are my belts supposed to jump like this?

U

Uhurungus

Joined
Jan 8, 2015
Messages
62
i bought a bunch of belts from Tru-grit, the low end ceramic ones. the 60grit is great. the 120 grit is ok. the 220 and 320 belts have such a bad splice in them i can't keep my knife on the platen. literally the blade jumps all over the place. i've tried multiple different belts.

do i have any right to contact them asking for replacement? or did i do this to myself ordering the cheap belts? or could it be my machine? one way or another something will need to change as i will not be able to finish blades like this.
 
Compare the splices of the "good" ones to the ones that jump.

Some may be lap (overlapped ends) jointed.....they will do that....
 
Have you checked belt tension? I've noticed actual belt length varies a lot depending on the batch. The HF actually has a belt tensioning mechanism separate from the tracking adjustment, the nut that it pivots around comes overtightened and the spring is pretty weak.
 
Welcome to my world! I have the same problem with my Craftsman. Sure would be nice to have a KMG or Esteem where you could get good belts, but it's not in the budget right now. I don't know if the problem is due to the grinder or cheap belts or both, but I get belt bump on the higher grits. I solved the problem by putting a leather cover over the platen when I'm using the higher grit belts. I made it so that it wraps around the the top lug that is used to hold the side cover on and snaps back on itself and then just hangs down over the platen (see photo). The side cover is long gone from mine.

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If you want better belts, do what I did.. take your 2x42 and cut it about 3" below the top wheel. Then get a 2 ft piece of angle (2"x2") or (1.5"x1.5") iron from your local hardware store. Attach to the back and sides of the 2x42 bottom. Get a 2x72 belt to test tension and then just drill holes to bolt the top part to the angle iron.
Now you can move it up to a 2x72 or back to a 2x42. Easy peasy. All you need is a hacksaw/angle grinder, Drill, 4-6 bolts/nuts/washers and a piece of sturdy angle iron.

Here is mine. I added a bigger platten and rest. I have an extra piece of angle iron going the opposite way on the back so I could attach my rest, and for extra rigidity. The main piece I did have to notch so I could get back to a 2x42, to fit around the tension arm.

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I know when I used the Norton Gator belts in finer grits on my Craftsman 2x42 it felt like I was driving a car 90 mph through a rock pile. They were just incredibly bumpy to the point where I couldn't use them. Those were the A45 grits. The A100 worked fine and the same cheap ceramic belts that you are using in the larger grits worked fine with no bumping. I'm not sure why the finer grits did that but it had nothing to do with the quality of the belts.
 
The Merit 220 and 320 you have are aluminum oxide belts and would be good for slack belt grinding and sanding.

Sometimes cheap belts bump at the splice.
 
i too have a crafstman 2 x 42. i do have a couple of the 240g "Gators" that i haven't tried yet. i'll see what happens tomorrow and report back.

hawk45 - that's a great mod! would you be able to take a few more detailed pics for me of the nitty gritty up close? i'm pretty handy but metal work of all kinds is pretty new to me so that's kinda scary but i'd totally do it.

ncbiker - how does the leather affect your grinds other than make is smoother? i tried messing around with different platens and positions and found that without variable speed on our craftsman, it's all about pressure. do you find your edges digging in without the ceramic surface?

edit: the gator belt i tried is still chippy but not as bad. i'll chalk it up to being frugal at the wrong time.
 
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Uhurungus said:
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ncbiker - how does the leather affect your grinds other than make is smoother? i tried messing around with different platens and positions and found that without variable speed on our craftsman, it's all about pressure. do you find your edges digging in without the ceramic surface?

edit: the gator belt i tried is still chippy but not as bad. i'll chalk it up to being frugal at the wrong time.
Click to expand...

No problems, the leather backing works well.
 
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