DIY no-weld Belt, buff, disc

Those time-serts serve the same purpose as the old Heli-Coils I've used in the past to repair stripped threads. The timeserts are solid bushing rather than a spring type insert as the Heli-Coils are. I'll bet both work equally good, but I question the need to protect the aluminum in that manner? IF - and that's a big "IF" - the threads ever do wear out, stripped, etc - they could then be repaired with timeserts or helicoils with the same effort - could they not? Not sure, so I'm asking the question.

BTW, you've got a NICE looking grinder there- I might steal a couple ideas myself to retro-fit to my home brew grinder I made last winter. Good job! and good documentation.

Ken H>
 
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Ken,

The tracking wheel threads dont get a lot of pressure AND its going through 1" thick stock so likely wouldnt require a time sert. The tool arm however is only going through 1/2" stock and will be holding the arm in place against the tension of the spring. It very well could be sufficient but I have a tendency to somewhat over engineer things. The aluminum is pretty soft and the tool arm handle is going to be snugged down every time the tool arm is swapped. The time cert bushing are like $1 each so for me it was a no brainier just to do it right from the start.
 
A little more progress tonight. Got the timesert in for the tool arm lever, the handle for the tracking arm and notched out the flat platen plate to give me some more clearance on the left side.

That old rockwell tablesaw its sitting on will be its home, the motor went in it some time ago so I gutted it and it will make the perfect little bench for the grinder.

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Had a wicked storm roll thru last friday, uprooted a big pine thats next to the house. Had to spend my time taking care of that instead of working on my grinder so didnt get as much done as I had hoped.

I had been tossing around a lot of ideas on how I wanted to mount the motor. Since my design calls for the possibility of having a disc grinder arm and buffing arm I need the ability to have the belt come off the motor to front or rear of table and needed to be able to secure it accordingly. I also didnt want to spend a lot of time or money on it either.

What I decided to do was to make use of the old saws miter tracks so I made a little "sled" to mount the motor to with stock on the underside that rides in the miter tracks. Im going to use a couple pillow blocks mounted upside down under the table and run some 1/2" allthread between the pillow blocks and through a threaded block on the underside of the motor table and have a handwheel mounted to the allthread at the front of table so I can turn the wheel and move the table foreward/backward. This will act to move the motor, tension the belt and hold the motor down on the table.

I just used some mild hand pressure to spin a belt last night, only issue I see at present is the belt seems to shimmy left/right on tracking wheel. It runs pretty straight over the tool arm though.

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The uprooted tree :(

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I suggest that you get the 2 x72" belt grinder up and running and then add in these other multitool features at a later time. You really want that grinder to purr or it's all for nought!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
I suggest that you get the 2 x72" belt grinder up and running and then add in these other multitool features at a later time. You really want that grinder to purr or it's all for nought!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com

Yea, thats definitely my plan but I have to put a little thought into the design as a whole to prevent having to change things up and/or redo them at a later time. I think some of what appears to be belt shimmy (for lack of a better term) is largely do to some discoloration on the belt itself.

I used some lithium grease on the tracking arm and tracking wheel mechanism but think I need a little more spring tension. Ive run it at all 3 pulley combo speeds and belt stays on no problem at all, it just seems to go side to side a little bit on tracking wheel itself but tracks over platen pretty straight. maybe ill try and get a little video later.
 
I haven't built one of those but I know that most everyone that does has a few tracking issues to settle. Don't get any of the grease on the back of the belts or link belt
Maybe Bossdog or others will chine in here for you that have built a few of them.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
I decided to go ahead and use some all thread to move the motor sled. Picked up a couple pillow blocks and added a block of aluminum under the sled which I drilled and tapped for the all thread. Picked up a handwheel, did some cutting on the table saw to make room for some additional sled travel and the allthread to stick out the front and got it all back together. I think it turned out pretty well.

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Now I need to shave off some metal for my flat platen tool arm, make my tool rest arm and then ill look into disc grinder arm.
 
Thanks Shawn, hopefully someday ill be able to make knives half as nice as yours! That kuhkri of yours is amazing!
 
Ive had a few setbacks but im back in the shop. Ive cut out 3 blades so far and put a bevel on 1. I quickly realized my freehand skills were lacking so I put together a little grinding jig, ill get pics later. And I have also got the rest of the parts needed to add my buffer and disk attachment. I made good progress on disc grinder attachment over the weekend, just need to finish up the tool rest and tighten things up.

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pretty clever build. I especially like the tool arm disc attachment setup.
 
Thx guys, I guess thats one benefit of having a belt drive setup, one can get pretty creative with the tool arms :)
 
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