Belt speeds

Freds Edge

Freds Edge

Well-Known Member
I was wondering if anyone has any references on belt speeds such as max safe speed low speeds? etc. manufacturers , belt types ,that sort of thing.
 
Fred, minimum speed is an interesting thing. When I was using a 4 pulley setup, I felt 1200 FPM was just fine, even for fine grits. Max speeds I was comfortable with 3,000 FPM with coarse grits like 36 to 60 grit. Now since I've upgraded to a VFD, I use speeds even down to 600 FPM for critical grinding, and even up to 4,000 FPM for profiling.

Ken H>
 
Ken, are you measuring actual belt speed or calculating it? I don't have a SFM gauge and I've been curious where I run mine. I think I tend to run slower than I need to, I'm paranoid about bearings or something coming apart. Guess I should trust it more, but then again I built it.
 
Anthony, I come up with the belt speeds from calculations. When I was using the step pulley setup, I could take the fixed motor RPM, and the pulley ratio to calculate the belt speed. With the VFD, I programmed the VFD to display the belt speed based on motor RPM using the VFD algorithm. VFD drives will display motor RPM based on internal calculations and percentage of speed called for. I entered a factor to give actual belt speed. If you have a a VFD drive, don't worry abut running less than 20% or so, especially for fairly short periods of time (5 to 15 minutes). If you're concerned about motor overheating, just lay your hand on motor and you can tell if motor is getting hot.

Going VERY slow isn't going to hurt bearings, belt, etc at all.

Ken H>
 
Ken , I run a VFD control that is oversized for what I do but the nice thing is that it gives me a motor rpm read out ,I run a direct drive with a 6'' drive wheel and a 3600 rpm 220 v 3ph 2hp motor. this gives me a top speed of 5652 FT/min which I hardly ever use . What it does do is give me good torque at lower speeds . I was hoping to find if there was a reference guide for belt performance vs speed or a general guide.
 
Fred, I'm surely not the person to give a definitive answer to your question. As a ROT (Rule Of Thumb), fine grits get slower speeds, coarse grits get higher speeds. Ceramic belts also tend to like high speeds with higher pressure - or that's my understanding anyway. AO belts don't require as higher speed as ceramic - again, this is my understanding.

Good luck - and maybe someone with real knowledge will chime in and list specific belts manuf/model for specific speeds.

Ken H>
 
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