Phew I got quite a bit of messages to go through from the weekend. I'm very excited to see so many comments.
Thank you Gun. That youtube playlist is fantastic.
If I'm understanding this correctly, to handle two cutters without a tie strap between them, the user could start the grinder on the second cutter and finish the loop on the first of those cutters. Would that work? If so, and with the machine doing its pre-grind calibration tango, the user would have to count back along the chain and be very careful about where they position those two cutters on the machine to start with when they first place the loop in the machine.
Would positioning the proximity sensor between the shortest expected feed pawl start point and feed pawl stop points rather than before the feed pawl start point eliminate the calibration tango?
Glad you found the videos insightful. Please let me know if there's anything else you would like to see in them.
If you happen to have a single skip link in the loop, you can position after the skip and have it count 5 cutters. In the end, it just won't reach the skip link cutter, and a handful of cutters will have to be sharpened.
We have some ideas to the sensor system that would best resolve this, but I cannot disclose them. My apologies!
A ~$400 automated square grinder... I'd be in for throwing some $'s into a crowd funded pre-purchase...
[message read but clipped for brevity]
I'm sure our engineers would like to speak to you if you're willing to share these ideas!
A $400 manual square grinder would be a hot seller. Waiting to see a quality clone of the Simington / Silvey Swing Arm grinder. An auto square grinder would not provide the range of angles desired, unless it also allowed custom wheel dressing / profiling.
Anyway, that would be a different thread, but it shows the continued interest among guys on this site.
Philbert
Yes, it does seem the engineering and design of the machine would be tricky, especially while keeping costs down.
I would still like to see a closeup photo of a couple of finished cutters.
Unfortunately I do not have on me a chain that we tested on. As noted, we do have some videos of it, but the close up isn't very good. I'll see if I can get one of these posted soon.
Is this machine able to feel the wheels performance declining when it has oil and dust embedded in the wheel? Well sir, I am most able to.And I believe that many others that use a grinder have the same feeling.Pun intended.This is for those that take pride in there sharpening skills.Not some 17 year old kid working at a hardware store that doesn't give a damn.
If there is no pride to be had for someone in researching, setting up, maintaining and profiting (in time and $) from a good auto grinder, they should stick to their files, manual grinding, or whatever else it is that fills them with pride. To each their own.
The FP1000 is great at automatically sharpening certain sizes of non skip chains. Just like any tool any of us use, it will not do its job when it is neglected, or its user is not familiar with it.
Just different.
With this type of machine grinding , the wheel comes straight into the cutter so you don't get the radius under the top plate like you do with a round file.
To accomplish that, the cutter would have to move in to the wheel and back out in similar fashion to what a square grinder does.
How this is affects cutting performance I don't know.
Many claim that machine grinding can't compete with (good) hand filing and this is the most obvious difference I can see.
This is a tough claim to measure, especially because it's very dependent on the person's experience and skill. We're excited to offer the demo to some of the more experienced members here to see how it compares to their expert hands!
Since its a proprietary wheel, I'm curious as to the expected life and what is the replacement cost.
What are they, vitrified, resiniod? What grit?
Also if there will be different compositions and grits available.
With mixed length cutters, looks like it would have to be setup to do the longest cutters first and progressively be adjusted for each go around until the shorter ones see contact.
How aggressive can the grinding be before overheating cutters...?
They are currently available for sale on eBay. I'm unsure how much I'm allowed to note here because it might go against the forum's marketing rules.
We recommending making "light passes" as to not overheat the cutters. This can be a little confusing, and the video demonstration in the playlist shows what we mean by this.
Regarding comments about wheels: We are actually improving the design and currently prototyping CBN resin bonded wheels. As noted before: the wheel spins at a high RPM and if using CBN wheels, it itself is quite dense. If tolerances aren't met, the machine will vibrate off your table if it isn't mounted. We are currently working on finishing prototyping.
Will the changes to accommodate different gauges and pitches be applicable to the existing model via some sort of upgrade kit? In other words, why should I buy this discounted early-adopter's version that doesn't quite hit the mark for my needs, unless it can be upgraded for a fair price later on? ;-)
TEMCo Industrial has been selling tools and power equipment since 1968, and it's always been in the company's ethos to improve our products, even if there's nothing wrong with them. We live in a competitive world, so unless we continue to innovate, adapt, and respond to customers,
our competitors will. As long as there is interest and desire, there will always be newer versions of this product. That means after the next revision, we'll be right back here asking you guys what you think of it, what's terrible about it, what's great about it, and start again on making a newer version.
We think that if this current iteration is the one you want and need, excellent! We are here to make as many of your guys' work as enjoyable as possible. In that regard, we will certainly do our best to improve and accommodate as many of you as we can in all our revisions.[/QUOTE]