new 2x72 grinder!

Joe Calton

Joe Calton

Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
1,079
I visited another knifemaker in town a week ago and he let me try out his grizzly 2x72 grinder. I liked it so much that I went home and scrounged some parts and built one.

2x72grinder.jpg

If I remember right, I got the grinder from a pawnshop for $50, it is 1 horsepower, 3650 rpm, the drive wheel is roughly 4" and was from the scrap pile, probably off a dumpster, the stand was made from leftover 2x4's and 1/2 plywood. upright from poplar 1x6", platen is just a piece of angle iron, the idler wheel I bought new from mcmaster carr, i think it was $20-30, you cant see it, but it is 2" rubber wheel, with a bearing and a shaft.

It runs pretty good considering what I have in it. I still need to make some adjustments, cover the contact wheel with some grippy rubber, make a handle for the tracking screw, make a rest for it, add a bottom shelf and alot of wieght, and ect. but for the less than $100 that I have in it, it will work until I make it better.

I also made it so that by removing and re-installing one bolt, I can lower the idler wheel bar and go to 2x48" belts.

Now that I have a 2x72, what belts do you guys like the best and where do you get the best deals on them?
 
Looks pretty good and gives me some ideas. I think if you wanted another cheap thing to do to it is add a piece of ceramic tile to the platen like like they recommend on spicing up the craftsman grinders. I did on mine and it has worked out pretty good.
 
Nice work,Joe-I really like the old license plate/guard on the top wheel!:thumbup:
I've been using Norton Norzon Plus Zirconia Alumina B belts,and so far so good.
 
About as make-shift as it can get, but I bet it sure beats hand filing :)

I use Klingspor for belts.

If you decide to use that grinder a lot, think about welding/bolting up an angle iron and sheet steel frame to replace the upright boards. The materials would only run $20 from the scrap yard.
 
Ive been scrounging parts for it for awhile, just never quite got everything figured out in my head how it all went together. must have read the grinder section in the $50 knife shop a million times. the last parts I was looking for was the steel for the uprights and base. then the other day I was looking at the 2x4 bases that I keep my other grinders on and thought I could just bolt wood onto them. and in waynes book, he used alot of wood for his "big red" grinder.

It runs surprisingly good. just loud, and has alot of vibration. but the grinder had that to start with just hard wheels on it. it threw the belts alot of times until I figured to crown the idler wheel, now it tracks as good as my 2x48 no name grinder that I got off craigslist. the motor is alot more powerfull, and it just rips steel off.

I will be looking for some steel now to upgrade it, also a rubber mat to put under motor base, and to cover the drive wheel to make it grippier. but since the cheapest grinder I could find was the grizzly at around $600, I thought others might be interested in seeing how I built one for around $100.

Ive heard of the ceramic tile or plate glass plattens, what does that do for you to "spice up" the grinder?
 
The ceramic tile or glass is suppose to do a few things, less heat build up, smooth surface that is flat, and also allows you to use the curved edge of it towards the outside edge of the belt to sand small curves.

Atleast that is what I read and there is a thread here with some saying its great and others saying they didnt notice a difference. I did it to my craftsman 2x48 and it has worked out pretty darn good but I am a newb and probably couldnt tell the difference blindfolded lol.
 
Too bad you're in WY. If you were in WA I'd give you 105 inches of 2" square tubing and about 72 inches of angle iron. They're nothing but scrap at my house. Looks like you could put them to good use.
 
Too bad your on the other side of the sound Tryppyr or I would be asking ya if I could take that scrap home.
 
tryppyr, that would be cool, but i kinda like it here in wyo! thanks for the offer though!

I was thinking,, I do have another 1 horse motor, and now that I know how to put the grinder together with wood, I may go scrap yard shopping, and just build another one out of steel, and keep pictures the whole way through and post it as a wip here, along with sources and prices for the parts. I know most of the folks here are liking the no-weld grinder plans, with store bought wheels, maybe this would be interesting for the guys on the shoestring budgets { im just really cheap}. also I do like the verticle 2 wheel grinder, as all my knives have flat or convex grinds.
 
update on grinder:

I ran it for a couple of hours, it was working pretty good, and then the idler wheel that I got from mcmaster started going out. I guess the bearings in it, even thought they listed it as an idler wheel, with roller bearings wasnt up to that rpm. Then I decided to find out how much vibration the bare motor had, as it seemed way too noisy and had too much vibration. once I got everything off the motor, it just purred, so off to find another drive wheel and idler wheel.

I found a water pump from some car that I replaced in scrap pile, cut the pump off the bearing, and found that I could drill out the center of a skateboard wheel to fit it. I figured a water pump turns pretty fast all the time, so it should last. made up a new idler arm with a different tracking set up and mounted it.

I took stacy's advice, and went to salvage yard for some scrap for the frame and maybe another drive wheel. and scored a home run! got a 5" drive wheel from a cart, its made from some type of hard fibourus plastic. turned it in place on the motor shaft, and it runs great.

While I was at the salvage yard, I picked up some plate steel for the base, and an uprigt frame pretty much aldready built. so I'll run it this way and work out bugs, then transfer the parts to a steel frame.

and while I was looking in the junk pile at the yard, I found 6 3x80 {i think} brand new 36 grit ceramic grinding belts! so I drilled another hole in the upright for the idler arm, split the belts to 1.5"x80", and now my grinder can run 2x48's 2x72's and these 12 1.5x80's.
 
Update on this grinder.

I rebuilt it this last weekend with steel from salvage yard, and while I was at it, I built another one also onto the same stand to save floor space. I switched from the 2" diameter skateboard wheels to a 5" handturck wheel from caster-sales.com, work with the same water pump bearings, but turns the bearing alot slower so its easier on the bearings.

the new grinder is powered with a 2 hp dayton that I got at the salvage yard for $20 and an old hot water heater. has a set of pulleys so will be a variable sooner or later, uses pillow block bearing for $25 off ebay and a shaft I made out of a piece of 5/8" round 52100 from mcmaster carr, a 4" drive wheel from caster-sales also, the same tracking set up.

After I grind with them for a few weeks, Ill know where I want the platens and will bolt them down and remove the clamps. also have to true up some of the wheels. but considering I have less than $300 into both of them, and they already work well, I think it was time/money well spent.

82312grinders.jpg82312rightgrinder.jpg82312grindertrackingsetup.jpg

the pics of the left grinder came out too fuzzy, so i didnt post them. its the same setup as the right one, only has a set of pulleys instead of a direct drive off the motor.
 
you should put up a video of the direct drive on the right, if i am thinking right it should have a belt speed of 4515 fpm....wicked fast ;0)
 
dont know how to do the video. might try it out though. fuzzy math with a buddy we figured like 5700 fpm. 3600 rpm, with a 5" drive wheel. It does runn pretty fast. Ive only worked on the grizzly I tried before I built this once, this one and the two others I built and I tried Ed Fowlers baders. It runs faster than all of them, and Ive gotten comfortable with it, so all the others seem really slow. It does need a light touch sometimes!
 
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