Grinder Tracking Funny with Small-Wheel Set

T

The Mighty Ginsu

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Aug 11, 2016
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Today I bought some aluminum bars and made a tooling arm for my Origin Blade Maker small-wheel set. I got it installed, and I ran into an issue. Wonder if anyone else has had the problem.

When I adjust the belt so it runs in the center of a small wheel, it tracks way to the right on the tracking pulley.

Before I start playing around with shims and so on, I thought I'd see if this was a common problem with a well-known answer.
 
A picture of your set up would be helpful. Are the center lines of your wheels lined up? (Drive wheel and small wheel at least?)
 
Mine tracks way over to one side as well, although I use a homemade grinder with a long board wheel with a bit on tape over the middle for my tracking wheel and its crown. Everything is fine on my platen and 12" wheel, but for my small wheel I just track the belt way over until it's in the middle lol.


~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (Just some older videos of some knives I've made in the past)
 
Two things create this situation....One is the need for clearance in the tooling arm receiver tube to allow you to slide arms in and out without binding.... Two is that when the small wheel arm extended as far as necessary to achieve proper tension and locked down on one side(left side for example) you have created a ever so slight angle that it's causing the small wheels to run out of alignment. At this point you are having to correct that alignment by over correcting on the tracking wheel. The problem can be solved by installing a second tooling arm tension knob to "Center" the tooling arm aligned with drive wheel and tracking wheel or you can fiddle with shims.
 
Another trick when using/building a small wheel arm is to use a 2X60 belt. That will work on many grinders and small wheel setups. Also, there is no need for a 2" wide belt in many situations. Using a 1.5" or even a 1" belt is more cost effective and easier.
The same goes for running a very large wheel. If running a 16" wheel, for instance, use a 2X90 belt.
 
The Mighty Ginsu said:
Before I start playing around with shims and so on, I thought I'd see if this was a common problem with a well-known answer.
Click to expand...
Well-known answer will be that your small wheel is not aligned with the rest wheel on grinder .Without picture how we can recommended anything ...
 
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I've had the same issue with my small wheels. My best guess is that the small wheel holder is not bolted on perfectly square to the rest of the grinder, causing the tracking to veer off to one side. A picture of your setup would help a lot.
 
I was tired when I posted my question, and before I went to bed, I figured it out. The accessory for the extra wheels that feed the belt to the small wheel is very thick, so it pushes everything to the right. I will have to cut about half an inch of thickness out of the tool arm, and then it will track perfectly. Thanks for the replies.
 
Today I cut 0.400" from the last 6" of the tooling arm, and now the grinder is aligned beautifully. Unfortunately, I don't have access to my milling machine right now, so I had to use the table saw and router table. Not nearly as refined, but the job is done.
 
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