BOYAR SHULTZ 612 Modification Question

[backtines]

Hey Guys ,
I recently picked up a real nice Boyar Shultz 612 Surface grinder . I cleaned it up and works real nice .
I was hoping I could use it for surfacing my blades and more so when I start making damascus, but using it with the wheels , doesnt give it the finish I was expecting .. Too Many lines ,and too much time no matter how slow I feed it even with the finest of wheels..

I've seen a bunch of makers use surface grinders , but they're using them with a belt modification which looks like it works awesome . Also they put the blade or billet on the machine and they're done in seconds..

First off you can change the different grits of belts quicker and mostly , its cutting the whole surface of the blade or billet with one pass.. The only feed needed is up and down .. No in and out .

Id love to convert my machine to accept a 2 x 72 belt or something close .

Can anyone steer me in that direction for converting my machine ?

Thanks Mike

 

[Josh Dabney]

I converted my 612 straight away.

It doesn't surface in "seconds" though and moving the table in and out is a must IMHO because of uneven belt wear. Essentially you'll wear a divot in the belt and you won't get a flat surface at all so it does take time.

Perhaps you may get a good final finish with a high grit belt covering the whole blade/billet in a single pass but I think it would be a one use deal to skim a thousandth or two. The fine belts allow a quick and easy clean-up with sandpaper even though you'll have an unsightly finish off the surface grinder.

I'm by NO stretch of the imagination a machinist or expert but I've used my surface grinder ALOT in short period of time.

There's a bunch of great info on belt converting here on KD's.

My conversion is home built and maybe a bit crude in comparison to what others have done with their's but it work's fine I'd be more than happy to get some detailed pics of it if you want.

This is becomming such a popular tool and mod maybe we need a "surface grinder belt conversion" sticky somewhere.

Pics of my conversion and info on contact wheels here-
http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?16347-contact-wheel&highlight=sunray


I'd say go for the conversion ! You'll be happy you did.

-Josh

 

[Fellhoelter]

I too converted my 612, and Josh is right on the money.

You still feed in and out. (cross feed, Z axis)

Very seldom do you want to just plunge straight down with your Y axis, and then only for bulk removal.
Final parallelism is done with the traditional surface grinding method.
Back and forth on X while stepping over .050 to .100" on Z

My technique, that I am using today to get bolsters and scales flat with each other is this.
I have a 2" wide, 120g grit belt on there first.
I plunge cut, just moving the Y axis down until I spark on the titanium bolsters.
Then, I switch to a 1", 320g belt, and bring Y down until I start to see sparks.
I cross feed Z until My belt is off the part, feed Y down .0015" and start my back and forth on X
I can cross feed Z .100" per traverse on X
Once I have cross fed all the way off the part on Z, I bring Y down another half a thousandth, and start going the other way, this time feeding .050" per traverse.

Done.

I only use this plunging technique in this one instance really.
There's about .030" - .050" to remove off of each part, so it's quicker this way.
Especially since the bulk of the material removed is laminate.

I don't think I would do it with steel, or Ti.