Well I am planing on upgrading my belt grinder next month and all I know is that I want something with variable speed so I don't have to switch between machines when going form metal to wood. Well yes I am tempted to try making my own, i do not trust my own work when it comes to electricity. I'm looking for a mid range machine, but could use a education on what all is out there and what i should look for.
I'm not very familiar with any "mid-range" variable speed grinders.
It seems like most variable speed grinders with just a few basics like a flat platen and a small wheel tooling arm start at around 2K.
It's not a minor expense, but it is money well spent.
Karl B. Andersen
Journeyman Smith
pheer offers a basic grinder (427 model) with out extra tooling arms but veriable speed for 1300, we have two of the more expesive 454, and they run very smooth,track perfectly in fact in a lot of ways i like it better than the kmg i have. there are a fer minor things i dislike but that is true of every grinder i have run , even the tw90 in my opinion the best on the market.
I saved up and bought the 427 model that Matthew mentioned as a mid-range tool for my first grinder. When purchased, I didn't realize I'd actually use a 2x72 most every day of my life since (either for knives or a multitude of other tasks). It has worked fine, and I'd consider it a decent grinder in the mid range, but I would've chose something heavier duty (454, KMG, EERF, etc.) if I was shelling out the money again. I don’t hate the grinder but I’ll be “buying twice†as I’m already saving to upgrade it next year.
I have a question as i admit i do not know enough about grinders. What is the functional difference between a wheel and a platen?
While I'm not much of a knifemaker yet, I've had some good experiences with a kit from Polar Bear Forge, the previous model of the "Grinder-in-a-Box" (GIB). I wrote up my build experience on my website. I've also used a KMG and a Grizzly, and I find the 3-wheel GIB about as good as the 3-wheel KMG, and both of them better than the 2-wheel Grizzly. Building from a kit is somewhat cheaper but takes a good bit of time; besides the kit, I bought wheels, a motor, and a speed control, and the price came to about half as much as the approximately comparable KMG.
If you want to build the frame, the GIB kit is nice. If you want to do even more of it yourself, you could buy plans for a No-Weld Grinder or an EERF Grinder, both of which I considered before deciding that my own time vs. money vs. experience vs. impatience vs. workshop curves gave me a local maximum at the GIB. There's a whole lot of options out there, with many good ones, and you know what you want and what you can do better than I.
