Your mechanical skills are impressive. As a very new person who just recently fell in love with opal and rock polishing in general I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. The prices just to get started were a bit of a shock.
Awesome machine! I've been searching YT for a video on how to do this. Instead of using a pulley system I was thinking of using the 'bench grinder' layout which would have 3 wheels mounted on each side of the motor. Is there any particular reason (pro/con) you chose the pulley setup for your machine? Just trying to figure out what arbor size I'd use for the bench grinder layout. Was that the reasoning for the pulley setup? Overall, well done and I appreciate all the detail you put into the video!
Hello sir, where can i get the parts? I mean the arbor shaft? I search almost 2-3 weeks but I can’t find . Or is the (Rod) arbor shaft one piece? Or more pieces attached to each other. If you know how can i find it it would be big help for me thank you 🙏🏻
I love when people come with their own designs!!!! My dad was like that always making things new designs and improvisings with whatever he had in stock. People like this are GENIUSES!! GREAT DESIGN!! I subscribed and will watch the rest of your videos.
what a great video learned a lot, would love to make one myself , gonna save this video for later reference , subbed so I can catch you later, if you get time check my channel, you'll be warmly welcomed, thanks for sharing, have a great day
Mate you have done a great job. The whole thing looks just fantastic. But why didn’t you turn the machine on to show us how it works??!! Any chance you could tell us about the cost in details please?? Cheers mate.
You just flick it on at the plug and away you go. cost wise, the wheels were the most expensive part and will set you back around £300 + shipping. Fortunately to build it cost me very little as I managed to get the materials free or cheep looking around. However second would be your motor around £75 for 1/4hp 1400rpm brand new, for the 1 inch machined bar, threading, clips and spacers were around £100 (from a friend), sheet to bend around £100 (Was ally would be cheaper with steel and just paint it with like a hammerite paint or chassis paint to waterproof), then other bits of metal, board to mount it to, tubing and water valves were around £20, so all in all to build from start to finnish your looking around £620-£700 approximately. Minus your wheel cost around £320 - £400 to build. So personally living in England there isn't any lapidary supplies in terms of equipment so for me to import say a cabking from germany with import, shipping extc is just shy of £1700 so nearly £1000 give or take a little depending on level of "fanciness".
Hello😊I'm selling grinding wheels for this machine. Do you need them? The original grinding wheel will be more expensive, I sell it cheaper, if possible, is it convenient to leave your email?
Tx for making this video m8, I got one done very similar to yours, the only thing I would advise is get a longer shaft and place the pully wheel on the outside of the box that would save you form all the splashing
Hello😊I'm selling grinding wheels for this machine. Do you need them? The original grinding wheel will be more expensive, I sell it cheaper, if possible, is it convenient to leave your email?
very rarely, its a easy system to get out, would be about 5-15 minutes leisurely to switch out. I have had the wheels on now, cut hundreds of cabochons and still on the same set of wheels.
Think I have machine envy. That's an amazing bit of kit! I can only dream of having one of those for cutting and polishing my opals. Nice to see another northerner too. I'm in colne...
@@jbeckett2011 Dremel for shaping and the initial rub down and then onto the dop and work my way through all the grits for m 320 right up to 3000 and then Dremel and cerium from r the final polish. Actually get decent results but it takes me a few hours and a lot of effort. I can only dream of a proper set up lol
Very nice build! I'm looking to do something similar and found a low speed buffer that has 4.5" 5/8 arbors coming out of each end. I have found some 5/8" extenders for angle grinders -- so the are probably true enough & strong enough -- but I was really hoping to find a way to adapt 1" shafts -- but no joy yet. I was thinking of using 6" wheels on an 8" 1750rpm buffer as the base for the build. I can order diamond wheels with adaptors that go down to 5/8 -- but I'm sure all the pro machines use 1" shafts for a reason. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I have toyed with the idea of using a buffer to make one however i just feel the 5/8 shaft will not be as true and long lasting as the 1". plus they are usually mild steel which i can see being a pain for changing wheels in the future.
@@ShinySearcherUK Thanks for your reply. I did take the plunge and built my own -- it is somewhat similar to your design. There's a short video of it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5CczUG-y2w8.html
Excellent design, it looks very user friendly. I tried for months to build my own from a bench grinder with arbour adapters but it wasn’t going to work. I contacted CabKing and they sold me the motor, shafts,spacers. I built a housing for the wheels but not nearly as nice as yours. I used two big coffee containers for water supply that’s gravity fed too. If you have a strong support you could use a 5 gallon water cooler bottle that would last a long time. Can you tell me how you clean or dress your 80 grit wheel? I have a dressing tool but I’m not getting good results. I find I can’t get my wheel sharp again and the initial grinding takes longer than before. Also I use Baltic Abrasives wheels, very good quality 👍 Also, I want to make a wet saw that will slice bigger stones, any links or diy prototypes you’ve found work? I have a cheap wet tile saw from the hardware store that can only cut about 1” depths. I think a lot of people would be interested in making their own machines if they had a parts breakdown and were able to avoid welding, boring, metal bending, you could compete with the big companies. Love the design 👍🇨🇦🍻
I havent had to dress my hard wheels yet, I rarely cut anything other than opals, unless its commissioned work (opal keeps me pretty much full time). My wheels also were from baltic abrasives, I am not sure what you mean by dressing though. If I am cleaning them down I usually put a spot of dish soap in the water in pot, then run a few of those through opening up the valves and using a paint brush or sponge to clean them. I only really have to clean it after cutting boulder opal as that's quite messy.
Oh ok keep me informed on what’s happening and any chance of a price on how much you want for it thanks for getting back to me and hope to hear from you soon 😊😊😊
You really should have used stainless steel for the inner tube frame, at least that's how I would've done it, cause it's worth it for sure in the long run.
@@ShinySearcherUK I'm a welder and I love welding stainless and aluminum over regular steel, it's really not that hard when you have access to a wig welding machine and know how to use it. But yeah the material is of course a bit more expensive, but in places where the material gets that wet, stainless or aluminum is well worth it in the long run. Maybe you can find someone in your area who makes you a new frame for cheap, cause I live too far away to make it for you.
Hello😊I'm selling grinding wheels for this machine. Do you need them? The original grinding wheel will be more expensive, I sell it cheaper, if possible, is it convenient to leave your email?
Hi, Thanks for uploading such an informative video, I was wondering where you purchased your nylon plastic spacers from as I’ve looked everywhere and can’t seem to find them in the dimensions that you are using, also could you tell me what length of SPA pulley belt you are using, Any information would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Hi I had the nylon spacers custom made at my local Engineering place. The bar was custom machined to fit the wheels at 1" and then the nylon spacers were made to fit the bar. The pulley was just one I had laying around, length doesn't really matter as you can adjust the motor on your board to take up any slack. Just make sure that your pulley wheel is the same on your shaft as the one you attach to the motor. This means you won't increase or decrease the RPM.
Thank you so much for for the info, that’s really appreciated, sorry to be a pain but would you happen to have the details of the engineering company you used, thanks.
@@jacktse7697 I used Meldan engineering. However any shop will be able to do it. I sent the wheels in so he knew what exact inside diameter of the wheels to get a clean fit.
