Grindrite st500 edge machine

[Dwight]

Anyone have some tips/tricks to using this machine? I will be using this machine at a local shop. All my tuning has been by hand. This will be used plus the grindrite base machine.

Thanks

 

[Philpug]

Paging @smoothrides to the white courtesy phone.

 

[smoothrides]

These are great little machines once you get the hang of running a ski in the vertical position. I like to hold the tip of the ski and the heel of the binding. Walk it through at a steady, but brisk pace. If you slow down you'll smoke an edge in an instant. Timing will take a little practice. Use a digital bevel meter like this one https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Bevel-Gauge-Angle-Protractor/dp/B00M9ZHSPE to make sure that you're angles are correct. The guide head isn't terribly precise. Also, these should really be used as a pregrind machine. The edge they produce is pretty crude, and not all that accurate. I would highly recommend finishing by hand or with a disc machine if one is available.

*Most importantly - Don't ever use the base bevel function of the machine unless you're ripping off base edges for testing skis on your stone. The base edge function will significantly over bevel a ski in one pass. The only exception to this is if you fork out some coin for a mooflex belt, or potentially with a very, very worn sanding belt. The moonflex belt however, requires a very high speed to work effectively, and the st500 doesn't really spin fast enough.

Good luck!

 

[Dwight]

Thanks for the info. I'll see how it goes Monday.

 

[Dwight]

These are great little machines once you get the hang of running a ski in the vertical position. I like to hold the tip of the ski and the heel of the binding. Walk it through at a steady, but brisk pace. If you slow down you'll smoke an edge in an instant. Timing will take a little practice. Use a digital bevel meter like this one https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Bevel-Gauge-Angle-Protractor/dp/B00M9ZHSPE to make sure that you're angles are correct. The guide head isn't terribly precise. Also, these should really be used as a pregrind machine. The edge they produce is pretty crude, and not all that accurate. I would highly recommend finishing by hand or with a disc machine if one is available.

*Most importantly - Don't ever use the base bevel function of the machine unless you're ripping off base edges for testing skis on your stone. The base edge function will significantly over bevel a ski in one pass. The only exception to this is if you fork out some coin for a mooflex belt, or potentially with a very, very worn sanding belt. The moonflex belt however, requires a very high speed to work effectively, and the st500 doesn't really spin fast enough.

Good luck!

The edger worked pretty easy. The problem the shop is having is with the Grindrite 600. The turning drum is not sitting parallel to the sand paper drum. Trying to find some manual information on setup. When grinding the base the sand paper seems to gum up quickly.

 

[Dwight]

So the belt was too tight and not enough fluid. That has been fixed.

 

[Dwight]

First retail tech season is over for me. Did last pair last night. It was a good time and learned a few more things. One the nice things about this opportunity was the older/classic skis I got to tune. Though these people really should upgrade equipment.

Thanks for all the help here.

 

[Dwight]

Grindrite 600 with power feed.

@smoothrides, @Doug Briggs Do you guys know if any bridge will work with these or are there special models I should get?

 

[Doug Briggs]

I don't know the machine. I googled but couldn't find an edger of that model #. What I did see was a belt sander without a feed system.

 

[smoothrides]

Grindrite 600 with power feed.

@smoothrides, @Doug Briggs Do you guys know if any bridge will work with these or are there special models I should get?

Any bridge will work. I have couple extra if you're interested shoot me a PM. Thanks