Hello,
I am new to the site and was wondering if anyone has ever built a cam grinder out of a bench top grinder such as this...-

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd141/5hpbriggs/th_BenchGrinder_B.jpg (http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd141/5hpbriggs/BenchGrinder_B.jpg)

(clickable thumbnail)

I am wantonmg to grind some custom high lift cams for my small engines...

Thanks

People do anything with almost anything. It would not surprise me if someone took a benchgrinder to a camshaft. Save yourself a lot of time, however, and find a copy of a back issue of Home Shop Machinist. They show how to make a cam grinder as a covery story article for small engines - small as in model engines.

The method of designing cams listed in the article is quite crude and may work for small, very light valvetrains. My analysis of the demonstrated cam profile shows that it would tend to be a "parts breaker" for normal sized engine cams. There is a recent thread on the "Zone wherein a discussion of cam design methods was presented.

Background articles were presented. The actual "hows", "why's" and "wherefores" are not/were not/will not be presented. We offer that servive -cam designing and grinding- hence it is NOT in our better interest to "give" away the secrets and/or processes of our livelihood.

The HSM cam grinder is a poor man's copy of a "real" cam grinder. If you had to do more than a single cyl engine, it would be somewhat of a nightmare to maintain cyl to cyl lobe orientation properly with the HSM device.

Before the flaming starts, pretty much ANYTHING will run. Good stuff will run long and troublfree. Poorly designed and/or made anything will run but they usually tend to break parts and/or drain bank accounts/budgets un-necessarily. DIY cam grinding for the neophyte is not a very forgiving pastime.