Northridge Tool grinder review.

John, I believe so, but Pittknife Pittknife would probably know for sure, as he's owned both. Hopefully he'll chime in here...


Sorry guys I'm crazy busy making knives for blade show and my midtech, I haven't been on the forums a lot.

The platen and wheels will fit for sure. I haven't used the tooling arms from my kmg because I bought 4 tooling arms with my northridge. They seem to be the same size but the northridge has a slot cut in t for the tension bolt.

I spent a lot of money on grinders as I completely freehand grind and vibration and built wobble drive me nuts. Matt helped me a lot with my KMG but it still is not where I need it to be.

As Matt said, I have $2900 into my kmg, about the same as a new premium package northridge, except the northridge has a tilting base that is phenomenal, 0 vibration, 10x better adjustable work rest system, comes wired and exceptional customer service.....

I'll put it to you his way, I have 6 different hollow wheels, all 6 are in my northridge so I can blade grind. I was going to use my kmg just to rough grind, well even roughing grinding is more accurate on my northridge. I haven't touched my kmg in months.

The only reason I haven't sold my kmg is because I have to be honest with people when I list it. Hard to sell something when they ask you how good it is versus a northridge, I just tell them to buy a northridge
 
So, KMG owner myself, and I'm tired.............. tired or bearings giving me fits, tracking problems and I find I'm always chasing my work. I have most of the bugs worked but two rounds with KMG customer service with no reply, I'm done. I've been kicking around Northridge for a while. I just don't want to spend the money at the moment. I'm NOT bashing KMG, I'm just not going to buy again or upgrade any further.

Buy once cry once.......
 
Does north ridge not have its own contact wheels available or would I have to go to a different manufacturer to get large wheels mid so who matches with the north ridge?
 
Northridge does have it's own contact wheels at this time. So just order from them, their quality is excellent BTW
 
Earlier this week I recieved my Northridge Tool grinder to replace my KMG.
Initially I was going to do some replace some wheels and maybe make the KMG direct drive but after some shitty customer service like demanding a minimum order of $1000 for international orders and really long time between answering emails if I even got one.
What is so difficult at throwing some wheels and a couple of bearings in a small box and send them off? I am going to say it: Beaumonts customer service is non existant.....

Anyway...After researching grinders for months and using a TW90 and Wilmont from friends wich are certainly very good machines I decided on a Northridge based on the information I found on their website, from friends that own one or have used them and a few emails sent back and forth with George, the owner of Northridge. George is to the point and clear in his answers and comments, I like that.

George suggested he made me some longer toolarms to work better with the 2"x 80" belts I use and after a little while the whole package was delivered.

After a bit of assembling it was very clear that these machines are made to very tight tolerances wich showed in the effortless fitting of on part to the other.
During unpacking and assmbling I got more and more pleased with the whole deal.
Motor and VFD come prewired, even for my different dutch voltage and frequency.
By the time I flipped the switch I was smiling from ear to ear.

I even had handsfull of leftover parts like bearings, extra wheels and other stuff he sent with it because I am so far away and might need them sometime!!

I gave it a testdrive and am still have a big grin on my face.
Virtually no vibration, strong motor and no stuff rattling off my workbench like with the KMG.

I was planning to keep them both but I am not going to ride a bucking horse when i have a smooth ride standing next to it so the KMG is already sold.

I will update this thread as I go and have some more things to share.

hey brother how does the loudness compare to KMG ?
 
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