Grinder frame design.

[JTknives]

I just got a 12” contact wheel for cheep and I’m thinking of building a grinder around it. I don’t need a tooling arm as it will only have this wheel. Also thinking I want it to tilt. And one seen any designs out there like this. My thought is just profile out a frame from plate and bolt the wheel and motor to it. Built in a tension and tracking system. But thought I would see if anyone has come across any designs like that. Thanks guys- JT

 

[Natlek]

I just got a 12” contact wheel for cheep and I’m thinking of building a grinder around it. I don’t need a tooling arm as it will only have this wheel. Also thinking I want it to tilt. And one seen any designs out there like this. My thought is just profile out a frame from plate and bolt the wheel and motor to it. Built in a tension and tracking system. But thought I would see if anyone has come across any designs like that. Thanks guys- JT

Hm.....Contact wheel right on motor shaft and other one wheel for tracking and tension ?

 

[JTknives]

My contact wheel has bearings. It’s quite heavy duty. I mocked it up on my grinder to see how balanced and true it ran and it’s quite impressive. It runs better then my 8” wheel from Beaumont

 

[Natlek]

Well in that case I will still try to keep it simple .Motor for tracking and contact wheel for fixed tension , no spring .............on one plate of course , that black square is where would it tilt ..........?
Half inch travel for tight/loose belt on contact wheel is more then enough to change belts....

 

[lanternnate]

Polar bear forge used to do a sling grinder (somehow sling stood for single purpose). There was a wheel one, and I think it was mostly made all from plate to be able to ship flat rate boxes and bolt together. I don’t think it’s available anymore, but pictures of it might give you some ideas on building your own.

 

[tkroenlein]

Build it like an arbor grinder.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Motor moves on its mounting plate for tracking. Fixed contact wheel. 1/2" plate for frame. 3/4" threaded shaft and handwheel to move motor plate back/forward for tension.

 

[Busto]

Take a look at the Coote grinder for design simplicity.

 

[coldsteelburns]

Maybe you can get some inspiration from this JL grinder and tweak a little so it's more simple.: http://www.rayrogers.com/grinders.htm

Are you basically hoping to be able to plasma cut the parts you need?

~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (Just some older videos of some knives I've made in the past)

 

[JTknives]

Yeah thinking as ridged as I can get. It will be the grinder I use if I move forward with the cnc grinder build. The blade rest will be the moving part and so I need the wheel and frame to be solid. Issue has always been the tracking. I feel tracking is all ways the weak link in most grinders. Maybe because it’s paired with the tension system. Maybe if I ditched the 3rd wheel and did like Stacy said. Slide the motor back and forth for tension. I could hinge the frame somewhere and use a tension bolt to tweak it. The wheel is about an 1/8” under 2” so the belt just hangs over a tad which is nice.

 

[Nick Dunham]

A couple thoughts:

You could do motor tensioning with a pivoting plate arm mounted on a thru bolt.

If you want to stick to two wheels, you could use a hinge from that to a plate for the motor C-face flange for tracking.

Of course of you want to separate tracking and tension, you could just do one of those things on the motor, and add a third wheel to do the remaining task.

I wonder if using the motor for tension would make it bounce as load changes, and whether that would be problematic.

One of my daydream ideas is to use a electric skate hub motor and wheel for drive, perhaps tracking with the truck - attached to a tube that slides on a fixed tooling arm.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Not really side to side for tracking, but angling minutely. It is how the TW-90 tracks. The whole motor mount plate pivots on an arc to adjust tracking. That way it does not affect tension.

 

[Natlek]

My contact wheel has bearings. It’s quite heavy duty. I mocked it up on my grinder to see how balanced and true it ran and it’s quite impressive. It runs better then my 8” wheel from Beaumont

I can t see sigh/mark that wheel is balanced .Wheel look extra heavy ,you need to balance it if it was not ....
About motor tracking and tension ,I would do something like this ...rigid .
About drive wheel , I will use one with rubber , no need for crown on two wheel grinder .With rubber will be more quieter and no chance for any slipping .

 

[Natlek]

I just got a 12” contact wheel for cheep and I’m thinking of building a grinder around it. I don’t need a tooling arm as it will only have this wheel. Also thinking I want it to tilt. And one seen any designs out there like this. My thought is just profile out a frame from plate and bolt the wheel and motor to it. Built in a tension and tracking system. But thought I would see if anyone has come across any designs like that. Thanks guys- JT

Look at this grinder...............

 

[DanF]

Watching to see what evolves.

 

[JTknives]

I do like that design as it seams rather clever.

 

[Nick Dunham]

Obviously you can weld it together, but check out this construction method:
https://www.bigbluesaw.com/articles...ues-tab-and-slot-with-t-nut-construction.html

Edit: I don't know if this would work with plasma cut edges, but it'd be cool if it did.

 

[A.McPherson]

That's a pretty cool technique Nick, thanks for sharing! Definitely something that someone with a water jet could use to make things easy on themselves!

 

[tmerkl]

Interested to see what you come up with. I've been wanting to get a 20" wheel and this might be a good idea for that.

 

[JTknives]

Yeah 20” wheel was what I wanted to do but there is so little area for an idler/tracking. With a 20” wheel the best way is to have it be the driving wheel.