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WIP: Grinder Build

The pulley will be keyed and once I get it's final position figured out I will use bearing adhesive to secure it to the shaft, then on the other side, I had threads cut into the end about 1" in so I will use a flange and nut. If the bearing adhesive ends up not holding the pressure from the nut I will simply weld the pulley onto the shaft.
 
I'm really sick about what these "machinists" did to my work; I now see that the belt side of the shaft has a wobble that I know was not there before. I've wasted a lot of mental energy trying to figure out how I'm going to overcome these problems. I've got the wheel mostly squared now even with compensating for the bent shaft so I'm going to glue in some oak shims like I thought I might. I wanted to do most of the trueing of the circumference on the grinder at work by holding the shaft and holding the wheel against the belt but with the hole in the wheel so F'd up it wasn't possible. There's a distinct possibility I will just end up making new wheels and drill the holes myself; I think in the case of the idler wheel it will be the most time effective way to solve the problem...

Was I wrong in assuming that a machine shop would be able to squarely drill a hole in a 2" thick piece of wood and not have the hole 1/4" oversized on one side? I don't know, is there an unwritten rule that you don't ask a machinist to work with wood?

I'm going to pick up a switch and some wire nuts now so at least I can get the motor going and go from there
 
I'm shocked that you didn't get a hold drilled correctly. Why not just rebuild the wheel? Drill the hole yourself and true the wheel on a lathe.
 
Now that you have wasted time and money will it be worth it to just to go buy the wheels. I believe princess auto has them pretty cheap.I would not feel safe with wood wheels but thats just me.
 
Well I got it to turn a belt tonight but I was cycling the motor on and off to keep the the speed low and make sure nothing bad would happen and the startup draw ended up blowing the breaker. When I came in I realized what time it was so I left it at that...

I trued up both wheels while they were turning on the shaft, using a chisel and mostly a grinder with a 40g flap disc.

I'm going to have to get used to how slow the knife grinder type machines spin. Our 5 and 7.5 horse grinders at work run at a gazillion fps.
 
The grinder is finished. it is actually a 2x90 because I didn't order 72" belts in time and wanted proof of concept so I built it to work with what I had and was going to convert it to 72" once my belts came. It's working so well I think I will leave it at 90" because we get a pretty good deal on them plus we have a bunch of 2.5" belts that somebody ordered and we can't use them because our machines at work use 3" belts so I'll offer to buy them off the boss.

I posted a video on youtube and I think everything is pretty self explanatory. The tensioner is a 2x4 inside a tight fitting plywood box.

Here is the video.



Now to add the machining, extension cord, and other miscellaneous parts cost another $80.00 which makes a total of $430.00 Canadian which converts to around $350.00 US.

I'm thinking it is pretty likely that I'll add a flat platen and a tool rest all in one unit somehow on the front of the grinder. I haven't put much thought into it yet though.
 
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Jeez that thing makes a lot of sparks! I'm going to have to ask you questions about how you made it later.
 
Absolutely. I figured I'd post the video and try to get as much detail as possible and if anybody wanted specifics, ask here and I could try to explain as best as possible.
 
Could you explain a little more about how you put the (keyed?) pulleys onto the round shaft?
 
Sure; It's actually keyed round stock. Princess Auto, the Canadian version of Harbour Freight sells keyed round stock in 3 and 6 foot lengths and it is keyed the whole length.
 
69_knives said:
The grinder is finished. it is actually a 2x90 because I didn't order 72" belts in time and wanted proof of concept so I built it to work with what I had and was going to convert it to 72" once my belts came. It's working so well I think I will leave it at 90" because we get a pretty good deal on them plus we have a bunch of 2.5" belts that somebody ordered and we can't use them because our machines at work use 3" belts so I'll offer to buy them off the boss.

I posted a video on youtube and I think everything is pretty self explanatory. The tensioner is a 2x4 inside a tight fitting plywood box.

Here is the video.



Now to add the machining, extension cord, and other miscellaneous parts cost another $80.00 which makes a total of $430.00 Canadian which converts to around $350.00 US.

I'm thinking it is pretty likely that I'll add a flat platen and a tool rest all in one unit somehow on the front of the grinder. I haven't put much thought into it yet though.
Click to expand...

coulda just bought a grizzly grinder with 10" contact wheel for under 500

on another note, great work, and congratulations for sticking wiht it!
 
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And with building, you don't have any customer support to go through with any problems. Only yourself.

(And it's custom to what you want it to be)
 
I'm really enjoying having the belt grinder, I use it pretty much every day for one thing or another, even if it isn't grinding a knife.

I made a small, 8" wheel so that I could use 72" belts that I ordered and I really like how slow the belt runs on that small wheel. I can grind O1 with a ceramic 60G and it barely makes any sparks, just leaves a pile of steel wool under the wheel.

I ended up fixing the hole in the wheel by using carpenters glue and sawdust to build it up then once it was pretty close, I ran a layer of 'Ultra Black' gasket silicone to snug it up real nice.

I put a couple of layers of the Ultra Black high heat silicone on all the wheels; it seems to be holding up quite well and makes grinding a lot nicer. To apply the silicone, I run a couple of beads around the circumference of the wheel then spread it on with my finger, then with a sturdy 'tool rest' (3 bricks) set in front of the wheel about 1/4" away, I use a steel putty knife and spread it evenly while turning the wheel by hand.

gedc0347-0.jpg


Some of you may remember my first forged blade... Well, I always wanted to do something with it to make it a little nicer so I decided to re-profile it. I thought about redoing it completely with handle and all but I kind of like the handle and it represents my handle making skill when I first started forging.

knife001.jpg


gedc0330-0.jpg
 
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69_knives said:
Was I wrong in assuming that a machine shop would be able to squarely drill a hole in a 2" thick piece of wood and not have the hole 1/4" oversized on one side? I don't know, is there an unwritten rule that you don't ask a machinist to work with wood?
Click to expand...

Machinists work with metals of all kinds, woods and plastics. Some work with things like leather too. About the only stuff machinists don't normally work with that knifemakers do is weird stuff like horn, and wooly mammoth bits etc.

You should have been able to get a clean, square round hole in wood - the shop needs to know what level of precision you're looking for. If they failed, they should fix it.

While I can't say there is anything fundamentally wrong with a wooden wheel, I hope you used an engineering grade such as Russian laminated birch or similar, there should be a permanent steel hub for the shaft joint, and the outside should be softer and more durable than wood such as urethane rubber etc. And words can not describe how much I hate machining rubber.
 
rubber is redicoulous to machine, i have a job at work i got modifly some rubber for R&D. freezer - face off - freezer - bore - freezer - bevel-. one part can take 2 days just to do 20 mins of works. i'd rather clean my machine with a tooth brush then fight with that junk.
 
drewfacehotm said:
rubber is redicoulous to machine, i have a job at work i got modifly some rubber for R&D. freezer - face off - freezer - bore - freezer - bevel-. one part can take 2 days just to do 20 mins of works. i'd rather clean my machine with a tooth brush then fight with that junk.
Click to expand...


It can actually be ground fairly well if you're setup for it. But cutting it? Long strings that get wound around everything and nothing ever ends up flat straight or square. I hate it. I actually hate it. There are three things I actually hate in this world. Funding sackers with entitlement issues, being dictated what to do by the state on frivolous maters, and machining rubber. There... I said it.
 
69_knives said:
Absolutely. I figured I'd post the video and try to get as much detail as possible and if anybody wanted specifics, ask here and I could try to explain as best as possible.
Click to expand...

Very cool machine, I'm very impressed with your results.:thumbup:
 
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