Belt grinder on a budget...DONE!

Z

z537z

Joined
Apr 14, 2004
Messages
336
I FINALLY got my Kalamazoo 2x48 belt grinder, for a little over 200 shipped.

I had the GREAT fortune of getting a 1HP Baldor motor for just the cost of shipping (it's heavy, but still a great deal), so today I had to put it all together. First I reversed the rotation and set it up for 115V so it all went the right way (not sutoo bad, though I had to do some major re-wiring).

The grinder has a pulley and a belt with it, so all that was left to be done was removing the stupid yellow shield from the unit.
The motor has a 5/8" keyed shaft, and it took me almost 3 hours driving around town today to find a drive pulley for it, but I finally happened upon Grainger and it turns out my college even gets a discount, so 10$ later I had the pulley and key in hand.

A trip to Home Depot set me up with a precut piece of MDF and the needed nuts and bolts for about 20$, then a couple bucks later I had two small right-angle framing strongties and I was almost good to go.
A drill bit purchase and I was ready to start.

The motor is a 56C mount, so there's no easy way to keep it from jerking around (capacitor start) when you turn it on. After cutting (my Dremel tool is worth its weight in GOLD!) the strongties up to fit the motor, I drilled a couple of holes, screwed the brackets in with drywall screws (cut off the excess sticking through the bottom with Dremel) and screwed the 3/8" hex bolts to the face. Voila! It doesn't move at ALL now.

Next I drilled two holes for each of the mounting bolts on the grinder, and jigsawed out slots inbetween them so I could adjust it for belt tension.

And here I am, with a belt grinder, fully functional and ready to take all the belts I got for it.

You'll notice a hint of how I'm doing with my first (ever!) knife on the MDF.
Not too bad for a kid with basic tools in an apt. working on his porch couch for a day, eh? :D

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All totalled I spent around 300$, and got a 1HP grinder and 60 grit 3M 977 ceramic belts will fit it, so rock on!

I can't wait to get started this weekend.

Thanks for lookin

_z
 
You might have something there, a nice couch or loveseat to use while grinding. Would need to be pretty flame retardant, but for the more lazy, err, motivationally challenged makers out there.... Congrats though, and good luck... -MJ
 
Having JUST used a KMG grinder this past weekend, I can pretty well compare the Kalamazoo for you people interested in a cheaper grinder.

Firstly, this machine is clearly not meant for precision work, but more industrial oriented stuff. The fairly crude construction of the base, and the simple grey paint everywhere yells utilitarian, whereas the KMG's nice brushed aluminum look is something to be desire.

Belt change is ok, but not great. In order to change a belt, you must loosen the knob holding the top wheel in place. The problem with this is that this knob also holds the wheel's angle, which controls belt walking. You have to loosen the knob, physically rotate the shaft holding the top wheel to get the belt where you want it, then tighten the knob. This is not really quick enough a process to do while the machine is running, so you hand crank the belt around, until you get it about right, and tighten it up, then adjust it a smidgen while the motor's running if need be.
It will hold its course well, but it takes a minute of doin to get it there. The KMG you just push down on a lever, change the belts, and adjust a knob to track the belt into place while it's running, easy as pie.

If the KMG basic model is 600$, then 200 for this machine is about right, if not a little high. It's not customizable unless you use your own craftiness, and it's fairly crude in fit and finish overall, but you get what you pay for, relatively.

However, it will do the trick. My plan is to go BACK to the hardware store and come up with a way to fit a small radius wheel to the top for my small-radius handle grinding needs. I'll look into this more later,

The thing that bothers me most is the flat grinding support is actually not parallel to the belt's path with the yellow guard taken off. It still works ok, but the belt must warp a bit to ride flat on the support.

The table is about what I'd expect from a basic power tool, not great but works fine with no complaints.

It's a good grinder for a budget, but I'd reccomend a higher quality product for any serious knife-making needs, as it's got way more options, and will probably treat you better.



Hope that helps some newbies with their decision.

_z
 
That grinding stool rocks! :D

Good luck and have fun. :cool:
 
Why do you have the grinder mounted so far away form you????? You need the grinder up close to you to use your body to control the grind.....Also you were speaking about changeing belt.......I think there maybe a spring under the wheel,push the whole top unit down......The one I seen had this
 
I'm also planning a first grinder. Is it as easy as a new piece of tubing to convert yours to 2x72?
 
The spring is under the knob, yes, but you can't plunge the unit down w/o loosening the knob first.


In order to make this into a 2x72, you'd have to do a good deal of custom work. For one, the "tube" is actually a solid piece, as there's a notch machined out of it for the knob to tighten into. Secondly, the spindle of the top wheel is held in with a hex set screw from the top, and after removing that you still need to hammer (a LOT) in order to get the spindle out of there, it's pressed in.
But if you have CNC access it could be done fairly easily after looking at the stock shaft.

I set it way back just to conserve as much MDF as possible, I'm going to cut off the extra once I get my hands on a circular or other saw that'll cut a decently straight line.

The grinder also can be set horizontally in either direction, or any angle inbetween the 180* of rotation it is capable of, which is nice for slack grinding, and using the bottom 8" contact wheel.

_z
 
What might be easier then extending the tube section would be to get a 3rd wheel, and fabricate an arm off the back. Though, with it costing 200 bucks, if you are looking to put more work/money in it, might just want to spend the money and get the Grizzly 2x72, or Kalamazoo's 2x72. I think Grizzly's is selling for $340 right now, dunno about Kalamazoo's... -MJ
 
Yeah, a 2x72 might be nice, but I actually found that the 3M Regaloy (977) in 60 grit bites hard enough to grind a big knife out of my A2 in no time.
I gotta grab a respirator before I do any more, though, because with heavy grinding (on the blade) you can smell the fumes of stuff heating up, let alone the dust particles everywhere.

Though the grinder works really well. Actually belt change is fairly simple, only takes me about 15 seconds now. Belts run straight fairly easily.
I could only find the ceramic stuff in 6x48", it's a pain in the rear to cut up into thirds but it worked great once it was done (You can slice the 220 grit with a utility knife, but for the coarse grit use scissors, I was dumb enough to try and cut it with a knife, which it quickly ground down).

You can probably much more easily fabricate another arm rather than extending the stock one. It doesn't HAVE to have a slot machined into it for the knob to work, but it'd be more reliable that way.
This is probably what I'll end up trying at some point, though without a drill press it's kinda hard, ie impossible, to make anything that'll work well.

I thought about Kalamazoo's 2x72, but it's a LOT more money, and Grizzly's gets OK reviews, and the motor just doesn't compare to a 1 horse. I'm happy with my decision, it works great for what I need, which is occasional knife use, but lots of around the house/car/shop stuff too.

_z
 
MJ Hofbauer said:
What might be easier then extending the tube section would be to get a 3rd wheel, and fabricate an arm off the back.... -MJ
Click to expand...
MJ,
I was just playing around with that idea myself. The extra wheel could probably be made to control the tracking also:
5mwtty

One of these might work for the wheel and the price is not too bad.

_z,

Nice job setting it all up. That platen looks a little wide and might cause some problems with your plunge cuts. You might want to look at getting a 2" wide piece of pyroceramic material and attaching it to the platen.

Regards,
Greg.
 
Yes, the platen is wide for plunge cuts, which really gets my goat.
But a little boost outward with ceramic or whatever will fix that problem soon enough.

I like the idea of a 3rd wheel, though it does seem unecessary now that I've gotten a bunch of 48" belts. It works fine for what I need right now, minus the platen (I forgot what it was called in my original post, I believe I used "flat grinding support" but whatever).

I'll make a stop at the Depot, and drill a couple holes, countersink whatever I'm using and flush screw it into the existing platen for good accurate plunge cuts (I'll use panhead machine screws so I can have a nut on the other side). I LIVE at Home Depot now :D.

Thanks for all the ideas, hope this thread answers people's questions about this grinder.

_z
 
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