Grinder Cabinet for the shop.

[Rog02]

I am new to the model engine building, but have considerable experience in metal fab work as it pertains to aircraft and race car construction. The disc sander is an invaluable piece of equipment in my shop and the belt grinder is not far behind it.

When it comes to the belt grinder machines, the blade smiths have a pretty good handle on them and there are many plans available.

http://groups.msn.com/HomeorshopmadeGrinders/links.msnw This site is dedicated to homebuilt grinders of all types and much good information is available.

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?s=8f5dc505c6fd56bb74f4ea92e07df240&showtopic=4436&st=0
Another forum in which "Deker" chronicles his KMG clone build. Material list and many photos as he worked his way through it. A well documented build.

 

[BobWarfield]

Roger, you're the man with those links!

Cheers,

BW

 

[bengomez]

I convinced 'er indoors (wife, better half, etc. to my fellow yanks) that Santa needed to drop off a Harbor Freight carbide grinder this Christmas. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=46727

Being on vacation this week, I cobbled up a cabinet to mount it on from an old electronic rack unit a buddy gave me a while back. It was a beautiful piece of work and built like a brick outhouse. It was originally 76" tall and has double wheeled casters to support a heavy load. I think it's big enough to mount my bench grinder on and the disc sander I'm building as well.

I needed to chop it down to match the height of the worktable next to it but wasn't looking forward to cutting it apart with a hacksaw. There's numerous posts on the web about sawing aluminum with a carbide-tipped blade in a skilsaw so I decided now was the the time to try it. Man, does it work well; I was amazed! It's noisy as hell and the chips fly everywhere but I'm now a believer. I used an old saw I had lying around which still had a cheap carbide blade on it and am happy I tried it. Now I gotta figure out what to make from the 4 left-over pieces of heavy duty aluminum extrusion.

Once it was shortened and bolted back together, I installed the last remaining drawer I had left over from when our parts department at work upgraded their small parts cabinet 20 years ago and threw several of them in the dumpster. Me, frugal? Naah! I'm not sure what the final use of the drawer will be but for now it's my "small scraps drawer." I'm like Marv, it ain't scrap 'til it's weight gets down into the grams!

Oh, one last thing, a few years ago I drew a simple 2D CAD drawing of my garage-workshop and equipment (to scale) during a rearrangement project. My buddy & I's fishing boat and motor FINALLY sailed out of the garage and to its new berth so there was enough room to put things where they could actually be used.

Now, anytime a new addition to the shop is planned, I simply pull up the CAD file, draw the new item to scale and shift things around until things look right.

That looks nice and clean grinder cabinet... what is that aluminum plates?

_________________
aluminum plate

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

That looks nice and clean grinder cabinet... what is that aluminum plates?

Thanks Ben, I'm sorry but I'm not sure I understand your question.

If you are asking what the cabinet is made from, it was made from an electronics equipment "rack", not built up from aluminum plate.

If you're asking what the aluminum piece with the brown paint finish is, it's a piece of the rack's extruded alumimum frame that was left over from cutting it down the height of the rack from 76" to the height of my other workbenches.

If you're asking where I got the 1/2" aluminum plate I made my disc sander from, I traded some work for it with a friend. I'm not sure where he got it but it's just standard milled aluminum plate.

I apologize if I've not answered your question properly.