Belt movement adjustment?

P

Pelallito

Well-Known Member
Hello,
Can someone tell me what causes the belt to move side on the wheel. I have tried to align all three or 4 wheels, several times and I can't get rid of it. :12:I have a KGB clone with a gas strut.
Drive wheel,tracking adjustment, and wheels on my flat platten. I also have a small wheel adapter.
Thanks,
Fred
 
Im with Mike. I have had belts that were Wonky and wobble.. Also I may suggest a stronger spring for your tracking wheel. so there is more tension on the belt.
 
It could be several things?
Here are a few things to try and see if it helps?
1) Throw out that belt and try another one.
2) Look at the wheels with a right angle square on them to see if they are true or shallow on one side?
3)Put a piece of masking tape around the very center of the drive wheel.

These may help you find the problem.
Let us know?

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
Some belts are cut and glued slightly askew and wobble. It's rare but happens.
Belts should be tight enough to strum something like a guitar spring.
this never makes sense but once in awhile if a belt wobbles, taking it off and mounting it in reverse lessons the wobble.
try a completely different brand and see if the wobble is the same. If it, your machine is out of tune and I would bet anything it is the grinder and not your belts.

The cheaper the belt, the more likely it will wobble a bit. Most belts don't wobble, even the cheapest ones but if one does, it's usually a low cost one.

My guess is one of the three (or four) wheels is slightly askew causing the belt to run over as far as it can and then it self corrects and runs back, only to repeat.
 
Fred, if you need a different belt to try I got some new 40 grit ones in. Give me a call & I'll meet up with you with one.

George
 
Remember to loosen the tension on your belts when done working for the day. Leaving tension on over night, or for extended amount of time, will stretch your belt and add to the wobble problem.
Wade
 
Thank you all for the replies. I have this show up with several
belts. I buy them from Supergrit and they are good name brand belts.
I think that the problem is in my grinder. I am going to check it completely from motor
to final wheels. The gas strut has 20#s of force and makes adjusting the
belt tracking up difficult.
I align wheels with belt tracking wheel centered and straight up and down.
I am also thinking of turning down the adjusting nuts so they have a shoulder
that bears against the inner race better.
I don't have a photo, but will take it today(after cleaning up a little) lol.
Please keep suggestions coming.
 
Pelallito said:
Thank you all for the replies. I have this show up with several
belts. I buy them from Supergrit and they are good name brand belts.
I think that the problem is in my grinder. I am going to check it completely from motor
to final wheels. The gas strut has 20#s of force and makes adjusting the
belt tracking up difficult.
I align wheels with belt tracking wheel centered and straight up and down.
I am also thinking of turning down the adjusting nuts so they have a shoulder
that bears against the inner race better.
I don't have a photo, but will take it today(after cleaning up a little) lol.
Please keep suggestions coming.
Click to expand...

Pelallito,
Even Good brand belts can be cut off center sometimes. Maybe its this "Gas Strut"?

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
I put a dial indicator on on the drive wheel and found some runout.
Took the wheel off and am trying to recenter the drive shaft in it's
bearings. I have more to do. I will check everything from motor, link
belt to the final wheels. Thanks for all the help.
Fred
 
After spending yesterday checking things out, I now have more problems! one of the bearings and the motor have a noise they did not have.
I am considering replacing a flange bearing and the drive shaft, 3/4". Boss, when do you expect the shafts to be back in stock?
I did find that the tracking wheel had a bad bearing, but luckily I had a spare. It is sometimes good to be a pack rat.LOL
The all thread was also bent and I replaced it.
Thanks for the help.
Fred
PS Laurence, I will try replacing the gas strut with the old spring system and see what that does.
 
Last edited:
Update
Boss thanks for the reply.
I continued to check everything out and found that the tracking wheel was not parallel to the arm. I shimmed it until it was parallel. I levelled the drive shaft with its new bearing and made sure it was square to the arm.
I also went back to the spring and am running the belt with the arm parallel to the arm box, thus putting a lot more tension on the belt.
I have not gotten rid of all movement, but it is a lot better. I will continue to tinker with it, but I want to grind some steel not just work on the grinder. I also got rid of the motor noise.
Thanks for all of the help.
Fred
 
If you have a VFD consider changing the grinder to a direct drive. That gets rid of the shaft, pillow blocks and belt. You will be amazed how much quieter and smoother it will run. I think that you will also notice more power and torque due to transmission and friction losses.
 
Wayne,
I do have a VFD, and will look into changing to direct drive.
I can see how by passing the bearings and shaft is a win win situation.
I have a 3 hp 3600 rpm motor slowed down by pulleys to about 1800.
As a straight drive, it might be too fast. What do you think?
Thanks,
Fred
 
If it is a KBAC 29 make sure that the J-4 jumper is set to 1X. Then the top speed will be 3600 rpm and with the potentiometer you will be able to slow it down as slow as you want to run it.
 
Just an idea - I've got a KMG clone I built a while back. If the tension bar is not set so the top of belt is level, then my belts tend to wobble around a bit. Hard to get them to run true. Once I figured the top of belt needed to be level, NOT with tracking wheel a bit higher - grinder tracks nicely.

Of course, there are still sometimes an older belt my not track true, but good belts run really good.

Ken H>
 
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