Finished building a 2x72" belt grinder.

[bobtheaxolotl]

Here it is. After a couple months of accumulating parts, cutting, drilling, bolting, and tapping, I finished my grinder. Much swearing was involved, but in the end, the damned thing actually worked as intended. No welds here. Everything is held together with nuts and bolts. The tracking, idler, and drive wheels, as well as the platen assembly were purchased from Oregon Blade Maker on eBay. The frame and tension arm I built from some square tube and flat stock from the hardware store. The tracking mechanism is a door hinge and a knob with a threaded rod, that fits through a a hole I drilled and tapped.

This is the second motor I've installed for it, the first being a treadmill motor (along with its power supply and main board), which crapped out approximately one half hour after I finished the grinder. The current motor is a single phase 1.5hp motor that had a previous life powering a mill. Plenty of grunt to get the job done.

It's all mounted on wood, so I have to readjust occasionally, but all in all, it works great. Going from my old perhaps 1/3rd HP 4x36" belt sander to this was like going from a Honda Civic to a Bugatti Veyron.

Lemme know what you think. Cheers.

 

[David LaFerney]

Looks good - let's see some knives!

 

[Savagehunter1]

How do you line up all the wheels im having trouble with mine . I did weld mine and its all been easy but i need a way or ideas on how to alighn the wheels for the belt to run right . Yours looks really nice mine looks good but i havent finished it i need to align the wheels .

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Overall, the design looks OK. The use of available materials is obvious. I'm guessing Home Depot or Lowes


The thing that concerns me is it looks a bit light weight ( I almost said flimsy) . It is held together with 1/4" bolts and nuts, and the arms are pretty light gauge. The uprights should be much heavier, and the small "L" brackets holding it down ( plus the particle board base they are screwed to) all indicate that things are likely to come loose, bend, wobble, and tracking may become a problem. I hope I am wrong on most of this, but I have real doubts.

The first fix would be to bolt everything down on a heavier base. A 1/4" steel plate would be best, but laminating up two 2X12's with bottom 2X4 braces could work. Use 3/8" to 1/2" bolts to bolt everything to it.
The 1X1/8" uprights should be at least 3/8" thick.

If you can't change the bolts used throughout the build to larger bolts, I suggest backing the nuts off and applying Loctite to every nut, then re-tightening it good and tight. suggest