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Post by Bluesky78987 on Nov 28, 2018 17:31:56 GMT -5
Hi all!
I have a vintage Lortone arbor with (newish) 1/3hp 1750 rpm engine that I purchased at Q last year and just got set up. Only took me 11 months to bolt it to a base and rig up the water supply, haha. It currently has two 8" expando wheels on it, but I would like to replace one expando with a super grinder. It has a 3/4" shaft.
1. How wide do you cabbers find is optimal for your supergrinder? Given no weight or cost constraints, how wide is necessary for awesomeness?
2. What is the purpose of the spacers between the blades?
3. Are continuous rim blades less aggressive than the "turbo" blades?
4. With 7" blades on one side, and the expando wheel on the other, is balance a problem? Is it a deal breaker of a problem? Tommy added a few heavy washers on one side of his arbor to offset the supergrinder . . . do I need to plan on doing that? There isn't room! The shaft ends at the nut. Should I just give up and look into a tile saw and tuck blade?
5. What are the red plastic doohickey rings called that come with cabbing wheels, that allow a wheel with a 1" hole to be used on a smaller arbor? I have one that will convert my arbor from 3/4" to 1", but I would much rather find one that will convert it to 7/8" so I can use cheaper blades. But I don't know what they're called. The 1" arbor blades are 17.99 each and Harbor Freight seems to be the only source I can find! 10 of those suckers would be expensive. Found bushings 3/4" to 7/8" on Amazon, thanks to Les for the search term. Now I can get the cheaper blades.
See post on page 2 for updates and links to where to buy stuff.
Thanks for any help! Susan
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inbtb
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2016
Posts: 351
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Post by inbtb on Nov 28, 2018 20:36:59 GMT -5
"5. What are the red plastic doohickey rings called." Bushings
Sorry can't help with the rest of your questions.
Les
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Nov 29, 2018 10:01:26 GMT -5
Thanks Les inbtb! #5 is a very important one!
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inbtb
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2016
Posts: 351
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Post by inbtb on Nov 29, 2018 10:13:00 GMT -5
Your welcome. Hope everything goes as planned.
Les
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hnhstngs
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since September 2018
Posts: 93
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Post by hnhstngs on Nov 29, 2018 10:29:11 GMT -5
2. What is the purpose of the spacers between the blades? The thickness of the rim of the blade is thicker than the body of the blade. Having a thin spacer keeps the blades from being "dished" in when stacked together. Some folks don't use spacers and just don't worry about the small amount of potential flexing of the blades.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Nov 29, 2018 10:39:49 GMT -5
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zarguy
fully equipped rock polisher
Cedar City, Utah - rockhound heaven!
Member since December 2005
Posts: 1,791
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Post by zarguy on Nov 29, 2018 10:55:02 GMT -5
I made mine 1 5/8" wide - 17 blades. I got the blades for $3 each, so I went all out! I found a tool liquidator on eBay, and bought over 100 for club members.
They're Turbo type blades. I have no experience with continuous-rim type. I don't have spacers between the blades. They are bolted together (mine conveniently had a pattern of holes). I had a machinist friend bore out the blades to 1" to match my arbor shaft. I forget what size hole tile saw blades have, but there's a knockout to give a larger size too, just not sure what those 2 sizes are.
Good luck. Show us the finished supergrinder when you finish. Lynn
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Post by johnjsgems on Nov 29, 2018 11:50:36 GMT -5
I sold a lot of 7" tile blades (I mean several boxes of 50 each) that came off Home Depot return saws. A lot of people used computer discs between as spacers for these continuous rim blades. Our old club in Yucaipa built a 10" super grinder using 10" economy tile blades for sphere preforming. I visited 3 years later and blades still appeared in good shape and not noticeably worn after 3 years of abusive club workshop use. I would stack as many as will fit on shaft. Nobody (except rock carvers) ever say " I wish my grinding wheel was not so wide". Don't worry about weight difference. The drum is pretty heavy too.
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Post by johnjsgems on Nov 29, 2018 11:54:04 GMT -5
By the way, this club super grinder on the only 10" Poly I ever saw was so noisy they mounted it on a pedestal and had to use it outside the shop in the area where they had their slab saws.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Nov 29, 2018 15:26:30 GMT -5
Excellent, Thanks Lynn and John. The standard tile saw blade arbor seems to be 5/8" with a knock-out on a lot of them to 7/8". So I will make it as wide as I have room for. I found my bushings on Amazon, can cut them to exact length. Thanks for the reassurance about the weight difference. Off to go shop for blades now! Will post pictures.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
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Post by Tommy on Nov 29, 2018 15:47:09 GMT -5
Are continuous rim blades less aggressive than the "turbo" blades? From my brief foray into the land of super grinders I can tell you that the 'turbo' blades are very aggressive to the point of approaching unmanageable and from that I can deduct that continuous rim blades are less aggressive. My setup with turbo blades was so aggressive that I was literally getting hit with shrapnel of broken rocks and I quickly stopped using it after ruining a few preforms. I have since realized that I can do far better with a continuous rim blade on my 7" trim (tile) saw for removing unwanted material and coming in nice and close to an drawn template lines. Regarding the balance issue - 8" expando wheels are pretty heavy getting moving and I don't think you'll need to do anything special to balance it. I'm currently running a heavy 60 sintered and a 220 metal crystalite on the left and an 8" expando on the right and it gets up to speed in no time at all.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Nov 29, 2018 16:11:24 GMT -5
Cool, good info Tommy. I'm going to shop for continuous rim or segmented rim blades. (Segmented would be ok, right?)
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Post by johnjsgems on Nov 29, 2018 17:31:17 GMT -5
In tile blades the continuous rim would be most common.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Nov 30, 2018 11:43:51 GMT -5
Yay, ordered my blades from Advanta Tools on ebay - 7" continuous rim diamond blade, 5/8" arbor with 7/8" knock out. Advanta will knock them out for you if you ask them to. Also ordered 3/4" to 7/8" bushing from Amazon. Now just to wait! Will update. Thanks for everybody's help!
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Nov 30, 2018 21:05:34 GMT -5
Yay, ordered my blades from Advanta Tools on ebay - 7" continuous rim diamond blade, 5/8" arbor with 7/8" knock out. Advanta will knock them out for you if you ask them to. Also ordered 3/4" to 7/8" bushing from Amazon. Now just to wait! Will update. Thanks for everybody's help! Success! Welcome back! ETA Advanta will keep those bushings in a jar and give them to folks that need them. Good people they are. (Source: I got a few of those once) I gave them a gabbro sphere a year or two ago. They treasure it. They put it in a place of honor on their sales counter! Just a mom and dad that want to own their job. Maximum freedom to raise the children. Special folks. Glad you found them.
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Nov 30, 2018 21:23:05 GMT -5
#2) spacers are two fold. Minimum spacer because diamond portion is wider than the blade body. If spacers are wider than that minimum the cut speed in increased as well.
#3) yes. No chipping just smooth grinding. Closer together is smoother too.
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Dec 1, 2018 11:57:25 GMT -5
Thanks Scott. We'll see what new questions arise when I go to set it up, haha. There's always something!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Dec 7, 2018 15:59:11 GMT -5
As of this morning, my supergrinder works!!!! Pictures and details to come tomorrow. Works a charm too!
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hnhstngs
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since September 2018
Posts: 93
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Post by hnhstngs on Dec 12, 2018 19:13:01 GMT -5
Just got ten blades from Advanta as well. Now to find some spacer material and get them on the arbor ...
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Flipper
starting to shine!
Member since December 2018
Posts: 31
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Post by Flipper on Dec 13, 2018 11:52:25 GMT -5
This was a good read, I was going to get a HF 10" tile saw and make a trim saw out of it and wanted something to smooth and rough shape some agate before tumbling and this gave me some ideas on making a super grinder out of a 7" inch saw or something. I am new to tumbling and polishing and have been having lots of fun. Great forum! Hello to everyone!!
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