Maybe not to your eyes, but to mine, she's the most beautiful of all tools I've ever beheld. Of course, that might be due to all the time, blood, sweat and tears that I have invested in her. It was a long road, not without a bump or two along the way, but she's finally purring like a kitten. And I mean, she really purrs!
I put the grinder through its paces today and found it working superbly. It runs smoothly, quietly and without vibration. I couldn't be more happy with how it works. It has enough power when I put it in high gear to trip the breaker in the power strip that its plugged into. I'll have to plug it in directly I guess. I'm not terribly happy with the on/off switch and plan to make a few modifications to it, like remove the black electrical tape (wink, wink). I still need to put a little more paint on a few parts as well and the extension arm on my tool rest is not long enough to use with my contact wheel. But, all in all, I'm very pleased with its operation.
I have a short list of additional accessories that I would like to add in the future, such as: a vertical tool rest, an articulating tool rest, a small wheel arm, and a few more contact wheels of various sizes. But, those are for the future. For now, I'll use it as it stands.
I have to admit, that I'm glad this grinder build is over and I can move on to the reason why I built it in the first place, building knives. I actually had the time to start another knife build project this weekend that I will be posting progress pictures of as soon as I can get the photos organized. As I mentioned before, I need to make a knife for my son in recognition of him earning his eagle scout award, and that is the knife that I started working on. He worked hard over many years to earn his eagle and deserves something nice to commemorate the occasion. His Court of Honor, where he will be awarded his eagle, is just a couple weeks away, so I need to get busy. I think you will enjoy following along.
Thanks for stopping by the Robinson Edge.
- Brandant Robinson
I just found your blog. Right now I'm still learning about how knives are made, so this is great. Do you recall how much you spent in total to build this grinder?
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, I was into this project around $800. I bought almost all of my materials online, so if someone had somewhere local to buy their materials or was able to find some scrap steel and used motor, he could significantly reduce the cost.
DeleteI think that is very reasonable and makes it more attainable given one has the ability to put it together. Thanks for making this blog, it's very inspiring to see knifemaking broken down into steps like this.
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