Hi YouTube, my name’s Geoff and I’m the Veg Oil Guy.
I recently made this angle grinder stand out of some plywood off-cuts.
I needed to be able to cut a lot of metal with good accuracy and a dedicated metal chop
saw was out of my budget.
I could have bought an off-the-shelf grinder stand, but I’ve had poor experiences of
them in the past.
So I looked to YouTube but most of the stands I found were either made of metal or a too
bit complex.
So I came up with this really easy-build plywood stand… and I’m going to show you how I
made it.
This stand is for a small angle grinder, though you could apply this design to a larger grinder
too.
After measuring my grinder, I took a plywood off-cut and ran it down into thin strips.
I then cut these strips into smaller sections and if you’re interested in the measurements
you can download a cutting guide from my website here.
Now this really is just a case of gluing and clamping these bits together.
Just use good glue, line everything up carefully and don’t rush the process.
Don’t be too concerned if your grinder isn’t the same as mine.
Hopefully there’ll be enough material here for you to be able to adapt the design to
match your needs.
Before you get stuck into the glue up, there’s a few holes you need to drill first.
The grinder is supported by a couple of verticals using bolts the screw into the handle slots.
Supporting the grinder on shims can help you locate the position for these holes.
Once you’ve figured out where these holes go, drill both supports simultaneously to
ensure they match both sides.
The thread on my handles is an M8 so I drilled holes to match.
Now here I’m showing how all the pieces fit together.
It’s easier that it might first look and it’s covered in my downloadable plans.
When it comes to gluing, it’s best to work in small sections.
This helps you concentrate on keeping things nice and square.
At this stage you can see I’ve glued two layers and I’ve also pre-drilled some holes
where the verticals will fit.
As you glue and screw these verticals, make sure they’re nice and square.
Eventually you end up with something like this.
Don’t worry about the rough edges.
They can clean up later.
Ensuring that the grinder is central to the verticals, here I’m test fitting using three
inch M8 bolts.
You can see the body of the grinder isn’t quite central to body of the support frame
– guess my measurement were off a bit.
So here I’m marking for a centre line.
I’m going to use three supporting bolts and it’s just a matter of looking for the
best spots on the grinder body.
I had some M10 threaded rod lying around but you could use whatever you like for this.
I cut three four-inch sections and this worked well.
I found these rubber grommets and thought they might make useful end stops, but it didn’t
work out as you’ll see.
Notice that there’s two nuts on either side of each bolt.
This helps secure them in position.
And there you go…
there isn’t room for the grommets.
Oh well.
Just make sure the ends of the bolts are nice and smooth or maybe add felt or similar.
But I did manage to keep a grommet on the front bolt.
With a bit of careful adjustment it’s possible to use these three bolts to position the grinder
nice and vertical.
It’s surprising how well this clamps the grinder in place.
With the grinder in its support frame, I was then able to work out where the axel supports
can be positioned.
Leave a little room for the adjustment bolts then cut away the excess.
To help me drill the holes in the axel stands, I set up a simple jig of my drill press.
If your axel is crooked then it will never cut true, some this was a worthwhile time
investment.
I cut an 8 inch length of threaded rod to use as the axel.
Make sure the holes you drill match the axel perfectly.
Any slack will ruin cutting accuracy.
Large washers and a couple of nuts hold everything in place.
I cut a fourteen inch square base from the same plywood and doubled up around the edges
with off-cuts for strength.
I then screwed the axel supports from underneath.
You’ll also notice that it’s offset.
That’s to keep the blade of the grinder more central to the stand.
A fence is always useful so I drilled a couple of holes either side…
… added a small section of threaded rod… … then cut slots in a length of plywood.
And that pretty much finishes it off.
After spending several minutes making sure the blade was square to the base, I let the
blade cut a grove in the base and fence.
Now it’s ready for use.
It makes a nice straight, square cut every time.
Couple of points to finish this.
Firstly, one size does not fit all, so you may have to adjust your stand a little.
Trim off any pieces that are too long or that you feel aren’t necessary.
Secondly, it’s worth adding a handle for convenience.
This is a personal choice and I’ll leave that to you.
Thirdly, if you can screw or clamp the base in place.
My workbench is far from flat so I had to shim one corner.
I also found the plywood base bulged a little in the centre, so a screw helped flatten this
a treat.
Finally, for safety it’s a good idea to fit a strong spring or bungee cord to the
rear of the stand to encourage the grinder to return to an upright position.
This reduces the risk of it dropping down accidentally on your hands.
And that’s it guys.
I hope you enjoyed this one and found it helpful.
For very little money you can have an excellent tool to make life easier.
If you’ve got any questions or comments, as always feel free to send them in.
If you’ve got any video requests, I’m happy to try and help there too.
Please do check out my YouTube channel and of course my other videos.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do.
So that’s it for now folks, and thanks very much for watching.