10" slotted grinding wheel

[MoblMec]

Well no luck so far on finding a 14" slotted grinding wheel.
Dose anybody have a 10" slotted grinding wheel they would sell???
Thanks
MoblMec

[Ray Rogers]

Ya, I didn't figure finding a 14" used would be easy. I've never had the
10" Grizzly wheel but several other guys have bought it for their Griz and
didn't complain much. My Griz came with an 8" wheel with a smooth face. I
replaced it right away with an 8" serrated wheel for about $300. The Griz
wheel wasn't perfectly balanced but it is as durable as it needs to be.

The 10" Griz wheel will be smooth faced with a cast aluminum hub. There
will be a hole in the center which is all that's needed on a Griz, you'll
have to add your own shaft for your machine. I don't remember the hole size
but it's pretty big, 3/4" or so I'd guess. Bottom line is, it's by far the
least expensive 10" wheel you're gonna find anywhere but you'll have to
spend some money on it to get it serrated (if you want that) and put a shaft
in it.

You can also find 2" wide urethane wheels used on carts and adapt them. I
did that with a 5" wheel. They run pretty true but a little noisy. Not as
fine as a $500 wheel but a lot less expensive. MSC has a wide selection of
wheels and prices....

[AUBE]

Yup the shaft size of the Grizzly, at least mine, is 3/4"...I'm actually in the process of having a new shaft machined for a Grizz wheel today so i just took the measurement an hour ago.

They work very well for the price. No idea how hard it would be to groove...something I considered trying but I've never been fond of machining rubber.

There is a company called Sun Ray that makes custom wheels, even in larger diameters...I've heard good things about them but I've never used them. No idea if they can come serrated. http://www.sunray-inc.com/

[Ray Rogers]

Yes, Sunray will serrate the wheel, no problem. But, buy the time you get a 14" wheel you'll still pay a significant price for it - less than most others but still enough to buy a 10" wheel off the shelf from a knife supply house ...

[Doug Adams]

What is the advantage of a serrated wheel vs smooth wheel?
Thanks,
Doug
JN 3:16

[MoblMec]

I talked to Sunray and there 14" slotted wheel with bareings was $398 and that is $100 cheaper than
Bador but Sunrays wheel is not balanced and that is another $100.
Are you doing hollow grinds with the 10" wheel from grizzly?
If you are how do you like it?
Thanks
MoblMec

[MoblMec]

I was posting when you asked this.
The groved wheel cuts a lot faster and better and stays cooler!
MoblMec

[Ray Rogers]

Any contact wheel of any size can work just fine for everything we do except hollow grinding. When it comes to hollow grinding then we become concerned about exactly what diameter our wheel has because that directly affects the hollow we're grinding.

A 14" wheel is freakin' huge in our world and can only make a serious hollow on a very large blade. True, you can use it on a much smaller blade too and it will give you a very shallow hollow and maybe that's what you want. And, that's my point: figure out what effect you really want and you'll know whether or not losing sleep over a 14" wheel makes sense or not. My 10" wheel gives a noticeable hollow on a 4" blade and I can increase or decrease the hollow somewhat by how I do the grind. A bigger wheel would make my blades closer to flat than I want them to be. For pen knife size blades I hollow grind with a 5" wheel because I want people to be able to see that it is a hollow grind - a 14" wheel on a pen knife blade would be so close to flat some people wouldn't even notice it.

Now that you have a better understanding of the issue go make a decision and spend whatever you must to get what you need to get the kind of grind you want ....

[AUBE]

$400 for an unbalanced 14" wheel?...wow. I'm surprised I haven't heard of makers casting their own for resale. Casting aluminum and urethane isn't that tricky. Someone with the right equipment could machine it to tolerance and balance it.

As for wheel size for hollow grinding....I mostly flat grind so I'm not the person to ask but I've noticed the most common wheel sizes tend to be 8-12" so a 10" looks like a good all around wheel. Of course as Ray said it depends on the knives you make. I usually only see larger than 12" on very wide knives...especially thin ones like chef knives.