Putting an edge on the belt grinder

AVigil

AVigil

Adam Vigil working the grind
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Feb 17, 2009
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7,310
Hi Guys,

I have been putting an edge on my blades on the belt grinder. I have seen some makers have dedicated grinders with the motor reversed just for sharpening.

What do you think?

I was thinking of putting a drumswitch on my grinder to reverse the motor for sharpening.
 
I think the belt moving away from the edge might be easier on the belt instead of turning into the edge. Hopefully I can get some feedback
 
So little pressure is used when sharpening on a moving belt there is little affect to the belt's surface.
Fred
 
I sharpen with the edge towards me the belt turning towards me, in the slack part of the belt. Frank
 
Some folks feel they have a better idea of the blade angle when observing it from the spine, so they hold the blade edge away from you and run the belt the same way. This does allow the blade to be more evenly ground from both sides, as well as tosses the blade away from you if an OOPSIE happens. If they set up a dedicated grinder for this, the belt is often run at a very slow speed, and they use a different gearing ratio in the pulleys and wheels to allow more torque and much slower speed than a blade grinder would run at.

That probably doesn't make it worth having a dedicated grinder for most shops....but who doesn't want more equipment.

I have one I built that runs 2.5X48" belts on a VS 3/4HP motor that has a max output speed of 75RPM. It will run from crawl to about 100FPS without any possible stalling. It has jigs to sharpen the blades at any angle desired. While a really cool tool ( no pun), it is hardly ever used.....maybe in the new shop it will get a permanent spot and get used more.
 
I like the edge away from me. Instead of switching wires, I just turn the grinder around. I've found paper wheels work better that way too on a Baldor buffer.
 
I use a variable speed Wilton and sharpen by slowing the machine right down and using a fresh belt dedicated for sharpening. Once the belt begins to lose its performance i toss it in the mix for general work and use another fresh belt for sharpening. This is the primary sharpening step, then I fine tune the edges by doing the final sharpening by hand.
 
I use my old 1x30. I also like the edge away from me. I built a support so it can be turned on its back. Works like a charm!

 
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