Building My Wilmont LB-1000 Grinder

Mudbug007

Mudbug007

Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
1,320
It's about time. Last Sept. I bought the basic grinder kit from Wilmont. It was the LB-1000. I decided I'd buy the other stuff, like wheels and the like, as I could afford them. Well, now all I need is a motor and I'm looking at several new ones. I've been watching CL and our local 'for sale, trade or barter' Facebook pages but no motors of the right size have shown up.

Today I went and bought a workstation from Harbor Freight. I got it home and assembled and it will be the platform that I mount the grinder on when it's finished.

I'm wondering how everyone's projects start. I always think I'm gonna start with a fresh slate one day. As often happens, it starts out a something innocent and before I know it, I'm neck deep in a project!

I've been planning to start putting together the LB-1000, but wanted to put it off until I had all the parts primed and painted. I had planned on starting it on a morning. But I was just piddling around in the Garage tonight and before I knew it, I had cleaned the metal parts and primed them! The Grinder Build is on I guess!

Here's how far I got tonight.

Here's some of the parts laid out, cleaned with acetone.

IMG_0865.jpg

More parts ready to be cleaned. Sorry you had to see the mess, just cleaned out our last storage unit and haven't found a place for a lot of 'stuff'.

IMG_0866.jpg

Parts laid out and ready to prime.

IMG_0869.jpg

The first batch of parts primed.

IMG_0870.jpg

That's all for tonight. I hope to get to the painting tomorrow, but I also have to load my stuff for a camping trip. Let's see which gets done next!
 
Hey Don, you're going to love the LB.. I love mine, although I just killed the motor I had on it. (gotta stop using scrapyard motors =\ )

One thing I'll suggest, if you don't have it, hit Chris Williams up for a motor mounting plate. He came up with those after I built mine, but it allows you to directly mount a C-face motor to the LB, which makes alignment a *LOT* easier.
 
javand said:
One thing I'll suggest, if you don't have it, hit Chris Williams up for a motor mounting plate. He came up with those after I built mine, but it allows you to directly mount a C-face motor to the LB, which makes alignment a *LOT* easier.
Click to expand...

But as I understand it, then I'd have to have a VFD wouldn't I? I'd like to have one, but that mean waiting another few months as I saved up the money.
 
Well, not if you're going single speed. You can get single phase C-faced motors, although if you're planning to rig a step pully setup it would probably be an issue.
 
Cool stuff. :) I look forward to seeing the finished grinder. Chris is definitely offering some great products! :)


I know you didn't ask for my $0.02.... but I would HIGHLY recommend you do save up and get a VFD. You can get brand new Baldor and Leeson motors on ebay for great prices. I bought a brand new, 2hp Baldor for $145 shipped to the door.

A VFD a motor that size will cost you about $350-400... but it is money well spent. I have 3 belt grinders and 3 9" disc sanders and ALL of them are variable speed.

Variable speed is a win/win. It lets you slow things down when you're starting, which makes it much faster/easier to learn. But unlike training wheels, that you take off and throw in the attic after you learn to ride without them.... variable speed is something you will ALWAYS make use of. Five years from now, when you're making high end knives with materials that are very sensitive to heat, like ivory, pearl, or blackwood... You'll be VERY glad you can dial down the speed so you don't f up your $250 handle material!!! ;) :)
 
Nick is right of course. Plus, if you buy a new single phase motor now, you're out that cash overall, and it's hard to recoup, when you have to get a 3 phase motor to work with your VFD.


Being able to slow the speed down *really* matters when you get to the finer grit jflex belts for doing plunges and finishing bevels, which aren't designed to be run so fast. Running it nice and slow will allow you to tweak and walk the plunges at 120-200, or easily clean up high or low spots in the grind. It definitely makes the learning curve less steep.
 
NickWheeler said:
Cool stuff. :) I look forward to seeing the finished grinder. Chris is definitely offering some great products! :)


I know you didn't ask for my $0.02.... but I would HIGHLY recommend you do save up and get a VFD. You can get brand new Baldor and Leeson motors on ebay for great prices. I bought a brand new, 2hp Baldor for $145 shipped to the door.

A VFD a motor that size will cost you about $350-400... but it is money well spent. I have 3 belt grinders and 3 9" disc sanders and ALL of them are variable speed.

Variable speed is a win/win. It lets you slow things down when you're starting, which makes it much faster/easier to learn. But unlike training wheels, that you take off and throw in the attic after you learn to ride without them.... variable speed is something you will ALWAYS make use of. Five years from now, when you're making high end knives with materials that are very sensitive to heat, like ivory, pearl, or blackwood... You'll be VERY glad you can dial down the speed so you don't f up your $250 handle material!!! ;) :)
Click to expand...


Hey Nick,.
Wish we could in Australia.........not a hope that cheap
 
Nick,

Are you talking VFD specifically, or any variable speed controller for a single phase DC motor as well?

Thanks.
 
Thanks for the info guys. Originally I was going to go with a VFD. Then money got tight so I decided to save the cash and just go with a 3 step pulley system for now. I was all convinced this is what I wanted until I read your posts! I hate you all! ;) Just j/king. Now I'm back to wanting a VFD. Guess I'll have to wait a lil longer to get my Little Buddy up and running, but in the mean time, here's where I'm at.

Got all the parts painted in a Black/Dark Grey hammered finish. I really love this paint. I used it on some door hinges when I remodeled our house and they turned out great. I figured the black and red would be just too cool.

IMG_0871.jpg

With that done, I started assembly. Now keep in mind that I have one of the original DIY Kits I bought last Summer. Chris was kind enough to upgrade my kit to the current bolt together kit he offers. As I understand it from Chris, he no longer offers the DIY kit. What I discovered was that there are some subtle parts changes between the two. I used the set of instructions for the DIY Kit and the instructions from the current bolt-together kit.

The first thing I did was to countersink the holes in the bottom of the base plate so they were flush with the bottom. Judging from the instructions on the current model, this will already be done for you.

IMG_0874.jpg

After that, everything went pretty much as the current Kit's instructions called for. Except I ran out of washers. The instructions say to use the 'special' washers between the red spaces and side plates (1/4"ID-1/2"OD). I could only find one of those. I used calipers to see how these were different from the other 1/4" washers and they're a bit thinner.

So in my impatience, I used the other 1/4" washers to assemble the frame. Of course, when I was done I tried the tooling arm and there was some slop. I thought to myself "If those washers were important enough for Chris to mention them in the instructions, there must be a reason". It was about then while I was checking every box the parts came in that I found a little baggie with a bunch of those 'special' washers in them! So I disassembled the frame and used the 'special' washers between the spacers and the side plates. But my joy was short lived, I came up 9 washers short. (more than likely the fell out of the box. Even though everything was padded and over-packed, USPS managed to nearly destroy the boxes) So I went to Lowes the next day and bought some washers that were the same thickness as the 'special' washers.

Back home things were back on track. The rest of the assembly zipped along quickly. I would imagine you could put one of the new kits together in under 2 hours and still have time to play with the grinder!

Here's a few other things that were different between my DIY Kit and the instructions for the new kits. The control arm on my DIY kit uses washers. The current kit's instructions say to use bushings. So I'm guessing the new kit has bushings that go on each side of the arm. Man, you don't know how much easier those bushings are going to make your life. I kept droppeing washers on my build! Bushings would have been so much easier! :)

IMG_0880.jpg

Also, on my version, none of the red spacers had holes drilled for the Piston assembly. So I drilled and tapped these.

IMG_0885.jpg

Finally, the platen base on my version is not threaded. I broke out my old taps but after looking at them, I decided to wait and ordered new ones from McMasters-Carr. I hate tapping and it's made worse with old crappy taps! Hey, it's not like I already have a motor and VFD ready to go, is it? I guess I can wait on the taps to arrive while I save up some moolah for the VFD.

IMG_0879.jpg

Early on I decided to go with the Red wheels from Wilmont. They're just too good looking not to on my first 2x72! I have both the 2" idler wheels for the platen but will order the 2" rubber wheel to go on top. I sometimes use the top wheel for grinding.

This is just an awesome looking machine once assembled! For those of you who are buying the current version, I'm betting it will be easy as pie to assemble!

Oh, and one more thing. I contacted Chris about a motor mount for this kit (since the motor mount came out AFTER I had bought my kit) and he said he'd send me one free as long as I paid shipping! How's that for customer service!
 
I have a Wilmont grinder and I just want to say that when you buy a Wilmont grinder, you get absolutely great service from Chris. Fast communication, shipping when promised and a quality product are what you get from Chris at Wilmont. Just my $.02. Not affiliated with Wilmont except as a very satisfied customer. ...Teddy
 
John, after having both types (DC motor/controller vs 3ph motor with VFD) I definitely recommend a 3ph with VFD. I have much better low end torque with mine.

Add that you can pretty easily put additional motors on a VFD and it makes it an easy decision for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top