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I Forge Iron

Belt grinder build in progress


Feukair

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Nice looking belt grinder. The small smithing group of freinds I`am involed in , we are planing on hvaing a small work shop to make a few of the no weld belt grinders, but we are going to do some welding on certian parts of them.
I plan on starting another thread because ,I/we have some questions.
Chris

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Very cool. Definitely get some fenner drive link belt, i was amazed how much this simple changed improved my grinder. I got most of my parts for my grinder from usaknifemakers. Great guy and he ships fast. You can build a grinder from just about any frame if it's solid enough. And yeah, if you've got access to some kind of a welder then lots of the joints on the no-weld grinder could simply be welded to save some fiddlin round with nuts and bolts and making the spanners u use to clamp with.

I love my grinder, in fact I love it even more recently since a I got it's electronics all wired up. I've also moved up to a larger pulley on the drive motor so my belts are moving alot faster now and i can grind much quicker.

Gots ta be xtra carefull though grinding on an already heat treated knife cuz things warm up quick.

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Nice looking belt grinder. The small smithing group of freinds I`am involed in , we are planing on hvaing a small work shop to make a few of the no weld belt grinders, but we are going to do some welding on certian parts of them.
I plan on starting another thread because ,I/we have some questions.
Chris



Chris, I've built the no weld grinder. Did it as a winter porject about a year ago. I posted a few pictures on Tracy Mickleys website along with my homemade bandsaw. I need to take a few more pictures now that I've had it up and running for a while now.
Don't go cheap on the motor. Keep all of you tolerances as tight and square as possible. I made the main 4 inch box tube out of a thicker wall tube than he suggests. I didn’t want to introduce vibration due to thin stock. I also used a thicker stock to hold the tubes together. It looked like his prototype was weak in this area. I purchased different sheaves than he offers, it gave me more speeds. I think has since expanded his offering of parts this year to include a bigger drive wheel and sheaves with more grooves. I also modified his system of tensioning the belt. I just needed a stronger spring a better way to retain it. He has done the hard part though. Overall the system works good. I do push it hard. I’m glad I invested a little extra in some areas, to keep it reliable when I do crank it up.

http://www.mickleyknives.com/html/grinder_builds.html Edited by erastus
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Some of my steel was scrap or given to me, all the tube steel was. I purchased beaumont drive, track, and idler wheels which together were about $200. I also had to buy the bearings. I used a scrap 1/2hp motor which is working fine so far. Overall i probably have about $300 into it not counting grinding belts.

I will definitly want a motor with more hp in the future, but while it's still too freezing cold most days to use it in my garage the 1/2hp is enough. ;-)

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I wonder how hard it would be to apply the principles to a WOOD build. I've got access to ALL KINDS of pallet wood, so I wouldn't be hurting for materials.


I was speaking more in terms of using wood as a base or frame. However some parts would definitely have to be metal and rigidly mounted to each other like the tube the tooling arm slides in and the riser that holds the tracking wheel, and the tooling arm and platten holder of course. If you do throw a wood based one together though i'd love to hear about it. Please start a thread to show it.
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  • 6 months later...

I was poking around work today and found all the steel except for the tooling arm. From what i can tell it kinda looks like 1/2" flat bar used for the platen, tension/tracking arm, and the mount for the tension/tracking arm.

If this is right please let me know. I've been poking around the racks at work since i saw your youtube vid, and we have all the steel except for the 1 1/2x1 1/2 cold rolled.

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  • 2 months later...

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