I've been trying to buy one but can't find one. Maybe the internals of an old meat grinder? But that sounds a little diffecult because of the twirling cylinder. I would think there would be a way that isn't too diffecult but havn't hit on it. Any ideas?

 

A hand powered bench grinder. Ummmmm..... why.

How could you power a grinder by hand and actually use it.

Are you talking about a food grinder or a stone type grinder ?

 

I've got an antique meat grinder right behind me in my office (never know when you need one... LOL) and it's got about 1" worth of 3/8" thread sticking out past the metal grinding plate. I don't see why you couldn't extend that thread or even weld on a different sized threaded arbor onto it, if a hand crank bench grinder is what you're after. Most of the work has been done for you... you just need to figure out what size arbor, flanges and nuts you need.

However, the workings of the shaft isn't exactly like a bearing... it's got a LOT of slop to it.... like +/- 1/8" up and down as you wiggle the handle.

And yeah, the question beckons... why?

 

Grampa had a hand operated grinder and it had a gear box that spun the wheel about 5x faster than the crank speed.
Once you got the wheel spinning you got good at maneuvering whatever you were sharpening and cranking at the same time.

Back in the day I was eager to crank the thing while he sharpened drill bits by hand.



Image courtesy of popularwoodworkingdotcom

 

Here's one made from an old singer treadle sewing machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGpN7RmqfMA