New Toys for the Workshop

A while back, I might have mentioned that I bought an oven to heat my own razors. Especially the HCS razors because Paul Bos, my heat treater, does not liquid quench anything. Since I almost always dealt with ATS-34 stainless, it wasn't an issue until I started making so many carbon steel blades. Anyhoo, here is a pic of the oven and it does a dandy job of things.

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But the primary reason for the thread is to show off my new horizontal grinder. It's a variable speed 1 horse 1725 rpm Leeson and utilizes 48-inch sanding belts. I bought a few 6 x 48's and split them at 1 1/2 inches wide. It was a mite cheaper thatuh way.

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The tricky part was that the motor had 9 primary wires that I had to splice in a specific configuration to the 4 wires of the chord connecting the motor to the control box. From there I had to connect them to specific terminals in the variable control box... which also had to have a 4 lead-wire switch installed in the control box.
Those 4 wires also had a specific place to find permanent home in the control box. Since I am only superficially handyman of sorts, I fully expected smoke to start billowing out of the motor... or control box. I was definitely glad to have a decent set of instructions written by folks who don't write English as a second language. I am happy to report that it works properly

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I will get a lot of use out of the grinder for making boxes, and using it for the gobs of inside radii that are on my knives and razors.

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I bought extra contact wheels for the "toe" (inside joke.. ) It came with a 1 1/2 inch wheel and I added a 3/4 inch and a 2 inch wheel. If any of you want to purchase one, you can get them here. This is the end that gets most of the work.

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Lookin' sharp, Boss!

Man, I wish I had a grinder like that when I was playing with knife making (and the oven for that matter, lol). Those are some great looking tools, I cannot wait to see what you make with them.

It's always cool to see new toys!
Thanks for the pics.

Cheers

nice toys

Wow, serious rad

Anytime there is sandpaper involved, there is the debris it creates. There is no way around it, so the best bet is to try to gather as much of it as you can before it settles to the bottom of your lungs. *It's an expression - I wear a mask or respirator when I create sawdust or metal shavings.

I incorporate two main methods to collect the debris from the sanding process. Very strong magnets... and a variety of shop vacuum cleaners. The trick is to use both when you can so that as little as possible escapes either collection method.

As you can see in the following pic, I made a contraption that sits below my burr king grinder that incorporates a magnet and a vacuum cleaner. The grid over the hole slows down the metal filings to prevent another one of my vacuums from bursting into flames from the hot ground metal filings.

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For my new horizontal grinder, I was going to temporarily hold the vacuum nozzle where I wanted it with my old stand-by... duct tape.

Then, I got to thinkin' (I've been known to do that on occasion) that it wouldn't really take that long to come up with something that may be a mite more stable. So I came up with a small 1x with two holes to fasten it to the work table, and then a horizontal hole through the 1x to thread a zip tie through. It holds the nozzle in place and a quick snip and the hose can then be used in a different location. This method will suffice until I figure out a method of just plugging in the nozzle to a permanent collection orifice.

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perogee said:

Man, I wish I had a grinder like that when I was playing with knife making (and the oven for that matter, lol). Those are some great looking tools, I cannot wait to see what you make with them.

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Prolly stuff like this:

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BillEllis said:

Prolly stuff like this:

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