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Does anyone have any advice regarding using a hardware store bought "metal grinder" as opposed to a "wood sander".

The discs are interchangeable meaning I can work on large surfaces or get into nooks and crannies but I am just not so sure how effective it will be on EVA/other materials. Without having tried it, it looks like it would do as good a job as a sanding grinder.

They are also VERY much cheaper than from our medical suppliers...

 

Yep, all you need is spinning sandpaper. With EVA a more coarse sandpaper will grind faster. A more fine sandpaper will leave a smoother finish. Without looking it up sandpaper coarseness is measured in grit or number of sand granules per square inch? A 36 grit sand paper will leave noticable grooves in the finished product A 150 grit will leave a nice finish in most materials, but won't grind very fast. A metal grinder has to be very hard and fine to be able to put a nice edge on a knife and would probably bee too fine for EVA. Check the RPM of the electric motor and match that to rating on the attachments that hold the sandpaper.

Eric

Eric

 

Eric is right, a metal grinder will not serve your needs at all. For an office setting, the Sani-Grinder is probably the gold standard for grinding EVA, cork and Polypropylene. It is indeed fairly expensive at @$800 but will probably last the life of your practice and is worth the investment.

http://www.briggatemedical.com/product.php?productid=1644

Steven

 

I remember using sani-grinder many years ago and found it lacked any real power. I purchased a grinder and bought a inflatable drum for one side and a leaf wheel from Bunnings for the other. I have a 1hp dust extractor under the bench.

 

We use the Gotz Ortho Deluxe, best of both worlds, the pineapple attatchment on the bayonet are really great on the heel cup.

 

Thanks Lab Guy!

I followed the link and it seems they are actually $1280 but thank you all the same.

 

wolf power tools used to make a sanding drum (plastic expanding two part thing that as you tightened a bold it expanded to grip a belt) it comes with a spindle to fit into the chuck of a drill (why you would ever want something 3" in diameter on the end of a drill i will never know) i had a new spindle made for it for about £30 by an engineer so that it fitted onto a bench grinder like the one in the picture above which is easily available form a DIY store worked for years and only got replaced as we needed more power something like this ... http://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp woodwo...e=Googlebase&gclid=CJrfo-uBhr8CFagewwod6asAAA