I’m trying to get in the habit of gluing up a belt or two every day, so that I will have a good supply in reserve at all times. That’s proper preplanning, and the fact that I’m traveling this week is happenstance. So, both.

I was referring to your experiments trying to find a viable method for gluing up belts and admit my last comment was a little tongue in cheek. I am curious about gluing up one or two a day before developing a method that works. 

I do think you're on the right track making the clamp mechanism more rigid but would've stiffened the angleiron "anvil" to the belt's edges.

Frosty The Lucky.

Can you elaborate on that last? I’m not picking up what you’re laying down. 

Sure. You welded a gusset centered under the caul. I feel if you'd welded two just inside the edges of the belt's edge. It would go a long way towards preventing the ends of the glue joint from parting. Put a center gusset in and I think it would work much better, probably as well as angle iron can without welding it solid like a welding test.

Frosty The Lucky.

I'm still confused by "inside the edges of the edge".

That does read clumsy. The caul in position on the current angle iron anvil defines the edges of the press clamp I'm referring to.

Currently you've welded a "gusset" (this is actually a "stiffener" a gusset is and does something similar but different) in the center of the press clamp which reinforces the angle iron from deflecting but only in the center under the caul. Welding two more just inside the edges of the caul will eliminate any flex in the angle iron "anvil".

Looking at the stiffener so you are sighting straight in to the angle iron it looks like a thick line. Now visualize two more thick lines one under each edge of the caul. With one stiffener the caul CAN deflect, tilting left or right making uneven pressure in the press. With three stiffeners the caul CAN NOT tip without crushing one, maybe two stiffeners. 

Your mechanism can't develop that much pressure so the anvil under the caul WILL behave like a solid block of steel the thickness of the angle iron's flange.

I wish I could send a sketch but I'm still having trouble with this stupid OS. <sigh>

Let me know if that doesn't make sense.

Frosty The Lucky.

I think I understand what you mean, but it's not an issue. 

Whether or not the working surface of the jig (that is, the top of the angle iron) flexes is immaterial. The connection between the caul and the clamping bolt is flexible, so the caul will self-align to equalize the pressure across its surface. That is, if there's more pressure on one side of the joint, the caul will rise up on that side until the pressure is the same on both sides.

You will recall that the first version of the clamp did not have a flexible joint, which led to uneven pressure and a bad glue joint. As a reminder, here's what that splice looked like:

Even without the stiffener, I got more even pressure across the entire splice once I added the flexible connection with the toggle. The advantage of the stiffener is that all the force of the clamp goes into tightening the glue joint rather than distributing between the glue joint and bending the angle iron.

 

 

 

Uh huh. The mistake being applying pressure at an angle rather than perpendicular to the glue joint.

The moving die of a press can pivot but the anvil must be rigid and stationary or the pressure is in shear, at best unevenly distributed. Also flexing the anvil absorbs energy better used doing the intended work.

I know it's maybe not a current term but there was / is a reason the immobile die is called or is bolted, dovetailed into, etc. the Anvil.

Frosty The Lucky.

That’s all true, but with the bolt centered over the stiffener, any flex and/or shear will to be negligible. 

(Not precisely to scale, but pretty close.)

"Looks" good but what happens when you throw your full weight on the clamp handle? The clamp is made of rectangular strap stock aligned in the same plane to make the clam strong vertically. There is little but the stiffness of the steel to prevent it from deflecting left or right to the orientation of your drawing. 

Two more stiffeners and the problem goes away.

Frosty The Lucky.

Well, I've already thrown my full weight (all 250 lbs) on the clamp without it bending, deflecting, or distorting; "the stiffness of the steel" is pretty darn stiff. Also, the distances between the various elements -- and thus the various moment arms -- are quite small. If the clamping bolt were significantly to one side or the other of the stiffener, that would be a different matter, but additional stiffeners seem to me to be a solution in search of a problem.

Now, there is a small issue with the splice tape sliding out of alignment, but that appears to be coming from movement before the clamp is engaged, not from flexing afterwards. Holding down the parchment with spring clamps seems to be taking care of that problem, but if it persists, I've got some other ideas that might work. 

Here's to success.

Frosty The Lucky.

Indeed!

Well, the good news is that the 36 grit belt in the machine is holding up like a champ, even doing some heavy grinding on 3/4” plate. 

The bad news is that the motor on the grinder stalled out, and I haven’t yet been able to get it to start up again. If it ain’t one thing, it’s another…

Is it a TEFC (Totally Enclosed Fan Cooled) motor? The internally fan cooled electric motor I put on my home built belt grinder lasted almost long enough to get the grinder's pullies aligned well enough to track. Right now I have an old 1/2 hp TEFC motor on it from my old 2" x 48" belt grinder. The motor is handling the crud filled environment but is WAY under powered.

Frosty The Lucky.

My Radial Arm saw will stall and shut down, when I've run it too long like when ripping a long 2x6 in two and it gets a little too hot. It has a reset button that I always have a hard time finding to reset it when it cools down enough.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

Here's the motor plate and its mounting with the switch:

The motor has vents at the back so it isn't "Totally Enclosed." TEFC are designed for environments full of junk that can damage the motor OR ignite. Having the air you're walking around in and breathing catch fire is a negative experience. 

I don't know what plaque numbers indicate TEFC maybe vents is enough.

Being thermally protected means it will shut off if it hits a given temp and wont start till it cools and the sensor is internal so the case feeling cool doesn't mean much. Setting a fan up to blow through or just on it if it's TEFC will speed it up.

Frosty The Lucky.

Found the reset button; all well. 

Thumbs up....

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

In other news, the 36 grit belt mentioned above wore out before the splice failed. I’m going to call that a success. 

I think it is TEFC.  Probably indicated by the "TE" after the HP number.  The vents look like the intake for a fan at the end of the motor, outside the working bits.  Air would blow out between the shroud and the case to cool the outside.  (The "fan" part of TEFC has to get air from somewhere, after all.)

I think you’re right. It’s an older motor, and I suspect that it predates the current variety of NEMA codes, which includes TEFC (Totally Enclosed Fan Cooled), TENV (Totally Enclosed Non-Ventilated), and TEAO (Totally Enclosed Air Over) among others.

 

I had to run an errand and (happily) didn't post my last reply and being more confused now I looked it up on one of my favorite reference sites. 

 https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/nema-enclosure-standards-d_740.html

I'm still confused of course but at least I have a clue.

Frosty The Lucky.

Engineering Toolbox is a great resource.