My Grinder build

Vombrown

Banned
After looking at prices and kits for a good little bit I decided to just build my own grinder. First off I'll give you guys a list of materials that I started with. I will admit I went overboard on some of it and I'm not sure it needs to be as heavy duty as I did but hey, I'm a welder/fabricator....it's in my nature. I'll reflect the single grinder materials, I bought enough to build up 3 grinders.

1- 12"x12"x1/2" cold rolled
1-12"x24"x1/2" cold rolled
1- 4'x2"x1/2" bar stock
1- 2.5"x2.5"x24" seamless square tubing. (this had to be ordered from the local steel supplier)
1- 2"x2" (o.250 wall) tube. this is your tooling arm...get as much as you think you need. I bought 4' of it. I also bought 2x2 square bar stock if the tube doesn't work like I want it to.

total cost was about 100.00 in materials but keep in mind there will be scrap left over and I bought two different materials for the tool arms.

So essentially I squared everything up and welded the 12" square to the 12x24 piece. I left 3" on the right side where the belt will travel. The piece was located 3" from the front edge. Full penetration welds maintaining square and plumb. Be careful here if your not terribly experienced and make a lot of tack welds on both sides. I was playing with a new welder trying to get settings dialed in so forgive the crappy welds on this project.

Next I notched the 12x12" square down 2.5x 8.5". This inset the tube into the plate and created a very strong union. The second tube was cut and welded to the left side of the plate giving it about 9/16" offset from the tooling arm. This tube is for the work rest.

1/4 wall square tubing was cut and drilled for the tooling arms times two. One side was drilled 1/2" and temporarily bolted to the platen I am working on. This is made from 1/2"x2 bar stock. in the pics everything is just mocked up. It will all get large bronze bushings and 1/2" bolts.

I am going to make the platen with two 3" rubber wheels. This one is on the small side as it's only 10" center to center on the wheels. I did this for a reason I will explain later. The intention is to have it rotate 90 degrees. I'll have a few more pics once I download them.

The arm for the tracking wheel is also 1/2x2 bar stock. Mocked into position and will also get an amco bronze bushing.
 

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I should have it all mocked up for final fitting on Monday when my other wheels and parts come in. I should have all the fabrication done by then and get it all torn apart for final paint and fitting.
 
I think you could go with less thickness in a few places for sure. I tend to overbuild and build once. It was only a few hours of fabrication to get it to this point. Drilling all the holes and whatnot took as long as all of the welding thus far. I had to put it all in the mill to make sure it was square and true. Other than that I think you could build this thing on a picnic table in the back yard if you had to.
 
Here is another round of pics, had some time to work on the grinder this morning. Got the flat platen finished up with 3" wheels. Also got the tool arm made up for the 10" wheel. Then spent some time lining things up and adding the right nylon washers and bushings. The tracking wheel assembly I purchased online and assembled. It looks great and worked perfectly. So as it stands All I have left to do is get the work rest made up. I plan to make a stationary version and an adjustable version that will tilt forward/back and side to side for things with difficult angles. I had everything tacked up and was about to mock up my 3hp motor and realized I had forgotten to order a DANG DRIVE WHEEL FOR MY MOTOR....oh well. I was hoping to get it tested out today but NOPE. I'll get one ordered and on the way.
 

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Ok everything is back on track now. drive wheel is on the way, lots of new belts to run on this girl and now I am playin with the second one. Remember this is one of three that I am building.
 
Here is the last few pics. Grinder is done and running like a champ.
 

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I recommend a pyroceram platen liner. That steel will start dishing almost immediately, and a pyroceram liner reduces a lot of that friction and stays flat for a very long time.
 
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