Tracking Issues

J

Josh Conder

Joined
Apr 29, 2018
Messages
36
Alright so I have a grinder that was a 2x48 and I have converted it to a 2x72 for multiple reasons. The main one being it came with a 3” Nylon tracking wheel with a 8mm bore. So I replaced it with a 4.5” with a 1/2 bore, much more common in the USA. Couldn’t do that with the 2x48 because the belt tension with be too high with that confirguration. Problem is I have to bottom out the tracking adjustment knob just to get the belt to run in the middle of my platen and after several adjustments I have not been able to get it tracking right. I can almost get it right when I increase the belt tension to the likes of a guitar string, but that’s going to cause a lot of broken belts. The drive wheel and idler wheels are alligned to one another and the tracking wheel has the crown centered to all the other wheels. Can some please help me out?

https://imgur.com/a/ModTkPT
 
Sounds like something isn't square. You might try twisting your tracking wheel a couple degrees clockwise or counter clockwise as you're looking at it from the top. Reeder Products has this "dual" adjustment capability built in, if you want to get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Could be that your tool arm isn't straight, or that something is angled a bit relative to the frame.

I would't worry about getting your belts tensioned too tight. Contrary to popular beliefs and superstitions, you'd have to put a tremendous amount of force on the belts to actually break them. I use a 100lb gas strut on mine and have never broke a belt due to tension.
 
The only changes I made to the grinder was longer tooling arms which are straight and drilled a 1/2” hole where the 8mm hole was for the tracking wheel bore. The hole is square as well.

Unfortunately my tracking pivot is welded to the tension bar and the only adjustments I can make are with the tracking knob.

On another note I wish I would have known about them when I bought my grinder everything would have had a US configuration and I wouldn’t have had to make the modifications.

As for increasing the tension, when I do it become pretty hard to change the belts and I am still only able to just get it to the right side of my platen I can’t get the belt to overhang at all. Here’s a quick video.

 
Yes I see it's way out of whack

bYvz07k.jpg


Get a good square and start looking

Do try more belt tension.

It should be guitar string tight.
Pull the toolbar out more if you can .

That arm should be horizontal when running.
 
I would check to make sure the center of the drive wheel is aligned with the center of the contact wheels.

Then I would be sure the tracking wheel is on center with the drive wheel.

Chances are the tension arm, tracking wheel are not square and aligned with the rest
 
i had a similar problem on my k&g grinder, tracking knob would bottom out and the belt was not in the center of the platen. i noticed where it was bottoming out, took the tracking wheel arm off and ground down where it was hitting. but like the other guys said first make sure the problem is not something else out of alignment.
 
Do you have a contact wheel on a separate tooling arm? If so, install that and see what the tracking does.

If not, remove the platen and run the belt over the top platen wheel only (skip the bottom platen wheel). See what happens. Then skip the top platen wheel and run the belt over the bottom wheel only; see what happens.
 
Josh Conder said:
The drive wheel and idler wheels are alligned to one another and the tracking wheel has the crown centered to all the other wheels. Can some please help me out?

https://imgur.com/a/ModTkPT
Click to expand...
Josh , if they are alligned you will not have this issue . Imagine that all wheels are on one flat plate .ALL wheels bolts should be exactly 90 degrees to the plate in every direction , except tracking wheel which must be exactly 90 degrees in arrow direction on drawing . In most case if grinder is build perfect /can run backwards without correction on tracking wheel / tracking wheel should need to correct only imperfect belts . . .
VilVeXA.png
 
As others have said, be sure everything is square. Patrick has a good suggestion with put belt over just the platen wheels and spin by hand - if you can put a tad of tension on belt. Won't take much. While a heavy tension helps a belt hold it's place when heavy grinding, the belt should track fairly well even with fairly low tension.

While belt is running with tracking wheel in place, put side pressure on tracking/tension arm, first from one side, then other side and see how that affects the tracking.
 
Thanks for all the info guys. I believe I have found the problem. The bolt that the tracking wheel is mounted to was not square. When I drilled out the 8mm hole for the 1/2 hole I got a lot of shatter which left a little slop in the hole. The bolt was square after I tacked it in place, but must have shifted when I went back to finish up the weld. It’s not perfectly square, but pretty close. I’ll have to make another piece to get the hole square, but the tracking is acceptable for the mean time.
 
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