Which machine to buy next?

B

Brian West

Member
I have 2 grinders, a heat treat oven and plenty of hand tools. Wondering what you would buy next if you were me? I have about $1000 budget. Was thinking a mill or surface grinder or ?

Thanks guys,

Brian
 
I'll second the ideal of Rockwell tester - and right in your price budget.

Here's a "rough" looking used that might go cheap: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261353022994

If you were in St Louis, MO, this would be a good deal: http://www.ebay.com/itm/121201535387 ($540 local pickup for a new HR-150A)

The HR-150A model is the one sold by Grizzly and does seem to be pretty popular.

A decent milling machine might be a tad over your $1000 budget unless you can find a real deal locally.

Ken H>
 
Since you are doing your own HTing a Rockwell tester is important!

What kind of knives do you make and what kind.brand of grinders do you have? A metal cutting and a wood cutting bandsaw are important too!
 
Ahh, I forgot to mention, I have a little metal cutting bandsaw that works well and I have a wood cutting bandsaw as well. My grinders are a homemade 2x72 that works well and a 1x42 for light work. I wasn't thinking Rockwell tester, but that is a great idea.

Thanks guys!
 
RC tester is a good idea. You could get a mini mill and some tooling for $1000. Another good idea is to go variable speed on your 2x72 if you haven't done that already. I just did mine for about 650.
 
I think you'd get much use from a mill. I use my mill for ever knife i make, be it metal work or handle work. If you are getting good results from your steel and established HT recipes, and can get someone (try your friendly local machine shop. They like doughnuts.) with a tester to verify it for you from time to time you really don't need an RC tester. If you want to do a bunch of experimenting with your HT a tester would be an asset.

Duncan
 
Duncan - as much as I enjoy my hardness tester, I think I agree with you - My mill does contribute more to the actual knife making than does the Rc tester. So far, my hardness results have been very close to published Rc values as I do HT'ing with the oven. I'm not sure how useful a mini-mill would be, I've got a CNC mill and it's just too small for decent work. I wound up with a Grizzly G0619 and it has turned out to be more useful than I expected.... but it's more like $2K, twice the OP's budget.

Ken
 
I guess I'm the odd man out right now at least. I don't have a milling machine or a surface grinder but I would see about getting a surface grinder. Frank
 
Duncan you make some good points. My heat treat recipes solid. Rockwell tester is probably the more responsible, but the mill would be more fun for sure!

I will see if I can buy both used. If not, then the mill it will be.

Thanks for all the input guys.
 
My next toy will be a surface grinder , I just added a Evenheat for HT and a nearby shop has a Hardness tester but I know I could use a surface grinder , been keeping an eye out in Craig's list.
 
Mill

KenH said:
Duncan - as much as I enjoy my hardness tester, I think I agree with you - My mill does contribute more to the actual knife making than does the Rc tester. So far, my hardness results have been very close to published Rc values as I do HT'ing with the oven. I'm not sure how useful a mini-mill would be, I've got a CNC mill and it's just too small for decent work. I wound up with a Grizzly G0619 and it has turned out to be more useful than I expected.... but it's more like $2K, twice the OP's budget.

Ken
Click to expand...

It is tough to get a good mill for $1000. Maybe in the land of plenty ( around the big manufacturing centers in the USA) but not here in the Yukon. I recommend saving up double or triple and buying a universal knee mill like a Bridgeport. Imports like Grizzly, Sharp, Enco and such are all pretty good. A good solid milling machine is a very powerful tool ( it can even do the same job as a surface grinder before HT).

Duncan
 
I scored a good deal on a mill and surface grinder. I will say that the mill gets MUCH more use. I now use it on every knife I make. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the surface grinder, but the more I learn about the mill the more I love it!. Might start checking craigslist, that's where I found mine.

Good Luck and God Bless
Mike
 
I would do lots of small stuff. A small bench grinder set up with a wire wheel and a polishing wheel. A 1/4 sheet finishing sander. A digital camera with good macro capabilities. Small table top lathe for wood and metal. Digital calipers. a selection of diamond and water sharpening stones. Should have enough left over for fifth of the creature, never before working, but helps ease the pain when you drop a just completed knife and break off the tip.
the old sailor
 
You might want a disk grinder, I suggest the Nielsen Interchangeable Disk System, check out my web site.
I have a Rockwell hardness tester for sale also a surface grinder. I could deliver them to the Batson Blade Symposium the first of April. The surface grinder is 3 phase but you can get a VFD to run it on single phase and have variable speed too.
If you don't have variable speed on your disk grinders I can supply the VFD and 3 phase motors and instructions about how to use one VFD to run both belt grinders and the disk grinder.
 
Duncan Tipton said:
I think you'd get much use from a mill. I use my mill for ever knife i make, be it metal work or handle work. If you are getting good results from your steel and established HT recipes, and can get someone (try your friendly local machine shop. They like doughnuts.) with a tester to verify it for you from time to time you really don't need an RC tester. If you want to do a bunch of experimenting with your HT a tester would be an asset.

Duncan
Click to expand...

I concur. I've used my mill for every knife I ever made also. Indispensable in my book.
 
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