Quote Originally Posted by JAZZCNC View Post
Surprised you have made 3 identical when it's still in prototype. I Prototype lots of stuff and first version nearly always gets changed or improved in some way. Hell with my little router design I see ways to improve or make building easier just about every time I make one.

Surely would have made more sense to build one and test then improve second and test again etc.?

I make one small wooden musical instrument as a side hobby and every now and then i have a whole day or 2 day, when i do sanding all day long. So the faster the better.

I needed a serious sander also for all the steel projects. I have a nice DIY 12" sander but what i am making here is a "grinder" not "sander" meanung it will have very serious surface speed with 120mm OD wheel at he motor spinning at 300rpm / 4 pole 3 phase 1420 rpm motor with VFD/

The other thing is that i have a knife project where i am at the stage of needing the grinder. I made the prototypes using small bench sander but as i am using one of the bad ass tool steels its very difficult to grind with belt sander to shape.

Plus as i found the typical paradox- " To make a grinder you need a grinder"


The design is more or less clear, a lot of DIY copies of the KMG grinder with plans in internet. The KMG is also a copy of an older machine, so i understood while looking at the plans that these are not just copies, but a concept proven through the years of abuse, that works. So i directly started building on it knowing that it will work.

Jeff needed a grinder, all of the above+ that they sell material in 6m, packets of 10, etc., so doing 3 machines at once made sense to me.


The next step from here is next week machine is ready, i continue my knife project and while having actual experience using it for knifes, i will meditate upon a much more brave design.


In fact Dean next step would be directly producing them by the 10, cause of the fixtures on the mill and the lathe is makes sense to make 10 pieces at once.

Needless to say that the experience from building CNCs till the moment helped in in such way that the only error till now was just 1 spot weld not at the right place.