Home Built Surface Grinder

[One Armed]

I want to thank Travis Wuertz for this design. I could never afford his, but I did a fairly good job making my own I think. It actually looks and works better better than I had even planned! And being that it cost me less than $250 to build really is something! Took me a couple weeks to finish, but not bad considering I'm down an arm/hand LOL!

***EDIT*** Video posted on page 5!

 

[Fish30114]

Very interesting for sure!! Nice going!

 

[One Armed]

Thank you. Well, making the magnetic chuck sure was interesting! Used my underpowered drill press as a crappy mill. Used a 5/16" end mill to create the slots in the 1"x12" Billet, for the the neodymium magnets. Making this was the bulk of the time. 11 magnets total. Blade doesn't move at all! Good bit of work, but as I said, I LOVE how it turned out! I want to try to do a short video for YouTube.

 

[Frank Niro]

I would be very pleased if you did that. Perhaps even with just this much you may have encouraged me to reach out and see if I can come up with something by looking at the pictures you here provided

 

[Jesse Smith]

Cool. Good job.
Can you post larger pictures, please?

 

[Ghostman3]

Some larger pictures and or video and details on build would be great!

 

[Don Hanson III]

I just got one of Travis' SG attachments for a KMG and it is fantastic.
It will not replace my old SG running stone for precision, but will get a lot of use!

 

[One Armed]

I'm sorry, that's the best I can do with pics. I built mine based on pictures of Travis Wuertz's surface grinder. The magnetic chuck is 2.5"x12" and I used the Neodymium bar magnets from Amazon measuring 60mm long, 10mm wide & 3mm thick. I milled the slots about 5mm deep, so the magnets are below the table surface. And they are epoxied in. The parts are a combination of 6061 & 7075 t6 Billet. Several metal suppliers online. I use Midwest steel supply. The tricky part is the double axis linear slide & rail. Couple places to buy in the States, but it is very expensive. I located mine on Aliexpress for 1/3rd the price. And quality is excellent! I am using the the SGR20, but I think the slightly more narrow SGR20n would work just as well. The adjuster slide assembly took a little thinking. I ended up milling a channel and epoxying in 3/8"x3/4" aluminum t-slot track. It accepts 1/4" hex bolts in the channel. This created the sliding action. The adjuster is 3/8"x16 stainless All Thread & a steel threaded turn knob. Tooling arm is standard 1.5". Any contact wheel will work. Serrated, the larger the better & 70-90 duro hardness is preferred. My wheel is a serrated 4" & 70 duro because I found it for under $60. Eventually I'll go to an 8" wheel and 90 duro. Let me know if you would like any more info.

 

[One Armed]

I just got one of Travis' SG attachments for a KMG and it is fantastic.
It will not replace my old SG running stone for precision, but will get a lot of use!

No doubt! Travis' machine looks amazing! I think I did a pretty good job recreating it from pictures & video. But as I said, all credit and thanks to him. It caught my eye from the moment I saw it. Unfortunately, an $1800 tool is FAR outside my budget! Luckily, The Lord blessed me with an incredible mechanical mind & aptitude. Being disabled, it takes me longer.....but TIME is one thing I have. And "building" tools, just as making knives is my hobby.

 

[Don Hanson III]

No doubt! Travis' machine looks amazing! I think I did a pretty good job recreating it from pictures & video. But as I said, all credit and thanks to him. It caught my eye from the moment I saw it. Unfortunately, an $1800 tool is FAR outside my budget! Luckily, The Lord blessed me with an incredible mechanical mind & aptitude. Being disabled, it takes me longer.....but TIME is one thing I have. And "building" tools, just as making knives is my hobby.

You did an excellent job! & kudos for giving Travis credit! I just saw where Burr King copied Travis' idea and no credit given. I tried the Burr King SG a few weeks ago and it worked great, but how easy would it have been to give Travis a little credit for the design?

 

[KnuckleDownKnives]

O One Armed Thanks for posting this thread and thanks to Travis as well for the original. I have been looking into building one of these as well, and had not considered aliexpress as a place to find parts. I don't have access to machines to build the cross slide or magnet base I'll have to have one machined, but have located this item which will work and just needs to be mounted to a tooling arm (this sells for over $400 stateside). I as well don't have the budget for one of Travis's tools.



This could then be mounted to it with the magnet base.




here's some magnets.



I think I know what one of my next projects are going to be.

 

[One Armed]

You did an excellent job! & kudos for giving Travis credit! I just saw where Burr King copied Travis' idea and no credit given. I tried the Burr King SG a few weeks ago and it worked great, but how easy would it have been to give Travis a little credit for the design?

Thank you Don! And you are exactly right! There is the Burr King, The "Strap On" surface grinder attachment from Australia & Oregon Blade Makers attachment. NONE of them give Travis the credit for his design! And they SELL theirs! I didn't build this to sell. It's for MY use because I can't afford the SGA-1.
But Travis Wuertz is the genius behind this design. I'm just good at reverse engineering & recreation from pictures/vids. LOL.

 

[One Armed]

O One Armed Thanks for posting this thread and thanks to Travis as well for the original. I have been looking into building one of these as well, and had not considered aliexpress as a place to find parts. I don't have access to machines to build the cross slide or magnet base I'll have to have one machined, but have located this item which will work and just needs to be mounted to a tooling arm (this sells for over $400 stateside). I as well don't have the budget for one of Travis's tools.

View attachment 796869

This could then be mounted to it with the magnet base.


View attachment 796870

here's some magnets.

View attachment 796871

I think I know what one of my next projects are going to be.

Do you have a drill press? I used my 1/3hp drill press with 1/4" & 5/16" end mills, and picked up a $26 dollar axis table from Amazon to make the cross slots! Same for the adjustment slider. If I did a second one, it would come out better! But it did fan the flames in me for a mini mill!

That's the exact duel axis linear guide rail I used. I came across that $400 slider as well. I like the one I built better. And it cost me about $40 in parts!

 

[KnuckleDownKnives]

Do you have a drill press? I used my 1/3hp drill press with 1/4" & 5/16" end mills, and picked up a $26 dollar axis table from Amazon to make the cross slots! Same for the adjustment slider. If I did a second one, it would come out better! But it did fan the flames in me for a mini mill!

That's the exact duel axis linear guide rail I used. I came across that $400 slider as well. I like the one I built better. And it cost me about $40 in parts!

I have the cheapest, smallest drill press harbor freight sells. For the amount of time and tooling it would take and not confident my drill press would do it. I don't think having a bar of aluminum milled with slots would cost all that much. probably still only be in the $300-$320 range over all. I can swing that. Had I thought of alliexpress for the parts, I'd already have built this about a year ago...

 

[One Armed]

I have the cheapest, smallest drill press harbor freight sells. For the amount of time and tooling it would take and not confident my drill press would do it. I don't think having a bar of aluminum milled with slots would cost all that much. probably still only be in the $300-$320 range over all. I can swing that. Had I thought of alliexpress for the parts, I'd already have built this about a year ago...

LOL! That's the drill press I have! Haha... good ol' Harbor Freight! But I hear ya..and you are correct. Won't add much more to have the billet machined. I was trying to build this as cheaply as possible. Your right on Aliexpress as well. I found this linear guide rail assy. from another source in the States. But it was like $200+ JUST for the 3 roller slide & 20" of rail! Then I found it on Alibaba and immediately checked Aliexpress as I have had success with them.

Just a note, I would do 12-14 magnets. I started with 10, then added the 11th right in the middle. It has enough force, but I like overkill. If I did it again, I would have done 13 or 14 magnets.

 

[KnuckleDownKnives]

LOL! That's the drill press I have! Haha... good ol' Harbor Freight! But I hear ya..and you are correct. Won't add much more to have the billet machined. I was trying to build this as cheaply as possible. Your right on Aliexpress as well. I found this linear guide rail assy. from another source in the States. But it was like $200+ JUST for the 3 roller slide & 20" of rail! Then I found it on Alibaba and immediately checked Aliexpress as I have had success with them.

Just a note, I would do 12-14 magnets. I started with 10, then added the 11th right in the middle. It has enough force, but I like overkill. If I did it again, I would have done 13 or 14 magnets.

I was actually thinking of going with more like 20 and using 5mm x 10mm x 80mm and thinking of going with this since I dug deep enough and found it on their site. This would allow for cross feeding so you don't have to mess with belt tracking and doing wider material (up to 3.14" 80mm) Which you could probably do wider than that, it would just hang off the edge of the magnet.



Or instead of the above, just the one I posted originally and mounting this to it so it's configured like the above giving you x and z movement. X doesn't really need to be measured just move across till the entire material is ground.

 

[One Armed]

I was actually thinking of going with more like 20 and using 5mm x 10mm x 80mm and thinking of going with this since I dug deep enough and found it on their site. This would allow for cross feeding so you don't have to mess with belt tracking and doing wider material (up to 3.14" 80mm) Which you could probably do wider than that, it would just hang off the edge of the magnet.

View attachment 796913

Or instead of the above, just the one I posted originally and mounting this to it so it's configured like the above giving you x and z movement. X doesn't really need to be measured just move across till the entire material is ground.

View attachment 796914

Absolutely! That would be trick! You can build to exactly what you want from it. I had some other ideas, but in the end I built to the same specs as Travis' original design. Be careful with some of those adjusters though. I looked at several, and you really have to look at their size and adjustment travel. Some of them are micro, which wouldn't work. And they can be pricey. This is why I chose to build my own slider.

Here are some better pics (maybe). Showing the construction of the unit.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

It can be dangerous for someone to ‘give credit’, for the record. I agree that it’s a good thing to do, but I’ve known people who were threatened with lawsuits (unfounded or not) for mentioning someone else’s design in their own ads. Sad, but a sign of the times we live in, I fear.

Nice work, to the original poster, btw. Necessity AND poverty are the mothers of invention, or conscription.

You did an excellent job! & kudos for giving Travis credit! I just saw where Burr King copied Travis' idea and no credit given. I tried the Burr King SG a few weeks ago and it worked great, but how easy would it have been to give Travis a little credit for the design?

 

[Teppojutsu]

Exactly, its one thing to be a guy copying a design for his own use.

But when you.are a Brand Name saying you copied an idea is bad juju and imo rightfully so.
Not like anyone paid travis for using the design right lol.

And also KUDOS for you to be able to make this.
With one arm i bow down

 

[AVigil]

It can be dangerous for someone to ‘give credit’, for the record. I agree that it’s a good thing to do, but I’ve known people who were threatened with lawsuits (unfounded or not) for mentioning someone else’s design in their own ads. Sad, but a sign of the times we live in, I fear.

Nice work, to the original poster, btw. Necessity AND poverty are the mothers of invention, or conscription.

Very true, and sometimes the person who many think designed it actually got the idea from somewhere else.

So many people are smart and talented and come up with ideas that actually existed before.