Hi Knifedogs.
I am not a regular poster and haven't really contributed much content to the site. I have decided to fix that!
I am a new (hobbyist) knife maker, and would like to share some of what I have learned so far, and learn some more from any ensuing discussion.
In this post, I will be going through the mods I have performed on my Craftsman 2x42 belt grinder, what problems I have had with it, and give my general impressions of the grinder.
First off, some mods:

I took one of the hand adjustment knobs used to position the table for the disc sander on the unit, and replaced the hex screw that came as the method of adjusting tracking. It works so far, better than the screw that was intended to be the tracking adjustment actually, and if you want to know, the threads for both the screw and the knob are 6x30mm.

I removed the top part of the belt guard. While I don't have a before picture, I think you should be able to pretty clearly see where I took off the top part of the guard. While I haven't seen any other people do this to this grinder, it seriously helped me out as I can now grind on the tracking wheel and grind out round concavities.

The regular platen on this grinder really sucks. The fix was simple and easy: JB weld and a usaknifemaker ceramic platen.
And as you can also see in the last picture, I cut one of the "rabbit ears" off the work table so I can more easily switch out belts.
And now for the problems I have had so far:
All my previous problems were fixed by the mods to the grinder listed above. They made using it a whole lot easier and more enjoyable. I have, however, had one nagging problem that threatens to ruin almost everything I try to do with this machine:

As you can see from this picture, the belt has ridden way over to the left on the bottom wheel. This seems to happen after a few seconds of the machine being on, even when the tracking up on the top wheel is set right. This really bums me out, because it decreases the effectiveness of one of my mods, the ceramic platen. When the belt does this, it hangs off the platen on the left side. This has dissuaded me from attempting to grind a bevel on a knife with this grinder. It is the one fatal flaw on an otherwise decent piece of budget, easily mod-able machinery.
So, overall I would say this grinder is OK. It can easily be modded, isn't very expensive, there is a decent assortment of 2x42 belts out there, and it is powerful enough for a beginner like me. The only mod I would say is a must do for this would be the better platen, and if you aren't having my bottom wheel belt tracking problem, you should be able to produce some excellent work with only that modification to the machine.
If you have any questions, or know how to solve my problem, please reply.
Thanks, Knifedogs.
I am not a regular poster and haven't really contributed much content to the site. I have decided to fix that!
I am a new (hobbyist) knife maker, and would like to share some of what I have learned so far, and learn some more from any ensuing discussion.
In this post, I will be going through the mods I have performed on my Craftsman 2x42 belt grinder, what problems I have had with it, and give my general impressions of the grinder.
First off, some mods:

I took one of the hand adjustment knobs used to position the table for the disc sander on the unit, and replaced the hex screw that came as the method of adjusting tracking. It works so far, better than the screw that was intended to be the tracking adjustment actually, and if you want to know, the threads for both the screw and the knob are 6x30mm.

I removed the top part of the belt guard. While I don't have a before picture, I think you should be able to pretty clearly see where I took off the top part of the guard. While I haven't seen any other people do this to this grinder, it seriously helped me out as I can now grind on the tracking wheel and grind out round concavities.

The regular platen on this grinder really sucks. The fix was simple and easy: JB weld and a usaknifemaker ceramic platen.
And as you can also see in the last picture, I cut one of the "rabbit ears" off the work table so I can more easily switch out belts.
And now for the problems I have had so far:
All my previous problems were fixed by the mods to the grinder listed above. They made using it a whole lot easier and more enjoyable. I have, however, had one nagging problem that threatens to ruin almost everything I try to do with this machine:

As you can see from this picture, the belt has ridden way over to the left on the bottom wheel. This seems to happen after a few seconds of the machine being on, even when the tracking up on the top wheel is set right. This really bums me out, because it decreases the effectiveness of one of my mods, the ceramic platen. When the belt does this, it hangs off the platen on the left side. This has dissuaded me from attempting to grind a bevel on a knife with this grinder. It is the one fatal flaw on an otherwise decent piece of budget, easily mod-able machinery.
So, overall I would say this grinder is OK. It can easily be modded, isn't very expensive, there is a decent assortment of 2x42 belts out there, and it is powerful enough for a beginner like me. The only mod I would say is a must do for this would be the better platen, and if you aren't having my bottom wheel belt tracking problem, you should be able to produce some excellent work with only that modification to the machine.
If you have any questions, or know how to solve my problem, please reply.
Thanks, Knifedogs.