mirkee
starting to spend too much on rocks
Started tumbling a couple of months ago but now have four tumblers. Very interested in the hobby.
Member since March 2024
Posts: 128
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Post by mirkee on Sept 21, 2024 18:40:34 GMT -5
After much deliberation and due to lack or room and money, I have decided to get a two wheel grinder that I can easily replace wheels and make cabs. I was thinking of a flat lap but have changed my mind, thanks to a lot of advice on this board.
What do you all recommend for a new machine? Figure I'll start there.
Thank you,
Mirko
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lapidary1234
spending too much on rocks
"If you like rocks you can't be all bad!!" ~ old timer quote
Member since October 2021
Posts: 325
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Post by lapidary1234 on Sept 22, 2024 0:30:05 GMT -5
My recommendation would be something like a poly arbor. You can mount a grinding wheel on one side and use an expandable drum on the other side. If you really wanted to, it doesn't take too much time to change out grinding wheels. With practice I'm sure I could get pretty quick. With the expandable drum you just switch the machine off and change sanding belts. You can find belts in all the grit ranges (80 grit-50,000) but I'd advise against trying to do initial shaping on an 80 grit belt. A grinding wheel is much more efficient. Belts can be found as silicon carbide (cheap & disposable), "agglomerate" silicon carbide (cheap yet durable), and diamond (expensive and extremely durable). Used poly arbors come up for sale quite often, I believe lortone made a similar arbor called the lortone "beaver". Find one of these needing a motor and wheels and it should cost maybe $200-250,maybe less I'd think. Put your grinding wheel on and get an expandable drum with belts, a motor and you're ready to go I have a couple of machines called the "raytech grc-1" (glassworking). These came with 2 expandable drums on each. I put grinding wheels on one and left the expandable drums on the other. I use the "agglomerate" silicon carbide belts and went with long lasting sintered wheels on the other.  |
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