KMG Grinder issues, please help.(fixed thanks!)

JG, A couple things may be wrong with your setup in my opinion. First, you need to get the belt centered on tracking wheel and the drive wheel and forget about the platen for a moment. Once you do that then look at the position of the belt on the platen. If it is way to the right then you need to move the platen to line up with the other two wheels by putting a spacer between the tool arm and the platen...you can use washers to make a space between the tool arm and the platen mount. Now is every thing ok or is the tracking canted to the right a bit? Then use machine bushings which look like washers but are smaller in diameter so as to not touch the outside of the tracking wheel bearings between the tracking wheel and the tracking arm. Make all these adjustments with the tracking arm under enough tension to be about level. The drive wheel, tracking wheel, and the contact wheel have to be in line so use a straightedge and a reference point on your grinder to measure to the center of all three wheels (or platen) and adjust the tracking wheel spacing and the platen spacing; your drive wheel will be the constant thing. Here is picture of my KMG Tracking wheel showing machine bushings installed to help everything line up. Also, why do you want to run your belt backwards? Don't do it.
dtIV885.jpg
 
NickWheeler said:
I agree with PT Doc about the position of the tracking wheel arm... and since I don't quite understand your response, I'll post a couple pics to illustrate my perspective here. :)

In your pics, it appears your tracking wheel arm is like this---
medium800.jpg


That will never track true and will cause all kinds of belt drift when you start grinding.

You want it like this (or even further down if you can manage it)--- LOTS of tension on the belt!
medium800.jpg



You can't just push the arm down and change belts with it that way, you have to loosen the tooling arm bolt, then push down on the tracking wheel arm and pull the tooling arm out as far as possible, then tighten the bolt.

Some guys have given me flack over this, but it only takes a second once you get used to doing it, and it will make the belt track true. :)
Click to expand...

Thank you for the illustration Nick, you always have a way of explaining things in a way I can understand.

I did as you suggested and pushed the tracking wheel arm all the way down until it bottomed out, then tightened the tool arm down. It pretty much solved the problem. My only concern is that the belt hangs of of the tracking wheel on the right. I'm not sure if this is okay or not. It runs centered on the small wheel though. Here's a pic of it running:

 
I would guess that you drive wheel is not where it needs to be.

As stated before, measure the width of each wheel. Find the center line. Measure to a constant such as the outside of the tool arm. You will have to extrapolate for the drive wheel since the tool arm does not go back that far. Align the centerlines. If you have further problems, Rob has an instruction sheet on how to further adjust. He might not want to give it to you though. ;)
 
Yea, from the photo, I would guess your drive wheel is shifted to one side.

Think of it this way--- in a perfectly aligned set-up, if you took a string and ran it around the wheels, it would lay perfectly on the center of each wheel.


Now if this were one of my KMGs, I would also check to see if the small wheel attachment is kicked over to one side...but yours looks different than mine, so that might not even be a possibility on yours.

I would adjust the drive wheel side to side before I would try adding shims to the tracking wheel, but if the other things fail... then the shimmed out tracking wheel like Larry showed would certainly push the tracking wheel in line with your drive wheel and small wheel (with everything else remaining the same as your pic).
 
I don't run a KMG, but from the photo, I don't think the problem is the drive or tracking wheel. It looks like the small wheel arm is set up for a different grinder. It appears to be on the arm too far right, thus being way out of line with the tracking wheel.

Put a different arm or wheel on and see if the belt aligns properly. You may have to re-drill the small wheel attachment to move it over on the arm.

Added:
Measure from the tooling arm to the center of the small wheel roller. Drop a straig
 
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Insert your tool arm from behind an it will be easier to see if the wheels are on center with each other
 
Thanks for your help Larry/PT Doc. I appreciate it
Larry-
It appears as though the center line of the tracking wheel is to the left of the center line of the drive wheel. If I'm understanding you correctly I would need to use you washer method to move the tracking wheel to the right to line up with the drive wheel. Would I just need to unscrew the bolt holding the tracking wheel in and then stack washers on the inside of the tracking wheel until the lines are centered and belt runs more centered on the tracking wheel? Do you know the specs on those washers? Do you think that would be something that they'd have at big box stores(home depot, lowes, etc...)?

PT Doc- I went down and measured the width of both wheels and determined the center of both. The problem came when trying to mark the center line. The sides of the wheels are beveled and therefor, when I tried to rest the blade of my calipers on the side/center it would just ride up onto the wheel. I did do my best to approximate and it does seem as though the tracking wheel sits further to the left(towards the machine) than the drive wheel. Am I correct in assuming that I would need to "extrapolate for the drive wheel" by using the washer method Larry spoke about to move the tracking wheel to the right(in line with the drive wheel)?

Are these the bushings I'm going to need?:
http://usaknifemaker.com/grinders-s...99-59/machinery-bushing-1-2-by-14ga-10pk.html

I tried to loosen the bolt that holds the tracking wheel in and it isn't budging. I didn't put a ton of force into it because I didn't want to mess something up. Am I missing something? Is there a set screw?
 
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NickWheeler said:
Yea, from the photo, I would guess your drive wheel is shifted to one side.

Think of it this way--- in a perfectly aligned set-up, if you took a string and ran it around the wheels, it would lay perfectly on the center of each wheel.


Now if this were one of my KMGs, I would also check to see if the small wheel attachment is kicked over to one side...but yours looks different than mine, so that might not even be a possibility on yours.

I would adjust the drive wheel side to side before I would try adding shims to the tracking wheel, but if the other things fail... then the shimmed out tracking wheel like Larry showed would certainly push the tracking wheel in line with your drive wheel and small wheel (with everything else remaining the same as your pic).
Click to expand...

I think you're right, it seems the drive wheel and tracking wheel are out of alignment. The drive wheel is further out to the right than the tracking wheel.

How do you adjust the drive wheel? Sorry, this is probably a simple thing to do but there are no instructions with this thing so I want to make sure. I just looked at it and it seems as though it is a little bit more involved than the tracking wheel. Thanks Nick

It's kind of frustrating that Beaumont doesn't even have an instruction manual for this grinder available. It doesn't even look like their website is working right now. Not everyone is a machinist or engineer. Urghh....
 
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Congratulations on your new grinder . . .

Belt Tension . . . As shown by Nick, you want MORE . . . almost horizontal . . .

I see you have a PowerTwist Drive Belt . . . it is quieter, you will like it. . .

Steve
 
JG Custom Metal Works said:
I think you're right, it seems the drive wheel and tracking wheel are out of alignment. The drive wheel is further out to the right than the tracking wheel.

How do you adjust the drive wheel? Sorry, this is probably a simple thing to do but there are no instructions with this thing so I want to make sure. I just looked at it and it seems as though it is a little bit more involved than the tracking wheel. Thanks Nick

It's kind of frustrating that Beaumont doesn't even have an instruction manual for this grinder available. It doesn't even look like their website is working right now. Not everyone is a machinist or engineer. Urghh....
Click to expand...

E-mail me with your phone number before you lose it. . . I just went through all this . . . like 2 days ago . . .
 
bladsmth said:
I don't run a KMG, but from the photo, I don't think the problem is the drive or tracking wheel. It looks like the small wheel arm is set up for a different grinder. It appears to be on the arm too far right, thus being way out of line with the tracking wheel.

Put a different arm or wheel on and see if the belt aligns properly. You may have to re-drill the small wheel attachment to move it over on the arm.

Added:
Measure from the tooling arm to the center of the small wheel roller. Drop a straig
Click to expand...

The problem is is that it does the same thing with the platen attachment. That leads me to believe that the wheels are off.

Right now I'm just trying to figure out how to adjust the tracking wheel and drive wheel. I have the bushings but don't want to just start cranking on bolts until I know what I'm doing.

To top everything off Beaumont's website is down. No instructions, no manual, no website, no FAQs section. This is terribly frustrating. If it wasn't for you guys I'd be screwed all together.
 
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photo_zpsf6091eb3.jpg




In that photo

It looks as if the whole arm and support assembly are off to the motor side instead of on the edge of the belt side.


I'd unbolt the receiver tube, and take that arm and support off of it.

Flip the receiver top plate over so the holes are biased towards the opposite side and reattach the support arm and arm.
 
My 2 cents . . . actually it looks exactly like mine. When the tracking wheel is set correctly the tracking adjustment screw barely breaks the surface of the right side.

I'm just saying because I just went through all this & I can assure you your tracking screw is screwed in way to much.
 
Mr. Frink has this thing designed where there is VERY LITTLE room to screw up . . . I got mine up and that is proof enough . . .:)

Steve
 
The tension arm & the spring pillar should be toward the left side when facing the grinder.
 
All is right in the world. I adjusted the drive wheel in and out, along with the tracking wheel, until things were lined up. I shimmed the tracking wheel with only 3-4 bushings. Both the samll wheel and the flat platen track good now(as far as I can tell). Here's a couple pics of things now.



 
My guess is that you could have accomplished good tracking with just movement of the drive wheel. Good to hear you are all set up though. Go grind something and watch that grin.

I think the issue with trying to get your alignment right with the small wheel attachment is that there is play with how the attachment is mounted in the tool arm. Unless you used something like a 123 block, the swa axis of rotation is not likely parallel to the axis of the other 2 wheels. Starting with a large contact wheel or the flat platen is a better starting point.
 
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