Thread: My new grinding station

I have been wanting to buy a belt sander / grinder for a while now, but lack the funds to buy a KMG. I have the plans for making one myself, but it is kinda hard without professional equipment and time. And of course, converting everything from imperial to metric and making sure it still works is a pain as well.

So I bought this BOSCH belt sander that I saw in the hardware store. Green Bosch is middle of the spectrum, quality wise. Decent quality, but not meant for continuous use (i.e. not hours in one go). It cost 170 euros which is not too cheap, but it should help me win time making scales, and if I can grind 2 razors with it, I'll have earned it back.



The flat bit is useful for scales and flattening things, and I can use the wheel for grinding hollows. Grinding hollows with a small diameter wheel is a bit more challenging than using a large diameter wheel, but it should work ok with some practise. The small diameter should also make it possible to evenly grind away pitting damage without altering the grind too much.

The front wheel is sprung, so it should handle the grinding just fine as long as I don't push too hard. Additionally, it has a quick-change lever for changing the belts and it centers them automatically.

The grinder came with a adaptor for mounting it with its back to the table, and it has a small dust collector (though I don't know how well it works yet). Belt speed is confiurable as well.

Also the band width is the standard 3". I was thinking about buying longer belts (for industrial machines) and then using this machine as the drive for a self made grinding setup if I can find contact wheels locally.

I've tested it by regrinding an old Eyre wedge that badly needed regrinding, and so far it seems to work fairly well. I am not going to remove huge chuncks of metal at once. Even with annealed steel, removing enough stock from a bar to make a pie shaped wedge before grinding will be quite a task. Still, it should make my life easier and save me lots of time.

Someone's dying for pics here!

Originally Posted by Kees

Someone's dying for pics here!

I see one

That is some innovative thinking, I am anxious to see more of your blades. You produced some mighty fine looking razors with your previous grinder set up, hopefully this setup will make the process easier and faster for you.

I admire your make do spirit.

Charlie

I used a similar setup for scale making until I upgraded to a 4"x36" belt/disc combo sander. It got the job done, but mine was ancient and louder than a piped Harley!

I like you idea Bruno very good.

Too apropos. I had a number of windows open
and all I saw for the subject of this thread was:
"My new grin"

Made me

Thanks guys.

Regrinding so far went well. As I already said: with the smaller contact wheel it is a bit more difficult to maintain an even grind. If I'm not careful then there will be lengthwise grooves in the blade.

So far I've reground only 1 wedge. I first removed the damage, and that went well but I ended up with said grooves from lingering too long in one place. After a bit of twiddling, I found something that works rather well.

I touch the blade to the wheel at the spine, and then roll it from spine to edge and pull it off the wheel. This way, no part of the blade remains in contact longer than the other, and there is no sudden local heat buildup.

I was grinding out a big Joseph Rodgers the other night on my belt sander, and found that what you said worked best. Rolling from spine to edge. Removed a TON of steel! There was so much pitting on that razor, I was glad I had that belt sander. I would have been buffing for hours, in what took me 30 minutes grinding out on the belt sander...