Home Built Surface Grinder

Yes, you NEVER will "lift" the blade off the magnetic chuck, blade must be slide off the side. It scratches the finish, but by putting some scotch tape over chuck it seems to work pretty good.

Here's a thread I started a while back showing details of my feed adjustment which shows the screws you're talking about.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/sga-feed-adjust.1563170/

If you look, you can see the nuts the screws are screwed into. The nuts are sunk into holes on bottom. I'm not sure why I used nuts rather than just threading the plate........... Surely I had a reason???
 
Ken H> said:
Ladams, I used 1/4X20 with a countersunk head. That allows the head to be flush and not be in the way. It's screwed into the 1/2" aluminum plate below.
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Oh thank you. I see now what you did. I could make a mating plate for this. It would add just a 1/4 inch and then I would have all I need. Wow, after thinking about it all day after seeing what you did and this last post I finally get it. slowly and surely lol. I was getting a bit frustrated but that comes with the condition I got. Just learn to live with it and ask lots of basic questions. Thank you so much but I really appreciate your input.
 
Ken H> said:
Yes, you NEVER will "lift" the blade off the magnetic chuck, blade must be slide off the side. It scratches the finish, but by putting some scotch tape over chuck it seems to work pretty good.

Here's a thread I started a while back showing details of my feed adjustment which shows the screws you're talking about.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/sga-feed-adjust.1563170/

If you look, you can see the nuts the screws are screwed into. The nuts are sunk into holes on bottom. I'm not sure why I used nuts rather than just threading the plate........... Surely I had a reason???
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Wish I had seen that thread earlier on in the game. Might still end up trying to build your piece for adjustment. I like the way it looks as well. Thank you
 
Ladams19 said:
Testing out the chuck I put a 9 inch blade I just finished cutting out. It was a basic bushcraft shape to get the idea. I could not pull the blade off, at all. Had to slide it. So mind going I put a longer blade thinking I could get a better gripe on it. Nope, too strong. I can not move it by lifting. Have to slide it and even that feels a bit scary but I will get used to it. I am going to make a smaller chuck and set up once I get this larger one made. Need to learn to make it first before going too custom. This one has 20 magnets so you will need 2 orders to make the chuck as large as I did, but honestly unless you are making larger knives you dont need a chuck this large. This will cover everything I build and plan to build. I want to make one 1/2 the size for smaller blades and ease of use. Its getting heavy as well as a total assembly and I used aluminum for most of it just because its easier for me to machine as a non machinists with zero machining skill.
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Looking for kitchen knives, so long enough for a chef knife. Have my wish list lined up including the 75mm wide wheel.
 
Glad I could help. This SGA is fairly simple to build.... ONCE you get the idea in mind. It took me a while myself, and rebuilt it a couple of times getting it to where I wanted it. Now, I'm really impressed with how well it works. I did see something at Blade yesterday that Travis did, put a dust shield over the end to deflect the grinder dust downward rather than allowing it to blow over shop.
 
Yes, I would like a 3" wide wheel myself - but have not turned loose of the money yet. Actually with a 2" wide chef knife what I do is grind a bit of the bevel at the heel about 1/4" back from edge. That removes the part that won't be ground on the 2" belt, and still leaves plenty of metal so when the bevel is ground in it cleans up nicely.
 
Ken H> said:
Yes, I would like a 3" wide wheel myself - but have not turned loose of the money yet. Actually with a 2" wide chef knife what I do is grind a bit of the bevel at the heel about 1/4" back from edge. That removes the part that won't be ground on the 2" belt, and still leaves plenty of metal so when the bevel is ground in it cleans up nicely.
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I purchased the 3" wheel out right for this build. I already had a 12" smooth wheel I use to attempt hollow grinds. I was worried it was too large in diameter plus its smooth compared to what I had seen before. Also mostly what I make is no more than 2" wide. I have yet to make anything larger than that. Closest thing I have gotten to that is a Hudson Bay Trade knife I am working on. Good idea for the dust shield. I am jealous you went to blade lol. I have been meaning to go. It is never at a good time of the year for me. I hope to make one year to at least get my HOG induction name at one of those dinners. I got a serious Busse collection so I quality lol.
 
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Ken H> said:
Well well, that's interesting - you were able to quote my post, but it doesn't show up until well after your post. OK, now I see the photos I see what you're talking about. To my the slide fit the way I wanted, I drilled 'n tapped 4 new holes. Are the two holes you've got screws in on the same end? I'd really want one on each end and opposite sides - catty cornered from each other. Take a look at how I did my 4 screws.
IMG_2727.jpg
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This is exactly how I did mine. Same bolts as well. I'm pretty sure my bolts were farther apart though.
 
Yep, I would have put my bolts farther apart also if the bottom plate had been wider. Doing over again, I'd use a wider bottom plate so I could put bolts farther apart.
 
Thank you for the input on the bolts. I was a bit concerned about drilling and tapping these before asking. Better safe than sorry. I think I am going to go with a mating plate fasten along the four corners for the best hold. I will post once I get it done. Might get it to it later today.

Edit. Did not get to it. Ended up watching the kids all afternoon. Will give some good effort over the course of the week and post updates accordingly.
 
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What I ended up doing was drill 2 thru holes on the opposite side of the aligned tapped ones (Bolts A and B). I drilled them slightly oversize to give me some adjustment. I used the existing two aligned tapped holes (C and D). I ground down 4 bolts for clearance on the bottom of the rail. Now on to the next step.



 
Ladams19 said:
What I ended up doing was drill 2 thru holes on the opposite side of the aligned tapped ones (Bolts A and B). I drilled them slightly oversize to give me some adjustment. I used the existing two aligned tapped holes (C and D). I ground down 4 bolts for clearance on the bottom of the rail. Now on to the next step.



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I drilled counterbores to accommodate hex drive cap screws. Worked well and they are flush with the surface
 
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OK finally got it done and it works great. Its vertical and I am going to figure out to change that next. Need more information on the bracket to tilt it or how others have done it. Sent One Arm a note on that one. I would like to thank all the people who helped me through this. Without you all this would not have happened. Thanks to One Arm for the inspiration, Kevin McGovern and Ken H for many tips and tricks to get this together and last Stromberg Knives. Without Stromberg sending more in depth information I would still be trying to lay this out. You guys all rock, thank you much. I know she not as pretty as most, but here she is. Pardon my messy shop/storage area. I am slowly working on making it more of a shop and less of a storage area.





 
Ladams19 said:
OK finally got it done and it works great. Its vertical and I am going to figure out to change that next. Need more information on the bracket to tilt it or how others have done it. Sent One Arm a note on that one. I would like to thank all the people who helped me through this. Without you all this would not have happened. Thanks to One Arm for the inspiration, Kevin McGovern and Ken H for many tips and tricks to get this together and last Stromberg Knives. Without Stromberg sending more in depth information I would still be trying to lay this out. You guys all rock, thank you much. I know she not as pretty as most, but here she is. Pardon my messy shop/storage area. I am slowly working on making it more of a shop and less of a storage area.





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Looks good brother.
 
Ladams19 said:
OK finally got it done and it works great. Its vertical and I am going to figure out to change that next. Need more information on the bracket to tilt it or how others have done it. Sent One Arm a note on that one. I would like to thank all the people who helped me through this. Without you all this would not have happened. Thanks to One Arm for the inspiration, Kevin McGovern and Ken H for many tips and tricks to get this together and last Stromberg Knives. Without Stromberg sending more in depth information I would still be trying to lay this out. You guys all rock, thank you much. I know she not as pretty as most, but here she is. Pardon my messy shop/storage area. I am slowly working on making it more of a shop and less of a storage area.
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I just bolted my sliding PDV table thing at an angle. I can turn my grinder horizontal, but I also wanted to be able to do it vertically if need be. It works pretty good like that.
 
Looks good - I think you'll enjoy the SGA. The SGA is more useful than I expected when I built it.
 
Thanks guys. I mated the face of the wheel to the surface of the table. So I might have taken off a thousandth or two. Now its pretty true and square. I also ran a blade on it. It took a few minutes compared to the crazy amount of time I used on my 4 x 36 Belt sander from Home Depot with a magnet I rigged as a hand hold. It was a pain to get it true. This SGA works so quick and it closer to flat that I was getting before. So I am very happy with it.
 
Getting ready to put my build together... curious, what size tooling arms are you guys using for an 8" contact wheel since it has to extend past the wheel point a bit? Or maybe, someone could point out how much past the center of the wheel (where the bolt goes) the tool arm needs to be?
 
razor-edge-knives said:
Getting ready to put my build together... curious, what size tooling arms are you guys using for an 8" contact wheel since it has to extend past the wheel point a bit? Or maybe, someone could point out how much past the center of the wheel (where the bolt goes) the tool arm needs to be?
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For tooling arms, I just buy aluminum bar in either 6' or 8' lengths off of amazon and cut them to the length I need.
 
WyldStyl3 said:
For tooling arms, I just buy aluminum bar in either 6' or 8' lengths off of amazon and cut them to the length I need.
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Thanks! Now, I was gonna order my neobium magnets stateside, anyone have any idea what lb strength I should be looking for ?
 
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