Buying the best knife grinder for the money.

J

JZknives

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Feb 7, 2013
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I know I have made this thread once or twice , or maybe 30 times in the past.


But how much money can be saved by making your own grinder , and how does the quality of those grinders compare to "out of the box" production grinders?

If im going to drop big money on a grinder , would it be better spent making my own ? or buying a proven production one?
 
What's your time worth? How many hours would it take you to build a grinder? How much would you have to invest in materials to build your own? Answer those questions and maybe you will be able to determine which is best for you.

For me I would rather plug-in and grind. The sooner I start making knives with a new grinder the sooner it starts to pay for itself.
 
Chuck Gedraitis Knives said:
What's your time worth? How many hours would it take you to build a grinder? How much would you have to invest in materials to build your own? Answer those questions and maybe you will be able to determine which is best for you.

For me I would rather plug-in and grind. The sooner I start making knives with a new grinder the sooner it starts to pay for itself.
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Well said!
Can you make a better grinder then a kmg or tw-90? I sure couldn't in an amount of time that would make it worth it! So I bought a kmg. Def worth the money imho
 
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Depends on what you are working with. Do you work for 75 dollars an hour and have no machine tool experience? then you probably can't make an excellent grinder. If you have been a machinist for 50 years and are willing to work cheap, then you absolutely can build a good grinder. Be sure it is worth it to you, though.
 
The best price I could come up with was @ $1200 doing it myself (using the Wayne Coe design). That would have been with a NEMA 4 VFD and a 1.5 HP motor. That was supplies only and using good wheels. A Pheer grinder with similar attributes would have been @ $1500. If you have a good supply or source of scrap steel you could save some money on your build.
 
For me, my time is worth more than the potential savings of building a grinder. This may not be the case for those with an excess of free time.

I also don't think that I could dramatically improve on existing designs such as the TW90.
 
I built my own , and enjoyed doing so. It is very satisfying to use it knowing I made it myself, much like using a knife I made myself. I am a machinist with access to a machine shop, and it still took a bit of time.

If I count my time I didnt save any money, but had fun with the build.
 
If you are good at building such things and know exactly what you want in a grinder then building your own can be a fun project and save you a little $. If you're not already somewhat experienced with drilling, fabrication, electrical, and/or welding, though, or don't want to spend the time tuning and adjusting, then the $ savings will probably seem like small beans compared to the time and trouble of building one yourself, figuring out the wiring, getting everything aligned, etc. I built mine and I have no regrets but most of the $ I saved was the motor, fasteners, and other materials that I already had.
 
I built a kmg clone recently. It was a great learning experience but not worth it if you just want to save money. You could save maybe 200-400 bucks depending on where you get your materials/motor etc. Took me somewhere around 30-40 hours to build and I went fast. For my next grinder I will be buying one.
 
Justin King said:
If you are good at building such things and know exactly what you want in a grinder then building your own can be a fun project and save you a little $. If you're not already somewhat experienced with drilling, fabrication, electrical, and/or welding, though, or don't want to spend the time tuning and adjusting, then the $ savings will probably seem like small beans compared to the time and trouble of building one yourself, figuring out the wiring, getting everything aligned, etc. I built mine and I have no regrets but most of the $ I saved was the motor, fasteners, and other materials that I already had.
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This is the best advice. If you just want a simple grinder to hog out material, that is easy. A fully functional grinder is not. Decide what you need it for, and spend your time and money wisely. When I started building bicycles, I looked into building my own frame jig. The main steel backbone is cheap and simple to build. The bottom bracket, head tube, and axle holders required precision machining. That is the stuff that costs you in the end. Tool companies buy their wheels, bearings, threaded rods etc at less than 1/4 to 1/2 what we pay for them due to volume dealing. If you have a lot of recyclable parts, you may come out ahead. If you have to buy everything, you may save a couple hundred bucks at best, if you don't make a mistake and have to redo something.
 
Chris, at Wilmont Grinders has just come out with a new model called the Little Buddy. I saw one at Chris's shop and it looks to be a smaller version of the Tag101 and extremely overbuilt http://www.wilmontgrinders.com . Check it out as I think it will fit your needs. I have no connection with Wilmont other than a very happy customer. Chris is great to work with.
 
A belt grinder is a pretty simple machine. There are only a few critical points about getting one right- I find that an average liner lock is a more advanced project, and takes comparable time. As far as parts cost, it all depends on what you have on hand or can scrounge.

In my case, the next build I plan on is an EERF grinder- I'll buy a 1'x4'x1/2" steel bar, cut it out on my friend's plasma table, and finish it with cross purposed industrial wheels, and a motor and VFD I already have on hand. If you have a metal lathe (I do now) it will help greatly in keeping your cost down.

I think I could make more money making machines, perhaps, than knives... but I'd just be jumping from one saturated market into another.
 
I got all the raw materials to build a grinder and decided I would rather make knives than build a grinder. Therefor I bought a new Bader BIII. In the end I felt my time was better spent making knives than building a grinder.
Same with a drill press. I bought an old one as a project, but ended up abandoning that and buying a mini mill that was ready to run.
Just a matter of where you want to spend your time.
 
Don Hanson III said:
I'd get a Bader B-III and spend my time making knives. But that's just me! :)
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+1

This, plus the fact that if you have a problem with your grinder...it is YOUR problem. If you have a problem with a TW-90 or a KMG, or a Bader...just call Travis, or Rob, or Stephen.
 
I have a full machine shop, lathe, mill, surface grinder, mig, tig welders ect. but as others have said what's your time worth, I could have built any number of different designs I wonted....but came to the reality that my time was better spent doing what I do that pays my bills...and the guys that have spent countless hours designing and using there designs have a pretty good idea what works and what works even better.......I bought one of Wilmont Grinders LB grinders to start out with http://www.wilmontgrinders.com/Pages/LBGrinder.aspx and just recently got his top of the line triple arm grinder, they both are very nice and useful, Chris not only builds his grinders but he uses the crap out of them in his grind room........
 
Check out Brett Mathews on here. He makes one heck of a nice grinder for a good price and is a good dude.
 
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