The TruGrit disc grinder is a great precision machine.
If you do not have a surface grinder, a disc is the way to go.
Put it on a base, use two shelf supports and mount a board behind it.
This way you can flip if from horizontal to vertical in seconds.
Also add a foot pedal on/off when you want to keep hands on until disc stops spinning.
AVigil
- Adam, you by any chance have a picture of what you're describing regarding the base and two shelf supports to be able to flip it from vertical to horizontal? I've been meaning to figure out a simple way to use mine horizontally, for flattening the ricasso and sharpening etc.
Also, will a "plug and play" type foot switch work when using a VFD? I was a bit worried it might ruin mine if I tried using one, like the type you can get at harbor freight and simply plug the unit into. I figured I would have to wire it up myself into the VFD, which I am pretty clueless about when it comes to figuring out what goes where.
The only thing I'm not to fond of about the Tru-Grit disc grinder design are the supports that the work rest attaches to get in the way of being able to use to whole face, which might get in the way when flattening bevels on a larger blade or in other ways. I've never actually used one, so I'm not sure how much they would interfere in practice.
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I personally have the Pheer disc grinder, which I bought when he first started selling them. Mine came a generic motor with the Tru-Grit blue anodized disc and a kbac 24d VFD, and then I was lucky enough to score a KMG work rest secondhand in basically mint condition and for an excellent price. I'm really glad I have it and it has helped a ton, but for the money and the set up, I think it's hard to beat what the AMK offers, and I would probably get that one if I had to start from scratch. I think I'd like using that work rest better than my KMG, as it's pretty heavy and bulky, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The rest looks easy adjusted and removed, and there's nothing getting in the way of using the whole disc face, or behind it (the KMG rest has fairly large plate that attaches behind the disc on the face of the motor), so you could also clean up the plunges with a file guide like Tim Hancock does if you wanted to. The solid base makes it look easy to flip from vertical to horizontal while remaining secure/stable.
It also looks like you can adjust it to
any angle you'd need. I don't think you can go passed 46 degrees with the Tru-Grit rest. With the KMG rest you "can" go beyond 45 degress, but it has a large steel rod welded to the bottom of the rest (which is how it attaches to the arms and rotates) which gets in the way of moving the rest all the way up to the face of the disc when going beyond 45, so basically the rod bumps into the disc some distance before the actual work rest does and leaves a large gap between the disc and the work rest. I have though about grinding away half of it's thickness/diameter so I can actually implement the steeper angles with the rest, but I don't want to commit to doing that quite yet.
FWIW, here is a video showing the AMK disc grinder:
~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (Just some older videos of some knives I've made in the past)
What do you think about this , keep blade on disc before the disc starts to turn ?
