- Joined
- May 6, 2009
- Messages
- 2,914
Ok, I received the grinder from Hank and got it running today. There were several issues. Some of them could possibly be overlooked and some could not. Here they are in the order that they were encountered.
1. Packaging was terrible. The grinder was literally hanging halfway out of the crate. I'm pretty sure that the main issue was that the grinder was just setting loosely in the crate. Bolting it to a solid base would probably eliminate this. I know that there is always the possibility of damage in transit but wrapping an object of this size and weight with bubble wrap and simply putting it in a crate is asking for trouble. The only damage was to the round cover on the end of the motor and I was able to correct this in just a few minutes. It could have been MUCH worse and I honestly don't know how it wasn't.
2. No instructions. This grinder has a few features that are completely different from the other grinders I have used and if I wasn't fairly knowledgeable about how grinders work I wouldn't have been able to figure them out. I guess what I'm trying to say is that a new maker buying his first grinder would be confused about several things when setting up this grinder. This could be fixed with a decent set of instructions.
3. The belt tension assembly doesn't have a handle to release tension. You have to squeeze the belt together with one hand and lock it in place with a small lever to change belts. When releasing the tension I found it hard to release slowly and it usually snapped from zero to full tension all at once. I believe this to be extremely hard on belts. Again, I may be missing something but without instructions I can't really be sure.
4. Tracking-Once adjusted, tracking was rock solid but adjusting it was the problem. I couldn't get the belt to track exactly where I wanted it to. Instead I had to get it as close to where I wanted it. The main issue was when I wanted the belt to run dead center on the platen. It refused to do so. Running the belt slightly to one side or the other was not a problem and like I said earlier, it was rock solid a little off to either side but dead center was a no go.
5. SPARKS-The 48" belt length mad a huge difference in sparks and grit being thrown back at you. So much so that I found it extremely distracting. Other people may be able to get used to this but I don't think I would ever be able to overlook this issue.
6. I started off grind a heat treated 1095 blade that already had bevels established. The cutting edge on this blade is 3.5" from plunge to tip, 1" wide from edge to spine, .160" thick, & was at about .050" at the edge. I started grinding with a 40X belt with the grinder running at full speed. By the time I got all the decarb ground off both sides and the edge down to about .025" I decided to put on a 120X belt. This is when I noticed that the tracking/idler wheel was extremely hot. This took no longer than 3-4 minutes yet the wheel was much hotter than any wheel I've ever felt on other grinders. I can't be absolutely sure but I believe that this would reduce bearing life drastically. Once I changed to the 120X belt and let the wheel cool, I ran it at 50%-60% speed and the wheel got warm but not hot. So I don't think you would be able to run this machine at full speed for very long at all. I don't run my grinders at full speed very often but when I do I don't want to have to worry about heating issues. Other makers may be able to overlook this but I couldn't.
7. VFD-Before I could get the blade described above ground to 120X, the VFD started snapping, popping, & hissing and burnt up. I was afraid of this when I saw that it was an open design but I had no idea that it would fail that quick.
Would I recommend this machine at this point? Absolutely not! Could these issues be addressed and make this a serviceable machine? Yes. How much would addressing these issues raise the price? Not sure.
My final thoughts are that your money would be much better spent elsewhere until the issues I described are addressed.
1. Packaging was terrible. The grinder was literally hanging halfway out of the crate. I'm pretty sure that the main issue was that the grinder was just setting loosely in the crate. Bolting it to a solid base would probably eliminate this. I know that there is always the possibility of damage in transit but wrapping an object of this size and weight with bubble wrap and simply putting it in a crate is asking for trouble. The only damage was to the round cover on the end of the motor and I was able to correct this in just a few minutes. It could have been MUCH worse and I honestly don't know how it wasn't.
2. No instructions. This grinder has a few features that are completely different from the other grinders I have used and if I wasn't fairly knowledgeable about how grinders work I wouldn't have been able to figure them out. I guess what I'm trying to say is that a new maker buying his first grinder would be confused about several things when setting up this grinder. This could be fixed with a decent set of instructions.
3. The belt tension assembly doesn't have a handle to release tension. You have to squeeze the belt together with one hand and lock it in place with a small lever to change belts. When releasing the tension I found it hard to release slowly and it usually snapped from zero to full tension all at once. I believe this to be extremely hard on belts. Again, I may be missing something but without instructions I can't really be sure.
4. Tracking-Once adjusted, tracking was rock solid but adjusting it was the problem. I couldn't get the belt to track exactly where I wanted it to. Instead I had to get it as close to where I wanted it. The main issue was when I wanted the belt to run dead center on the platen. It refused to do so. Running the belt slightly to one side or the other was not a problem and like I said earlier, it was rock solid a little off to either side but dead center was a no go.
5. SPARKS-The 48" belt length mad a huge difference in sparks and grit being thrown back at you. So much so that I found it extremely distracting. Other people may be able to get used to this but I don't think I would ever be able to overlook this issue.
6. I started off grind a heat treated 1095 blade that already had bevels established. The cutting edge on this blade is 3.5" from plunge to tip, 1" wide from edge to spine, .160" thick, & was at about .050" at the edge. I started grinding with a 40X belt with the grinder running at full speed. By the time I got all the decarb ground off both sides and the edge down to about .025" I decided to put on a 120X belt. This is when I noticed that the tracking/idler wheel was extremely hot. This took no longer than 3-4 minutes yet the wheel was much hotter than any wheel I've ever felt on other grinders. I can't be absolutely sure but I believe that this would reduce bearing life drastically. Once I changed to the 120X belt and let the wheel cool, I ran it at 50%-60% speed and the wheel got warm but not hot. So I don't think you would be able to run this machine at full speed for very long at all. I don't run my grinders at full speed very often but when I do I don't want to have to worry about heating issues. Other makers may be able to overlook this but I couldn't.
7. VFD-Before I could get the blade described above ground to 120X, the VFD started snapping, popping, & hissing and burnt up. I was afraid of this when I saw that it was an open design but I had no idea that it would fail that quick.
Would I recommend this machine at this point? Absolutely not! Could these issues be addressed and make this a serviceable machine? Yes. How much would addressing these issues raise the price? Not sure.
My final thoughts are that your money would be much better spent elsewhere until the issues I described are addressed.
