8 Attachment(s)
Grinder Build in progress
This has been a long time coming. Life stuff gets in the way and can easily stall us. That and having four jobs does not help, but anyway….
My Father taught me his skills when I was young. Mum used to use a line from Australian comedy – “if it at dodgy, it wasn’t built by Bodgy.” She used to call Dad and I the Bodgy Brothers. Nothing was pretty, much of it lasted though. Unfortunately my skills are no better. J
Watched Iron Man with my kids a little bit back.
“Tony Stark built it. In a cave. With a box of scraps! “ So with that as inspiration, and not having Bruce Wayne’s funds, I cast aside all excuses and got to work. Unfortunately it was only to build a grinder – not a mini arc reactor. J Life stuff got in the way a lot so it took a while.
Lack of engineering skill meant a few mistakes requiring start overs.
End result is from scraps I had at home, stuff scavenged from the tip and rubbish being thrown out at work.
My concession was buying proper contact wheels and bearings, step pulleys and the powerlink belt. Money for these came from honing and restoring razors.
I needed something (one thing due to very restricted space} that I could make razors, knives, swords, arrowheads and axes on.
The motor is my trusty old Abbott and Ashby grinder I have had for about 12 years. It did not work. Lacked power to run the belts at anything but the lowest speed, and even then feared a burnout. It did let me get the tracking set up correct though.
The stand base is from a blood pressure monitor. Swivel castors, one with brake, make it mobile so really dusty stuff can be done outside.
On top of this is bolted on the base from an old overhead projector stand. This has a 90 degree tilt adjustment so I can also run it as a horizontal grinder for profiling. When doing this I have a larger workrest to lay blades flat on.
On top of this is yellow tongue floorboard and a piece of aluminium sheet. The motor is mounted on another piece of that flooring and this is hinged to allow changing the belt on the step pulleys.
The uprights are bolted to angle bar, in turn bolted to the base. They are made from a few pieces of aluminium bolted together. The tool arms are square solid aluminium bar, 20x20mmm. The sockets they fit in are made of two sizes of square aluminium tube slotted together, with angle bar both inside and a larger one outside. This gives a snug fit to the tool arm, and gives me two walls that are 10mm thick – one for bolting to uprights and one for the threaded adjustment knobs. These were put together with JB Weld epoxy. Once set I drilled and tapped the holes and bolted it up, so it is bonded mechanically – not just glue. The epoxy simply meant everything stayed together, without shifting, while I drilled and tapped the holes i needed. The height was not enough for clearance of the belt with larger wheels, so I raised the whole thing on some blocks of scrap wood.
I named it the FIGJAM HULK. As it actually works, and I built it, it gets the FIGJAM designation. J Hulk is because I had green paint, and it is big and powerful. {yes – my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek.
I scavenged an old pool filter pump, and at 1.5HP it should do the trick. The spindle is only an M10 thread and my step pulley has a 5/8” bore. I tried fabricating an extension to the spindle to fit it, but am always a little off, so not running true. Took it to one of my jobs at a foundry and craft workshop, and the fitter and turner is going to see what he can knock up for me.
Then I will be back into it, and just need to catch up on my list of backorders.
I learnt a lot, as you always do when making something, and if I had to build another, I have evolved a different design that would be easier to make.
Anyhoo – for now, this works just fine.
Considering enclosing it in a dust/belt guard type box, but it would be very bulky. Will see how it goes when running again.
Enjoy,
