I spend a lot of time at a grinder–a lot of time. We have four grinders, maybe five, if/when I add the one I’ve been looking at. My back isn’t what it used to be and I want to be able to adjust the height of these grinders. I’ve looked at the commercial stands and I’m just not impressed, most won’t even get to a comfortable grinding height.
I’m thinking about ordering parts for drill presses with crank adjusting tables. I just want the column, column base, table, and the column rack. Does anyone know of a place that might have some dead old drill presses? A place to order the parts? Maybe have a better idea?
Replies
Hi Larry
I think an old drill press column is a good idea. If you can't get such, an alternative may be to just create the coumn section (steel pipe, or sand-filled drainage pipe, both with weighted base). Instead of installing a crank instead add a variation of the Easy Riser, which is a pully system - much easier to use than a crank.
http://www.onlinetoolreviews.com/reviews/easyriser.htm
I have one of these on my floor standing drill press, and it makes light work of raising/lowering the table.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Regards from Perth I though you were into planes NOT Grinders!EDIT:and it makes light work of raising/lowering the table..Do you have somethin' to raise and lower that motor and Quill also? :>)
Edited 11/6/2007 8:32 pm by WillGeorge
I though you were into planes NOT Grinders!
Hi Will .... got to grind plane blades as well as use them ... :)
Do you have somethin' to raise and lower that motor and Quill also? :>)
It is a counterbalanced system - just increas ethe counterbalance weight to accomodate for the weight of the grinder.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Just a thought.. You are a woodworker I'd bet.. How about makin' some different height 'stools'!..
Sorry.. I had to.. But seems reasonable to me.
How heavy is the grinder? The drill press idea should work fine. Maybe a machine manufacturer or service center has something with a dead motor. I'll call a guy here in MKE who sells reconditioned woodworking machinery. You need a 20" Tannewitz jointer? He has a couple of them.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."So I cut all the other 'sticks' to match....
The counter balance isn't bad--thanks, Derek.Stools would work except that we'd need a lot of stools and space would become an issue.I checked with Grizzly today about the drill press parts, and all the parts are sold individually and not as an assembly. This means it's going to be real expensive to go that way.I looked at some metal catalogs this evening and talked to my daughter, the welder. With a couple sizes of steel rectangular tubing, some "C" channel, flat stock, gear racks, gears and cranks we can build better stands than the drill press idea. We have a pretty complete metal shop so fabricating the other parts won't be difficult and will make this approach cheaper even though it will take longer. As a safety feature we may use the counter balance idea. Through years of working on old houses, I always saved all the old window parts and have quite a variety of weights of sash weights around.
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