Belt Sanders for grinding? What if you dont know what kind of steel your working with

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adambomber

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Feb 24, 2009
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i have a fewquestions, one is, can i use a belt sander to grind, how is a belt GRINDER different.

i know sanders technically mean woodworking but how is it different, is it just that the sandpaper is too weak to deal with steel?
Can you put some kind of material instead of the sandpaper onto the sander?

Also i have been using an angle grinder and a bench grinder. The angle grinder is actually working better, but i use the bench grinder to make my lines.

could you guys link me some threads that are best for beginners?

i bought a piece of steel from lowes to practice and i dont know the carbon percentage.
 
A belt sander and belt grinder are the same thing, even with the same belt on it. If you touch it with wood, it's a sander. If you touch it with metal, it's a grinder. The Aluminum Oxide (inexpensive, rust colored) belts are usually used for wood and there are much longer lasting ones like Zirconia (more expensive, blue) that are often used for metal. I use Zirc for metal removal and AO for some finishes cause I'm gonna use a fresh belt everytime anyway.

I'm sure someone will post beginner links, there's some really good ones but I don't have them handy.

I made my first knife with an angle grinder then used a file to clean it up. It's a lot easier than just a file :)

Have fun!
 
yes thats what im doing, going over it with a file after im done.

ok i found the beginners threads.

the Guy in the hardware section at Lowes told me that the belt sander was only for wood :rolleyes:

i knew the beltsander looked like what the guy in the Katana video used, i should have trusted myself.

So if i buy a belt sander from lowes, would that work better than the bench grinder and angle grinder in your opinion?, im thinking yes.

also while someone is listening.....do i grind the blade to about 1/16 inch, then heat treat and then do the sanding and polishing after heat treating?

also i saw a guy do the tempering in his oven, does the handle not have to be tempered?

dang the bench grinder doesnt make a very straight line, since its so rounded.

ok thanks for your help
 
you can get a 1x30 sander from harbor freight for $40 or 1 up and go for the craftsman 2x42 for $140. You can buy higher grit belts from Jantz supply. I use a bench grinder and angle grinder for roughing out my profiles because I don't have a metal band saw.

If your planning on using the steel you got from lowes, STOP. It's no good for making knives, order some 5160 or 1084 from a knife supply place. Once you get proper steel you can get more specific info on properly heat treating it.

You heat treat, then temper the blade. An oven is fine for tempering, but you'll need a proper way to HT.
 
I made several knives with a Delta 1x42" belt sander from Lowes before I built my bigger grinder. It runs kinda fast but I think it's a great machine, especially for about $100. It's great to have in the shop for lots of things. There's a 4xsomething that people seem to like better for about the same price but I've never tried it.

The belt sander is way better than the bench or angle grinder. You'll have to get used to going through lots of belts though, but if you're gonna make knives, that's pretty much inevitable.

Whatever grinder you get, if it's doesn't use 2x72 belts, then supergrit is a good place for belts, your gonna be really limited by the expensive belts at Lowe's and HD and most knifemaking supply places mostly carry 2x72.

http://supergrit.com/products/products_belts.asp

You're gonna put the handle on after heat treating, but tempering is the last step in heat treating. You'll see in the beginner threads that you're gonna need something to get the metal up to critical temp (ie. non magnetic, glowing orange, seriously hot) to do the actual heat treat. Lot's of beginners send their blades out to get them heat treated.

Also, the metal from Lowes is very unlikely to be knifemaking type steel. Those threads probably have recommendations for types of seels or maybe someone will jump in. I use O1 but heat treating can be tricky without accurate temp control. There's easier, cheaper steel out there that's good and I would recommend getting good steel. It's tempting to grab mystery steel but as many people on here have said, it's about the cheapest part of the project and it's the most important.

There's also GREAT dvd's on knifemaking at smartflix.com
 
yeah i rented the "katana" video from smartflix and am abotu to rent another video.

i know that the lowes steel isnt good and bought it just as a beginning piece to learn how to grind the steel etc.
i found some steel at admiral steel that had a carbon rating of 60 that i will use.

so a 2x 72 belt grinder is best?
 
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