Finally got my VFD up and running. I was saving up for the correct motor. Must admit, Baldor makes a noticeably nicer motor than Leeson and Techtop. Nice to finally convert to variable speed.My hobo mount, made with angle iron and pop rivets. All mounted up and ready for action
Finally got my VFD up and running. I was saving up for the correct motor. Must admit, Baldor makes a noticeably nicer motor than Leeson and Techtop. Nice to finally convert to variable speed.
My hobo mount, made with angle iron and pop rivets.
All mounted up and ready for action
Got a little more work in today before leaving for my full time.
Redwood and Moonglow liners
Dyed Maple Burl and copper liner
Cleaning up a little
Rough profile
Got to sneak in a little grinding before heading out to work.
Love me some Gators
One of my weird steps, is doing the flats first, then taping and grinding in the edge. After I will hit it with a quick pass on the first grinder to get a crisp bevel transition, light hand finish and glue the handles.
Spalted Big Leaf Maple Burl dyed Teal with red paper liner
Roughed out
Smoothed out facets on slack belt to 400 grit
Also made an upgrade to my safety gear after seeing a friend's. Had been wanting a full face, but didn't like the ones I saw prior to this one.
Replaced the old respirator and safety glasses with a full face
Hand sanded another blank for the next knife order.
Did a little warm up blade, before I get started on orders. This is a blade I botched a while back, and decided to keep it as a personal knife.
A2 Steel, Drewcarta handle with black liner. Sanded to 400grit then polished.
Left side of the handle at 400 grit via scalloped slack belt- right straight to the buffer
Finished
Current batch: Did a little more profiling to get it where I want.
Vise also came in
I've been wanting a bigger tracking knob for my KMG a while now, the stock one works great. But too small for constant tracking, as I've been doing on the new surface grinding attachment.
Black G10, Red G10, and Natural Canvas Micarta glued and clamped.
After drying, I drilled a counter-bored hole and passed through a nut and bolt. It was then covered and epoxied with a layer of Orange G10 to hide the bolt. Threw the knob on my drill press and started removing material.
Went through the grits up to 2500
Polished with pink scratchless on the buffer
Setup on the KMG
Old tracking knob next to the new one
Also made an extended tension arm
Put the surface grinder to work today. Got everything rough finished at 60 grit
Before:
After:
Also got a new hammer for bladesmithing and a sweet center punch from Brent Bailey
Got these super sick handle broaches from John Perry. They will be very helpful when I start working on the hidden tang knives.
Been needing a new drill press a while now, after my HF benchtop press started really bogging down on steel. And the power switch broke off- which I initially had duct taped back on. Ended up being so weak I could stop the press with my hand. Matt described my press as being so weak, it couldn't even break itself. lol
SO I went big, knowing I planned to make/work on more than just knives.
Nearly broke my back rolling this beast on a dolly to my backyard shop
Here it is waiting for the motor head to be attached.
I couldn't find anyone to help me lift this 150lb+ chunk of metal, then remembered I had an engine hoist.
Thank goodness it was able to reach! Turns out even if I was strong enough, I couldn't lift that high due to my lack of height.
Also quickly learned I need a small stool or stepladder just to change the speeds because my arms can't reach.