Belt Grinder Life

J

jimbowie7

Joined
Mar 13, 2005
Messages
90
How long have you being using your belt grinder?

Brand?

At what point does the contact wheel need resurfacing? How many years?

I have a KMG, used it for a year and it still feels like it's new. :D
 
Sounds typical KMG for ya. Built to last. They are a great machine and should last a LONG, LONG time.

Shane
 
A KMG should live as long as you want it to. Only the bearings and platen should really weare and they're easily replacable.
 
At what point does the contact wheel need resurfacing? How many years?
Click to expand...

Good question...tough to answer directly....but I'll share my thoughts. I used to fit the KMG with a multi-piece contact wheel that has an interchangeable tire. The idea is that, when needed, you can simply change the tire. After a few years, I realized that knifemakers do not wear out contact wheels and really didn't have a need for replaceable tires. Because of this, I've switched to a one-piece, CNC machined billet wheel which runs smoother and more true. I have never had a worn-out contact wheel returned for resurfacing...ever. The oldest wheels are about 5 years old now. There was a case where a wheel was wrecked due to abuse or in-experience and the edge was cut.

Rubber contact wheels can be trued up. When I true-up a wheel, I'll run the grinder with a split belt...maybe 1/2" - 3/4" wide. This exposes most of the face of the contact wheel. With the workrsest to steady my hand, I'll lightly shave the face of the wheel with a sharpened lathe tool bit to level any high spots. Track the belt from edge to edge to expose the wheel. Then use a sanding block with 60-80 grit to smooth the face, removing the tool marks from shaving.
 
The oldest one I have is a Wilton Square Wheel....been in service for 22+ years. I've been through three sets of bearings, and I'm on my thrid set of contact wheels, and my third idler pulley. All things considered, that is an outstanding record for a piece of equipment that has been used as hard as it has. It's still on the origonal 1hp baldor motor.

I've had my KMG for about three years now, and simply cannot say enough about it! I'm sure, as with any machine it will eventually need bearings and contact wheels repalced, but that's to be expected. So far it's experienced more grinding than my square wheel did in the first ten years, and just keeps on going.......and going.....and going.... :thumbup::):thumbup:
 
I have a Baldor 2x72 grinder (simply a strethced version of their 2 x 48 with a 2 hp DC motor) that's been running strong in my shop, and came from an industrial setting where it was run every day to clean castings for 20+ years. I've got it jerry rigged, and hot wired, but other than replacing a switch, it's been running for litteraly thousands of hours between my shop and the last one (probably 500-1000 hours a year previously)

I did resurface the contact wheel when I got it, but since the wheel is driven, I just used a file to true it up, I don't do any hollow grinding, so it's only used for hogging steel either in profiling or grinding other stuff. (I don't make that many knives, but I use the grinder a LOT)

Tony
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top