Drill Press Lam Grinder

[ksuwoodbow]

What do you guys think about this?  I'm in the process of making a lamination grinder from a cheap bench top drill press.  So far I've created a stand to mount the drill press horizontally.  I need to add a table I will mount to the drill press table.

   


 Jim

[bigbob2]

I made one quite a while back,with the press left vertical and the jig mounted horizontally. As some one mentioned in another post the drill press is not built to take the extra force applied laterally and before long my press developed an elliptical orbit when in use.Cant venture an opinion myself on how your idea will fare.

[ksuwoodbow]

I was actually wondering about that. I've even thought about adding a support with a bearing to the other end.  Maybe attach it to bottom of the drill press.

[fujimo]

that would be the answer- the drum would have a shaft right thru, with a bearing and support, but after all that, maybe rob the motor and pulleys, and build one of those all wooden dedicated lam grinders- they look pretty awesome.
i think Ben built one- he has some good pointers!!

[bigbob2]

The support and bearing should work no worries IMO  

[LittleBen]

I agree with Bob and Wayne on the bearing support, that should reduce the stress on the chuck end.

I think Wayne is getting at something though.

I think by the time you're done fabricating, you're going to ahve done more work than to just build one from scratch specifically for lam grinding.

I built one based on soem plans I found and it worked well. I used a cheap 1/4hp motor (although I'd go 1/2+hp if I did it again), and a half sheet of 3/4" ply to build the whole thing. It wasn;t more than maybe $100 or so and a few hours of work.

Google "buildyourownbow lam grinder" and you can find the how to I used. This one came out cleaner than mine so I'll leave you with those pics instead of pics of my machine.

[ksuwoodbow]

Thanks for the insight.  I'll look into a dedicated lam grinder.  I don't have much time or materials into this one.  It was built from scraps.

[BenBow]

Jim I've built a couple of different versions both of which work well but I like the drill press frame and table which are adjustable for square that you are using for a base. Keep tinkering with this and I think you may be happy with it. Maybe we can all learn something from your project and that's what this forum is about. Go for it!

[BenBow]

Jim here's a few pictures of a lam grinder I built showing a hand crank feed bed. It works ok but I wish I'd made the bed twice as long. But I used a 6X48 sandpaper belt for the drive belt. I see they make 6X80 that would be better.
Basic sander
 
Feed bed parts
 
 
 
You adjusted the tension with nuts on the redi bolts as well as tracking.

[beachbowhunter]

You guys are incredible  

[ksuwoodbow]

BenBow,

Did you use your table saw and attach a pulley to the motor?  I like that idea!

[BenBow]

Yes I did Jim. I got the plans on line & modified the size to meet my needs. It runs at about half the saw speed.