Just checking in & finished my grinder

[Messinger]

Hi Guys,
Just checking in. Life's been absolutely crazy since December but I've made some progress in getting tooled up to make some knives.

Tonight I finally finished my 2x72 grinder and ground a blade on it. I am so glad it's done, and am very happy with it. And if you want to make your own grinder I'd be more than happy to talk you into buying a Coote or a KMG. I love my grinder but what a PITA that project turned out to be. Glad its' over!

Also got the matterials for my one-brick forge. I lucked out. No refractory suppliers in my area but when calling around I found a Ceramics place that had just build a kiln and had a few soft firebricks left. Score!

I think I can finally get down to business now! I just wanted to share - I'm excited that I'm finally tooled up enough to finish some blades. I feel like it's taken forever.

-Ben

[Ray Rogers]

Congratulations on the latest addition to your shop! I'm sure we'd all like to see a picture of your bouncing baby grinder whenever you can post one ......

[YAMAMA]

Messinger,
Why was it such a PITA to build the grinder? I was going to start considering a real knife grinder for my shop and was going to look into building my own. I would appreciate it if you could elaborate on your experience.

Thanks,
Jerid

[Messinger]

I guess I could say that the grinder project wasn't that bad - it was just that many aspects didn't go as planned (That's code for "took twice as long and cost twice as much"). Also, right in the middle of it we all got the flu. Then my brother came to visit and spun a rod bearing on his way out of town. So after getting over the flu and putting a new engine in my brother's truck I finally got back to working on the grinder. Building what I would call the chassis was a piece of cake. This sucker is stout. The basic design is similar (though not identical) to a KMG. The base and uprights are 5/8" plate and the tool arm is 2" box tubing. Platen assembly (the triangular piece holding idler wheels and platen) is 3/8" plate as is the tool rest. I'll get some pictures up by the weekend.

The PITA part came into play when trying to locate cheap wheels to use for drive, tracking, idlers, and contact. I feel like I scoured the globe looking for that holy-grail of dirt-cheap 2" wide urethane-covered or bare wheels with bearing hub. I thought if I looked far enough I was sure to find "almost free" wheels that would do the trick. No joy. I checked every Army surplus outfit from Seattle to Salt Lake, every online outfit I could find, and every local recycler/scrap-yard. I found many, but they were all very expensive. I finally ended up getting all my wheels and pulleys from Rob at Beaumont (KMG). He was great to deal with as everyone has said, but that knocked the cost of my project up by $250. The upside is it's no junker - those wheels are top shelf equipment and absolutely make the grinder a good piece of machinery.

The other dissapointment (first was not finding cheap/free wheels) was the 1.5 hp motor I had found a scrap yard. I had tested it and it worked fine. So after getting the grinder together I ran it and within about 20 minutes the motor went. $85 later I had a nice new motor and was ready to go, albeit far beyond my original budgetary expectations. The bottom line cost was about $340 excluding motor. My target cost was $250 w/ motor, but I just wasn't able to find the scrap-yard treasures I was hoping for.
-Ben M.

[YAMAMA]

Thanks.. Thats good info.

I would love to see a picture.

[Bernez]

Congratulations Messinger,

As I was planning to build a grinder (2850 rpm / 2HP motor) with wheels from Rob Frink, I'm now very curious how you did it. Do you have blue prints? Or something on paper: supplies list, dimensions, etc, etc...
Can't wait to see your pictures.

Bernez

[Ray Rogers]

MSC has various wheels for carts and such that could be useful for future builders. I needed a small contact wheel so I bought a 2" wide, 5" diameter urethane coated wheel with an aluminum hub, bearings, sized for a 3/4" axle for about $15. They had similar wheels in 8" and I believe they had a 10" with the most expensive approaching $50. These wheels are in no way as good as the contact wheels and other wheels that Rob has but, if you are really on a tight budget, they can provide a fairly cheap way to get started .........

[IronMonkey]

Ray, could you post web or email address of MSC? Sounds like what I am looking for in the future as far as wheels etc. Dan

[Ray Rogers]

www.mscdirect.com

If find it much easier to use their Big Book catalog to do comparisons among their half MILLION products like wheels than to use the website. You can order the catalog online, I believe .....

[Messinger]

Originally posted by Bernez
Congratulations Messinger,

As I was planning to build a grinder (2850 rpm / 2HP motor) with wheels from Rob Frink, I'm now very curious how you did it. Do you have blue prints? Or something on paper: supplies list, dimensions, etc, etc...
Can't wait to see your pictures.

Bernez

Hi Bernez,
Sorry, I don't have any blueprints or paper plans. I'll take measurements though when I post the pictures so you can see how it went together. I'm using a 1725rpm motor and a 4" drive wheel w/ step pulleys from Rob Frink. I think a 2850rpm motor would be too fast for me. I wanted to be sure that my slowest speed was slow enough for fine-grit finish work. As I get better at it I may want it to go faster, but currently it's plenty fast - in fact I haven't even used the fastest speed to grind yet - it just seems way to fast for me at this point - slow and medium speed will do for now untill I get better at it.

-Ben M.

[Bernez]

Hi Ben,

It's also too fast for me. I'll have to slow it down (triple pulley?) a bit. Surely in the begining, like you said . I'll be waiting for the details

Bernez

[Bernez]

Hi Ben,

Still waiting for some pics and details

Bernez

[Messinger]

Hi Bernez,
I haven't forgotten you, Buddy. I've got to figure out where to host the pictures. Wish I could just upload them to this board like all the other boards I've visited. I'll figure something out real soon and post in this thread. Sorry for the delay.

-Ben

[Mattd]

messinger,
thanks for sharing your thoughts, I am in the market for a new grinder.

What caught my attention is you have built yourself a fine grinder and dedicated many hours to have a top notch machine but Have your sights set on a one brick forge.

I spend fifty bucks on 12 kiln bricks and built a "building" out of them according to the size of knife I wanted to H/t. My burner was a weed burner. It heated up pretty good and I did some fine heat treats in it but out grew it quickly. You probably have a great plan but I would consider buying koawool and mansinite, a big pipe and a cap. Drill a hole for the burner and weld the cap on and your done. It has been my experience that this is a much better forge that the kiln brick hut. If you would like to know where to get the refactory and insulation give me an e-mail. pitchnks@yahoo.com

[Messinger]

Hi Matt,
I think this is very good advice. Of course I'm a little biased because that's almost exactly what I am planning to do.

I started out thinking I would do my first few projects in O-1 and use the one-brick forge for HT. My plan was to then 'ditch the brick' build an electric oven with controller and move on to the fancy steels like s30v.

However... now that I'm starting to get my feet wet a little I'm not in such a rush to run off and start grinding on some fancy stainless. The more time I spend here on ckd and in my shop the more I'm starting to think "carbon is cool":cool: ...so it looks like a small gas forge is in order. I've already located the kaowool locally and am trying to decide on the dimensions, shell matterial, and burner to use. Stainless will just have to wait a while.

-Ben