An interesting machine any workshop needs is a tool grinder. In the net it’s possible to find information about many home made tool grinders (or tool grinding gigs). Most of the designs have known names related to the design author. This blog entry is the result of collecting some of the designs to build a small tool grinder for the workshop. Any suggestion about a missing design will be considered ;-).

The Quorn design

This “the” classic home made grinder. Designed by D. H. Chaddock and published through his book “The Quorn tool and cutter grinder”. It’s design seems inspired in some classical cutter grinders like Deckel SO.

It’s not easy to build. A hobbist that  achieves its construction earns an automatic recognition in the community. There is a lot of information about this design. Indeed there are kit sellers for the castings and blueprints. Some interesting references are:

The majority of Quorn grinders are made using specific castings. These castings are mostly bought at specialized providers. However, some of the Quorns are built from stock bar. Bonelle design is one of these:

The Brooks-Stent design

This design looks like a miniaturized Clarkson grinder. Brooks grinder was published in Model Engineering Workshop numbers 16 and 17.

The Kennet design

An easier design that the previous ones.

The Worden

A design similar to that of Kennet but simpler. It is mostly built by using steel plate and the spindle is avoided by directly using the motor shaft.

Grinder jigs

There is a variety of grinding gigs mostly used for grinding lathe tools.