maelstrom78, I like your set up. Seems cheap(don't take that the wrong way) but effective..Can I ask if wet grinding like that prone to spraying water everywhere? and how are you liking that esteem grinder?
It took some trial and error but you can get the belt saturated without turning the shop into a swamp.
Positioning the brush on the belt after the top platen wheel but before the top of the flat platen helped quite a bit. Even with the brush that corner was throwing water. I still have a small slack belt area there as well so for me it works well.
Also the amount of water you need is miniscule. I bought a pump that had the ability to change how much it pumped (amazing for how cheap it was) so I thought that was all that I would need. That was incorrect! Even at its slowest pumping rate it was way too much. The valve was definitely needed.
What seems to work well is get the flow started and it's really just dripping its not running or anything like that. And the belt is not actually flooded it's wet and that is plenty to grind with. When I had too much flow going on I actually had a difficult time seeing the edge of the blade contacting the belt with all the water flowing rapidly over it.
As KOSA mentioned a faster belt speed is harder to control but I can run mine almost full bore with 90 % of the water going into bucket.
The Esteem grinder I like very much. The manufacturer was great to work with and I believe I was one of the first to get one of his grinders with the flipper which works great.
I would like the work rest to be one that slides on rods instead of the articulating arm thing. Maybe he could add another arm bracket down the road if he wanted. And an aftermarket one could be adapted or fabbed.
So far I would recommend it for sure.
