Feukair

I got the drive, contact, idler, and tracking wheels from US Knife Makers! but they are beaumont metal works parts. usakm sells for the same price as beaumont and also carries some other accessories and a selection of belts as well and he takes paypal. I got the bearings from someone on ebay but you can get them here.

Here are the plans i found on line, same doc, linked to in two different places. I didn't follow these plans exactly, mostly just used them for ideas to to verify dimensions of some of the pieces.

http://www.az-blacksmiths.org/pdfs/GrinderPlans.pdf
http://www.dfoggknives.com/PDF/GrinderPlans.pdf

I have a bench grinder that has a 3/4 hp motor which puts out I estimate about 1/8th hp and at first I hated it real bad until I started blacksmithing. Now it is my wire wheel machine and I don't have trouble with it hurting me. If I press something into it a bit to hard it will stop the motor instead of grabbing it and sticking it into me. May take a bit longer to wheal something but it is a lot safer to use than my new 3/4 hp HFT grinder that runs very well with a wire wheel.

Yep, i agree, with the belt tightened up it's not really as easy to stop the grinder with pressure as it was before. So i might be able to use this motor for longer than i expected. Less likely to hurt myself or the piece i'm working on...

Now that you have built it, and used it, would you make any changes? Really does look great.

I may re-design how the motor is mounted so that it mounts on the lower T bar instead of the vertical stand bar. The belt was slipping some because the motor is not really heavy enough to provide a tight enough grip. So i devised a spring mechanism that pulls down on the motor from underneath. This causes it to run faster but now there is a little more vibration that runs up the stand in to the grinder face, not bad enough that its really a problem but still bad enough that i'd like it to go away. With the design the way it currently is, the mount of the motor parallel to the motor's axle it makes it difficult to apply downward force without the position of the motor wanting to twist in an odd angle between the drive pulley and the motor mount. I plan to build a mount that comes up from the T stand, turn the motor on that hinged mount plate so that the hinge pin is at a 90 perpendicular to the drive shaft and behind the back of the motor, then i will be able to mount a spring directly under the center of the shaft. All the forces should be going at right angles and there should be less vibration, and with the motor mounted this way i will be able to put some soft rubber between the plate the motor sits on and the hinge, which should almost eliminate any vibrations being able to run up the stand.

Once thats done i'll post some more pics, probably a couple days but might be longer, i leave monday out of town for work for two weeks.

It's been a long while since i worked on this blade, but i just realized i never posted a picture of how far i took it.

Well the blades pretty much done, someday i'll probably make a saya for it... This was mostly a practice blade for me. I think this was the 2nd hamon i ever made...

Grinder's workin... The 1/2 hp motor i'm using doesnt have quite enough power for me but it'll do for a while. I can handle grinding a little slower while i'm learning and keeping my eye out for a better motor.

It's awesome!!!!

Here's some more pics



And here's a video of it runnin I put on youtube... YouTube - DIY Belt Grinder

Progress on the grinder.... Should have the flange bearings to mount the axle tomorrow night. Will be grinding this weekend!!! Woot!!!

I love the axes. They look like pristine antiques...

Very nice, i got a couple old chains i'm saving for when i have those skillz...

Awesome...

Here's a pic of the tracking adjustment mechanism.



This grinder is a cross between a KMG and the grinder I found here. (thanks for the inspiration, to whoever that user is who made that grinder)

Hey all, i havent posted in a while but it's not becuase i've been idle. I decided i needed a belt grinder so i scrounged up some scraps of metal and based on a few plans and photos i found online i decided to mock up this belt grinder-on-a-stand design. Here it is welded and rough assembled. The rest of the parts to make it whole, idler wheels drive wheel and whatnot, are due this week. Took me a while to scrounge up the odds and ends to make this happen, my dad donated some parts, my neighbor donated the tube for the stand and did the bulk of the welding for me, he's a pro ;-) So I finaly got enough parts together that I decided to order up the wheels and start puting it together this weekend.

So here's some pics:



My belt grinder gallery

Very, Very cool Sam!

Very cool, looks like jesus on the pommel... if that was by accident you coulda probably made some money off it. Hey, if a lady with a woman's face on her grill cheese sandwich can call it the virgin mary and get paid why not... ;-)

If you go to this guys youtube page you can peruse just about every nihonto related video on youtube... Nihonto-TV Not many in english though, some are still cool to watch the japanese smiths work.

Bout this Lancaster blower, cast metal, at an auction for $100 in Marlette, MI.

My dad picked up a post vise last week for $35.00. It's pretty rusty but otherwize in good shape, mounted it on a bench yesterday...

Hey all, i havent posted in a really long time, been real busy with the day job and some travel, but I have been up to some stuff. In June I attended the Guelph school of japanese sword arts in canada. It was pretty cool, learned alot from a very knowledgable instructor. I setup a web site where I'm going to start keeping track of my knife making projects, here it is www.feukair.com you can checkout the pictures from the class through the GSJSA link at the top. Here's a link to all the pics of my blade through the process...

Really nice blad Sam. I havent posted in a while but i've noticed you're outputing alot more blades. Does it have anything to do with you getting your kmg setup? That's got to be the next step for me... got to get a belt grinder going...

There are pics in this thread of my forge. One has the dimensions on it.
http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/pics-my-forge-finally-3579/

This is only a hobbyist forge, it gets ran for a full day only 2-3 times a month.

Mine is made out of 1/4 plate, i would rather have 3/8 or 1/2 plate.

Also, the slats between the air holes are starting to wear down from heat and oxydation (basically they are disolving away... and that after only 2-3 days/month of use) Once those go too far i will either keep the same design of firehole but replace the bottom plate with a piece of 3/8 stainless steel or I will replace the slits with a single large hole with a single large clinker breaker in the center.

does it have to be more than one hole/slot or does it matter so long as you get teh airflow to the center? also does the air always have to come in from the bottom?

Dont assume the air has to enter the fire in the center. Lots of firepots are designed with a solid cast-iron clinker breaker that sits right in the center of the air inlet. When you rotate the clinker breaker it rotates and it's sides and corners break up the clinker. As air comes up through the ash tube it hits the clinker breaker and is diffused around it. Air is always more diffused by the coal and coke itself as it enters the fire.

I have a firepot with a three slot design in the bottom so air enters directly into the heart of the file. Recently i used a firepot design with a centered clinker breaker as described above. I like the centered one better. It seemed to create a larger area of heat in the forge due to the air being diffused throughout more of the firepot.

Yeah, very cool that it has multiple meanings.

Nice work. You have a cool touch mark to put on your work Sam.

Very nice!

I can see where a rectangle or oblong octoganal handle would be better. You can feel the position of the hammer head in your hand. My handles are almost round.