Belt grinder plans?

[QSIMDO]

I made and have been using a 4" x 54", 2hp, 3450 rpm with a 4" drive wheel.
I'd post pictures but doing that here is "harder than Chinese arithmetic"*.

* Richard Pryor

[camdigger]

..................(sigh)

OK, you guys all done now?
Can't say I didn't expect it.

Here's the deal; I'M LOOKING FOR PLANS for a belt grinder...WIDER than 2 inches.
I PRESENTLY HAVE a 3hp motor and that's what I'm using, period.
DON'T WANT a knife grinder but if one can be scaled up so be it.
I emailed Tom Lipton because he had a video on his DIY Baldor-esque grinder but he get's more email in a day than Amazon so no response.

I've searched but little other than plywood framed sanders comes up so...does anyone have/can point me to plans?

How is the search going? I know where there are plans and relatively complete build descriptions. PM me.....

[MillNut]

Thank you for the compliment,[emoji3]


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[MillNut]

It was a drop I had from another project. [emoji41]


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[noah katz]

Nice!

Isn't that like $50 worth of brass in that knob?

[MillNut]

So after using the belt sander for some time now the belt tracking has become an issue. The adjuster sled works well but does not lend itself to an easy implementation for tracking adjustment.

Turning the belt by hand and having the pulley loose I could see how angling the shaft up or down affected tracking. Surprisingly moving the shaft horizontally also tweaked the tracking right on the money. This was a little challenging to keep a tracking mechanism pretty simple.

I decided to try putting the pulley shaft on spherical washers and use a plate with 3 screws 120degrees apart to tweak the pitch and yaw. This worked out well as the belt tracks right on now.[emoji3]

I also made a knurled brass knob to tighten the pulley shaft.





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[QSIMDO]

Cool, thanks!

[MillNut]

Belt grinder plans?

One other note, the bore for the lock nut was originally round. The alignment was a little off between the heights of the sled and the mounting block causing the adjuster to bind. I "slotted" the bore about 0.005" each side of center so the nut would "float" in the height direction. That solved the binding issue.


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[MillNut]

Thanks for the compliment! Glad I could help!.[emoji41]

Here is a drawing of the tension sled and the adjust bolt and nut. The "nut" on the bottom of the tension screw bottoms out in the thumb wheel. The shoulder is about 0.005" longer than the mounting block. To adjust the belt I only have to loosen the belt shaft bolt enough for the sled to move up and down.






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[QSIMDO]

I may have to flatter you by swiping your tensioner design.
That's slick.
I came up with the same solution to tightening the drive wheel grub screws too!

[MillNut]

Finally finished mine belt grinder enough to make use of it. I still need to make a belt guard for the top pulley and a proper base for it but it is up and running.[emoji1]










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[Danl]

Here you can buy some parts for your DIY belt grinder build: http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/index.php?cPath=659_775

Dan L

[Black Forest]

This is a simple belt grinder I built. I have built several belt grinders in the 2" x 72" category. Previous builds used a swing arm type belt tension as in the KMG type. I didn't really like it. So on this one I used a telescoping tension arm. It only takes a few seconds to change a belt. I built all the wheels. The big drive wheel is made from steel and I knurled the surface to give a little more traction to the belt. The plan has always been to mount a VFD to vary the belt speed but haven't done that yet. This arrangement is good for course belts. If memory serves me right it has just over 4500 SFM. I am more of a fabricator than a machinist so it serves me well. I don't think this design would scale well to a 6" belt. The axles would need to be supported on both ends.

[MillNut]

Belt grinder plans?

Here are a couple of pics of the "Gemco" grinders which were the inspiration for what I designed. I prefer them to the Burr Kings. The BKs take more metal faster but the Gemcos have better feel. Just my weird preference.[emoji1] The motor is down low so the grinder has to go on a stand. I am cramped for space so I decided to move the motor up.




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[MillNut]

Sorry for the delay in replying![emoji848] For some reason the thread is not showing up in my feed on Tapatalk.[emoji33]

The vertical column is 3/4" 6061-T6. Approximately 22" tall by 4" wide. I squared up both sides and one face. Not sure if I will square up other face as that side will see all the abrasive.

The adjuster is only for tension. I made the upper pulley and put 2 deg of crown on it. There is a flat in the center of the pulley which may have to go away. There is no crown on the lower pulley. I made the groove 1 belt thickness deep. Hopefully it is enough to keep the belt in place. I may make a new upper pulley with the same groove design as the lower, the new one would be steel of course.

The platen is 1/2" thick mild steel. I still need to machine an arc in the mast so the platen can rotate down 45 deg because you just never know right? [emoji851] The belt backer is 1/2" mild steel as well( not pictured).

Once I have it wired up and running I will make some sort of guard for it. The design intent is to radius the top and bottom of the mast- should make for a fun sheet metal project.[emoji12] Once the bugs are worked out I will have the steel parts Black Ox'd and maybe the aluminum anodized. Gotta look good while getting dirty!.[emoji1]

I will post more as I progress with it. It is way over kill for a belt grinder, but my experience with tooling and fixtures has proven many times A) Make it adjustable and B) Make it robust unless you want to make it again. We have BurrKings here at work as well as these really robust 1" belt grinders. I have always wanted one like our 1" but didn't like the price. The Kalamazoo's are decent but not as well built as this one at work. So when you are cheap and have free time....


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