Dilemma solved for now but ideas needed (finshed pic heavy)

[Dewey Torres]

As a new turner, I recently mounted an 8”bench grinder to replace my old 6”
I have no new room in my shop and decided to make this to fit my existing space.
After further review and help from the Creek, my vari-grind will not fit up close enough to the wheel and I have no room to move here so I adapted to this:
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Here is how a made it.

Aluminum right angle
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QSWO form the Morris Chair scraps
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CA glued to the aluminum
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[Dewey Torres]

Next to fit the other side...creating a slider
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pics and process as shown below:
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Cut the excess and bevel the stock
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Lay out the lines for the end stock
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[Dewey Torres]

Here is how I lined everything up.
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I scroll sawed this shape to keep the nut captive
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Drilling a hole for he nut
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Nut ready for placement
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[Dewey Torres]

Tape over the hole to fend against epoxy dribble.
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Epoxy at work!
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V groove bit set up
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Lay out lines thank to my new turning tool!:D
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Cut r' off at the band saw
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[Dewey Torres]

Drill hole for the screw
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Expoxy the screw to the aluminum
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Done deal
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Move on to the supports
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Ready to glue the end piece on
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[Dewey Torres]

Who was that knocking Harbor freight stuff???
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Almost ready
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Cut r' free
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Finished product
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In action
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[Dewey Torres]

I like the design but when I tried it for the first time the epoxy gave way when I tightened the little knob I made for it which is why in the pics is it without the knob.

I might have used a standard thumb screw or something but that also tells me that over time the other parts will fail as well.

Any suggestions to make it more rugged are certainly welcome!

I was thinking a tubular steel that would fit precisely over the outside of the jig bored and tapped for machine screws???

[Steve Schlumpf]

Dewey - Wow! You really put some thought and effort into this! Other than the knob failure - I sure hope the rest of it holds up! The knob could be replaced with one of those 1/4" 20 knobs everyone uses for fixtures and jigs.

Totally different approach - you could consider placing the grinding station on some form of a heavy duty gate hinge so you could swing it away from the wall when needed - swing back when not in use. Yup, always something.....

Hope your lathe shows up today!!!

[Jim Kountz]

Wow Dewey the engineer was at work yesterday!! Seems like you get the knob issue taken care of this should work out for you. I agree that if you could find a piece of steel that would slip over the existing part of the jig it would probably be more robust than the wood, but the QSWO sure is pretty!
First thing I thought of when looking over your pics was it would be nice to have such an adapter like you made simply to have two different grind setups available at the same time, say a bowl gouge and a spindle gouge. You wouldnt have to move the arm at all for either one. Just something I was thinking!!

[Jeff Nicol]

Dewey, Heck with all the time you put into that you could have bought a little 110v welder and used some steel angle!!!! Just kidding !! I have a welder and it sure does come in handy for times like that! You did a great job on it, and as long as it does the job it is perfect!

Have fun,

Jeff

[Dewey Torres]

Dewey, Heck with all the time you put into that you could have bought a little 110v welder and used some steel angle!!!! Just kidding !! I have a welder and it sure does come in handy for times like that! You did a great job on it, and as long as it does the job it is perfect!

Have fun,

Jeff


So Jeff ... you made a sliding one? Can you show me what you did?

[Scott Conners]

Dewey -

Another solution I have seen was just drilling a hole in the top of the wolverine arm that is sized so the vari-grind will pivot on it - you have to be more careful with your grip though. I had contemplated doing a similar thing to my setup, but I was going to put a hex headed bolt into the hole and drilling a set of holes into the head to make a pocket of sorts.