The Beginnings of a Grinder

If you have taken the opportunity to click on the “Shop Tour” tab above, you will have seen the little shop inside which I do all my knife work.  If you are a knife maker yourself, or have been to someone else’s shop, you might well have noticed the glaring absence of a dedicated knife grinder.  Up until now, I have done almost all of my grinding work on a Ryobi bench grinder that was really made for sanding wood.  You will have also seen in the Shop Tour the MDF disks with sandpaper on the edges that I use for establishing hollow grinds in my blades.  I’m quite pleased with the work I have been able to turn out on these tools and have learned quite a bit about making things work with what you have on hand to work with.  But, as you can imagine, it takes a long time on these tools to get much done in the way of making sparks and little piles of black dust.

I now find myself in the position to finally take the leap and upgrade to a 2”x72” grinder.  In other words, my dear wife has given me the go-ahead to spend a little of our hard earned money on some shop tools.  Since I make my knives as a hobby, I still can’t justify spending thousands of dollars on a factory-built machine, but, with the arrival of my tax return, I went armed to the internet and purchased a set of plans and the materials to build my own.  So, I guess for the first real series of post on the Robinson Edge, I will take you along with me as I build my very own big-boy toy!

The plans that I purchased were for a No-Weld Grinder/Sander (NWGS) from usaknifemaker.com.  I lack the tools and the expertise to weld, so this plan seemed like a good choice.  Here is a photo of some of the steel parts that will ultimately make up the grinder.

At this stage in the game, I get the same creative juices flowing like when I have a new knife design in hand and begin gathering up the raw materials that will be used to create my brainchild.  In my head I can vaguely see the finished product.  The vision is always a little cloudy at this point, but I know, hiding behind the fog, there is a finished masterpiece waiting on the horizon.  There is also that nagging feeling way down deep that says, “You’re in way over your head again, Brandant!”

Here is a shot of the parts after they have been trimmed to length, squared up, drilled, tapped, and otherwise ready to assemble.

I didn’t realize how much work it would take to get to this point.  I have been using my little bench grinder to square up the ends of the work pieces.  The poor little thing has worked like a champ for years without complaining.  I guess it caught wind that I was making its replacement, because it through a serious tantrum.  The belt drive pulley sheared off of the drive shaft and left me to square things up with a file.  Aaarrggghhh!!!  If it’s going to be that naughty, it deserves to be replaced.

The next photos shows the hardware that will be needed to assemble the grinder.  There are bags of nuts and bolts everywhere.  It's nice to have a set of plans to work from, otherwise, I'm sure I would forget where everything is supposed to go.

 

This final photo shows where I ended with the grinder assembly.

 

 

My shop time is generally limited to Friday afternoons and some time on Saturdays, so things are moving a little slower that I had hoped.  Next week, I hope to get the grinder assembled and maybe get a coat of paint on it.  I think it will come together pretty quickly now that all the parts have been built to specs.

 

My son recently earned his Eagle Scout award, and I promised to make him a knife in recognition of his achievement.  So, I really need to get this up and running so I can get started on that knife before he is awarded his rank advancement.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how this grinder performs.  My hopes are high at this point and all the reviews of the design have given it glowing reviews.  I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait and see.

 

-  Brandant Robinson