Any practical way to slow down my belt grinder?

[Bo T]

Hey guys. I have the venerable 1"x30" HF grinder and I'm wondering if any of you have any ideas about how to slow it down.
I'm not gonna buy a vfd for it any time soon.
Thanks!

Nope. The drive wheel is lightweight plastic. No way to trim it down without compromising the strength. You could wrap the aluminum idlers with tape to increase their size but only by 1/4" or so. If you found a smaller drive wheel that would fit you'ld need to remove the housing to take up the slack using the idlers. One person used a variable speed band saw that they made into a grinder. They had to make their own belts though.

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

Amen brother!

Btw Chris, I haven't forgotten about you. I've asked the store owner at that Surplus store to see if they can get more of the translucent Ark stones. She actually said that she might be able to, and if she does you're first on my list.

Thank you very much!

 

[Omega Leather Works]

What if I mounted something to the frame that put friction on the wheel to slow it down?


I'm kidding.

And after all of this I just realized that my grinder is a Delta not the HF model. I do have a 4" HF grinder, that's probably how I confused the situation. Still, they are probably very similar.

 

[TwinStick]

I have a 1x30 & 4x36 w/6"disc HF sanders. It dont take much at all to slow them down when sharpening a big chopper. I can stop both easily by applying too much/hardly any pressure.