My $3.00 Work Rest

[Plas62]

I was out in my shop today cleaning up and getting ready to start on my next folder. I started setting up my grinder in the horizontal position with the small wheel attachment and remembered how unhappy I was with my work rest and it's lack of vertical adjustment. When using the grinder in horizontal position I was always grinding on the same part of the belt.

I started looking around my shop to see what I could come up with to improve my work rest. I came across a cheap Chinese drill press, I had picked up at a yard sale for $3 several months back. When I bought it I knew it was junk, the chuck was broke and the capacitor was out on the motor, but I figured there was $3 worth of parts on it and that I might go ahead and repair it.



(It had the stand and the work rest. I'm just not great at taking before pic's)



I started looking at the stand and work rest on the junk drill press and seen that it had the adjustments I was looking for on my grinder work rest and below is what I came up with when I adapted it to use on my grinder. The rest of the steel that I used to build it were pieces of drop that a friend of mine who works in a metal fab shop had given me. The extra holes in the work rest top plate are from how I previously had it mounted.

 

[HHH Knives]

Nice. Way to think out of the box! Looks like its gona function well for this application.

 

[Frank Niro]

Looks liker the grit side of the belt is against one of the guide rolls. Isn't it going to eat that wheel up in a hurry? I do believe the idea and the workmanship are good ones. Frank

 

[Mudman]

Nice!

 

[Chill8433]

Frank, I believe that is the small wheel belt guide for the small wheel attachment. Shrinks the belt angle.

 

[Plas62]

Chill8433 -That is correct. I have my 2" wheel setup to shrink the belt angle and my 1" setup to grind. They can be swapped back and forth. Surprisingly it does not eat up the wheels, most likely because the wheels are spinning at the same rate as the belt.