04-05-2018, 08:23 PM
Mike,
If you are planning to design and build a pedal powered wet grinder, your knowledge of "modern grinders” (high speed dry grinders) can be as much of a hinderance as a help. Most wet grinders (essentially Tormek clones) are designed with high speed dry grinding thinking. The most obvious giveaway is the shaft. Most are not made of stainless steel. Tormek switched to stainless in 2006. If you are going to go through the trouble of building a solid machine, why not have it last?
Tormek has the TT-50 truing tool. When you are still in the designing stage, incorporate a good dressing and truing tool into your design. Your grinder will be a pleasure tool; make it easy to keep running true and cutting well.
Tormek uses nylon bushings instead of sealed bearings. Running at 100 RPM, it is not a high speed, high heat machine. The nylon bushings work fine and last for many years.
Consider something like Tormek's universal support bar.
In my not terribly scientific mind, the large grinding wheel serves as a flywheel, helping to keep itself spinning. When I worked off the Maine coast almost fifty years ago, I remember a "one lunger", a working boat with a one cylinder engine. Getting into reverse meant stopping the engine and hand turning the flywheel in the opposite direction. Simple, but effective. That simple bidirectional festure would be nice to have. Some of us prefer to sharpen knives and other tools with the edge trailing.
Just a thought, if you make your bushings U shaped, open at the top, cleaning and regreasing would be a snap. A stone that size won't escape. Changing grits would be simple, too.
Do keep us posted.
Ken
If you are planning to design and build a pedal powered wet grinder, your knowledge of "modern grinders” (high speed dry grinders) can be as much of a hinderance as a help. Most wet grinders (essentially Tormek clones) are designed with high speed dry grinding thinking. The most obvious giveaway is the shaft. Most are not made of stainless steel. Tormek switched to stainless in 2006. If you are going to go through the trouble of building a solid machine, why not have it last?
Tormek has the TT-50 truing tool. When you are still in the designing stage, incorporate a good dressing and truing tool into your design. Your grinder will be a pleasure tool; make it easy to keep running true and cutting well.
Tormek uses nylon bushings instead of sealed bearings. Running at 100 RPM, it is not a high speed, high heat machine. The nylon bushings work fine and last for many years.
Consider something like Tormek's universal support bar.
In my not terribly scientific mind, the large grinding wheel serves as a flywheel, helping to keep itself spinning. When I worked off the Maine coast almost fifty years ago, I remember a "one lunger", a working boat with a one cylinder engine. Getting into reverse meant stopping the engine and hand turning the flywheel in the opposite direction. Simple, but effective. That simple bidirectional festure would be nice to have. Some of us prefer to sharpen knives and other tools with the edge trailing.
Just a thought, if you make your bushings U shaped, open at the top, cleaning and regreasing would be a snap. A stone that size won't escape. Changing grits would be simple, too.
Do keep us posted.
Ken