Ken Kelley

I am researching motors to use for a low-speed horizontal disc grinder. I'm an electrical dummy so I'm fair lost in the weeds in this subject area. However, I do understand dimly that DC motors are best for applications requiring torque over speed and found this motor on Ebay 150231105735. It appears to be what I need but before I plunk down $49 + $12.50 shipping charges I would like to know what those of you with electrical experience think of this machine. Thanks, Ken

Wellll...When I built the forge I took the blower off my coal forge and "temporarily" hooked it up to the new burner with the duct tape. I fully intended to replace it with a better arrangement but I haven't got around to it yet. It seems to work fine so I think I'll just leave it alone. This IS Kentucky after all! Duct tape holds this state together. Frosty, I don't do all that much wood work and when I do I always make sure to sweep up my chips and saw dust. I do all my hot work at the front of the shop with the big door open so all the sparks, melted flux, and hot bits of metal stay out of flammables.

Here's my shop not too long after I built it and put all my stuff inside. That was the last time it's looked so clean. Since this picture was taken I've installed my KMG clone on the end of the work bench and added several other items to the shop...a 48: cast iron cone mandrel, a vertical and horizontal propane forge, a 164 pound Peter Wright anvil and other odds and ends. Here's the vertical welding forge I built using a cheapie Walmart air tank for the shell. It's powered by a forced air burner built according to Darren Ellis' design.

Chicago Rubber can recover your contact wheel. Don't know how much it costs. Google "Chicago Rubber" for contact info. If you decide to do it yourself, Pliobond is probably the best contact adhesive available. You can get it at an ACE Hardware store Ace Pliobond

Miller Trailblazer 301g for welding and generating electricity for power tools in the and shop and in the woods. Two Totewelds for general heating chores and small cutting jobs. One runs on MAPP gas and the other has one of the little 10 cubic foot acetylene tanks.

Warm lemon juice does a wonderful job on pattern welded steel made from 1084 and 15n20. If you get tired of etching blades you can always make lemonade with your etchant. Try doing that with muriatic acid!

Here's one I built a couple of years ago out of lumber from an old barn on my property. It works fine but it was supplanted by a Jet mini. I had a lot of fun with the project and it even won a first place prize at the county fair right after I built it. Ken

Phil, I didn't notice until now that you asked questions about the drive and tension/tracking wheels. I believe that the wheels Tracy uses are from Rob Frink and if so, they are what I used on my KMG clone. Both wheels have definite convex peaks. One is 6 degrees and the other is 7, can't remember which is which. The surface of the wheels are also deeply grooved circumferentially to help keep the belts aligned. I have seen these wheels made from wood with good results. Shouldn't be too much of a trick to make some out of a close grained hardwood on the wood lathe. Others have used plain flat wheels and built the middles up with strips of tape to give them the convex peaks to keep the belts tracking. Machines like this are very forgiving. As long as you get close that's usually good enough. K

I specified 70 durometer for my wheel as that is what the "normal" for contact wheels seemed to be based on my forum research. However, I don't think the hardness of the polyurethane has much bearing on it's propensity to melt or soften. After all, these wheels were really designed to be casters, not contact wheels. Sorry Phil, I'm going to keep mine because it is a useful wheel as long as I don't get carried away with overly aggressive grinding. Besides, I'd hate to be the one who deprives you of all the fun involved in truing a new one. Ken

Anyone: As for the wheels, Sunray, Inc. - Detail, got any ideas how to shape them up?

Thanks! That's what I wanted to hear! I'll start scrounging materials.

I would like to find some more information on the helve hammer shown here: BP0159 Helve Hammer

Retired USAF Senior Staff Medical Administrator/special education teacher (4 years to burnout)/chief brush buster/ranch dog servant (sheltie and coon dog who think my only job is to drive them around in the pick up). I spend as much time as I can puttering in my shop. I'm a tool building addict so I spend more time building gadgets than I do producing useful or salable items. I'm learning how to make blades and do a little forging now and then using the propane forges I built last summer. Then I grind the blades on the KMG clone I built last winter. I'm also a Red Cross volunteer and work as a military case worker and disaster assistance worker for a 10 county region here in Eastern KY. The recent spate of extreme weather has kept us pretty busy in the disaster assistance role.

I think you are right. Had I known about this grinder before I started my own KMG clone build I might have gone with it. It looks to me like a perfect project for someone with minimal tooling. Since I have a drill press, mill, lathe, and some other nice toys I had no problems with the solid steel plate used in the KMG version I made. However, it would be an impossible job without that access. This machine looks like it would go together a lot quicker than mine did as well. Here's a thread from another forum that will shed some more light on this grinder. Plans for 2"x72" Knife Grinder/Sander No welding required - BladeForums.com Good luck with it. K

So with every added complication, i.e., straight line hammer as opposed to the swing type you are introducing mechanical "disadvantage" to the system and reducing efficiency. I would like to build a treadle hammer for the primary purpose of drawing out pattern welded billets. It sounds to me as if the swing type hammer would be admirably suited for this task? And simpler to build in the bargain.

Man! That thing looks like you could park a tank on it! With that much metal in it I'll bet it runs smooth as silk.

Finn, Thanks for the kind words. However, it didn't always look so nice. I started with new steel but it was kind of scuzzy. I used hot-rolled 1018 for the uprights and bearing supports and it was scaled badly. I spent several hours sandblasting all the metal in my home made sand blasting cabinet and it cleaned up nicely. I had intended to paint the thing but the sandblasted finish was so attractive I left it plain. I smeared some RIG grease on everything so it hasn't shown any signs of rusting. If I had it to do over again I would spend a few more bucks and use cold-rolled steel for all the parts. K

Made my own idler wheels for my KMG lookalike. My little Taig lathe couldn't handle anything bigger or I would have made the drive and tension wheels too. If you need some tips on truing the Sunray polyurethane covered wheel I'll tell you how I did it. K

Sunray has wheels for just about any purpose Urethane, Polyurethane, Custom Urethane Products, Urethane Products Manufacturer I bought one of their 70 durometer polyurethane covered aluminum wheels and made it into a contact wheel for the KMG lookalike I built last winter. Had to true the wheel but that wasn't too much trouble.

Mine is Indian Creek Forge...since I live on Indian Creek. Not terribly original but I like the sound of it. K

On the first run of this new forge I didn't have a small blower handy so I hooked up an old shop vac. Put out WAY too much air so I had the gate valve closed down to a crack. I've since replaced the shop vac with a small Dayton blower and that provides a more reasonable air flow. Any fan providing at least 25 cfm will work. The challenge comes in building a mount to hook it to your burner.

Here's my Miller Trailblazer 301G. It's my shop and ranch welder. Before I wired my shop I ran all my power tools off its 10,000 watt generator. Really came in handy too when we were building our new house out here in the woods.

This is my first attempt at attaching pictures to a post in this forum. Hope it works. This is my Taig Microlathe II and a sample of the work it is capable of. I love this machine and the companion Taig 2019S mini-mill I bought at the same time.