Possible belt driven grinder restoration project

[NBarbarino]

I live on a farm house and the barn next to me is full of old equipment. The main thing that caught my eye was the belt grinder. The entire thing is rusted. Keep in mind I know next to nothing about these things. I would absolutely need to rewire it and clean it up thoroughly but I'm wondering if it is doable for someone who has no experience.

 

hopefully this imgur link works. if anyone can give me more info on this thing I'd appreciate it https://imgur.com/gallery/KvwwR

[Steve Sells]

First watch your language this is a G rated forum., Second that is a belt driven grinder not what most people call a belt grinder,   so I corrected the title as well as editing your language.

I can not tell how abused the grinding wheels may be from that photo.  If they are damaged it can be a hand grenade when you turn it on.   New wheels are not very expensive, a motor can be salvaged form  most anything, so the main thing you have is the table it mounts on and of course the main mounting spindle itself. a push button type power switch is much safer than a home type toggle switch for lighting

 a few things to think about.

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning,

A Belt Grinder would have a belt 2"-8" wide, abrasive belt. Your pictures are of an old style Bench Grinder, v-belt driven. By the time you purchase a motor and a belt, you could purchase an enclosed motor bench Grinder, all in one tidy package. Yes, you could make that Bench Grinder work.

Neil

[Jim Coke]

Greetings NB,

       That type of grinder system was quite typical in the past... Commonly a washing machine motor was belted to the grinder which most of the time had a flat belt drive and brass bushings in the grinder which is a lower RPM design. The long and the short of it all it's not worth restoring and is dangerous with an open belt.  I applaud you interest in saving old equipment but your efforts would be better spent something else.. 

Forge on and make beautiful things 

Jim

[NBarbarino]

My apologies about the foul language! 

Thank you guys for the advice. I also found this guy: https://imgur.com/gallery/VtHuj dunno if that's worth touching either. unfortunetly I don't have any better picture than that. I'm not even sure if it's a grinder! hah.

I'm really just trying to figure out if restoring it would be cheaper than buying a new bench grinder. It doesn't seem like it will be and it's rather unsafe anyway. Very neat, though.

[Steve Sells]

Lets back up a bit, and ask the first question:  WHAT do you wish to do with it?

for Most things a 1 x30 belt grinder from harbour freight is going to be better than any disk grinder like those, for sharpening drill bits, axes or blades, as well as material clean up.  $30 to $50

buy a new motor and add a grinder disk to the end  $30 or less

[NBarbarino]

I do want to restore it and use it. I like old tools. BUT. If I can go to harbour freight and get a belt grinder for $30-50 then I might as well do that. In short, I think I'm both go pick up a new, cheap belt grinder and buy a new motor. I just have no idea where to look for such a motor.

[Steve Sells]

appliance repair counter.......

[ThomasPowers]

Scrap yard, motor repair places often have ones that folks decided not to pay for and abandoned.

[Kozzy]

As much as I hate seeing old iron fade back to dust, that grinder is not really a good candidate for a restoration.  It could be done without a huge amount of work (probably) but then you'd still have a poor bench grinder in the end anyway.  The value just isn't there from either a uniqueness standpoint or a usability standpoint.  

Keep looking around the barn.  There is probably something hiding in there which is worth the time to restore.

If this one is really calling to you, #1 job is to clean the thing up and look for catastrophic breaks in any castings or other major physical damage.  Those would be nearly impossible to fix and would put a stop sign on the project.  

Second job is to see if the motor works at all (after a thorough cleaning).  There are safety issues involved with this part so do a little homework.  If the motor is done, there is likely no reason to pursue anything further--a new motor needed means you might as well get a new grinder in the first place.  You can search for a used replacement but meh.

Third is the bearings in the grinding head. 95% of the time, those types of heads had brass bushings for bearings (or sometimes babbit) but rarely real roller bearings.  if they're loose/worn at all, it's probably another stop sign.  You can press out brass bushings and replace them but it's another "probably not worth the hassle" item.  Roller bearings would be worth replacing in the head as those were designed to be replaceable.  Babbit (unlikely) is beyond greenhorn level work.

From there it's just the usual cosmetics and minor parts....including new grinding wheels (DO NOT use the old ones).