Folks: am using the Grizzly Knife Grinder, which has graphite padding on the platen. This pad wears down easily and becomes very uneven, which affects the flatness of items I am trying to grind perfectly flat.

Have tried operating the grinder without the graphite padding, and found out what a difference this makes in the resistance against the belt (I can easily bogg down the 1 hp motor. I even snapped a belt. Interestingly it didn't break at the seam.)

What are your experiences with this and is there a good workaround? I read somewhere that someone used a ceramic backing with success, in lieu of the graphite.

Thanks!

None of my belt sanders have graphite pads. Some have cast iron (lots of graphite there)
and some have pollished sheetmetal. Have you tried playing with the tension of your belt? Sounds a bit tight to me.

Ceramic platen liners work well. I've been using the same one for three years or so with no problems. There are other sources but this is where I got mine.

i agree with dlpierson about the ceramic. it goes reduce drag and makes tapering a handle so much easier. Mike

much appreciated! am ordering one now

I have a grizzley and the platen was not anywhere near flat..may want to check that.

Good point. I seem to remember some discussion about whether it's necessary to flatten the platen before gluing on a ceramic or whether enough JB Weld will fill the gaps without leading to the platen cracking. With a new KMG-1, I didn't have this problem so never thought about it much.

In any case it's good practice to add some sort of little shelf below the ceramic so that a glue failure doesn't lead to lots of high speed sharp glass pieces headed your way! (that said, I didn't do that and haven't had a problem but please don't feel that you should follow my bad example)

Although I ordered the recommended ceramic platen liner, I have to wonder what's wrong with a cut piece of leftover ceramic floor tile? It's smooth (i.e. low drag), and dammed straight. Why not just epoxy a 2X10 strip of that on the metal platen?

Another thing I'm not gettng is the so-called lip below the ceramic liner. If the epoxy fails, I don't see how any form of catch (lip) could work well, at least any kind of lip that wouldn't severely interfere with grinding. So if someone can make that more clear to me it would be much appreciated.

Pardon my confusion

Maybe this will clarify it: scroll down for description of how to attach a ceramic platen.

Your local glass company will also probably be able to cut you a piece of the pyrex fireplace door ceramic that the knife supply places are selling for way too much money. At least when I was in the glass bus. we had the stuff. I'm going to check my local glass shops and see if they still carry it.

I just use a pice of O1 ground flat stock (not heat treated) behind the belt, its holding up pretty well. (I chamfered the edges where the belt runs in, and off it, and a very slight rad on the edges. I use 2" GFS, with 50mm wide belts, so I can track the belt very slightly off each side to neaten the plunge cuts on knives. (ie the belt doesnt hang off both sides of the platten at once)

Ive heard of folks using a slice from bathroom / kitchen tile aswell. sounds like the ideal low cost solution to me!

yea I have so much leftover cerramic tile from the house construction I don't know why I just purchased ceramic glass. but I will give it a shot and hope it is superior

I've used the graphite platten linner stuff before. It works OK, but wears down pretty quick. I haven't used it in a long time, realy like the ceramic glass linners.