Tracking wheel design - need ideas

[rashid11]

Folx,

as I await arrival of driving pulley for my Mark II HMGrinder (the thing
is too big for me to turn it on me mini-lathe), I am going about building
the bader-like grinder (VFD and everything !).

It is going rather smoothly. Tracking pulley design is where I could use
some help.

It is rather straightforward to design one where the tracking axis' tip
moves up'n'down - the axis mounts on the plate that is hinged to the
tensioner arm and then there's a bolt that pushes the hinge up, against
the belt's pressure that naturally resists that.

Now, is there a merit to changing that to design where tip moves left/right ?
And if yes, then how one would go about that ? The problem being that the
tracking screw now needs to push the hinged axis' mount both ways, as there
no belt tension anymore that would hold it ?

I originally went with L/R design (that's how my Mark I operates, more or less). Made a hinge and everything, to realize I can not come up with how
to have the adjustment screw drive it _both_ ways.

I can DT either the arm or the axis' mount. Problem: how do I make the OTHER end stationary - when it has to both rotate (being a screw) and
pivot ?

Am I overengineering here ? Ideas appreciated, pictures even more so !

 

[deker]

If I understand what you're saying, I think it sounds like you're planning for the same tracking setup I went with building my KMG-style grinder. There's some specifics on the tracking setup here on the 3rd page of my post at Don Fogg's forums about my grinder build. Maybe it'll help clarify at least one way to do it.

-d

 

[rashid11]

deker,

I studied your post a few days back and my tracking wheel follows your
design. I thought may be there's an easy way to get the wheel's axis
to move in horizontal plane instead and that might have benefits to it.

But it is tough to figure out how to have adjustment screw work "both"
ways, w/o having the force of the tensioned belt to work "against".

 

[deker]

Rashid,

I've found that the horizontal adjustment pretty much only needs to be set once. I did it that way so I would have an adjustment to make up for things being not quite square. So far, it's worked well and has never moved after initial dialing-in.

-d