switchjv Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 After a month of working a few hours at a time, i finally finished my belt grinder. Total cost of the build was a little under $300. The priciest part being the motor courtesy of Harbor Freight($119.00 with the 20% off coupon). Secondly, the contact wheel from Grizzly($79.00). Everything else was fabricated by myself with exception of the pillow blocks(Ebay $24.00 pr.). The majority of the steel was scrap pieces and recycled parts. All that is left to do is mount the ON/Off switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 Nice Job! Can you fit it with different sized wheels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 It looks great!! I wonder if you might want some sort of spring tensioner on it though? Let us know how it works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
switchjv Posted November 29, 2012 Author Share Posted November 29, 2012 Yes, it can take different size wheels. I'm currently making the platten attachment for it now... There is a spring in the down tube that's applies tension on the belt. I used it a little while this morning. Looks like it works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenH Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 Good job Switch - I hope my grinder looks half as good when finished. Did you make the idler/tension wheel yourself? What are you using for the platten wheels? With $220 in motor/bearing/wheel you sure did a GREAT job of "scrounging" parts - man after my own heart<:) Ken H> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
switchjv Posted December 4, 2012 Author Share Posted December 4, 2012 Thanks ken. I machined the tension wheel from a piece of 6061 aluminum. And the idler wheel was machined from a piece of 3" steel round bar. I thought of casting a rubber face on the idler wheel with room temperature vulcanizing rtv. But it works good without it. The platten wheels will be machined from 2" steel round bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsmith Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 I did some research when I built my 2x72, that really paid off, made the idlers from 2" and 4" alluminum in a similar way, getting the crown right on my drive wheel made the belt track straight right away, I read were some other builders used the more affordable contact wheels from sunhill or grizzly, they reccomended mounting the wheels in a lathe on thier true shaft center and grinding/sanding the rubbber a bit to eliminate the last bit of runnout on the face, could make the difference of having the finished sander peform like a really smooth topnotch machine, Nice looking build Woodsmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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