Harbor Freight Carbide Grinder

that's just a pot for dipping. this is the Baldor drip pot on my grinder with brass valve and copper drip pipe.

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Do you know the dimensions of this pot? Rough estimate would be fine.

I was going to suggest maybe making your own either from a welded up pipe, big pipe fittings, or maybe cast one from aluminum or pot metal. Lost foam casting might be an option. Might be some metal cup available that could have the valve and tube added to it. The mounting hole might just be a tube or something welded/soldered/epoxied on either inside or outside the cup.

The new photos came as I was typing this. An idea of the size would still be nice but those pictures should be enough to figure it out especially if you had the grinder that you want it to fit on. I don't have that type of grinder but I'm tempted to try making the pot just as a nicer dipping pot than the plastic jar I have been using.
 
Building your own probably isn't worth doing if you can get one from Grizzly at that price but I started designing a pattern to 3d print.

slicer drip pot.jpg
I'm still working on getting the file sliced and ready to print to make sure it prints without any supports and the see if it looks right.

I have lots of other projects started right now but this is partially just to practice making the file using FreeCAD and partially to see if I can build my own. I probably won't add the drip function but I drew it with marks for the center mounting hole and the hole for the valve. I think the casting would pick up those marks showing where to drill those holes.

The dimensions were my guess going by the pictures and it's hard to tell if I have everything right (or right enough). I added draft to hopefully get it out of the sand mold but I don't have a flask big enough to fit that part right now. It should have about 1/4" thick walls if my calculations were right. I'm sure I'll need to do some work to the print to get it smooth enough to work as a pattern and I'm not sure on the location I drew for the valve.

I'll try to share the files or maybe even start my own thread here if it turns out how I hope and if I actually build one. I didn't check what shipping would add to the price from Grizzly but this might not really be worth doing. Not that that would stop me from trying and the 3d printed part might work for my use. I'm pretty new at FreeCAD and I haven't checked to see how long this might take to print so this whole idea might not work. I don't have a lot of experience with casting either but could be a fun and useful excuse to practice all of this.
 
a great start, well done. it could also be turned on a lathe but would generate a lot of waste.
 
At only 5% infill it shows that this will use close to 50 meters of filament for my 3d printer and take 7 hours to print.

I scaled it 50% and I'm printing a test piece to make sure it looks right. It will be too small to be any use but I didn't want to waste the time and plastic before I knew it was not going to mess up printing the lip. I used fillets and angles to avoid needing to use supports and to help it come out of the sand mold without damaging the imprint but wasn't sure I had it right.

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My test print looks OK. As I expected, I will need to do some sanding and filling to get rid of the layer lines. I originally set it at 20% infill but dropped it to 5% which cut an hour or more off the estimated print time. The half scale print seems strong enough as a pattern so I hope the full scale version will be good enough at that low amount of infill.

If nothing goes wrong, the full size print should be done tonight. As I type this post, that print has been running over 20 minutes and it is less than 1mm high and it is just over 108mm full height but it will go a little faster once it finishes the bottom solid layers.
 
If I am allowed to attach files, the FreeCAD file I am using should be here. I really should have changed the labels of the sketches, pads, and pockets to make editing the file easier but I didn't think of it in time. The only change I might have made was to make the lip taller and I won't know if the piece sticking up inside is big enough until the full scale print is done.

I tried to attach the STL file but it said it was too big.

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/tool/grinder-drip-dip-pot

Looks like you have to sign up or sign in to be able to download that file. It's free. I've tried putting stuff on thingiverse before but they never get approved so I switched to cults3d. If you have Freecad you should be able to use the attached file.

My full size part is about half done and looks good so far. A few more hours and it should be done if the power doesn't blink off or the filament doesn't jam up.
 

Attachments

  • GrinderDripPot.fcstd
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I think it took 7 hours and 20 minutes to print.

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I can definitely feel the light weight and hollow sound of this because of only using a 5% infill but I still think it will be strong enough for a pattern.

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This should be a good size to be able to dip tool bits or other things to cool them off while grinding.

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I started sanding and sprayed some filler primer on it. This could take some time to get it smoothed out plus I'll need to build a flask deep enough to hold this pattern. I will have to figure out exactly how I will mold and pour this.
 
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