Plans for 2"x72" Knife Grinder/Sander No welding required

hi every one, hope this helps

1611.jpg


1612.jpg


here are the pics full sized

www.jtcustomknives.com/pic/1609.jpg
www.jtcustomknives.com/pic/1610.jpg

i will get some good scans of it. i love this and it makes this super grinder even more super.
 
Anybody assemble these ? I called one guy two times and left messages....... he never called back. :confused:
 
Are you looking for help with the grinder or JT attachment?? If about the grinder just ask here or email Tracy directly he is quick to respond.
 
Or anybody else that has built one of these.

I've built My frame and I'm starting to put my wheels on and I have a few questions.
#1 How much tension should be on the belt when ready to run, Do you have a guidline as to how far the belt should deflect? IE. like a fan or alternator belt on a car?

#2 I probably know the answer is yes to this one but, on the 1/2" bolts that hold any of the contact wheels I should NOT have the threaded part of the bolt inside the contact wheel, should I?

Thanks for the help

Matt
 
matt venier said:
Or anybody else that has built one of these.

I've built My frame and I'm starting to put my wheels on and I have a few questions.
#1 How much tension should be on the belt when ready to run, Do you have a guidline as to how far the belt should deflect? IE. like a fan or alternator belt on a car?

#2 I probably know the answer is yes to this one but, on the 1/2" bolts that hold any of the contact wheels I should NOT have the threaded part of the bolt inside the contact wheel, should I?

Thanks for the help

Matt
Click to expand...

#1. I'll assume you mean drive belt. It should deflect 1/2" to 1" at most when you press down in the middle of the slack area between pulleys. Belts stretch so after running it a few hours, check the slack and tighten it up. Most belts are far too loose and you lose a major amount of power.

#2 No problem with the threads contacting the bearings. I'm sure an engineer would complain about it but practically, there is no problem with this. Finding bolts that are not threaded exactly to the length you need would be nearly impossible. IF you can find bolts that have a unthreaded shank the proper length, use them, otherwise I wouldn't worry about it at all.
 
Thanks for the reply Tracey. I actually was meaning the abrasive belts on Question #1. Any recommendations? Thanks

Matt

PS I think the plans are great, really easy to figure out and so far everything has been easy to put together. I can't wait to fire this baby up:D
 
matt venier said:
Thanks for the reply Tracey. I actually was meaning the abrasive belts on Question #1. Any recommendations? Thanks

Matt

PS I think the plans are great, really easy to figure out and so far everything has been easy to put together. I can't wait to fire this baby up:D
Click to expand...

for a belt:
the short answer is pretty tight but it depends. (of course)
Pull the tool arm out quite hard and lock it in. You have a spring especially calibrated (hah! it's a door spring!) that will do the rest. Tighter belts track better. Belts that are too loose will track fine until you put any kind of pressure on them. Then you will tighten up the belt intuitively.
 
Thanks Tracey!
I don't have the motor up and running yet but that might explain why the flat platen attachment tracks great but the 8" contact wheel is all over the road. I'm just moving the belt with my hand to see, Do you think it just a tension thing or is it possibly something else? Thank you again

Matt
 
matt venier said:
Thanks Tracey!
I don't have the motor up and running yet but that might explain why the flat platen attachment tracks great but the 8" contact wheel is all over the road. I'm just moving the belt with my hand to see, Do you think it just a tension thing or is it possibly something else? Thank you again

Matt
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I think you'll need to get it running first and then see if there is a problem. I'd bet there isn't one.

Just some general points on belt wobble. Tighter tension on a belt keeps wobble down. Some belts wobble - period. Use them up as best you can and move on. Change them out if you are working on a plunge cut to a belt that doesn't wobble. Some times a belt will work better if you switch it around to run the other direction. Some belts have arrows showing you which direction to run the belt. I quit looking at those years ago and it's never been a problem. Don't crown your contact wheel but do crown your tracking wheel.
 
Just wanted to say I just got My NWGS running and it works GREAT!!!:thumbup: Here are a few pics, it's infinitely unpretty but I build My tools to do the job. The knives I try to make good lookin':D
frankengrinder1.jpg

frankengrinder2.jpg


I want to thank Tracey for designing this beast and for all the help getting it together.

Matt
 
I bought all my wheels from Sunray Polyurethane. Three 4" idler wheels, one 4" drive wheel with a 5/8" arbor and keyway (I forgot to get the setscrew option) and a 8" contact wheel all for $228.00 shipped! All work great except the drive wheel seems a touch out of round at the highest speed, it's not bad and I can use it but I might try to true it up.

Matt
 
That's a good looking build Matt. I only see a few extra holes. I'm on my 5th one and I still have extra holes! I'm testing sunray wheels on this build myself to see how they hold up.
 
I sent a money order and letter via UPS for delivery today. I'm really looking forward to building one of these. Looks like a Cadillac compared to my Multi-Tool! Would you recommend a 1.5hp or 2hp motor? Variable speed, or step pulleys?
 
redneckswami said:
I sent a money order and letter via UPS for delivery today. I'm really looking forward to building one of these. Looks like a Cadillac compared to my Multi-Tool! Would you recommend a 1.5hp or 2hp motor? Variable speed, or step pulleys?
Click to expand...

If you can afford variable speed, get it. Otherwise, a 3 or 4 step pulley is a very good way to go. I have a DC variable on my main grinder, the other two have step pulleys.
 
Hi there!
After having a hard time looking for a belt sander that could fit my knife making purposes (and my budget!) I ended up here. I started a new thread and someone quickly pointed out that building one was the way to go. It took me little time to realise that IT IS THE WAY TO GO.

The problem is that living in Spain and even getting the plans, I will have a hard time finding all the hardware (not to say the weels... that's going to be tough!). By no means I am ordering any of these overseas. I guess I will have to do a LOT of phone calls and a LOT of trips to hardware stores and see if I can find all the stuff locally.

What I like about these design is that you don't rely on perfectly squared cuts at all (I don't own a band saw) and you don't need a welder either. I could probably cut everything with an angle grinder. Telling by the pictures seems that as long as your drill the holes square (I don't own a dirll press either but I am buying one this very same week) you should be ok. That should keep the axles paralell to each other so the belt tracking is ok. Exact dimensions and spacing among holes is not that critical either because you can always pull the tool arm a little bit more or tigthen the tension wheel harder. That should help fixing measurement screw ups (you can always drill new holes though).

Thanks a lot for putting this thing together Tracy, you will probably be hearing from me as soon as I make sure I can get all the hardware here. The metric conversion is going to suck big time though... :D :D (If you have them on .dwg or .dgn you can always make a metric version just tweaking the CAD program units!)

Mikel
 
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