Built a grinder stand out of stuff laying around.

This simple project, I needed a stand for grinder that I could easily move around in small shop, specifically to roll outside when doing some extended grinding.


I had some 2x2 thin wall square tubing that was for a gravity stand my kid was going to build many years ago (that never happened). Had a scrap piece of 1/4" plate, Some old wheels. Cool

Cut plate 61/2" x7 /3/4" matching grinder base. Cut tubing at compound angle so leg spread is about 21" x 19" with greater spread front to back just to make more stable when pushing material, though equally because that's just how it ended up. Welded legs to top plate. Was thinking of adding a shelf but need to stabilize the legs so just slid an old ring gear from a 60s VW up and welded it to legs.

On the rear legs I mounted wheels with adjusters from an old rotary lawn mower. They can be lowered so legs contact floor but I generally don't, the raw ends of front legs keep it from moving. The adjusters did allow easy mounting and kick wheels even further back and wider stance.



For moving around I added a handle, notched short piece of 3/4" pipe, bolted to leg. I mounted the loose handle from a dead weed wacker to pick up front to slide around the shop but for actually moving, rolling outside I use the pipe handle. Works pretty good, I was surprised, kinda like a hand buggy.

Mounting the grinder,

I didn't want to hard mount, mostly to minimize vibration and either remove or crush the rubber feet so I ran carriage bolts with an old compression spring cut in half, use wing nuts to adjust tension.

The cord on grinder was a bit short even when inside the shop to reach from stand to plug. I was going to add ends to a 16' piece of 14ga extension cord that was given to me- (it needed ends). But I didn't have a female end-. 1st I thought I could rewire the grinder using the 'new' longer cord. However as I had some old boxes & receptacles it occurred to me to make an extension cord with box on end. It would give me an additional plug when using grinder outside. But...Long story short- Somewhere in this process I realized if I mounted the box & plug to stand I could have 2 extra plugs by hard wiring grinder. Have an attached longer cord-extra receptacle when needed. So that s what happened

Though I used grommets on the cords as they enter the tube, I replaced handle bolts with longer ones. Used some rubber coated metal clamps to immobilize the cords. Inside I used some thin plastic (milk jug) to make a sleeve to ensure vibration wouldn chafe cord inside tube.



Just detail of handle, spring mount & hardwired receptacle.

Kinda fun throwing otherwise unrelated parts together making something usable. Most of all it was free with stuff on hand. Except for consumable weld rod. Which I think this was one of the last times I used my old arc welder.

Recently I added fatigue mats to shop floor. The front legs were cutting into it. Went to hardware to pick up some 2" tube caps but they didn't have any. Looking around they did have some cheap flange mount locking casters. Hmm I have some old ones somewhere...What the heck- I picked them up. Cut 2" off from the front legs and welded them on. So 15 years later I've $6 invested. It is a lot easier though rolling around in shop.

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