New Hammer!

[Nolano]

Well, after having a hammer I made crack on me(yes mike, it was that ball pein/rounding hammer we worked on ) I made another one. This one is about 2 pounds, 13 ounces, and was made out of a torsion bar from a car of some sort.








Yes, that is a leg from a chair.

[Sam Salvati]

COOL! Looks uncomfortable though, you can use the bench grinder to smooth out the handle corners, as well as take the face of that hammer to the side of thw grinding wheel as that is flat and will grind the face cleaner.

[Nolano]

Yeah, the handle is not finished. And its a bad idea to use a bench grinder much on wood. And I also need to use my beltsander to smooth off the face and peen, cause thats just rough work with a 9" angle grinder, and it looks a lot rougher than it is. And you dont really want the face to be flat, you want it to be crowned. The handle and head arent actually attached yet, I just put them together for the photo.

[ThomasPowers]

One other thing: wood from furniture tends to be kiln dried a bit more brittle than handles usually are so be prepare for needing to replace it. OTOH I do save old axe and sledge handles that have broken for re-use for custom handles and I do use trashed furniture as a source of wood for woodworking projects---my Y1K bellows were prototyped using wood from an old printer stand.

Thomas

[Sam Salvati]

Why is a bench grinder not good for working wood? I agree it won't give a smooth finish(hehe) but are there other non cosmetic reasons?

[Nolano]

Yes, when a benchgrinder becomes too packed with wood or a soft material, it can crack during use flinging large chunks of grinder wheel at high speeds.

[Ed Thomas]

Nolano: The wheel will not blow apart simply because it has wood imbedded in it. The problem arises from trying to force a gummed dull wheel to grind by jamming the steel hard into it. All bets are off whenever you use any tool inappropriately.

Apprentice: Grinders are not rasps. They are consumables. In normal use, the grit on the surface of the wheel cuts the material, becomes dulled, and chips away. Each grinding wheel has a specific range of materials and applications for which is was made. The reason for using a grinder is to abrade HARD material. The wheel cannot refresh the sharp outer edge unless the worn abrasive is removed off by the material you are grinding, thereby exposing the next layer of sharp grit. So if you grind inappropriate material for a given wheel (aluminum, brass, bronze, wood, plastic, whatever) the outer grit is dulled but not removed. If the material is soft enough (aluminum, brass, bronze, wood, plastic, whatever) it melts slightly and adheres to the abrasive of the wheel, aggravating the problem.

The standard grinding wheels that come with most new grinders are made for steels. You should never have to push the steel into the wheel very hard. The steel shouldn't even get THAT hot because the grit should be cutting the steel away rather than rubbing it off. As soon as you shove a chunk of wood into the grinding wheel, you gum up the entire outer layer. Now when you try to grind wood, it will just burn because there is no exposed cutting edges. And when you try to grind steel, it simply cannot do it.

If you ever have to push steel hard into a grinder, it is dull and should be "dressed".

Disregarding this is an abuse of the wheel and the grinder motor, and probably your eyeballs, fingers, teeth, etc.

[Nolano]

Ahh yes. Thank you, ed. Thats what I was talking about, and its nice to have someone who knows more about it say something.
I did some carving on that chair leg, and now its very comfortable. the "knob" on the end makes a nice pommel sort of thing, and now that Ive carved the handle a bit, its quite nice.

[Hofi]

Nolano
U Can Use The Belt Grinder To Shape The Handle!!
As Long As The Belt Is New. The Monent U Touch The Belt With A Piece Of Steel Shaping Wood Is Impossible. I Shape More Then 200 Handles With One New Belt .see Blueprint BP1022
Hofi

[Chris Pook]

Hofi, that interesting blueprint

My family's business uses the same wood for park/city benches, we spell it "IPE" but there are alot fo different names for it. We have lots of offcuts and boards that they can't use for production, but would be great for hammer handles. To bad your so far away and that stuff weighs a ton to ship.

I know another fellow who uses it in making competition bows for archery.

anyone interested in finding that kind of wood, its used for decks and flooring as well.

[Ed Thomas]

Uri: Technically, you are using a belt "sander" rather than a grinder. The abrasive on a belt is not intended to wear away as in a grinding wheel. The grit is specifically selected for a given type of material. Wood particles sanded by a proper belt are abraded away and not trapped in the grit as easily as they are in the grinding wheel. So the abrasive remains exposed and sharp, unlike a grinding wheel.

[Hofi]

Ed I Agree With U 100% That Grinding Wheel Is Not The Right Way To Shap Wood ,i Just Wanted To Showw Another Way To Do It.

Chris Thank Very Much For Your Offer But As I Mentioned In The Bp I Get The ''ipe'' Wood Free From A Carpenter Freind That Uses The Wood A Lot For Beutifull Funituer Production
Hofi

[Dodge]

Nolano, Ed T, Hofi,
You guys beat me to the punch but are absolutely correct about using grinding wheels on soft materials such as wood and aluminum. Its not a matter that they can clog. They WILL clog and become a time bomb. Saftey shields should be used regardless of the conditions but an exploding wheel may not discriminate. An alternative might be a hand held 4" or 9" grinder. They will still clog but they are reinforced with fibers that reduce the risk of explosion. Plus, the grinder's guard will stop a good deal of debris if it was to come apart. That doesn't help the innocent by-stander, however. Always be aware of spectators!! Flap wheels are most likely the safest and most effective when using this type of grinder and they move an incredible amount of material while leaving a nice, smooth finish.

[Nolano]

Yes, a low grit flapwheel moves wood very nicely, and is also useful for taking off scale and for polishing work. Ive used a 26 grit flap wheel in a bench grinder for taking scale off of knives, works like a charm and saves lots of money on belts.

[Ed Thomas]

Dodge:

Clogging the grinding wheel of itself does not turn it into a time bomb any more than dull cutters are of themselves hazardous. Cutters get dull, and grinding wheels get clogged. The important thing is to learn how to use and tune any tool. In most cases, all it takes to correct a clogged or dull grinding wheel is to dress it with a dressing tool. Just as a dulled cutting tool must be sharpened before use to be safe, the grinding wheel should be cleared of any glaze or clogging to be safe. USING the grinding wheel incorrectly is the problem.

To suggest that a hand-held grinder rotating at 11,000 rpm is somehow safer puzzles me. The grinding wheels are just as apt to get clogged and just as apt to fragment from abuse as any bench grinder... perhaps more. If all the guards on bench grinders that came with it new were in place, MUCH less of the wheel is exposed than in a hand-held grinder anyway.

I think better advice is: "Get a grinding wheel dresser... and learn to use it."
and: "Get a some help or a book on using a grinder... and learn to use it."

Every basic machinery textbook I've seen gives instruction on properly using a bench grinder.