FINALLY Made a 2x72 grinder

Sticky

Sticky

Joined
May 11, 2002
Messages
886
Bought Tracy Mickley's no weld plans and went for it... i made a few little changes here and there. It was pretty simple and a load of fun to make and see it come along.
Just need to get my motor out of the box and get a switch and mount it.
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Looks good. I'm considering making one of these at some point in the future. Congrats on a nice looking machine. :thumbup:
 
Thanks Fletch... yeah it was a hoot to make and really didn't take that long. i didn't work on it straight through or steadily but i imagine if i had i could have knocked this out in 20 hours or less total.
 
Looks good. I've got the plans and a motor waiting. My goal for 2010 is to get one of these built and get back into knifemaking. The Harbor Freight 1x42 works pretty good but takes forever. :-)

Charlie
 
thanks charlie...yeah i have always wanted to try to make knives and finally just jumped in....don't let this project intimidate ya at all...it came together suprisingly fast and was really very painless. the most time consuming part is rounding up all the stuff ya need, building it is a snap.
good luck!



NOW THIS THING WAS A PITA...
http://hinsonjim.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album01
but im glad i did it too now.
 
Did you find most of the material locally or did you order a lot of it? If you did some ordering online do you have any links for places you used? One of the things I've thought about with that is "Where do I go to get everything?". I don't really have much experience with a lot of metal work so I'm not really sure where to go for materials.
 
Sticky,

Saw your build Tracy posted over on KnifeDogs too. Great looking build buddy. Now get to grinding would ya:D

Nice rig.

Chris
 
well i am a mechanic in the bottling biz and the metal is stuff i salvaged from the metal scrap bin at work...parts of old conveyor systems and stuff that we took out i just find clean sections and cut 'em off. If i were to buy it this stainless would probably be a small fortune so I would get mild cold rolled steel from speedymetals or admiral steel i think they will even cut them to length for ya and then just paint it. the trickiiest cut of the whole project is the tracking wheel pivot...but it ain't much, just notch the square tubing with a hand held band saw or maybe even a cutoff wheel and air die grinder would work in a pinch. even a hack saw if you dont mind sweating like richard simmons at a hotdog stand!
anyways, The spring is from lowes, it was $2.79 the pillow block bearings from ebay(22 bux for a pair), motor from ebay was 46 bux( only a 3/4 hp) the fenner link belt from ebay was 11 bux(i won it cheap!) the shaft from ebay(3 ft section was 35 bux) the pulleys from mckinley knives $259 for the 8" wheel and i cant remember the other two, something like 50 something each i think.
You can save a load of money here on wheels from sunray. a 10" wheel from sunray or conestoga goes for for about the same as this 8" i bought, but i wanted mine to be top drawer so i splurged here!
I would just get the plans, and just take your time and start buying up all the stuff from ebay, online stores, mcmaster carr, grainger, lowes etc etc or until you have it all on hand then make it, thats the easy fun part. The precut frame kits are $350 may be worth it depending on your shop's tools and such, in my case, it doesn't as i get lots of the stuff for zilch and mostly make things at work when it's slow in a fully equiped shop.
The trick is to not get in too big a hurry, the gathering up junk part is time consuming!!!!
 
45warrior said:
Sticky,

Saw your build Tracy posted over on KnifeDogs too. Great looking build buddy. Now get to grinding would ya:D

Nice rig.

Chris
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haha yeah i know, im still in my honeymoon phase with this thing! Now it's time to start beating her like a rented mule! hehe just kiddin of course.
Im embarrassed of my tidy little shop actually. looks so yuppy. It is all brand new though so.....even the benches!

btw thanks!
 
Nothing wrong with a new shop my brother. You will soon see dust and all things messy/goodness all over the place.

Enjoy the grinder man....sure did a hell of a job.:thumbup:

Chris

Sticky said:
haha yeah i know, im still in my honeymoon phase with this thing! Now it's time to start beating her like a rented mule! hehe just kiddin of course.
Im embarrassed of my tidy little shop actually. looks so yuppy. It is all brand new though so.....even the benches!

btw thanks!
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That looks great!

I was planning on building another grinder with square tubing. What size and wall thickness is your tool arm and arm holder?

I was thinking 2" x 1/4" square for the holder and 1.5" x 1/4" for the tool arms and probably build the rest out of the 1.5" x 1/4", should make everything heavy enough to be a stable unit.

Also, one other concern I had was side-side play of the tool arm, any issues? I suppose a guy could glue or solder a couple shims on the tool arm if needed to shore up any play.
 
69_knives said:
That looks great!

I was planning on building another grinder with square tubing. What size and wall thickness is your tool arm and arm holder?

I was thinking 2" x 1/4" square for the holder and 1.5" x 1/4" for the tool arms and probably build the rest out of the 1.5" x 1/4", should make everything heavy enough to be a stable unit.

Also, one other concern I had was side-side play of the tool arm, any issues? I suppose a guy could glue or solder a couple shims on the tool arm if needed to shore up any play.
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Thanks everyone...

yeah i had a little play in the tool arms but you will see in one of my pics where i welded a strip on the top and on one side to snug it up. works great. As for using 1/4" everywhere, that would be one stout mf'r! Make sure you can test fit before buying all your metal...the thick stuff may not be able to hold the 1.5" bars and stuff...
Mine is 1/4 just on the base and 1/8" on the rest....and this thing is strong like bull! i can lift it but its a little unweildy...probably 50lbs. i didn't find any 1.75" at work as the plans called for for the upright parts and i didn't see any particular reason for it so i just used 1.5" and it worked fine. just like the base i didnt find any 4x4" square tube so i just stacked a couple 2x4" pieces and welded 'em. i followed the plans somewhat loosely and everything turned out real nice. My tool arm holders are 2" and the tool arms are 1.5" with 1/8' shims welded on,Another thing you could do is get some 1/2" pieces and drill and tap them on the edge and make to tool arm holders like on that kmg style unit, you could make 'em fit real snug that way. Or you could simply drill and tap 2 holes on top and two on the side of the tool arm holder and put 2 bolts on top and on the side to clamp the tool arm real tight. I actually believe ya need 2 anyways after using mine a bit now and will add another on top of my holders one of these days.
The verticals are 1/8" thick and 1.5" square.
If ya have a decent drill press and some taps and plenty of time and patience, Here are some KILLER plans for a kmg style grinder:
http://www.metalwebnews.com/manuals/knife-grinder.pdf

If i ever build another it will be that one...but it is more work and time consuming with all the precise drilling and tapping which is why i went with the well-proven NWG.
 
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That looks great! Be sure to let us know how it grinds.... Eventually!:)
 
RyanW said:
That looks great! Be sure to let us know how it grinds.... Eventually!:)
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I only have reground a blade blank that i had shelved a while back in frustration. I have never really ground a knife in my life until a while ago when i salvaged a really nice industrial sized hack saw blade out of the bin at work and tried to make a small knife out of it & grind on a regular bench grinder...needless to say it was a flop. I recently got the bug to do it right and started reading and voila descovered the NWG. Anyways i built it and my first practice grind was on this old blank that i almost threw away. Thankfully i didnt as it was a good practice piece... I don't have a tool rest made yet so i just freehanded it and actually didn't turn out bad taking it slow.
Anyways, the grinder itself worked flawlessly, (my knife grindings skill are another story!) very smooth and tracks real nice. No problems whatsoever. I can get it to turn nice and slow too which helped a bunch as a noob. I only have a 3/4HP motor on it which is fine for now as i run it in a low speed high torque gear and take my time. I use it for other general grinding stuff too wood and garage stuff and it works perfectly!:thumbup: I plan on getting some decent steel and just practice freehanding a bunch of smaller knives until i get it down, then move to bigger and fancier blades. Just got a bunch of scrap cutoff pieces of walnut , wild cherry and hack berry from a dude at work and ordered some steel from texas knife makers so i cant wait to start on my first full-on knife build.
 
You are well on your way it sounds, I have the same working wheel that you do... Just an FYI I found it very difficult to do any kind of FLAT Grind with this set up, Everything ends up Convex (Rounded), or a terrible uneven Hollow/Concave. I am looking at making a Flat Platen for mine this weekend. I really like the Flat grinds! Good Luck
 
RyanW said:
You are well on your way it sounds, I have the same working wheel that you do... Just an FYI I found it very difficult to do any kind of FLAT Grind with this set up, Everything ends up Convex (Rounded), or a terrible uneven Hollow/Concave. I am looking at making a Flat Platen for mine this weekend. I really like the Flat grinds! Good Luck
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i hear ya...i actually made the flat platen attachment and just need to get wheels and a ceramic plate from trace..cant wait! the flat platen was an easy build good luck with yers!
 
RyanW said:
That looks great! Be sure to let us know how it grinds.... Eventually!:)
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I finally got a complete knife made using my NWG...the grinder works like a champ!
I need to work some things out with my knife making but at least my grinder isn't the problem!:o

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