Most knifemakers have at least one or two lap wheels in their workshop. Next to a buffer these are the dirtiest pieces of equipment because they fire the grinding everywhere, even when hooked up to a good vac system. I decided to make a shield to deflect the dirt downward and try and control the grinding dust. I found a piece of tin and bent it around an old coffee can to get the approximate shape I wanted for the deflector. The next problem was how to mount this so you and still be able to grind a blade from both directions with the vacuum hooked up. I took a short piece of 2x4 and cut an arc in it so it would sit on top of the electric motor and then radiused the top the same radius as the piece of deflector tin. The 2x4 is held solid by a couple of vertical aluminum straps that are screwed to the piece of plywood the lap wheel sits on. The deflector shield has a small lip on one side in order to stop the sparks and dust that travels around it to drop straight down. A screw and a homemade screwdriver are used to secure the shield to the 2x4 mount. Most lap wheel can operate in either direction so I simply cut a small slot in the deflector on each side and mount the shield on the opposite side then I am grinding the other direction. The design seems to work quite well and does stop a lot of the grindings and dust from flying around.
That looks really good. I confess I haven't gotten around to building a lap wheel yet (despite how much I hate sanding). This just might encourage me to start working on it.
