Modifying My Grinder

O

otpowell

Joined
Jun 26, 2013
Messages
39
So after 2 years of trying to get my belt grinder to work, various models and rough drafts, I have it looking pretty good but I always tried to cheap out on buying expensive contact, tracking, and idler wheels. I'm sick of messing with this thing and have been using treadmill rollers with high speed bearings for the past year. Well, the wheels are acting up and I am exploring my options on usaknifemaker.com. I have about a 300 dollar budget to buy wheels. I already have a drive wheel which I took off of the treadmill. I will get the aluminum tracking wheel with a crown, as for my idler wheels, should I get the poly or just straight aluminum? I already have a 4in contact wheel if I want to switch my two idler wheels out and just use one contact wheel to grind on. The purpose of the poly idler wheels, is if you want to grind directly on the wheel and apply pressure, correct? My primary use for idler will be for slack grinding so I'm thinking about getting the aluminum so I don't have to worry about the poly wearing down.



 
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The 4" contract wheel is a very small wheel to do grinds with. A 10" or even 12" are far more useful. Steel idler wheels will work until you want to grind on them for a curve. I have the bottom one in steel and the upper one is about an 80 duro one I believe. Frank
 
I use the 2 inch poly wheels on my platen because having a 2 inch wheel that you can grind against is super handy for a few things, such as handle curves, or hollow grinding the centres of tangs for epoxy prep. Now that I have poly I would never go to aluminum.
 
Here.. check out my NWG grinder I built.. I used longboard wheels that are still working great and running true. The brand I used are called "Abec 11 Grippins" and you can get a set of 4 off of fleabay that come with good bearings as well (some of them do anyway) that only costs about $40. I used 3 of them, 2 for my platen, and 1 for my tracking wheel, so I have an extra just incase I need one. I just used some eletrical tape on the tracking wheel and it tracks great. Here is a video of my grinder running and showing the tracking accuracy. They also make great contact wheels, and they come in diff durometers as well. I actually found out about this idea from another guy on a different forum who did a WIP on his grinder.. "Bashup's Grinder build" I think it was called. I emailed him curious if these wheels he used were any good (Abec 11 Grippins) and he said that he's still using them, even years later after that build. I made a comment to him saying that I would eventually upgrade to "normal idlers", to which he replied, "there is absulutely no need to." And he was right! These wheels and bearings are meant to take a lot of abuse being that they are used on longboards, which take a lot of abuse while being ridden down steep hills as well as over rough/ bumpy terrain etc etc.. So they are meant to take high speeds as well as plently of impact. Anyway, here's the link to my video.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNMuKGMcqlc&feature=c4-overview&list=UU2rJM5fwM7F-Fy9E74-fYSQ Also, incase you are considering using these, the bearings take 5/16" bolts, and pretty much all longboards and skateboards use the same size bearings so you can find them very easily if the wheels you get don't come with bearings, or if you want to buy them seperately and get a higher quality type or w/e. My bearing are like "abec 9s" I think, (abec is also a rating that is used in skate/longboard bearings). Alright, well I hope this helps some :) Good luck man! and take care! :)

(edit: oh yea, and you don't have to worry about these wearing down, maybe over a number of years after quite a bit of hard use, but that's it. Also FYI, the longboard wheels are made from polyurathane as well,, the same material as the commercial grade grinding wheels, unless you opt to use the very pricey rubber ones)

-Paul
___________________
(some of my knives etc. www.youtube.com/Lsubslimed)
 
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coldsteelburns said:
Here.. check out my NWG grinder build.. I used longboard wheels that are still working great and running true. The brand I used are called "Abec 11 Grippins" and you can get a set of 4 off of fleabay that come with good bearings as well (some of them do anyway) that only costs about $40. I used 3 of them, 2 for my platen, and 1 for my tracking wheel, some I have an extra just incase I need one. I just used some eletrical tape on the tracking wheel and it tracks great. Here is a video of my grinder running and showing the tracking accuracy. They also make great contact wheels, and they come is diff durometers as well I actually found out about this idea from another guy on a different forum who did a WIP on his grinder.. "Bashup's Grinder build" I think it was called. I emailed him curious if these wheels he used were any good (Abec 11 Grippins) and he said that he's still using them, even years later after that build. I made a comment to him saying that I would eventually upgrade to "normal idlers", to which he replied, "there is absulutely no need to." And he was right! These wheels and bearings are meant to take a lot of abuse being that they are used on longboards, which take a lot of abuse while being ridden down steep hills as well as over rough/ bumpy terrain etc etc.. So they are meant to take high speeds as well as plently of impact. Anyway, here's the link to my video.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNMuKGMcqlc&feature=c4-overview&list=UU2rJM5fwM7F-Fy9E74-fYSQ Also, incase you are considering using these, the bearings take 5/16" bolts, and pretty muh all longboards and skateboards use the same size bearings so you can find them very easily if you want to buy them seperately and get a higher quality type or w/e, even though it's not all that necessary, my bearing are like "abec 9s" I thick, (abec is also a rating that is used in skate/longboard wheels. Alright, well I hope this helps some :) Good luck man! and take care! :)

(edit: oh yea, and you don't have to worry about these wearing down, maybe over a number of years after quite a bit of hard use, but thas it. Also FYI, the longboard wheels are made from polyurathane as well,, the same material as the commercial grinding wheels, unless you opt to use the very pricey rubber ones)

-Paul
___________________
(some of my knives etc. www.youtube.com/Lsubslimed)
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Wow! Thanks for the great info! I found a set on amazon and they are 40 bucks. I'm gonna buy the bones bearings because the wheels don't come with bearings. Did you buy any type of bearing lubricant or bushings to go in between the bearings. Also, I see the size on amazon 70mm but I think that is the diameter and not the width. How wide are they? Wide enough for 2" belt?
 
Hey no problem, glad I could help :) I didn't have to buy any lubricant but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt ;) I have sprayed some Ballistol in them just to be safe but they havn't shown any signs of wear etc..

As for the width of them, they are exactly 2" wide, perfect for the 2" belts. I had actually purchased a pack of bearings before I bought the wheels that came with bearings, and the pack I bought came with some "speed rings"..I think that's what they are called. But in normal people terms they came with 8 small washers/bushings which I used right up against the bearings themselves and then over those used some larger washers, not too big, but I used those as spacers for lining them up which I got from home depot. The pack of bearings also came with 4 (maybe these are the "speed rings") metal tubes (about 1/2" long) that are the same diameter as the washers they came with which I also used to help take up some of the extra space on the bolts so I didn't have to use so many washers.

And yea, the 70mm refers to the diameter of the wheels. Good luck brother and post some pics what ya get it set up!! :) Take care

-Paul
__________________
(some of my knives etc. www.youtube.com/Lsubslimed
 
The bearings are smaller than I thought. What size bolt did you use to secure it? Is 5/16 too big? Haven't had a chance to get my calipers out yet.
 
Ive used 2" diameter aluminum (6061-T6511) idler wheels for a year now and they are still running good, and showing no wear despite doing lots of profilie grinding against them. In fact my hardened tool steel platen has worn faster than the aluminum idlers. Got the aluminum from speedy metals.
 
Yes, they are 5/16", they fit perfectly. Sorry, I thought I said that in my first post. And thanks for the link Tin Man, these wheels are actually working perfectly for my grinder, though I'm sure you can deffinitely tell a difference while long boarding :)
 
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