Squaring your Platen
Making sure your platen is square to the work rest on your belt grinder is essential to grinding crisp square edges.
In this week's blog post we are going to cover a few ways to quickly square the platen on your 84 Engineering Grinder.
DIGITAL INCLINOMETER / BEVEL BOX
Bevel Boxes are the most accurate way make sure your platen is set up square to the rest. To do this, place your Bevel Box on the tool rest on your belt grinder and zero the bevel box. This sets your rest as a datum.
Next, place the Bevel Box magnets onto the platen. For maximum accuracy, remove belt for this step.
Adjust the platen until your Bevel box reads 90 Degrees and lock off the Kipp handle. The Angle will change as you tighten the Kipp handle, re-adjust until it reads 90 Degrees with the handle tight.
Magnetic Welding Square
This is probably one of the less known methods for quickly squaring up your platen. While not as accurate as some of the others on this list, it is close enough for most operations.
Setting your platen using the magnetic welding square is as simple as loosening the Kipp handle, placing the magnetic square on the rest / against the platen, and re-tightening the Kipp handle.
We recommend using a switchable magnet to aid in setup and removal.
123 Blocks
123 Blocks are a precision ground block measuring 1"x2"x3". Useful for many operations, it is a handy bit of kit for any workshop. One of its many uses is to square up the platen on your grinder.
Simply slacken off the Kipp handle, pull the 123 Block hard against both the platen and the rest and tighten up the Kipp handle.
Combination Square
Squaring your platen with a combo square follows similar steps to the 123 block.
Simply slacken off the Kipp handle, place the square on the rest, pull the platen up against the square and tighten the Kipp handle.
With all the above methods, we recommend checking that the platen is 90 degrees to the rest with a trusted square prior to grinding. If you platen is not perfectly square after initial setup, slacken the Kipp handle off slightly, gently tap platen to adjust, then re-tighten.