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Hemmings Motor News has been around since 1954. We're proud of our heritage, but we're also more than the Hemmings full of classifieds that your father subscribed to. Aside from new editorial content every month in Hemmings, we have three monthly magazines: Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car.

While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.

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5 comments

DIY Bench Grinder Stand

Posted October 15, 2009 12:01 AM by dstrohl

Ever since I got my Ryobi bench grinder, I've not been happy with its placement in the garage. I started by temporarily clamping it to the edge of a cheap table that I've used as my workbench, which worked but put it right in the way of other projects (okay, okay, it was in the way of allowing more clutter to pile up on the workbench). I went out and bought a grinder stand from Harbor Freight, but the mounting holes drilled in the stand didn't correspond at all with the mounting holes in the base of the grinder.

Then I recently came across some plans for a bench grinder stand from a vintage Popular Mechanics on Knucklebuster. I had some scrap plywood in the basement, so I modified the plans a bit and got to work.

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Power-User

Join Date: May 2009
Location: Amarillo, Texas, USA
Posts: 191
Good Answers: 10
#1

Re: DIY Bench Grinder Stand

10/15/2009 12:32 PM

We use old car brake drums for a base, weld a 2" pipe to the brake drum and weld on a 1/4" thick plate on the top to mount the grinder. They are very stable while still being portable. Quick, easy and best of all cheap.

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Hobbies - DIY Welding - New Member

Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 28
Good Answers: 3
#2

Re: DIY Bench Grinder Stand

10/16/2009 8:46 AM

I agree with the response from Gibson. However, I would use an old tire rim from a large truck to add more weight, and create a more stable base. I once tried a small brake drum from a car and the grinder had a tendency to walk when you put pressure against the grinder when grinding something, and it was not very stable. Also, try to keep it as low as possible without causing back strain while using it. The higher the profile, the more unstable it becomes...........hope this helps.

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United States - Member - New Member Hobbies - Target Shooting - New Member Popular Science - Weaponology - New Member

Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 2
#3

Re: DIY Bench Grinder Stand

10/16/2009 12:49 PM

I like to weld three beeds on bottom of rim to give it three feet to compensate for unlevelness or flatness of floor to prevent walking.

thanks Don.

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Join Date: Sep 2009
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#4
In reply to #3

Re: DIY Bench Grinder Stand

10/16/2009 1:06 PM

forgot to mention that old tire rims work good also.

Thanks Don.

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Guru
Hobbies - DIY Welding - pipewelder

Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: North Georgia, USA
Posts: 672
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#5

Re: DIY Bench Grinder Stand

10/19/2009 11:34 AM

I use 6" Sch. 40 (Sch. 80 if I can find it) pipe attached to a 18-24" 1/2" or thicker square base plate anchored to the floor if possible. The problem with these stands is that if you can't anchor it to the floor and the grinder vibrates very much they will start to move around the shop when in use. I don't think you can build a stand heavy enough to prevent this so the only choice is to find some way to hold it in place by friction and/or make the grinder vibrate less.

Using the pipe welded to the center of the base plate like I chose to do has one main problem. The welding heat will draw the sides up a little bit all around no matter how thick a base plate used. This leaves only the center of the plate to actually touch the floor and causes it to wobble and move around when in use. To fix this problem I welded 4 adjustable leveling feet to each corner and one non adjustable foot in the center so that I the plate could be adjusted to be level and to have 5 points of contact with the floor. I also cut a piece of rubber belting to put under the the base plate and under the grinder on top to add a vibration dampener to help with the walking problem.

I like to over size the top plate that the grinder is bolted onto to add a space to give room to set tools and such I might use while grinding on. I use one grinder just for sharpening and put cut outs in the sides of the oversized top plate to hold a small container of cooling water and a cheap 3/8" drill I use to turn tungsten when I am sharpening it for TIG welding. I also like to attach a 4 socket size electrical box with 2 electrical plug ins on one side and a switch and indicator light on the other. This allows me to plug the grinder and drill to it and have only one cord (12 gauge) to plug into the wall socket. I have one grinder that is so quite that it hard to tell when it is running and has been left on overnight. The switch and the indicator light helps us to notice it is running and turn it off in case it is mistakingly left on.

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