Stephen Bader B3 Help and Information

R

Rhema1313

Joined
May 17, 2018
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2
Greetings!
To those who own or are familiar with the Stephen Bader B3 2" x 72" Belt grinders.

I recently stepped over from Forging and hand grinding blades into the Alice in Wonderland realm of 2" x 72" Grinders. I ran into the deal of the century on 2 slightly used Stephen Bader B3's. (A Blessing from God... )

Well... I am looking to start outfitting them with additional attachments, larger tool rests, contact wheels and jigs.

I am particularly interested in purchasing a small wheel set. I need them to make and finish fullers for my sword blades. I have seen a lot of options on other grinder systems from other manufacturers, but I am not seeing anything for the Bader B3. Am I missing something?
Are there other small wheel attachment sets and wheels that will work with the B3? Please direct me on what options might be available.
Thank you...
Patrick
 
I believe you can still get parts from stephenbader.com. Knife and Gun Finishing supply also has wheels and some attachments. If you want more "universal" small wheels, USAKnifemaker sells a TW-90/Bader small wheel attachment. It uses larger bearings though, so you may not be able to grind smaller fullers like you would with the lower profile bader wheels.

Other than that, I think most of the small wheel attachments can be mounted to a 1.25" tool arm if you want to save a few bucks and make your own tool arm.
 
I don't see it on their website either, telephone them.

Their wheel styles have the bearings inside the wheel, so 1/2 or 3/4 wheel, really small bearings. VFD control is a must have or you can smoke those bearings and melt the contact wheel rubber.
But as said, they can grind off the edges and do a fuller.


Rhema1313 said:
Greetings!
To those who own or are familiar with the Stephen Bader B3 2" x 72" Belt grinders.

I recently stepped over from Forging and hand grinding blades into the Alice in Wonderland realm of 2" x 72" Grinders. I ran into the deal of the century on 2 slightly used Stephen Bader B3's. (A Blessing from God... )

Well... I am looking to start outfitting them with additional attachments, larger tool rests, contact wheels and jigs.

I am particularly interested in purchasing a small wheel set. I need them to make and finish fullers for my sword blades. I have seen a lot of options on other grinder systems from other manufacturers, but I am not seeing anything for the Bader B3. Am I missing something?
Are there other small wheel attachment sets and wheels that will work with the B3? Please direct me on what options might be available.
Thank you...
Patrick
Click to expand...
,
 
So...I have a B3 and have previously encountered these issues and here's what I can tell you

Bader does have a small wheel set-up but it is NOT ideal, and uses small bearings which burn out easily

KMG small wheel attachment can be made to work with a B3, but is designed around a 1.5" tool arm, whereas Bader is 1.25"

I made an adaptor plate, which works OK.

Brodbeck has a nice integral/fuller set up which I ended up buying. Also comes with a 1.5" tool arm, but I just bought 1.25" aluminum bar and made made my own tool arm. Tracking is good, seems pretty robust, and you have 3 included small wheels, which I think cover most situations better than the KMG, which I now use as backup. Brodbeck guys were very prompt with returning emails and helping out

Bill
 
Look at Esteem grinders. Brett's stuff is all set up on 1.25" arms. I'm pretty sure his small wheel set will work with a B3.
I purchased additional Bader small wheels from Texas Knifemaker Supply.
 
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