Testing the waters....grinder anyone?

Self Made Knives

Self Made Knives

Well-Known Member
Well, I built my first 2x72 and it's been pretty good. But, now that I've had it a while, I'm thinking about building another, different style. If I were to make 3 or 4 sets of parts for a grinder, would there be any interest in a kit? I know Jamie's G.I.B. is out there and what I'm thinking would be very similar, except maybe with more of the parts you'd need to finish it. How about a steel package, a tooling arm, and wheels? Maybe even a 10" contact wheel too? Or, would a complete ready to use grinder sell well? The market may already be too crowded. Feedback please.
 
Anthony you would need to show some photos of the unit to spark interest. Price point is going to be very important on this endeavor as there are several different options in the market currently.

Would this be an entry level unit or a more advanced performing machine?
 
Either a KMG clone or an EERF based design, which is sort of what the GIB is. My steel supplier doesn't sell small quantities of 1/2" plate, 4'x4' min. That's enough to make 4 EERF's. My laser guy's setup fee is the same for one or four, so four ends up a little cheaper. I can make wheels and convert the 10" grizzly wheels to bearings. The 1.25 tooling arm stock comes in a 10' minimum too. I'm thinking why not build 4 grinders/kits, 3 to sell and 1 to keep. Pricing would be total cost of four, divided by three, with the profit being the 4th grinder.

edit: If I just sold the metal kit and no wheels, there wouldn't be much profit for me that way, which is ok too. I'd still be getting my grinder parts at cheaper price than if I just built a single. But, I was thinking that if I made the contact wheels too, the payback for all that work should be able to pay for the 4th set of parts.
 
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I found I could buy the GIB way cheaper than I could get the eerf grinder cut out at my local machine shop. I wish you well but I could not do that here, Ed
 
I've got a great connection to a laser cutter, his prices are pretty good, well worth going that route. I don't want to make this a full time thing, just a run of 4 and be done with it.
 
I did something similar a few years ago with the EERF. For whatever reason, folks simply didn't want to commit to parts.... so I just went ahead and had the parts cut, and built myself a grinder. When folks saw it (either in my shop or pics I posted on the net), I started to get calls and emails asking if I could build them for people. What I did was tell them that if they ordered the motor and controller, along with the required wheels (drive, idler, and desired contact) and had it drop shipped to me, I would build them a grinder for $XXXX. I also sold a few of the sets of parts by themselves. It took about a year after having the parts cut, but I finally got rid of all of them. (I had 10 sets of parts cut). I didn't make a lot on them, but made it worth my time and effort.

One thing I did that I think interested people was changing the belt tensioning system....from a tension spring, to a compression spring similar to that on the KMG. The weak link in either the GIB or the EERG is use of a tension spring for the belt, versus a compression spring.....the compression spring system improves the grinder greatly.
 
Anthony, I've been thinking about adding a second grinder to my shop. Really what I would want to do is have something that comes ready to go, maybe short of the motor and VFD. Short of committing, I'm interested. I'd echo some of the George's thoughts and would like to see pictures and prices.
 
I know a lot of people are just "talk" when it comes to stuff like this. Remember the kickstarter guy a few months ago? But, this was something I was going to do anyway, I just starting to hit a wall on material quantities for a single. My laser guy has a 3 week lead time, so maybe next week I'll just go for it. I don't want to be in competition with Jamie either, so pricing is going to be tricky.
 
Self Made Knives said:
I know a lot of people are just "talk" when it comes to stuff like this. Remember the kickstarter guy a few months ago? But, this was something I was going to do anyway, I just starting to hit a wall on material quantities for a single. My laser guy has a 3 week lead time, so maybe next week I'll just go for it. I don't want to be in competition with Jamie either, so pricing is going to be tricky.
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I'd be interested.
 
Anthony I'd like to suggest you make the tooling arm 1.5x1.5" instead of 1.25". That way a standard size KMG style arm would fit it. Most grinder tooling accessories come in that size.
 
Your right George, that's what I had wrote down. I think I had 1.25" on my brain from another project I'm working on. I'm starting a cnc mill conversion and I'm using a piece of 1.25" aluminum for something on that, can't do two things at once. :biggrin:
 
Still planning what I'm going to do as far as getting some kits made. Tool arm question: Steel or Aluminum? Is it a must either way? I was looking at Travis Weurtz's machine at the show and he's using aluminum tool arms. They seemed fine to me plus they are actually quite a bit cheaper. If I sent a tool arm with the kit parts, the arms would be about 50% cheaper, and shipping would be better too. What do you guys think?
 
I have two steel arms from KMG and another arm for my small wheel attachment made from square tubing (steel). Rather than change the tooling, I like each tool on its own arm so I can yank one and stick the other in and get back to grinding. I can't answer about steel vs. aluminum, but I can say that the tubing has been more than sufficient in use. I cannot imagine that a solid aluminum tool arm would not perform as well as tubing, and tubing works just fine. I'm waiting to hear from the experienced guys because maybe they know something I don't. All I know is that I swap my tools constantly between the 10" wheel, flat platen, and small wheel and the weight difference combined with seeing no benefit from the solid steel arm is enough that I would definitely purchase aluminum tool arms going forward.

One criticism I have heard regarding aluminum is that the set screw will make an impression on the tool arm. Okay- I can see that. But if that caused me an issue I think I'd modify the set screw end so that it didn't dig into the tool arm rather than avoid aluminum. I don't know how tight other guys crank down on the set screw handle, but I give it a quick twist (finger tight) and my tool arms have never drifted on me. Just speaking from my own, personal, limited, newb experience.
 
Yeah, John I did consider using tubing, I know tons of guys do. I kind of like the idea of the solid arm, seems like you have a few more options for tapping, mounting, boring, etc. for wheels, tool rests, and platens. I'm really thinking aluminum.
 
Anthony, I like aluminum for the tooling arms. I drill 'n tap the aluminum directly, but other folks have said the threads will fail sooner in aluminum than steel, which is true. I'm not sure it's a real problem, but an easy fix is to us helicoil inserts so you have steel threads in the aluminum arm. My thinking is when the aluminum threads do fail, then I'll repair with helicoil inserts.

As you may remember, I like aluminum for the whole grinder - no painting and less weight to move when the grinder needs moving.

Ken H>
 
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