Thread: bench grinder

So, I want to get a bench grinder to try my hand at razor restoration. I take it, it's good to have one with adjustable speed? I found a craftsman that has that feature, a little above my price range but I could hold off a few more months and get it. Any suggestions on what any of you guys use?

Ya, not a bench grinder. While I own a small army of them they will never see my razors.
For cleaning I use a buffer. I have heard good things about the buffers from harbor freight.
I will occasionally take a razor to my knife grinder, but that is only for regrinding and I'm not happy with my results yet.

Try with sand paper fist. Then turn to the bench grinder. Just my 2 cents. I'm sure others will agree.

If you've never restored one, start with sandpaper. Do at least one, maybe two before you start on a buffer. It's hard to screw stuff up very quickly with sandpaper. Then move to a buffer after a couple of razors. I'm buying mine from Harbor Freight.

Are there any pics or links to see one of the Harbor Freight buffer?
Also, what grits would I need for restoration? Probably some really course through fairly fine?

Depends on what your trying to achieve. If there is pitting you want to remove you may need to start around 120 grit (keep in mind there is only so much steel you can remove before trashing the razor, particularly if its a full hollow ground). if its just a little clean-up you could start at 600 and see if it gets you the results your looking for and work up from there.
On a razor with pitting that I want to take to a near mirror finish I would typically use: 120, 150, 180, 220, 240, 280, 320, 360, 400, 600, 800, 1200, 1500, 2000, 3000 then polish with metal polish, but I think I'll invest in some Micromesh soon too.
Hope that helps.
Grant

+1 to handsanding first, but the harbor freight buffer is the 6 inch buffer they sell on there website( I'm on my phone so I can't link ya ) u want to use 4 inch buffing wheels though with it . I have two of them and they hold up great , def worth the small investment( u can get them for 40 bucks or so )

HI Excuse me quick question, to make new handles from acrylic can you tell me where I can find a pattern? I use a laser for cutting, thanks Pat

Pat, you probably ought to start a new thread. Might get you more responses.

Hand sanding is fine with me as long as there's not too much pitting. For big projects I would like to use the buffer wheels with greaseless compound though. I watched a few videos of a guy using a bench grinder with buffer wheels loaded with the greaseless compound. I'll check Harbor Freight to see what they have, thanks.