Seeking Advice for Electric Knife Sharpening Machine for Side-Business

[bgentry]

Be sure to ventilate well. I do a lot of knife sharpening, grinding, modifying in my shop and before I got a good mask, goggles and a BIG fan I used to get headaches and a sore throat.

Be careful, you don't know what toxic elements are lurking in some steels.

I've probably said this before, but it bears repeating:

I was playing a lot of billiards (pool) for a while and used to spend several hours during the day on weekends at a local pool hall. One day I was playing and met an older guy and we played a few games. As I watched him play, I could tell he was experienced, but he had a lot of trouble with consistency. He kept missing easy shots. After a while he told me he had Alzheimer's and couldn't hold his hands steady enough to make every shot.

Then he dropped the bomb: He knew his condition was caused by inhaling metal dust for many years. He was a custom knife maker with an un-airconditioned, non-ventilated workshop out back from his house. Years and years of grinding metal and inhaling it caused his condition. He cautioned me to make sure I didn't ever inhale metal dust.

I've been a little cautious ever since. I mostly use my WSKO outdoors. I wonder, when I get my 1x42 or 2x72 dream belt sander what I should do to combat this? Maybe a constant water spray system? Or some giant, loud, awful vent hood?

I like knives. I love sharpening them. But I love being able to hold my hands still even more.

Brian.

 

[HeavyHanded]

I've probably said this before, but it bears repeating:

I was playing a lot of billiards (pool) for a while and used to spend several hours during the day on weekends at a local pool hall. One day I was playing and met an older guy and we played a few games. As I watched him play, I could tell he was experienced, but he had a lot of trouble with consistency. He kept missing easy shots. After a while he told me he had Alzheimer's and couldn't hold his hands steady enough to make every shot.

Then he dropped the bomb: He knew his condition was caused by inhaling metal dust for many years. He was a custom knife maker with an un-airconditioned, non-ventilated workshop out back from his house. Years and years of grinding metal and inhaling it caused his condition. He cautioned me to make sure I didn't ever inhale metal dust.

I've been a little cautious ever since. I mostly use my WSKO outdoors. I wonder, when I get my 1x42 or 2x72 dream belt sander what I should do to combat this? Maybe a constant water spray system? Or some giant, loud, awful vent hood?

I like knives. I love sharpening them. But I love being able to hold my hands still even more.

Brian.

My father in law had a bunch of metal working tools in his shop. His chop saw and 6" belt grinder were hooked up to a cyclone dust capture system, the vacuum was in an adjoining workspace to keep the noise down. His lathe and mill just relied on oil to hold the particles down and I suspect he used his bench grinders only for smaller work.

The safest thing is to wear a filtered mask. Not sure about periodic cleanup - a hepa vac prolly a good idea.

 

[REK Knives]

I've probably said this before, but it bears repeating:

I was playing a lot of billiards (pool) for a while and used to spend several hours during the day on weekends at a local pool hall. One day I was playing and met an older guy and we played a few games. As I watched him play, I could tell he was experienced, but he had a lot of trouble with consistency. He kept missing easy shots. After a while he told me he had Alzheimer's and couldn't hold his hands steady enough to make every shot.

Then he dropped the bomb: He knew his condition was caused by inhaling metal dust for many years. He was a custom knife maker with an un-airconditioned, non-ventilated workshop out back from his house. Years and years of grinding metal and inhaling it caused his condition. He cautioned me to make sure I didn't ever inhale metal dust.

I've been a little cautious ever since. I mostly use my WSKO outdoors. I wonder, when I get my 1x42 or 2x72 dream belt sander what I should do to combat this? Maybe a constant water spray system? Or some giant, loud, awful vent hood?

I like knives. I love sharpening them. But I love being able to hold my hands still even more.

Brian.

I take this pretty seriously in my shop. I have a PAPR breathe easy system/mask, along with wet grinding and a vacuum system (for g10, cf, etc), and a shop dust collection filter. Even w/ all this dust still will settle on equipment although less than before. If I'm going out in my shop before I start grinding for a new day I don't wear my mask since the dust isn't stirred up really. But after I start stirring it up I try to wear it the rest of the time. But for when I sharpen on my KOWS at relatives and friends house during the holidays I don't really have a good way to protect my lungs - unless I bring my PAPR system with lol. But even though it's one of the most comfortable on the market, it is kind of clunky w/ the full face shield mask and everything.

Sorry, didn't mean to de-rail the thread too much lol

I would probably get the Viel 1x42 myself, a lot of nice jig options.