How do grind your lams?

[perry f.]

Thinking about getting something to grind my own laminations. What kind of setup do you guys have? Where can I get taper sleds? Pics will be helpful if you use jigs, which may be the way I go. Thanks!

[LittleBen]

I just finished building a lam grinder from a 1/4hp motor and a 3" sanding drum. Not working perfectly yet but I'll get there. I'll try and get pics but I followed a build on buildyourownbow. Cost about $125 total. I'm making wood bows not glass so by believe precision would be more critical for you. Good luck.
Sam Harper used a rig that uses a belt sander you can check poorfolkbows for that.

[JkChenault]

I'm using a huge wide-belt sander at the company I work for and I made my own taper sleds I will have to get you some pics of it

[bigbob2]

i made my own from a belt sander mounted vertically and powered by a 3/4hp pool pump motor. It may look dodgy but I've made a stack of bows with it and its still going great See no need to try anything else, as its accurate to within 1-2thou.

[kennym]

Here is more readin Perry!    

  http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=008601;p=1

And I can make you a sled for any taper, either 2" or 4.25" wide, whatever suits your needs....

[Buemaker]

Very Good Kenny.I think I'm gonna stick it to the preacher also, Good idea. Bue--.

[tenbrook]

Perry buy a set of Taper sleds from Kenny.  If you have a nice band saw and a drum sander your good to go.  If not you can use a table saw to replace a band saw but it is quite dangerous IMO.

I have a few of the sets Kenny sells....Good stuff!

Hope this helps and good luck.  Also be sure to keep us posted!

Thanks

Tenbrook

[MoeM]

Damn Kenny I`m really impressed by your sawing skills. When I started thinking about making my own lams I`ve also had the idea of using sleds on my tabel saw. As the saw wasn`t the best (as my skills where) I had very deep sawmarks (and my bandsaws is more a toy).
To saw lams at this quality I bet theres a lot practice in sawing and setting the saw right required...
Finally I decided to build my own
   drumsander  
Mostly scrap pieces like an old jack for the table lift or rubber lid to hold workpieces down away from drum. Turned MDF discs are glued together as drum.
Powered by 1500W and the 4" drum equipped with festool H&L abrasive (grit 80) it provides excellent performance and satisfying acuracy.
To save time and abrasives I recently bought a used JWP-12 thicknesser to prepare thiner lams.