Bought a new grinder. How did I do?

N

night man

Joined
Aug 27, 2010
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There is an old guy around here that makes knives and he said he built this about 15 years ago. I got all the parts, ( I think), it is a "MetaMachines Meta Grinder". I paid $150 for it without a motor. He said that is all he has ever used until he recently bought a KMG. It has dual belts and has a platen attachment for both sides or you can remove the platen and attach a small wheel attachment.

I will probably use the small wheel attachment for smaller things such as choils, and the big wheel for hollow grinding.

Take a look and tell me about it, and what you guys think. Did I do good and do you guys have any info about it?

I still need a motor and some belts but it appears to be in good shape. I guess time will tell.

IMG_0166_zps1db2f05f.jpg
 
I think that is the only one I’ve seen put together besides the one in the instructions. The time frame is about right, pre-internet. It was a machine shop in Whitefish Montana, I think, sold plans for the grinder, that’s the deluxe version with two arms and the attachments. They also had plans for a heat treat oven and iirc for a time sold parts and assemblies. The company doesn’t seem to be around anymore.

I either saw an ad for the plans or a write up in one of the knife mags, back then and ordered the plans. I bought most of the steel cut to size from a local supplier and started, then shortly stopped, I ran out of skill, well that and in places the instructions are poorly written. I drag the box of parts and plans out every couple of years and spend a bit of time on it between other projects. It is the mother of the NWSG, grinder in a box, etc. it is also over engineered and overly complicated to build with some not exactly off the shelf components. Unlike todays plans there is welding, cutting, lots of drilling and tapping, in several different sizes, and some machine work needed.

It should be sturdy and even without a motor I think you did well, last time I had mine out I bought the bearings, that was probably close to $80. There are a couple of old threads in the archive you should be able to turn up with a search, but I’ve never seen much about them.

Todd
 
Any thoughts on a motor? What type? Horsepower? Where to buy? Im new at putting this stuff together.
 
Did some searching. Which of these would be the best motor for this? I will only have 110 plugs and I will be using a pulley system for speed adjustments.

Here are the ebay links. If this is against COC i will remove it. I will leave the links cold.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-1-5-HP-...575?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f20dadb67

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-MOTOR-1-...553?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4600842761

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...akeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...akeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

Thanks for any help.
 
Do you have the plans? I noticed what looks like an envelope on the far side of the grinder. I will have to look this weekend, but from memory it specs a 1725 rpm 56C (the type of mounting) TEFC, I think I went with 1.5 hp like your second link. The instructions have a chart for the speed using the recomended motor and pulleys.

Todd
 
I do have some of the plans. I will check again when I get home to see if has any info for a motor. Another thing. It has a three step pulley on the right side and a double pulley on the back behind the motor which ties to the left grinding side. The way it looks to me is that I will have to put a 3 step pulley on the motor I mount and can only run 1 side at a time. Is this correct? I really need to sit down and examine the plans.
 
you can buy a phase converter to convert your 120 single phase to 3 phase power, 3phase vfd's and motors are easier to find and usually cheaper. just a thought. looks like a cool grinder.
 
Found the plans today, and I’m further along than I remembered, maybe I can get it finished and running this summer. The notes from their pulley arrangement schematic show a 3 step pulley, 4.7, 3.7, and 2.7 inches on the motor shaft at 1725rpm. They only show the 3.7 and 2.7 steps being used. On the jack shaft is a 2 step pulley 1.7 and 2.7 inches and they show sfph speeds of 3411 in the 3.7 to 1.7 position and 1567 in the 2.7 to 2.7 position.

The jack shaft is the shaft at the rear of the machine with a pulley on each end, that is what will drive the other belt. My plans show a 1.5 inch pulley on the jack shaft and a 3.5 inch pulley on the drive arbor and specs a 17 inch belt. You could run both sides at once, with good bearings, I don’t think you would lose too much power, but myself being clumsy I think I’d just leave the belt off the side I am not using.

I was wrong about the motor mounting, although you could probably re-drill or make a new motor mount plate. The motor spec in the plans in 1.5 HP, 1725 RPM capacitor start, TEFC on a 145T frame. The example they give is a Dayton 6K828, that number still comes up in a search, I was a little surprised, the copyright on the plans is 1992.

Todd
 
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