Just wanted to share

PetrifiedWood

PetrifiedWood

Well-Known Member
I recently ordered an Evenheat kiln from USA Knife Maker Supply. There was a minor mix-up and a delay in shipping resulted. They went out of their way to make it good by offering to discount the cost of the kiln. Instead I asked if they would just send a glass platen liner since I planned to order one anyway. They did, and also sent some blue G10 scale blanks!

I'm very pleased with the customer service! :35:

Anyhow, tonight I went out to the shop and cleaned all the graphite and glue off the platen, and drilled and tapped it for a couple of 8/32 cap head screws. I cleaned up both the glass and the platen real good with some alcohol and glued them together with JB Weld.

Here are some pics. As you can see, the glass is about 1/32" or so higher than the screws so the belt should miss them just fine.

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I've got the platen sitting on it's edge so it doesn't slip off sideways while the JB weld hardens up. It seems to have spread out well underneath the glass and there are no gaps or bubbles.

Thanks for looking!
 
There are few (if any) suppliers with as good of customer service as the boss's. That's one of the main reasons I go back time and again.

As for the platen, nice work. It will make a world of difference to your flat grinding, believe me.
I actually need to order a replacement for mine one of these days.
 
Thanks for all the comments so far. I went out to instal the platen on my machine and the glass cracked. :(

The two studs that hold the platen to the bracket are not perfectly square to the face of the bracket I guess. I put a straight edge up to the platen with the bolts loose and then tight, and it's evident that the platen bows outward when the mounting bolts are tightened, causing the crack. The only thing I think I can do to fix it is to take the platen off and use my 4X36 sander to try to get both studs ground flat and on the same plane (or as close as possible), and then use some rubber spacers on both sides of the bracket to allow for any imperfections. This would make for a platen that could "wobble", but I can't think of any other solution for attaching the plate to the platen that would prevent it from flexing and cracking. If I knew how to weld I'd weld a strip of steel to the back of the platen to stiffen it.
 
Perhaps you could order a 1/4" plate of soft steel, cut to your specifications, from one of the online vendors, drill , countersink and mount that on the Grizzly platen?
 
Sticks said:
Perhaps you could order a 1/4" plate of soft steel, cut to your specifications, from one of the online vendors, drill , countersink and mount that on the Grizzly platen?
Click to expand...


That would probably work too, but I want to find a solution that doesn't build up the face thickness of the platen too much. With the steel and the glass built up i would lose some of the range of adjustment for the platen assembly. I think I'm going to just find someone who welds in town and see what they would charge to weld a brace behind the existing platen. That should stiffen it up plenty enough to fix the bowing problem, and then grind the bolt studs on the back so their faces are in the same plane.
 
Well despite the crack, the JB weld is holding so I'm going to go ahead and use the liner for the time being. It has been working ok so far.
 
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