Started making my 1st grinder (3rd update) 9/27

T

Toolferone

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Mar 22, 2015
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Well after hours of Youtube videos and a question here, I am on my way. I don't have a welder to use, so it will be a bolt together style. Ordered 2 arms a 4 wheels from Oregon knife. I have picked up scrap pieces of steel here and there for use unknown at the time. The side plates are 3/8" thick x 6" tall and a 5/8" shaft in the pillow blocks. The grinder will sit onto of a single pole stand, with the motor mounted to the pole. Pulleys will handle the speed change at 1st. Hope to add VS at some point. All input welcome.



 
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Thanks guys. I work on the road during the week, so progress will be slow.

Do you think there is any issue with the pillow blocks so close to each other?
 
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typically the bearings would be fine like that, but you will need a pretty far offset on your wheels due to the upright plates and the bolt heads sticking out. i would get flat head bolts and countersink the upright section holes. that will get you a 1/4'' closer. make sure you have plenty of spring pressure. if it's weak your belts will tend to jump left/right when the motor is turned on. a spring pushing up is better than one pulling down on the backside of the tracking arm. keep posting pics, it's coming along nicely.
 
Here is a picture of the drawing I did of my platen design. it will be 3/8" thick steel.

(sorry for the image quality)
 
have you considered using pinch style tooling arms instead of attaching with bolts from the side? if you build your platen as shown attach the angle iron on the inside (between the wheels), this will give you a little extra room on the left side when profiling. it will make a huge difference when grinding inside curves. the only thing you'll need to account for is the location of the two bolts that hold the platen itself. you can still put the holes in the center of the plate and either offset the holes in the face of the angle iron or slot them left/right.
 
Mike, I had to read your reply several times to make sure I understood it. (I think I do) yes the platen holder will be on the same side as the wheels. I bought the arms pre drilled and tapped at the end, so I designed the plate to use those holes. What is the advantage of the pinch design? The drawing was just a quick one to see if it looked ok and would fit.
 
ideally what you want is to not have a ''wall'' on the left side of your platen. try to space things to where you only have the thickness of the platen itself to work around. when i built mine i also used angle iron for the bracket, but i cut the center out and even went as far as to mill the edges of the platen at 45 degrees for even more clearance.
 
Like this
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Made some forward progress and some backward progress today. Cut out my 2 wheel plate with a jig saw and tapped the 2 holes for the wheels. The bad news is I tapped one on a angle. Not sure what I am going to do yet. I'm open to suggestions.



 
The way I see it you have three choices:

1. Lock the bolt in place with loctite or a jam nut, then take a 5 pound hammer to the bolt and bend it so that it's perpendicular to the bracket. (Not what I'd do).

2. Find someone to weld up the hole, grind it flat and re-drill and tap.

3. Buy a new flat platen bracket from Polarbear forge. $31.30 total including shipping (This would be my choice).

Keep in mind both options 2 and 3 will require you tap a straight hole. Checkout tubalcains youtube channel for lots of tips on tapping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KILX...69869E8CB708F2
 
Just drill it out so a longer bolt will slip through the hole and put a nut on the other side. I don't see any advantage to tapping the plate when you can just use a bolt and nut.
 
Fortydegnorth said:
Just drill it out so a longer bolt will slip through the hole and put a nut on the other side. I don't see any advantage to tapping the plate when you can just use a bolt and nut.
Click to expand...

That would work if you could still get the idler and drive wheels to line up after moving the platen wheel out the half inch or so required to get a nut on the inside of the wheel.
 
NC Biker said:
That would work if you could still get the idler and drive wheels to line up after moving the platen wheel out the half inch or so required to get a nut on the inside of the wheel.
Click to expand...

I'm not following what you mean. The plate that is tapped now is basically working as a nut. Just drill the threads out of the plate so a little longer bolt slips through and put a nut on the left side. The spacing from the plate to the idler would not change. To me it's pointless to tap the plate when a nut does the exact same job for much less work. Use loctite or a nyloc nut. The nut wouldn't go between the plate and wheel.
 
Very simple 5 min fix! Drill it out for a 1/2 clearance drill (17/32) and just get longer bolts and a nyloc nut.

Jay
 
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