Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)
I picked up a home made, four wheel grinder in response to a craigslist ad with the idea of being able to use four different stone wheels, for maximum versatility of use.The grinder came with a 220 VAC, 1720 RPM motor, and no stand.I built a simple stand with a horizontal storage area on top. The whole thing sits atop the, in my shop, usual casters.I ran a 220 circuit, installed some wheels, fired it up and all was go.Looking at it, one could build this from 2x's, six pillow blocks, two shafts, four pulleys, a coupler [to tie the motor to the upper shaft], and adjustable flanges [to hold the pulleys], however called.Though this worked great, and gave me the ability to run four different grits, the speed was more than I wanted. To my good fortune, fate smiled on me and I was able to purchase a 3/4 hp sewing machine motor and controller at a yard sale (amazing, since we are not the place to be for yard sale opportunities).The 3/4 horse sewing machine motor is variable speed (0- 2,400 RPM) and reverses at the flick of a switch.I swapped the 220 VAC motor for the variable speed one and fired it up. I love the ability to control the speed by simply turning a knob. Being able to slow the speed to, say, 300 or 400 RPM, allows me to avoid taking too much metal off something, or overheating the metal.I added two CBN wheels (ouch) for lathe knife sharpening and profiling. This made the slow speed capability even more impressive.In the end, the variable speed motor and CBN wheels make this home spun unit the best sharpening station I've seen. It, certainly, would compete with the twelve hundred dollar Tradesman. At least until you got into things where even a little run out cannot be tolerated. Of course, you're getting into an even more impressive end price.I haven't installed the switch yet, but I added LED strips under the upper hood, making it easy to see what you're doing.The unit came with iron bars on the end, like the one seen on the right, but I've cut one off and will be adding some heavy duty aluminum angle stock to support the sharpening jigs.