New grinding setup.

[caskwith]

This was a lot more work than I anticipated! Anyway it's an axminster 900W 8" slow grinder (1400rpm) that was on sale. I had a spare multitool belt grinder to hand and after much fussing I got it fitted. The grinder kit is meant to be almost universal but unfortunately the Axminster grinder is a bit of a beast and the holes didn't line up and shaft was too big so I had to make some new tapped holes and turn up custom bushes and spacers to get it all to fit. After that was all done I upgraded the grinding rests (the factory tables were pretty good but I wanted mitre slots and more space) which was also quite a task involved manufacturing some custom parts and modifying others. I might go back and change a few bits later one, depends how it all works out.

Enjoy!

[LatakiaLover]

Did you mean to upload several pics?

Can't tell much of what's going on from just the one.

[caskwith]

Just the one, I thought it covered things pretty well but I am more than happy to take more pics if needed, anything in particular you want to see?

[LatakiaLover]

Is the belt on the left slack or tight? Can you sand curves, or is all the working surface flat?

Also, what's the right hand wheel? Looks like some sort of ceramic for sharpening carbide edges, maybe.

Maybe a better way to ask is what can you do with it that a vanilla belt/disk rig doesn't? Sounds like you went to considerable effort to get it up and working right.

[caskwith]

The belt on the left is tight, it has a flat platen behind, the wheel on the right is a white alox wheel. The setup is primarily for grinding my lathe tools and other custom cutters. The reason for the trouble is that I wanted a powerful grinder capable of removing metal without bogging down but I also wanted to be able to set angles grind easily. Most store bought bench grinders come with very poor tables that more often than not just stamped and bent steel. This grinder did come with cast rests but they still offered nothing in the way of a mitre slot, hence my upgrade.
When time and funds allow I plan to get another cheapy grinder to use for garden tools and rough work so I can dedicate this system to just the precision tools, I would also like to make a small diamond grinder for my carbide tooling but again that's a project for another day.

[LatakiaLover]

Got it. Makes sense with you being a serious lathe guy. I don't make all that many lathe cutting tool equivalents, but when I do something like your setup would be MOST welcome. Loves precision & control, the me.

Thanks for the backstory.

[mightysmurf8201]

Nice!

[oklahoma red]

Too bad the Dutch-made Creusen grinders are not sold on this side of the pond (to the best of my knowledge). They are very well thought of in England and Europe. Pricey tho, as are all good things.
Chas.

[Nate]

Lovely Chris! One day I will own a sharpening setup. Congrats!

[caskwith]

I should add that this isn't the final step in sharpening, for most tools I then hone and polish on the tormek using a 1000grit japanese stone makes for a very sharp tool a very fine cut. The tormek however is not suitable to removing much material that's why I like to have a good grinding system first to get a clean accurate grind before using the tormek to refine the edge only.

[jogilli]

I'll have to take pics of my setup someday... Looks somewhat similar ... I wonder why....

The tormek has brought a nice shine to my tools

[jogilli]

And ohhhh yea.. Copy cat

[scotties22]

You're supposed to sharpen your tools???

[andrew]

You're supposed to sharpen your tools???

Don't listen to them. Only sharpen your tools if you intend to use them

andrew

[Charl]

I love it, Chris. A very cool idea.
Tormeks over here are hellishly expensive, but would love to get one eventually.

[caskwith]

Both Jet, Record and Draper do a cheaper version of the tormek and you can buy non OEM wheels from Dieter Schimidt, much cheaper than Tormek wheels and just as good. You might be able to create your version and save some money? Most of the fancy jigs will fit the other machines, not that you need them for lathe tools, just a simple adjustable table is required and you could make that yourself.

[Charl]

I've seen the Jet version here in Cape Town, but no other ones. It was slightly cheaper than the Tormek, but still very expensive.