Grinders, Sanders, etc

I just finished a KMG clone grinder and have been using some old 60grit norzon belts that I got a couple of boxes of for free. They are 96" x6" I have split them down to 2" wide and I built the tooling arm long so I could use these belts. My question is what is the highest speed that these belts should be run at? When I first ran one of these with a 4" drive wheel at 3500rpm the belt flapped and blew appart. I then tightened the belt a little and used a belt a fair bit before it too came appart at the joint. Am I running these too fast? I am using a slack belt setup. I have $350 worth of finer belts coming Monday or Tuesday and would prefer not to destroy too many…

This is thanks to Another FrankenBurner on another thread. I regularly use an angle grinder with an abrasive cutoff wheel. I also use grinding wheels, flap discs, and cup brushes. If I were to start a new smithy with limited funds, it would be the first electric tool I purchased. I own several. I use them in my trade as well, so I have hours and hours of experience using them. I do not fear using them but I keep a healthy respect. Are there risks involved in using them, yes. Understanding these risks, helps with safety. It does not eliminate the risks, it makes you work differently to mitigate them. My advice if you are new to angle grinders: …

Someone requested that I post part of a report I'm writing for work on tracking belts. That report grew to be a little too complicated for a forum post but I decided to toss out some of the basics which might help people understand some of what's going on with their belt grinders. First, assuming the belt is straight, all the pulleys are perfectly straight and square in the same plane, and the pressures are even across the whole belt, the darned thing automatically tracks. There are no forces causing a belt to "un-track" so the belt would run like a dream. However, this is the real world and nothing is straight, aligned perfectly, or evenly loaded. That means wha…

Hi All! I'm considering getting a belt grinder for my little shop I have out in my garage, and was looking for suggestions, but we all know how the internet is, so I didn't end up getting anywhere. I'm primarily a knife maker and have been relying on a 4.5" angle grinder and want something that I can have a bit more precision with. I'm thinking a 2x42" is a good place to start? I'm not all that confident in my abilities to make one myself and have a budget <$500. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks! Toby

I got a box of 4x132 grinder belts from the industrial surplus place, with an eye to cutting them down to fit my 2x90. The original splice is some kind of film, which I was able to cut and peel off fairly easily. After splitting the belt into two pieces — simply by tearing it down the middle — I cut one half down to 90” and spliced it together with a piece of cotton cloth (cut on the bias) glued down with polyurethane adhesive (Gorilla Glue). A backing board, a steel block in a plastic bag, and a C-clamp, and we’re good to go. Success!

I just got a line on this beastie, which seems like an interesting option for someone with limited space and budget. It's a 2x90 vertical grinder with a 2½" contact wheel at the top, a vertical platen on one side, and a slack-belt area on the other. The one I'm interested in is used, and I have no idea if the motor (a 1hp TEFC Baldor that runs on 115v single phase) works or not. The seller is asking $150 -- think it's worth it? Are 2x90 belts harder to find than 2x72s or so much more expensive that I'd end up paying more in the long run? Here's a photo from the manufacturer's website: (Note that this is shown with a narrower belt and smaller radius …

I doubt it, but I thought I'd ask. I have a 1960's Sunstrand 2x48 belt grinder that is pretty much the workhorse for all my grinding and shaping. It's a solid machine, but the ribbed tread on the main contact wheel (6 inch) has reached a point of disintegration where it's getting noisy and starting to vibrate in a way that diminishes the functionality noticeably. I've found a couple of contacts wheels that are reasonably priced, but I'm wondering if it is possible to simply replace the tread, since the machine is vintage and the body of the wheel is perfectly sound. Is that something people do, or is it better to just swap it out? Thanks!

My wife and I went to a sword making experience this week as I thought it'd be a good thing to do together, but also I wanted to get a taste for it as I want to get into knifemaking. I've just purchased an Anvil, Forge, Hammer, and Tongs, and I want to get a belt sander/grinder too but every single one I see that is even kind of powerful is very expensive and out of my budget right now. Can anyone offer advice on what to do? Can I get away with a weaker belt grinder, or will I just have to get a bunch of metal files and do it all by hand for now until I have saved up enough for a decent grinder?

I bought an old Dayton 1" belt grinder recently. I've always liked this particular belt grinder for some reason, maybe because we had one in a shop I used to work in. It was old and tired, so I cleaned, lubricated and adjusted everything. The bronze sleeve bearings were pretty worn on the idler pulleys so I replaced those. I also moved the power switch from the motor to the front, where it was easier to reach. New belts, too. The only issue left was the motor itself. It ran OK, but at 1/3 hp it lagged if a moderate load was put on it. Now, I had a perfectly good 1/2 hp motor that would have been an ideal replacement. It was out of an old drill pre…

I’ve been in need of a 2x72 grinder and found this online. It’s unfortunately at my max spending limit and I just haven’t had nearly enough time to build my own. It’s about the same price as the Grizzly. I’d take an opinion on the cheaper 2x42 Grizzly, too, I know it’s only 1HP. I’m not getting into regular knife making but I’ll be making some tomahawks and punches. Thanks in advance [Mod note: commercial material removed.]

I am playing with kitchen knives and trying to get better at cold end shaping. I have 4 2x72 and a 2x42, as well as a pair of buffers. I have lots of space and a dust Hogg outside with ducting along the wall. I am contemplating setting up half for sitting down and half for standing, at least one to run wet. I currently just have them all lined up along the wall and lighting is not ideal. I suspect there are some tricks to getting grinders set up that makes things easier. Eventually I would like to have a separate room to control dust

Hi, need a belt grinder for tool/knife making/ axe wedge making. I’m a beginner and not sure which one I should get? Both r 1/2 hp.

I feel bad that I've been such a ghost around here lately, the last half a year has been way super busy, and full of projects. I will get you guys caught up a little bit here, with a focus on a 6 month journey that has been a thought egg for years. Back in June of last year I had come to a realization that, the time had come in my creative process to fulfill a tooling need. Always an exciting prospect that I'm sure everyone here understands. As well as you are likely familiar with, the struggle and time old question that comes hand in hand with that excitement. "Do I build or buy?" Well...the fact that I myself am quite a frugal maker, and I have a strange at…

I bought a new VFD to use with the 2x72 grinder, it an H100 Remove live link to Amazon. QNK 1.5KW 2HP AC 220V 7A VFD Converter Single to 3 Phase Inverter Variable Frequency Drive CNC Spindle Motor Speed Controller I matched all the basic parameters to what is on the motor, and it just worked fine for the most part. When I put too much pressure or lean in when grinding, the increased resistance causes the VFD to stop and throw an error code for "overvoltage", and I have to restart. This is super annoying. This never happened with previous VFD's, so I assume that I haven't set some parameter somewhere, any guidance would be much appreciated! If you hel…

Hi all. I have this: It has a 1/3 hp motor 120v on household 20amp circuit. I'm assuming it's an induction motor, but can't find any details about that aspect (and am reluctant to take it apart at the moment.) It runs at 3500 rpm (4500 feet per minute for the belt). I'm having a lot of trouble with controlling the heat. Unless I'm using super low-grit belts, I'm finding that I'm burning my woods and need to be super careful to not burn my metals. I was looking for a way to control the speed of my machine, but it's seeming like this is harder than I thought for this particular type of motor. I know that this grinder is ubiquitous (it's resol…

I had someone who was cleaning out their garage give me a neat contraption the other day, it’s a Wards (I’m assuming Montgomery Wards) Whetstone water trough grinder/sharpener, on a nice little stand with a good working motor, no cracks or patches anywhere, i haven’t tried it out yet but Im sure ive got some dull pocket knives laying around somewhere,

I was cutting some steel and stopped for a second to adjust the extension cord, then when I tried to start again, the grinder had stopped working. I tried other things on that extension cord, and it worked fine. I checked some wires in the grinder, and nothing seemed out of place. please help

Hi, I have only had the fortune of using other persons 2x72 grinder. I am ready to pull the trigger on a obm dominator along with an articulating tool rest, the small wheel set, a 8" wheel and tooling arm to mount it. Is there any other thing attachment that would be useful out of the gate. I like making tomahawk and want to make larger knifes but honestly right now I don't make a lot of knives. Thanks for your time. I did a search but didn't see/locate any thread that covered this.

So I've had all the bits for my grinder sitting in the Wonder Hut for over a year. Last summer, my mentor and pal, JT, suggested we start fabricating. I had gotten a pre-cut kit from Seattle MetalHeads sitting in a stack and it was time. MetalHeads is an email group I've belonged to since dinosaurs roamed the earth and a bunch of us went in on getting the pieces CNC cut since Jer provides the CNC files in his plans. JT does not have the pre-cut kit so we'll be doing everything one step at a time. (If you want to build Jer's design, buy the plans from him. They're cheap and the design appears to be terrific. Jer will also answer questions about the build, and has vide…

Thanks for clicking on this thread! A while back I got this grinder. It was used for sharpening squeegees for printing. That's all I know. All I was concerned about was that it was a belt grinder. The belt has since worn out, and as I wait for funds to get a few belts, I have toyed with the idea of making the grinder more user friendly. I have thought about somehow turning it 90 degrees and making it into something like this picture below: But, the problem is, I have no idea where to begin. Should I just leave well enough alone? I only used it a couple times before the belt broke and it seemed to be alright. One member on the forum offered the fa…

The fine tune like cleaning up welds and maybe paint. etc. Maybe I'll get around to shaping a knife soon.

I'm putting together my first 2x72 belt grinder build. Using the simplistic stacked tubing design with vertical compression belt adjuster. I sourced a 1.75hp DC motor from a treadmill as drive power for the time being. Can't really afford an AC motor with VFD at this moment. The DC motor works fine and the MC35 speed controller also works great. My problem is that after taking the flywheel off and measuring the arbor I found it to be 17mm (.669") instead of the standard 5/8" arbor. My intension was to purchase a machined aluminum wheel package to complete my build. Unfortunately it seems that 90% of all the drive wheels available are for 5/8". The oth…

I ordered some grinder wheels last week, very late night purchase, and they came in today. What had happened wuz, I was about to go to bed and I had been looking at grinder wheels for a couple weeks and, well, I ordered the wrong size. Daytime ordering from now on. I had a set pulled up but apparently I clicked on the one NEXT to the one I actually wanted. I realized it the next day but by then it was too late, they had already shipped. That led me down the rabbit hole of grinder wheels and looking at lots of grinder builds, I couldn't stop myself. So it turns out, the set I ordered came with four wheels, one drive wheel, one tracking wheel and two idler wheels. As …

So i’ve about had enough of the constant layer of metal dust on EVERYTHING around my small shop. Ive cleared a small corner to build a simple grinding room (closet in this case) and I have a few questions for those of you with such luxury’s. What is the smallest area you’d feel comfortable with around your grinder? I’ve cleared about a 5x5’ area in a corner, and that’s about the max I could go. Is hoping to squeeze a 2x72 and myself in there a bad idea? I don’t frequently work on anything long enough to bump walls. Tbh I don’t even forge knives all that often, but I find myself using the grinder for all sorts of odd tasks. It’d be really nice to squeeze a vice i…

I bought Bench Grinder yesterday and it was good and everything was find, but when i wanted to change belt to it, screw slip , or thread in thin sheet metal is ruined. And now it cant align itself right away, belt tend to go out of align. I will go to market bring account for it and ask them to return me money or change for other machine. And on top of that cap that is under grinder, where screws go is thin plastic. You remove plastic and you have access to wiring. What tips do you have when buying those tools, i tought belt sander will give finer sharpnes to tools like chisels planes etc.