Tracking wheel

P

PaulBC

Joined
Dec 31, 2014
Messages
39
On my grinder I built, i just move the crowned tracking wheel left and right, and it seems to work ok.
I see other grinders tilt the wheel, and it looks like the esteem grinder angles it left or right. What's the difference and benefits? I am going to rebuild my grinder and would like input, it is the last piece of the puzzle I am putting together in my head.
 
Interesting thought, as I suppose the same thing is accomplished. I'd like to see what your set up looks like as I've never seen anything that moves horizontally, only tilting on a pivot point. On the tw-90 grinders the motor itself sits on a pivoting platform and is said to track extremely well because of this. A new twist on an old concept but have no personal experience to support this.

Any time I've seen belts tracked it has always been with the tilt of at least one pulley putting more pressure on one side of the belt than the other. Even when it comes to the 80 ft long conveyers we use at work. Seems it's been done that way for a long time and it usually takes a pretty simple mechanism to make it work.

Justin
 
http://imgur.com/a/H7QwL

its pretty straight forward, the bolt that hold the wheel on is also the handle for tension arm, you just screw it in or out to move the wheel. I never even thought about doing it any other way, until I looked closer at the esteem grinder. I recently got a vfd and 3phase motor so all those pulleys are gone. Now Im going to rebuild that hunk of junk and maybe make it go horizontal as well.
 
Looks like you use a retaining nut, and you loosen that to track into position, than lock into place? Typically the tracking wheel pivots and a spring tensioned screw moves it in or out and you get "on the fly" adjustment. I am constantly tracking back and forth to achieve different results and the faster I can do things, the better. Think about switching it up to a pivot design based on convenience alone, as it wouldn't be too complicated to make something work. Google and check out the eerf grinder plans to get an idea of how it can be done.

Justin
 
Paul, i tried the same tracking method on a 20'' two wheel grinder i built. it did not work for me at all to my dismay because it appears to be the tracking method used by burrking on their 20 inch grinder. i had to completely remake the whole tracking mechanism to a tilting wheel. at first i used 1 inch fine all thread to avoid flexing, a pinch bolt on the internal threads, and everything was perfectly square to rotation of both wheels and it was still a flop. still makes me scratch my head thinking about it.
 
By tilting the tracking wheel, it "directs" the belt left or right, but the wheel center stays in alignment with the drive wheel and the contact wheel. This gives very delicate control of the belt alignment.

By moving the tracking wheel, it moves off center and out of alignment. While the belt will try and follow it, the control isn't as good.

Proper belt tension is also a big part of belt alignment and preventing "belt walk" in grinding. Just a spring is fairly inaccurate ( but works). Many folks now use a gas cylinder, or even better - a small air cylinder, to adjust the belt tension. Using an air cylinder allows the tension to be adjusted by adjusting the air pressure at the small regulator mounted on the grinder. An air direction valve will move the cylinder up or down for fast belt changes.
 
My grinder is not a production model but my motor sits on a plate that is hinged on one side(the drive wheel side). I have 2 springs sandwiched on the other side with a bolt to adjust that end of the plate up and down. It tracks well and is easy to adjust. I have a knob on the adjusting bolt so you can adjust it by hand. Pretty simple but effective.
 
Well I built a new grinder this weeked, and tried a hinged tracking system. It works really well! I'm much happier with it than the previous version, thanks for the help.

http://imgur.com/a/MqrHQ

The grinder is working but not 100%. The tool rest is not complete, and I will be putting a hinge on it so it can go horizontal.
 
you had a busy weekend. you dont need the spring pulling on the tracking wheel plate, belt tension already does it for you. nice build
 
I wasn't sure about the little spring but figured it wouldn't hurt
 
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I think you will need a spring on the bolt that leads to the tracking knob. It keeps tension on the bolt. Here's what I mean:
Great looking grinder. We should talk! I've been debating building one or having one partially built.

griz1-640.jpg
 
The spring comes in handy when you are running a slack belt. May only be because they have a weird tracking system on the bader 2 in which the actual attachment pivots. The tracking knob begins to move on me from the combination of vibration and light tension on the belt. I'm fairly certain it's because that 25 year old spring isn't up to par anymore. Been too lazy to look for a replacement because I rarely run a slack belt.

Justin
 
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