Dressing a Belt

H

hellgap

Joined
Dec 17, 2008
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Ive heard a few guys talk about dressing their belts to get more life out of them . I heard guys say a stone what type??? And how exactly do you do it.The belts Ive got are norax structured abrasive , blaze orange, klingspore ceramic and zirconia. Thanks KellyW
 
Don't quote me on this but as far as I know the only time worth dressing any abrasive is when you grind relatively soft gummy materials, most plastics, aluminum, woods will "clog the pores" of the belt and make them rather useless, dressing them removes these contaminates and allows the belt to grind better.

Things like steel don't really gum up a belt and won't require belt dressing after use, they do wear out a belt though.
 
i have a rubber stick for cleaning wood off belts and i have a stone dresser for gator belts

i only dress gators but i clean other belts with the rubber
 
You use the little rubber stick to clean clogged belts of wood, leather, plastic. Belts don't clog much from steel.

You use a wheel dressing stone (I use a diamond dresser or rake it with the edge of lathe bit) to break up dulled grits on a dull belt to expose fresh edges. Usually, once a belt is dull, it is also spent. But, if you've been using it at high speed and light pressure it is possible it is only glazed and has more life left in it if you dress it. This normally only applies to lower grit belts and structured abrasive belts.

If the belt is designed to run in either direction, sometimes you can just take it off and reverse it to find sharp grit.

Around here we're taught to treat belts like they're free and discard them once they start to dull. This is because pressing a dull belt is where mistakes occur. Sometimes these belts have a little more life left in them if you dress them, depending on how hard the abrasive is and how you have been using it.
 
I agree with Nathan.
I wish you could get more life out of belts, but in my opinion sharp belts make better blades.
 
loussharp1 said:
I agree with Nathan.
I wish you could get more life out of belts, but in my opinion sharp belts make better blades.
Click to expand...

+ 2 I use a new belt on each side of the blade then use the older belt to grind the scales after ataching them to the knife.
Richard
 
I do the same as Nathan with regular grit belts. I have some gators and will try dressing them. If I use a dull belt I mostly make heat and that is not a good thing.

For wood I use cheaper belts and used belt from my steel grinding. Some woods (oily woods like cocobolo are bad about it) and stuff like micarta will clog belts up fast and ruin them. The rubber sticks work well, but, if you let stuff get built up and/or melted on the belt its to late and even hitting it with hard steel won't remove the gunk
 
Kelly

I'd love to see you using belts like they are free. :D

That said, your ceramic belts can generally be refreshed easily a couple times. They are designed for far more pressure and speed than we use in knife making.

Take an unwanted piece of hardened steel. (I use an old dull file). With the speed at max and your contact wheel in place (not your glass platen) just lean the end of the file into the belt for a pass or two. Throw about 10 seconds of big sparks with hard pressure - then try your belt again. You will find new life in it. It isn't a new belt, but you will get more good clean cool cutting out of it.

This will work best on coarse ceramic belts. It will not work on trizact or norax and I suspect it would ruin a gator because they have to be kept very flat. If your structured belts are wearing out early, you are probably applying too much pressure. They are a light pressure finishing belt and when you push hard, you just shove the grains down into the matrix - dead belt.

Let us know how it works for you.

Rob!
 
I follow Rob's technique. I make contact with the ceramic belt on the wheel and at top speed, using the end of a large used up file. Use the sharpest corner on the end of the file to "chip" new life into those ceramic belts.
Getting the most from course grade ceramic belts is achieved with high sfm belt speeds and pressure. The belts are made for it.

Happy grinding, Fred
 
Thanks everyone I will give it a try. I have an old file and use a rubber stick already .On some of my higher grits the belts are full of epoxy the belts arnt too old just clogged .The others are like nathan and rob said I need to use my norax for more finishing but they really help to prep a blade for heat in the 500 grit. The others are mostly 36 , 60,80 and 120 ceramic belts that just dont cut like new but really arnt that old. How many blades should I be able to grind from a 60 grit belt. I do the majority say 60% of the work at 60grit then move to 120 for about 20 percent. Then I will just remove scratches to 220, 320 ,and 500 grit then send for heat treat . The belts in the 320 and up seem to last pretty good . Thanks for letting me know how to get a little extra out of my belts . kellyw
 
I'm surprised nobody has brought up belt breakage. When you put more pressure on a worn belt you increase the chance of getting slapped. Don't try to make more life out of a dead belt.
 
use crap belt to remove over flow epoxy then swap to a goood belt to shape the handle
i have yet to find a good way to get epoxy crap out of my belts

i keep old belts around for the epoxy and for Ti. its not for finishing jut hoging a bit off
 
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