I - hate - my - grinder!!

anvilring

anvilring

Joined
Nov 29, 2000
Messages
2,869
I have a Bader III variable speed w/2hp motor.... and lots of cool wheels'n stuff.... and with the flat platen attached or any thing else for that matter attached, it wanders back and forth on any speed. I hate it. I hate my grinder. I've made sure everything is tight, I've put the belts on w/such tension it's hard to get them on the damned machine; and nothing seems to solve this problem. It still grinds great blades but not w/o a lot of constant adjustment and dicking about. Anyone else have one of these machines w/this problem?

regards, m
 
Anvilring, Your problem may be due to the contact wheel not being square with the drive wheel or/and idler wheel. I had this problem on a KMG grinder where I made the toolbar and drilled and tapped it by hand. It was not perfectly square, I thought, so I took the toolbar to a machinist friend and ask him to bore and tap a new hole at the other end of the toolbar which he did on his mill. That cured most of the problem but tracking still wasn't perfect so I experimented with machine bushings on the idler wheel until the belt rode in the very middle of the drive wheel and the idler wheel...then I put just enough machine bushings on the contact wheel to place the belt dead center on it as well. On your Bader you could take a small metal square and check the drive wheel against the frame and then the idler against the frame first. You might have to take off the drive wheel and put the square against the motor shaft and frame to check squareness. After all, we are talking about three wheels that have to be parallel to each other and spaced the same distance from the frame for the belt to track true. I hope this gives you a possible solution. Larry
 
What belts are you using?
 
Mine kept doing that. The bolt holding the tension arm was a little loose. I eventually bought a TW-90 and that permanently solved the problem.
 
I have a B-III and it tracks perfectly. I suggest calling Bader and asking for Doug. He knows his stuff and doesn't mind answering questions.
 
+1 to what AVigil said. Try a different brand of belts, and a little less belt tension. If that does not solve the problem, I would check the tracking wheel and the drive wheel with a dial indicator. It could be a loose mounting bolt, bent shaft, bad bearing, poorly made wheel, or just something that's worn out of round. If this has been a problem since the beginning with the machine, it might be a warranty issue. The Bader III in our shop tracks perfectly with the flat platen and the small wheels, can't say much about the contact wheel, we use that so rarely.
 
Something is outta Line I just replaced the drive wheel on mine does the same thing wonders all over the place , adjusted the drive wheel in and belt tracks true again ...wanna sell that Vader let me know it's a great grinder
 
If you have used it for a while - lots of miles on it - send the tracking wheel to Bader to be re-crowned. They're only aluminum.
They do it for 20 bucks and do it as an immediate turn-around on shipping so you're not without the machine all that long.
I've probably done that 4-5 times in the dozen years I've had mine. I even got an extra tracking wheel so I always have a spare waiting so I don't have any down-time.
It's then like a new grinder.
 
The tracking wheel axle came loose on mine and caused those type of issues.
 
Ok so I'll go check out some of the suggestions here... belts are new: Hermes, Klingspore and so on. Good belts. Tension on belts is "high".
 
Is the drive wheel set screw tight?
 
On a well used machine things wear. The places to start looking are the things that wear. Start with taking the belt off and trying to wiggle all the wheels and parts. If anything moves side to side or up and down, a shaft, bolt, or bearing is worn. Replace it. Bearings can't spin forever without getting worn. Once they are worn, the wheels aren't aligned right, when the wheels aren't aligned right, the belt wobbles.

The idler wheel crown and bearing are my bet for your problem. The top wheel on a flat platen also gets worn bearings. If it seems a little sloppy, just replace both wheels on it.
 
Mine ran perfectly with the contact wheel, and was all over the place with the platen. Ridge of masking tape on the idler wheel sorted it (I didn't know about the recrowning service). If you do that it'll at least tell you if that's the problem.
Crud buildup on any of the wheels will make it run weird as well.
 
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