Sounds like an ad for some big weekend sale doesn't it. For $50 a month I can get you ..................

Actually, a knifemaker that lives pretty close to me that I just met and invited over to my shop for a day of heat and beat, showed me a really inexpensive way to get a magnetic chuck. Since I am planning on building a surface grinder (Still) he brought pictures of his (surface grinder) as well as his magnetic chuck. I have to tell you I felt kinda mentally challenged for not thinking of it myself but he showed it to me and it is a great idea.

The knifemaker's name is Mike Denbow and he lives in Kaufman, Texas. I know he lurks here sometimes and I hope I can get him to register and add some of his tool works here. He really has some good ideas.

ANYWAY, back to the magnetic chuck. Go to the local scrap yard, junk yard or automotive repair place and get a bad air conditioning compressor from a car. Take the electromagnet off of it (not real easy to do) as well as the pully. The magnet fits inside the pully and when 12 volts is applied, you have a very strong magnet. I personally have an electromagent that is used for a door lock and is rated at 1500 pounds of pull and I think the compressor magnet is stronger. Not that it matters since it is plenty strong enough to hold some steel under a grinding belt, and thats the goal.

Mike mixed up some epoxy and epoxied the two pieces together and ran it under his surface grinder to true it up. He brought me some steel he ran through the grinder and it was perfect. There is one minor drawback to this chuck and that is that there is a hole in the middle of it where the bearings were but you just have to work around that.

I went to the best junk yard I have ever found (recommended by Mike) with another friend of mine today. The metal is a dime a pound. $70 later I was on my way home with stuff to make several tools, and TWO car air conditioning compressors. I have already removed the magnet off of one of them and it works great. If you want to be sure you are getting a magnet that works, just take it to your car and hook the battery to it, if it goes "CLICK" you got it made. This magnetic chuck (compressor) cost me about 50 cents, 5 pounds at a dime a pound.

Now I am considering using my door locking magnet as........well...............A Door Lock.

I am not sure if I have the ability to use something for the use it was intended, but we will see.

I hope the idea Mike Denbow passed along to me will help someone make that surface grinder they always wanted.

For those in the Dallas, Texas area, I can tell you where this scrap yard is if you e-mail me. You will want to take some money, I did not think I NEEDED 700 pounds of metal but apparently I did since that is what I bought. They even had tons of post tensioning cable, good for making cable damascus knives. I picked up a little (ok, a lot) of that also.

Bob, I get close to you and my hair stands up, ok, you know I don't have any. Have you used that post tension cable, believe its called Strand cause it just has seven pieces to it. I forged some once by hand and its really stiff and hard. The pattern isn't great cause its got so few pieces to it. What else did you get? Ray

I like the cable (Strand). It is stiff but I heard it is 1095. I like to twist it really tight and weld it, it welds so easily. Then stack strands on top of each other. Make a nice blade, not really fancy but I like them.

I thought of you today actually. They had some rebar that was about three inches in diameter. I told my friend that you could make a BIG knife out of that. I did buy a couple of pieces of 1 1/4" (I think) rebar to play with. I bought some leaf springs (four sets) to learn to make tomahawks with before trying it with damascus. I also plan on making a couple of battle axes. I also bought some 4" and 8" square tube to make stands and forges. Several coil springs, just because. There was a pry bar about 6ft long and 1" in diameter so I got it to use as a pry bar.

I make a lot of peoples hair stand on end, especially my wife's.

I guess your wife knows, you let her know everything you got was a fantastic bargin. That three inch rebar you could make some fine battle axes with. I don't know how your press would handle that. I think the three inch rebar is the largest that is made. The only time I've seen that stuff used is in what they call pin pills. Could make hammers out of it. Let me know how your hawks turn out. Ray

I'm surprised the magnetic chuck idea did not get more traffic than this. There is usually someone looking for a magnetic chuck and I thought this would be a great idea for a lot of people. Maybe everyone already has one. Anyway, it is a unique idea and I wanted to share.

Bob,

Let me know how the rebar turns out. Unfortunately, rebar is made of any and every type of steel (old engine blocks, scrap car bodies, etc). Unless the rebar is a schedule 40, I would be a little afraid of the consistancy of it. One end might be a completely different steel than the other.

The magnet sounds like a good idea. If it is as strong as it sounds, couldn't you put some 1/4" plate over it to overcome the hole? Just a thought. I wish I had an old belt grinder in the shop that I could convert to a surface grinder. I need one and like most of us, can't afford the price of a new one. One of these times I hope to be able to build one myself.

Gary

Gary,

I make a lot of stuff, not just knives. The rebar is cheap steel to play with. Sometimes when sombody wants something special, I make one out of repar to practice my methods on. I was asked to make a snake out of damascus. I had never made a snake before so I used rebar to make one, it came out terrible, I made that snake five times out of rebar before I got it the way I wanted it. Then, I made it out of damascus. Wish I had a picture of that thing, it turned out pretty cool.