Buyinf or building a KMG?

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
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I finally realized that the belt sander I built is just not going to let be learn grinding the right way. That said, I either buy or build a KMG. I don't really have the funds to buy one yet so it's build now or buy one later.

I am tired of trying to do things with the wrong tools. It's frustrating.

Pad
 
I am building one! It is nice that my school has a mill, It is nice with it!

Ive almost completed the parts for the arm box out of 1/2" steel that I bought as a plate and cut strips of with a torch, Then milled down square and parallel.
 
I think I heard that Ron doesn't ship out of the continental US, which would mean you guys are going to have to build one.
 
I own a KMG and I remade a another machine into a KMG like clone. On the built machine instead of bolting everything together (as per KMG) I welded all the main pieces. I also used 2 pillow block bearings to hold the driven shaft. Works great and shares tooling arms with my KMG. It doen't look as quite as nice. It works as well though Jim.

I do not regret one penny of my KMG purchase evan having built a copy
 
when i purchased mine (10'' bader) i was up in the air on this same decision, having only partial components, and no access to a mill or lathe i opted to buy . of course this put a serious dent in my pocket book,but it truly is a beautiful piece of equiptment. imo the next one get i will build , having reaserched more on the subject i think the task will be easier.

if it matters my advice like they said build one it really isn't so much the machine as it is the operator, ive seen some guys do some beautiful work on a grinder that looked like they built it from a pile of !@##$ but they work and if you can make even a half decent grinder just to get buy. then make and sell some knives and buy your choice and always have that origional as a spare, cause lets face it you can never get to many grinders. plus you'll have the satisfaction of building your first machine. you can even give it a really cool name this is a must. (haha just kidden)

www.takachforge.com
 
using welding to assemble these will save quite some effort. Now, you don't
have to have a mill/lathe to build these. A drill press is a must, but as long as you buy
metals pre-cut, welding the thing together should not take more than couple of hours.

You can prolly rent a welder (MIG/stick) or borrow one from a friend.

Use common sense and tack weld stuff and test it, before making it permanent :)
And of course order weldable steel - say HRS as opposed to leadloy


You can always buy shafts, pulleys, driving, idler and contact wheels. Idlers are
commonly designed to be used with simple 1/2-13 bolts, pulleys and driving wheel
will fit right onto the shafts w/o any boring reqd.
 
I know building one can be fun but I am getting a little tired of working of the tools themselves rather than the knives. I have a MIG, lathe and drill press, no mill though. And the biggest problem is that I "sucked" at machining/precision stuff.

I've already built one with a 4" contact wheel. Contact wheel and drive wheel were from Ron. (I have a trailer in Maine where I take my yearly vacation so I can get things delivered to a friend and he'll bring it to me there).

Here is the sander I currently have:

http://groups.msn.com/HomeorshopmadeGrinders/padrigsgrinder.msnw

Thanks for all the advices. More thinking to be done.

Pad
 
Padrig said:
I know building one can be fun but I am getting a little tired of working of the tools themselves rather than the knives. I have a MIG, lathe and drill press, no mill though. And the biggest problem is that I "sucked" at machining/precision stuff.


Pad
Click to expand...

I hear ya. I have a MIG, TIG, lathe, mills, CNC, plasma, a big rack of CRS, a big box of bearings and I don't suck at precision machining. But I bought a KMG instead of building. Life is too short to build something you can just get off the shelf. The shop is for making stuff you can't get off the shelf. And by the time you buy the shafts, pulleys, driving, idler and contact wheels, you just about could of bought the complete unit.

I was out in the shop tonight grinding out a couple sweet skinners instead of building another d@mn machine. The KMG works well.

So unless you have a lot of time on your hands or just want to build something, I'd say just buy one.

Just my .02
 
I have to agree with Nathan in many aspects. I sometimes built things because I want them a certain way that I can't get or the cost is way out of hand. I actually like to built stuff to. But, I would have never made a KMG clone if I had not had the other machine and know that I could the conversion relatively easily. I didn't have to make a tracking adjuster, just remount it. I had the bearing and shaft already even had a strp pulley on it. Also I work in a great place and I was able to cut all my nessecary metal pieces at work with an ok from boss.
 
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