good Belt grinders

[jimmontg]

Many choices, but for less than $300 you have to go for the Jiffy with a platen, power notwithstanding. NO! I do not even know the Jiffy maker. Just seems the best option to me.

[Waters Knives]

I second the Craftsman 2x42, I've had it for over a year now. My only complaints is it gets hot quick and the platen isn't hardend steel so you will have to get a plate of heat treated steel or glass, and glue it on. I used high temp Silicon for adhesive.

[Ray Rogers]

DO NOT glue a glass plate to a platen! At least, don't let glue be the only thing holding it on. I did that once, the glue got hot and the glass slid down until it tried to wrap around the wheel at the end of the platen - glass grenade. I was lucky that I turned away to pick up a tool at that exact instant.

Attach a small piece of metal to your platen with screws or pins just below the glass so the glass cannot move past it if it should come loose. Maybe your glue will never come loose or, then again, an emergency room doctor could spend all night picking glass fragments out of your face and body ....

[Waters Knives]

Originally Posted by Ray Rogers

DO NOT glue a glass plate to a platen! At least, don't let glue be the only thing holding it on. I did that once, the glue got hot and the glass slid down until it tried to wrap around the wheel at the end of the platen - glass grenade. I was lucky that I turned away to pick up a tool at that exact instant.

Attach a small piece of metal to your platen with screws or pins just below the glass so the glass cannot move past it if it should come loose. Maybe your glue will never come loose or, then again, an emergency room doctor could spend all night picking glass fragments out of your face and body ....

Glueing ceramic glass to platens is quite common, but YES, I did forget to mention this. A small piece of metal at the bottom is defiantly recommended. Thanks. This is also another reason I went with Hi temp silicon for glue instead of epoxy. The silicon is also rubbery so it absorbs some of the shock.

[Andrew Garrett]

I tapped my platen in two places and screwed in two hex-head socket screws with JB weld.
These have flat sides and made two excellent points on which to rest the vertical glass platen liner while the epoxy cured.
Easier than welding.

[xa6s7y]

I have both sizes of Kalamazoo best belt grinders and they are decent grinders.In particular, 1x42 works very slowly, so it's really only suitable for deburring and, possibly, sharpening knives. The 2x48 has more power (I originally had a standard 1 / 2hp engine, but was later upgraded to 1hp) and it works faster, so it can do more work.The biggest problem is the lack of a proper contact wheel, so most of your polishing is usually on the roller or a weak part of the belt. The best belt grinders use a rubber contact wheel, and it works perfectly. Once you try the contact wheel, you will never return, especially for making knives.Yesterday I found on YouTube an interesting video about how made a belt grinder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsomO-bj_Xo

All the best

[dtec1]

So i can agree a 4x36 doesn't get the job done been there tried that i got lucky that i got a 2x72 kmg soon after realizing that 4x 36 wasn't working so i cant personally say but i have heard of a lot of other good makers using the grizzly as a stepping stone up to the 2x72 so i would agree with ray and say save for that

[M&J]

Nice to see how resourceful one can be.

I started out with a 1x30" Delta belt sander without the disc portion. Was ok for shaping handles though it went through the abrasives pretty quickly. Managed to use it for a variety of basic tasks.

Saving up to buy a nice unit will save money. I realize that this can be pretty tight on the wallet and have seen many progress through machines as they eventually landed Hardcores or Burr Kings, Etc. A journey well taken.

[Tenond]

I apologize for bump an old topic from the dead, just have a few interesting observations from personal experience, maybe someone will need this information in the future.
If you get a good one, it will work well enough for sharpening swords. But at that price point, the quality control is not great and I know a couple of people who bought those 1x30 sanders where the pulleys were not properly positioned and the belts couldn't be tightened properly. The belts were so loose that control over the edge angle is next to impossible. I got lucky with mine in that the belts are super tight. With high quality 3M Trizact belts https://mechanicguides.com/best-belt-grinders/ I can create very sharp edges on my blades with very good control over the edge angle.
But for large scale grinding when creating sword blades through stock removal, the belts are too small and the motor is under-powered, as fallen and brotherbanzai stated. Unless of course.On YouTube there are a lot of interesting videos on this topic, recently revised an interesting video, look, too, I hope this helps you.I have also using a Dayton 6" wide bench sander for about 15 years & it kicks ass.
I remove the guard on top & use the radius on top for shaping curves & It works excellent.
Although You need to hang on to the part tightly, just like You would when polishing parts
on a wheel

[Andrew Garrett]

Old threads are the best threads ehh?

Still the best bang for the buck:http://www.vansantdistributing.com/M...nt_p/mt8cw.htm

I made alot of knives on this guy while it was mounted to a cheap 8" variable speed Delta bench grinder. This is still the machine I sharpen on.
2X48" with 8" serrated contact wheel, full platten, and disc sander

All at $350.

[Ray Rogers]

It does look like it might be worth investigating. Unfortunately, that link says it is no longer available and a quick internet search was unable to find anyone still selling them ....

[Andrew Garrett]

Dang. It looks like they stopped making the one with an 8" wheel.

Now the 2x48 has a 3.3" wheel and a longer platten


They also have the original 2x36


That's a shame. I guess it doesn't matter to the flat grinding makers, but an 8" hollow grind is my go-to radius.

The above are available here:
https://www.trick-tools.com/Bench_Gr...ts_28?view_all

$289 and $219

[blindpig]

I needed to produce a semi-concave area on a knife and only had a 1 X 30 Harbor freight grinder and a 10' disc grinder neither had the diameter I needed. Then I remembered my old 4 X 36 belt grinder which hadn't used for a while and needing at least a 8"diameter wheel for my grind came up with making an attachment that could be fastened to the back side of the platen shaped to simulate the portion of an 8" wheel the knife would actually touch. also utilizing a notch in the top edge of the front side of the platen allowing me to position a box knife in the center of the 4" belt and splitting it into two 2' belts, now by rotating the platen over to the back side,attaching the simulated 8" wheel section and the now 2' wide belt,my needed grind was possible. The attachment is simply a piece of wood wide enough to reach passed the platen on each side and be attached with two pieces of angle, Mine ended up being 2" wide and shaped like an airplane wing so the belt passing over it would simulate about 1" section of an 8" diameter contact wheel.Being only 2" wide the drag produced by the belt riding over the"wing"doesn't seem to slow the motor.
Pretty McGiver but it works well.
Just my 2 cents.
Don

[mwhuston]

I built mine for a couple of hundred using the NWG from USAKnifemakers.com. I did get a deal in a motor at an auction so that really helped

Grinder

[KnifeGrinders]

There are many varieties of professional-grade belt grinders.
WEN 6502 Belt and Disc Sander is two in one machine which comes with a 4” x 36” belt and a 6” x 6” disc.
It is reliable and versatile belt knife sander.
It comes features with 4.3A motor generates 3600 RPM power and also You can tilt the adjustable belt from o-degree to 90-degree.
It has an 80-grit sanding belt and an 80-grit sanding disc and attached 2.5-inch dust collection port makes the cleaning task easy and convenient.