Milling cutter from angle grinder
Sometimes it becomes necessary to mill a hole or surface, but there is a familiar milling machine operator, and there is nowhere to look. But there is an angle grinder. Angle Grinder. This is the solution to the problem. We choose a machine from two options. Movable machine and movable table.
In the first case, we fixing the workpiece or material, which needs to be milled, and the angle grinder is attached in a vertical plane to the frame. The frame has the ability to shift the plate to which the angle grinder is attached to the left. Right and forward. Back. In other words, we can move the angle grinder to the workpiece.
In another version, the angle grinder is rigidly fixed, and the workpiece moves by analogy to the left. Right and forward. Back. These are the main directions for milling. For milling up axes. Down Complement adapt the labors will not be.
Having chosen the version of the machine, you can start implementation. The only place that will require a turner. Cutter holder. It is turned from a hexagon of at least 16 mm, because the thread of the angle grinder is 14 mm. Collet type holder. It is easy to manufacture and does not have large beats. Regular chuck does worse.
The advantage of such a machine, like all machines based on an angle grinder, is that they are easily transformed back into an angle grinder. As a type of milling cutter from an angle grinder, you can make a drill.
Do-it-yourself wall chaser from an angle grinder
Stroba. This is a groove that needs to be cut in the wall to lay the electrical wire or cable. The difficulty of this work lies in the fact that the groove must be of constant width and depth. Then the wire will fit evenly and less solution for the bookmark will be required.
A wall chaser is rarely used in practice, so it will be expensive to buy it for a home. But it can be made on the basis of an angle grinder. Our favorite angle grinder.
The main task. Place two diamond discs on the angle grinder shaft with a distance of at least 1 cm:
- Install the first disc and fix it with a nut;
- Install the second disc and fix it with a nut;
- We measure the resulting distance between the disks;
- We install protection on the angle grinder;
- Checking work.
But, if for some reason it is not possible to install two discs on the shaft, the strobe can also be cut using the usual method with one installed disc. You just have to cut a second parallel line.
Work with a wall chaser is carried out indoors. This creates a huge amount of dust. Even a respirator does NOT save from it. To eliminate this negative phenomenon, it is necessary to make a protective casing, which would cover both disks and have a branch pipe on top for connecting to a vacuum cleaner. There is a similar device on an electric jigsaw for collecting small sawdust. Sometimes, lovers of the rational use of the tool adapt 2 or 4 rotating rollers to this casing. When the wall chaser moves along the wall surface, it will move on rollers, and not create additional loads on the hands.
To make a tool for a wide groove, it is necessary to make special bushings for attaching discs to the desired width. With such a wall chaser, you can make grooves for pipe laying.
But the protective casing will also need to be made wider. On the cover of the wall chaser for both wires and pipes, you must install a screw for adjusting the immersion of the cutting tool into the wall. In this case, the casing will consist of two parts connected by hinges and a submersion adjustment unit.
Simple cut-off machine
A cut-off machine based on an angle grinder can be made by hand in one day. For the machine, you need to choose a bed. Metal base plate. Fix the hinge on it. To the hinge Weld support frame with plate for attaching angle grinder.
Any suitable part can be used as a hinge. In this case, the hinge is made from the swivel joints of a passenger car. The hinges have already served their time, but they fit the machine very well.
What accessories for an angle grinder can be made by hand
The well-known angle grinder, with its cutting, grinding and cleaning capabilities, proved to be capable of several more functions. Expanding the functionality requires you to do some work with your own hands in order to get the necessary devices for work.
- Circular Saw from Angle Grinder
- How to repair an angle grinder
- Saw with my own hands
- DIY drill stand: drawings
Angle grinder stand
This device is a small machine with which you can easily, safely and very accurately cut metal pipes, profiles or rods. It consists of a base or a small table attached to the ground or to a locksmith’s table.
The machine is assembled in a simple sequence:
- We install a hinge on the base;
- We weld the supporting pipe to the hinge;
- Support to pipe P. Shaped plate for fastening angle grinder;
- We put a rubber handle on the supporting pipe;
- Install the disc and check its position.
As a result of simple work, we got a machine or stand for an angle grinder. The angle grinder can now swivel up and down on the part set for cutting. To lift the angle grinder up without loads, Install a spring on the pipe.
Two fixing corners must be installed on the table. At the base of one corner, we make a groove for the bolt around the circumference. It will be needed when a pipe or profile needs to be cut at a certain angle. Then we install this corner with a slot at the same angle to the plane of the cutting disc angle grinder.
Parallel to the corner with the arc slot Install the corner, which can be moved to the part to fix it on the table. The pipe or profile will simply be nested between the two corners. This is enough for a fast and precise cut.
Installed a supporting transverse metal bar on the machine table, you can clean the material using a steel brush mounted on an angle grinder shaft.
Pendulum saw
It is not difficult to make adaptations for an angle grinder with your own hands. It doesn’t even need blueprints. It is enough to know the principle that is incorporated in this or that machine. The pendulum saw based on the angle grinder is NOT an exception. This is the same cut-off machine, but its weight is distributed almost in half.
It is somewhat similar to a children’s swing. A frame is located on the movable sleeve, and an angle grinder is installed on it. Any weight in combination with a return spring can serve as a counterweight.
What are wood discs for an angle grinder and how to use them correctly?
- Is the angle grinder suitable for wood?
- Kinds
- How to choose?
- Recommendations for use
The angle grinder is one of the most popular tools for various surfaces. Whether it’s metal, stone or concrete. It is also called an angle grinder. Typically, an angle grinder is used to process metal or stone workpieces. But in some cases, the angle grinder can also be used as a woodworking tool.
Is the angle grinder suitable for wood?
This question is asked by most owners of an angle grinder. Yes, the angle grinder can be used on wood surfaces. But not always. The angle grinder is NOT designed for woodworking. Special attachments, which are recommended to carry out work on wood processing, steel will be put on the market of carpentry tools recently.
Basic operations that can be performed with this tool on wooden surfaces. This is grinding and roughing work. For their implementation, it is worth using special nozzles. Important to remember. In no case should you cut wood in a circle on metal or stone. This can lead, at best, to tool breakage, and even to injury. Saw blades can be built up in a piece of wood, causing the tool to simply fly out of hand. Also, cutting wheels tend to overheat when cutting wood. In this case, the circle can fall apart and hit the face.
Diamond coated grinding wheels are designed for metal surfaces. They are characterized by high strength and durability. This type of attachment can also sharpen blunt tools. It is not recommended to cut wood with this circle. Abrasive discs are designed for grinding and have different grain sizes. Abrasive. This is the material that forms the base of the circle. Quite often, electrocorundum or silicon carbide can be used as such constituent components.
Saw blades are designed for cutting and have a large classification. They can be designed for different materials. But not all of these types are recommended for cutting or processing wood materials. There are separate attachment options for wood.
Wood should be cut with an angle grinder, only using specially designed metal discs with teeth at the edges. There are some options for discs, which can be carved into wood. Generally cutting wood with a sander Shallow. For cutting large workpieces, it is better to use a circular saw that is specially designed for processing these materials. But some sander attachments allow you to cut or handle small workpieces.
Among the cutting options for circles on wood, two are worth highlighting.
- Circular circle. This nozzle is a circle with teeth. Usually these have a maximum diameter of up to 180 mm. Drinks are present in large circles. There are more compact circles in which there are no drinks. In general, circular discs are considered a “dangerous” option for the attachment on a sander for cutting wood pieces. Therefore, it is advisable to choose circular discs that provide protection against jamming it in the material. This is due to the fact that the teeth on this version of the disc are slightly apart.
- Chain circles. These models are perfectly suited for working with an angle grinder with woody species. The risk of jamming the tool in the workpiece is minimized. On the rotating base of such a nozzle is stretched the chain used on chain saws. In this case, the fit of the chain on the circle is not fixed, which reduces the risk of handling the tool. That is, even if during operation the chain flies off the circle, then the circle itself will not break and will NOT fly apart, as can happen with other models.
Also worth noting are discs with a small and a large number of teeth. In this case, their number will depend on the diameter of the circle. Small discs (up to 150 mm) have 3 teeth. Larger discs have 4 teeth. For woodworking, it is advisable to use discs with a small diameter, that is, with 3 teeth. Large discs are usually used by specialists for processing large workpieces. Small discs are suitable for standard household work. In general, these nozzles do a very good job of spraying wood.
Separately, it is necessary to talk in discs made of special material. Wolfram carbide. They are very new, but thanks to them it became possible to saw wood with an angle grinder. Externally, the nozzle is a circle divided into cutting segments. That is, the teeth themselves are absent on such a circle. The big advantage of this type of wheels is their high strength. The disc easily cuts wood of any strength, and even the presence of nails or other metal products in the workpiece will NOT interfere with its work. The tungsten carbide wheel also cuts small metal parts. The cost of such a nozzle for cutting wood is much higher than that of previous options, but safety and high quality of work with this disc are guaranteed.
The next category of wheel models is for the angle grinder. Rough. These nozzles are designed for processing on the surface of the workpiece. For example, to remove bark, remove large amounts of dirt or level the workpiece. The processing operations themselves are much safer than cutting wood. Therefore, the angle grinder for wood processing can be safely used, but do not forget about the Special attachments. It is customary to distinguish several types of roughing nozzles. Among them are the roughing discs with spikes or abrasive grit. Abrasive cutters come in a variety of sizes. Thanks to them, you can grind the workpiece from the end or remove the top layers.
Also to the roughing options of nozzles are discs with twisted wire. They are sometimes called “cord brushes”. These attachments can be of two types. The first looks like a cup with a wire attached to it, and the second is a disc with a wire around the edges. With these devices it is convenient to remove old paint, rust, etc. from the surface of the workpiece. Also, circles with twisted wire are used to brush the surface of a tree. This is done to give the surface an antique look. By themselves, the nozzles with wire are a disk-plane, because they perform essentially the same function.
Among the peeling nozzles, petal circles are distinguished. Such a cutting disc has on its surface several layers of sandpaper or other peeling tape. Here it is important to consider such an indicator as the grit size of the sandpaper. For roughing it is worth using wheels with coarse sandpaper. It is worth working with such a circle carefully, as the surface can be easily damaged. For a more delicate and softer finish, use medium to fine sandpaper.
Also, modern manufacturers offer sticky discs on the market. This is a fairly new model of woodworking accessories. The essence of this circle is the presence of Velcro on it, on which you can fix a peeling tape of any grain size. This version of the attachment is universal, because materials for processing metal or other surfaces can also be put on Velcro.
The next category of attachments is used for polishing or sanding wood surfaces.
For sanding, the same Velcro discs or fine-grain petal attachments are perfect. For soft processing and polishing of the wood surface, use felt-coated attachments. That is, such discs are a rotating circle on which there is densely compressed wool. Also, these models can be fine-haired, coarse-haired or universal. Semi-coarse-haired.
Machine design
The basis of the device for cutting the foam was the letter chipboard (chipboard). The size of the plate must be taken Based on the width of the foam plates, which are planned to be cut. I used a furniture door measuring 40 × 60 cm.With this size of the base, it will be possible to cut foam plates up to 50 cm wide.The base can be made from plywood writing, a wide board, fix the cutting string directly on the work table or workbench.
Stretching a nichrome string between two nails is the limit of a home craftsman’s linen, so I implemented a simple design that provides reliable fixation and smooth adjustment of the height of the string during cutting above the surface of the machine base.
The ends of the nichrome wire are fastened along the springs, dressed on M4 screws. The screws themselves are screwed into metal racks pressed into the base of the machine. With a base thickness of 18 mm, I selected a metal stand 28 mm long, so that when fully screwed in, the screw does NOT go beyond the bottom side of the base, and when fully unscrewed, it provides a 50 mm foam cutting thickness. If you need to cut sheets of foam or foam of greater thickness, then it will be enough to replace the screws with longer ones.
To press the post into the base, first a hole is drilled into it, with a diameter of 0.5 mm less than the outer diameter of the post. In order for the racks to be easily hammered into the base with a hammer, the sharp edges from the ends were removed on an emery column.
Before tightening the screw into the rack, a groove was made into its head so that the nichrome wire could not move arbitrarily during adjustment, but took the required position.
To make a groove in a screw, you first need to protect the thread from deformation by putting on a plastic tube or using thick paper. Then clamp the drill in the chuck, turn on the drill and attach a narrow File. The groove will be ready in a minute.
To prevent sagging of nichrome wire due to elongation during heating, it is fixed to screws through springs.
A spring from a computer monitor, used to pull the grounding conductors onto the picture tube, turned out to be suitable. The spring was longer than required, I had to make two of it, for each side of the wire attachment.
After preparing all the fasteners, you can fix the nichrome wire. Since the current is consumed during operation is significant, about 10 A, then for reliable contact of the current supply wire with the nichrome wire, I used the method of fastening by twisting with compression. The thickness of the copper wire at a current of 10 A must be taken with a cross section of not less than 1.45 mm 2. You can select the cross section of the wire for connecting the nichrome wire from the table. I had at my disposal a wire with a cross section of about 1 mm 2. Therefore, I had to make each of the two wires with a cross section of 1 mm 2 connected in parallel.
After stripping the insulation from the ends of the wires for a length of about 20 mm, copper conductors are wound onto a string of nichrome wire at the point of its attachment to the spring. Then, holding the nichrome wire by the loop with pliers, the wrapping made of the copper wire is wrapped around the free end of the nichrome wire in the opposite direction.
This method of connecting the current-carrying copper wire with nichrome guides will provide a large area of their contact and exclude strong heating at the junction during the operation of the foam cutting machine. This was confirmed by practice, after prolonged cutting of the foam, the polyvinyl chloride sheath of the current-carrying conductor did not melt, the copper wire in the connection area did NOT change its color.
For the possibility of adjusting the thickness of cutting the foam on the device, the outlet of the current-carrying conductors is made with a loop. To prevent the wires from interfering with work, they are passed through the holes in the base and fixed on the back side with brackets. At the corners of the base, the same brackets are nailed as legs.
The lead wires of the cutter are twisted together so as not to get tangled. At the ends of the wires for connecting to the power source, captive terminals are soldered.
Scheme with the introduction of LATR and a step-down transformer
If the value of the current consumed by the nichrome wire is greater than the LATR can provide, then it will be necessary to additionally turn on the step-down transformer after it according to the electrical diagram below.
As you can see, in contrast to the previous circuit, the mains winding of the power transformer is connected to the LATR output, the nichrome spiral is connected to the secondary output winding of the transformer. In this circuit, thanks to the decoupling step-down transformer, the nichrome coil is NOT galvanically connected to the mains and therefore safe for operation. In addition, it became possible to adjust the output voltage more smoothly and therefore more accurately set the cutting temperature of the foam on the machine.
The power of the transformer and the voltage on its secondary winding are taken on the basis of the calculations performed according to the above methodology. For example, for the proposed design of a machine for cutting foam, with a nichrome wire diameter of 0.8 mm and a length of 50 cm, the power supply source was a LATR with an output current of 2 A with a 150 W step-down transformer connected after it with a voltage on the secondary winding of 12 V.
Calculation of the parameters of the power source for heating the wire
It should be noted that for heating the nichrome wire of the foam cutting machine, an AC or DC power supply is suitable.
Taking into account the fact that per centimeter of wire length it is necessary to allocate power not more than 2.5 watts and a wire length of 50 cm, it is possible to calculate the power of the power supply. To do this, you need to multiply the amount of power released by the length of the wire. As a result, it turns out that to warm up the wire of the foam cutting machine, you will need a 125 W power supply.
Now you need to determine the voltage value of the power supply. To do this, you need to know the resistance of the nichrome wire of the foam cutting machine.
Wire resistance can be calculated from resistivity (resistance of one meter of wire). Specific resistance of wire made of nichrome grade Х20Н80 are given in the table. For the second grades of nichrome, the values differ slightly.
| 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0,4 | 0.5 | 0.60 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1,2 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| 137,00 | 34,60 | 15.71 | 8.75 | 5.60 | 3.93 | 2.89 | 2.20 | 1.70 | 1.40 | 1.16 | 0.97 | 0.83 | 0.62 | 0.35 | 0.31 | 0.22 | 0.16 | 0.11 | 0.087 |
As can be seen from the table, for a wire with a diameter of 0.8 mm, the resistivity is 2.2 ohms, therefore, a nichrome wire 50 cm long, which was selected for the foam plastic cutting machine, will have a resistance of 1.1 ohms. If you choose a wire with a diameter of 0.5 mm, then the resistance of a piece of wire 50 cm long will be 2.8 ohms.
Using the transformed formulas of Ohm’s and Joule’s laws. Lenz, we get the formula for calculating the supply voltage for the foam cutting machine. The supply voltage will be equal to the root of the product of the power consumption and the resistance of the wire. As a result of calculations, it turns out that a power supply with a voltage of 11.7 V is required. In this case, the current consumption from the source will be 11.7 A. In order to find the current value, you need to divide the power consumption by the voltage value. Dividing 125 W by 11.7 V, we get a current of 11.7 A.
As a result of calculations, it was determined that to heat the nichrome wire, an AC or DC power source is required, which produces a voltage of 11.7 V and provides a load current of 12 A.
When decreasing or increasing the length of the wire, the voltage of the power source will need to be proportionally reduced or increased accordingly. In this case, the current value will not change.
The calculation performed is an estimate, since the transition resistance at the points of wire connection and the resistance of the current-carrying conductors are NOT taken into account. Therefore, the optimal mode of heating the wire in the end total has to be set directly when cutting the foam on the device.
Homemade foam cutting machine
Heat and sound insulating building materials on the market Presented in a wide range, it is foamed polyethylene, mineral and basalt wool and many others. But the most common for insulation and sound insulation is extruded polystyrene foam and polystyrene, due to its high physical and chemical properties, ease of installation, low weight and low cost. Polyfoam has a low coefficient of thermal conductivity, high coefficient of sound absorption, is resistant to water, weak acids, alkalis. Polyfoam is resistant to ambient temperatures, from the lowest possible to 90˚С. Even after dozens of years, the foam does NOT change its physical and chemical properties. Polyfoam also has sufficient mechanical strength.
Polyfoam also has very important properties, these are fire resistance (when exposed to fire, the foam does NOT smolder like wood), environmental friendliness (since the foam is made of styrene, even food products can be stored in containers from it). Fungi and bacteria foci do NOT appear on the foam. Almost ideal material for insulation and sound insulation in the construction and renovation of houses, apartments, garages, and even packaging for storing food.
How easily styrofoam is cut on a homemade machine, the clearly demonstrates.
If you want to make a cutter for foam and foam rubber, many are stopped by the difficulty of organizing the supply of voltage to heat the nichrome string to the desired temperature. This obstacle is surmountable if you understand the physics of the issue.
Scheme with the introduction of a step-down transformer with secondary winding taps
A transformer with taps in the secondary winding can be used to power the nichrome spiral of the foam cutter. This is the simplest, most reliable and safest option, especially if the foam cutting machine will be used regularly. Indeed, when cutting foam on a device, it is not necessary to regulate the heating temperature of the nichrome wire. The temperature is selected once when setting up the machine. Therefore, having selected the required voltage, the wires from the terminals of the nichrome wire are soldered to the terminals of the secondary winding of the transformer forever.
Despite the simplicity and reliability of this circuit, there are standard ready-made transformers with taps, and even for the required voltage. You will have to find a suitable transformer for voltage and current on the secondary winding and unwind the extra turns. You can disassemble the transformer and rewind part of the secondary winding, rewind it, but with taps. But this job requires knowledge and experience.
Power supply wiring diagrams
You can apply the supply voltage to the nichrome thread of the foam cutting machine using several schemes.