Grinder in a box owners...........

strahd71

strahd71

Joined
Jan 26, 2006
Messages
784
Hey guys, i was wondering now that many of you have had the grinder in a box kits for quite a while what your opinions are of them. it seemed like everyone was excited about them at first but i was wondering about how you feel about them now after a year or so of use?

thanks

jake
 
Well... I don't have mine 100% together yet.... not because of complications.... just too many 60+ hour work weeks. Other than that I'm very happy with mine. Went together well, and I'm modding mine to flip to the horizontal too...The only draw back I see is the time it take to build it. The positive is I have 2 platens and a VFD for the price of a basic KMG....
 
I've only had mine put together for a few months, but it's great.

I work on a Twertz grinder pretty regularly, and while that's definitely the Ferrari of grinders, my 2HP GIB gets the job done with style, once I finally figured out how to get the wheels all lined up, it tracks perfectly, and I can't bog it down.


FWIW, if you take the time to figure out exactly what hardware you need, get it right the first time (I made like 10 trips to the hardware store), have all your components on hand, then you can definitely build a GIB in an afternoon, and it's not difficult. If you don't have the skill set required to put it together already, then it's definitely a good primer, since you'll be reusing those skills constantly going forward.



So IMHO, having played around with a number of the high end grinders, bang-for-buck, 2HP VFD GIB can't be beat. I built mine for less than $1k, with the multiplaten.
 
I love mine but I have only had it up and running since the end of January and had a major move in May so it doesn't have a lot of use on it yet. Budget wise it wasn't a whole lot cheaper than some of the others, I think mine came in fully built at around $1200, but that includes shipping to Canada for everything but the motor and the nuts and bolts to put it together. I was able to do it a bit at a time as I could afford it so that made things a lot easier financially for me. If it wasn't for that I would probably still be filing out my blades:o
 
How about some pictures of your guys' GIB's? I am looking at adding one to my shop also, would like to see some of the cool idea's you guys have done.
 
strahd71 said:
any problems with assembly?

jake
Click to expand...

I'm planning on modifying mine to flip to the right for a horizontal grinder. Because of that, I welded the upright. Tapping the screws for the upright could be difficult if you haven't tapped much..there are plenty of tutorials.. I was way happeir welding it....And, it gave me the structural support to flip do a horizontal mod... To do that I am moving the tool arm to the right....or something.... lol
I'm starting it tonight.

The only problem I had was in drilling the tracking bracket. It takes an 1-1/2" or so straight hole, and the piece moved in my vise on the drill press and made my bracket sit askew... Not good for tracking. I don't have a mill, so it took a bit to drill the hole oversized and straight.

I had new taps and bought new cobalt bits and had no problems drilling and tapping the steel... Since it's laser cut, there's a small section of hardened steel at every cut line.

I wasn't happy with the friction/drag on the poly wheels from US Knifemaker with the machine bushings I bought. I ended up getting a different bushing from a local bearing co.

I bought both the Multi and Flat platen. I could have just gone with the multi. To do it over, I'd get just the multi platen,an 8" or 10" wheel, a 3" wheel and skip getting the 2-2" wheels for the flat platen. I enjoyed working on mine and the fact that I was able to pay for it, then the motor and VFD, then the 2"x72" belts, drive wheels, tracking wheel etc in three seperate payments helped too.

I'll post pics tomorrow....
 
Yeah I would have liked the holes for the contact wheels on the multi-platen to not have already been bored out to 1/2" (mine were), since I would like to have tapped them and screwed a bolt in from the other side, which would have been a simpler solution for trying to set it up so that I can freely rotate the platen all the way over.

Instead I'm going to get some flat head machine screws, and counter sink, but none of the big-box hardware stores around here seem to carry them, so I haven't gotten around to it.


While we're on the subject, is there some easy elegant solution I'm un-aware of to allow really quick rotation adjustment of the multiplaten? I mean other than loosening a bolt with a rachet, and then cranking it back down after you rotate? Preferably something that doesn't involve tools.
 
javand said:
Is there some solution to allow really quick rotation adjustment of the multi-platen other than loosening a bolt with a ratchet, and then cranking it back down after you rotate? Preferably something that doesn't involve tools.
Click to expand...

Indexable clamping Lever

Male and female, many SAE sizes, many colours and styles including billiard ball type - fairly reasonably priced in sizes under 1/2"

http://www.fastenal.com/web/products/detail.ex?sku=3125593&ucst=t

3125440_hr4c.jpg


3125772_hr4c.jpg
 
awesome thread! thanks guys! seemed like there was a ton of folks on the grinder threads back when it came out, hopefully more folks will find this and comment

jake
 
No the GIB is just a frame that you have to assemble, including some drilling and tapping. Like fluidsteel I have been thinking of making mine rotatable too, but I used 1/4" bolts to hold my upright in place so I have to get mine welded in place first.
 
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