool arm reciever to mine easily.
 
Jonathans said:
For the money, Inthink the Esteem package is the way to go. Precision and built like a tank, excellent tracking with no vibration.
I added a second tool arm reciever to mine easily.
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You have my attention now! Perhaps a different thread is a better place to discus this, but I want to know how you did this. A single tooling arm is one of my greatest dislikes of the Esteem.
 
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