Home Built Surface Grinder

I did not realize that - Sorry to hear that. I know sometimes things he says can come across as sorta "tangy", but he's really a nice guy.
 
I've been very happy with my SGA in general, but there are a couple of things I've been planning to to improve. One of those is the length of the guide rail. I ordered the 600mm version, which together with my 400mm magchuck made it hard to utilize the full length of the magchuck. At the end stops I was barely clear of the wheel.

I just received and installed a 900mm guide rail with five bearings. It feels great, the clearance is perfect now, and the extra bearing made it even more stable.

Next thing on the list is to upgrade my drive wheel to a 75mm version, this will improve the accommodation of 75mm belts. The wheel has been ordered, just waiting for it to arrive.

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Any pictures of the DYI sliding tables? I bought the aliexpress version most people were using, but I'm curious about building a more sturdy version.
 
BubbaW said:
Any pictures of the DYI sliding tables? I bought the aliexpress version most people were using, but I'm curious about building a more sturdy version.
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I bought an American made one off eBay. Has adjustment screws to take up any slack and I’m very happy with it! Only concern is that the mounting holes are very tiny and I could only fit 4- 6-32 screws to mount it with, but has been working great though. I might have been able to drill a counterbore to fit some 8-32’s but it was so close to the slide plates I didn’t want to screw it up..

https://i.imgur.com/iJKihid.jpg
 
Shucks KNelson, I was thinking of the 900mm guide rail with five bearings that Stefan ordered, not the feed adjustment. I'm pretty happy with my homemade feed adjustment setup. I do like the linked feed adjustment - especially at $75 :) I think you linked that one before and it's really nice.

I'm really impressed with the SGA we've built - VERY handy and they work so good. I do like the idea of the 5 bearing setup Stefan has, here's a link: https://bit.ly/2TTOWEw but it's only 600mm long.

Ken H>
 
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What does everyone do to mitigate belt bump? Some of the 3 inch belts (180-240g) from Phoenix leave a wavy finish. Enough time with a Norax will take care of it but that's a pain.
 
i have noticed the cheaper the belts, the bigger the bump :rolleyes: they have some type of tape across the back of the seam. i have heard those green gator belts make no bump at all. can anyone confirm that ?
 
john april said:
i have noticed the cheaper the belts, the bigger the bump :rolleyes: they have some type of tape across the back of the seam. i have heard those green gator belts make no bump at all. can anyone confirm that ?
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I can confirm that! I have 3 different grits in gators and their all perfect. Best belts I’ve ever bought for the task I use them for. Also have cubitron II and Blaze belts, neither of those bump at 60 for the cubitron or up to 220 for blaze. I still seem to not get as clean a finish as handsanding at 400 grit. The surface grinder finish still seems to not have a straight scratch mark from end to end rather than a bunch of start/stops all the way
 
KNelson said:
The surface grinder finish still seems to not have a straight scratch mark from end to end rather than a bunch of start/stops all the way
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Some of the tactical knife makers surface the flats and leave that start and stop look. Depending on the knife, I don't mind it at all.

On my next batch of knives, I am going to try the cheap AO belts, and sand down the grit over the splice.
 
The next time I surface something I’m going to try and turn down the speed to near 0 and see if a fast pass helps.. maybe even on the last stroke or so shut the grinder off and make a few passes holding the contact wheel from turning.
 
So,
as I sit here im deciding on whether or not to buy a wuertz grinder .

Or follow in this threads footsteps and make my own.....

The main thing is I dont want to spend time building one if im not happy with the prefomance
On the flip side of things I dont mind building to save money if the prefomance is on par....
But the prefomance is the goal!
I like precision .

So has anyone compared their diy surface grinder to Travis's?

Is there any gripes or things you wish you did differently. Sorry i was on the thread in the beginning haha but almost 30 pages is a lot of digging to do lol

Thanks guys
Paul
 
Take this for what it is because I haven't compared mine to Travis's. I can't see how its any more, or any less, performant than what I built. The only change I would make on mine is with the magnets. I would use thicker N52 magnets which will give more holding power. And even with saying that, mine works just fine. There is a video review of the Wuertz SGA and the reviewer shows how it can flex if you don't slide it properly. So I would say that even the Wuertz unit isn't "perfect".

After building mine, they are really quite simple machines. I debated the OBM, Wuertz, and the new Reeder. Ultimately deciding to build my own. I couldn't be happier. I use mine all the time. I even use it to flatten and even out handle materials.
 
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Paul, I've not used Travis's SGA, but have seen the accuracy he's shown to get. His accuracy is very similar to what I get with my homebuilt SGA - over an 8" length it's usually .001" or so. If you want better accuracy you'll need to use a real surface grinder using stone wheels, not the belt adaption lots of folks do with the surface grinders. There is somewhere a post (or thread) where I show measurements of a test billet I did.

The final accuracy depends to a great extent on how heavy the cut is, and how hard the contact wheel used. A soft wheel with a heavy cut will give a bit less accuracy, and perhaps show a bit of "taper" right at the end.

The Reeder SGA is impressive and I'd love to play with one, but for the dollar invested and amount of time required, I'm happy with my homebuilt SGA.
 
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