Surface Grinder Belt Conversion

[T.Saslow]

As some of you may know, I recently got my surface grinder running (at long last) and I have been playing with it for a few months now. I initially got the grinder in hopes of speeding up or even eliminating the hand sanding process on the flats, but I came to the realization that using abrasive wheels may not be the way to go if I'm looking for a decent finish off the grinder. I keep seeing people converting their surface grinders to belts and I'm seriously considering it at the moment. I'm planning on purchasing a serrated contact wheel that will fit my 2x72 belts and turning a taper on the inside to accept the taper on the spindle. My surface grinder is a 6"x12" DoAll with a 1 HP motor so it is fairly small. Keeping that in mind, what diameter contact wheel should I get? I was thinking a 6" but I want to get some good advice before I go throwing money at another eBay vendor

-Tanner

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

6 inch would work well.

 

[T.Saslow]

Should I go serrated or solid? Also, how do you guys secure the wheel? I was thinking of just boring a hole the diameter of my arbor (1.25"), but I think turning a tapered hole to fit on the tapered spindle would be less prone to runout and vibration. Thoughts?

-Tanner