DIY no-weld Belt, buff, disc

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exitium

Well-Known Member
Ive been wanting to make knives for a long time but just never got around to it. I finally decided its time to take a stab at at. My first step will be to build a 2x72" grinder. I dont have a welder so am going to build something I can bolt together. Ive decided to use 6061 aluminum plate and bar stock .5" think by various dimensions as needed (the flat platen will be 2" angle iron however). This will be a bit more expensive than hot rolled steel but less than cold rolled and should be easier for me to cut, drill and tap. Since space always seems to be an issue I plan on taking advantage of the grinder motor to serve multiple purposes.

Phase 1 will be a basic flat platen 2x72 belt grinder. I picked up a leeson 2hp 120/220v 3450 rpm continuous duty motor. I had a $50 off coupon so decided to go with a nice new motor. Ive got it all wired with a switch etc so its ready to go. I cant really afford to run 3 phase or get a VFD so I am going with a step pulley setup. My wheels, bearings, pulleys on the way from beaumont and when In the next week or two should be getting the aluminum I need to start the build. Ive got the dimensional drawing basically complete and I drew up the following mockup to get an idea how it will look. I havent decided if I am going to have a spring under the front of tension arm or at the tail end of it pulling down so the arm is a bit long in the model. There will be a location for 2 tool arms so I have yet to decide if I am going to hang a tool arm of existing arm or a second arm.

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Phase 2 will be to make use of the same motor to run a buffing wheel. To do this I will just use some pillow blocks, 3 step pulley and put them all on another tool arm. Then I should be able to slide it in and move the belt from the 2x72 drive pulley to the buffer drive pulley, depending on how things lay out I may need to get a longer drive belt.

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Then lastly, when I get around to it, I will build another tool arm with a disc grinding wheel on it.

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USA Knifemakers Supply also sells this belt.
I would make up two. One for the back drive and one for the front or, better yet, locate the motor so that the same belt would work both ways.
Design looks great.
Just my opinion.
Steve
 
Thanks for the feedback, thats the belt I intended to use.

I think im going to be hard pressed for a central motor position since I think the disc grinder platen will stick out much father than the belt or buffer. So right now Im thinking maybe mount the motor on a smaller plate that slides in a channel and can move front to back and then lock down so I can get away with a single belt.
 
Picked up my aluminum plate earlier this week and this morning had some time to start cutting it up, a little drilling. taping and its slowly but surely coming together.

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That's an ingenious set up Exitium. Your idea for the disk grinding and buffing arm attachments is really great. Can you record main measurements/specs etc. for drilling/lay out of the machine for others? I'm working on mine now and would love to copy your machine.

Hope you'll post more pics as you go.

Thank you for the illustrations and photos thus far, really appreciated.
GWF
 
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Ill try and round up some basic measurements. Ive made a bit more headway (see pic below) and have some of the small stuff left like the tension spring for tracking arm. Ive got some misc knobs on order should have them tomorrow. Ive got a time-sert ill use to put in a tougher thread for the tool arm lock screw as well as for the tracking wheel adjustment knob. Then I have to mount it down and figure out hat I am gonna do with mounting motor for easy adjustment.

Thats my slack belt arm on there now, I have the material/wheels to make another flat platen arm as well.

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I'm really liking the design so far.

One thing I will say, you might wish you had started out with a 1750 (or so) RPM motor rather than the 3450 when you get it all together and start grinding.

To be perfectly honest, I have a 1750 RPM motor and hardly ever use the fastest speed on my 3 step pulley setup. Often, I wouldn't even mind if it was a little slower.

YMMV.
 
So here is the basic metal list I started with:

ASTM B221-08 6061-T6 Aluminum Flat Bar 1/2" x 6" (48.000")
ASTM B221-08 6061-T6 Aluminum Flat Bar 1/2" x 12" (24.000")
ASTM B221-08 6061-T6 Aluminum Flat Bar 1/2" x 1-1/2" (48.000")
ASTM B221-08 6061-T6 Aluminum Square Bar 1-1/2" (48.000")
ASTM B221-08 6061-T6 Aluminum Flat Bar 1" x 2" (36.000")
ASTM A276-10 304 Stainless Steel Angle 2" x 2" x 1/4" (12.000")

The base plate is 1/2 x 6" x 21" and the leftover was cut into 3 pieces that were 4.5" long and used to make the rear bracket holding the drive shaft. There is about a 12" piece left that will be used to make my flat platen tool arm.

The sides of the tool holder are 1/2" x12" plate are are about 10" tall. The remaining 4" piece from the original 24" was used for the slack belt tool holder you see in last pic above. the spacers in between the sides of tool bar holder is 1/2" x 1.5". When I laid it out I just took a piece of paper and folded it a couple times and placed it under one of the 1.5 x 1.5 square stock to get spacing needed with a little wiggle room. The only drawback to this method was it gave me the height to slide tool bar in but not the width. I had to decide if I wanted to get wider stock and rip it length wise OR simply put the 1.5 square stock on my mill and shave a little off so thats the route I went.

The tool arms themselves are from 1.5" square stock with 1/2" plate bolted to it to hold the idlers. I have one pair of 2" aluminum wheels and also a pair of 2" rubber wheels, I may put one of each on each of my tool arms so I has that surface to grind on as well.

The tension arm is made from the 1x2 stock and is 16" long. The bracket for the tracking wheel is 1"x2" stock notched into an L shape with a screw through the top and one in from the front. Then another piece lengthwise between those brackets with a 1/2 bolt going through all of it along the top edge to act as a pivot point. Ill use a 3/8" threaded knob for tracking wheel which will go through the tool arm (via time0sert insert for added strength) and press against the bottom of the piece the tracking wheel is mounted to to "tilt" it as needed for tracking. For the bolt head on the rear of the tilt plate holding the tracking wheel, I created a cavity for the bolt head to give me a little bit of clearance between the tool arm and the tracking wheel holder.

The arm holder is some 5/8" x 2" bar stock I had laying around. The one side is 16" tall and runs down to base. A shorter piece (ie 6") is used for the opposite side with a small piece of 1"x2" along with a thin piece of stock (to give me room for nylon washers to use on tension bar) and they were bolted together. I was contemplating running a bolt up from the underside on the short tension arm holder but it doesnt seem to need it. I will reassess when I have tension spring on and see if it moves much.

The tool arms are 16". I can easily cut circular slots in the wheel holder plate to allow me to angle the platen but not sure if I will ever need to do that so I will save that for later.

The 2" stainless angle iron will be used as my flat platen. I have a piece of fireplace glass as a platen liner so will put the angle on the mill and notch out a home for it so it sits on a shelf and overall just shave off a few thou to make sure its flat and level.

I gotta say this has turned out to be a lot bigger project than I expected. Drilling and tapping the holes is a major time sink! I m so glad I opted to use aluminum though, so much easier to cut and tap and seems to be plenty strong well worth the additional cost over hot rolled steel. If I can get decent at making knives ill probably get a 3ph motor and VFD and make another one.

Its certainly not the prettiest thing on the planet and if I made a second one I am sure it would be a lot nicer looking.

Here are a few more pics.....

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Been a little busy so havent made as much progress as I would have liked. I also ended up changing my mind on how to build the flat platen tool arm. I was originally going to have a small table as a secondary arm but I decided to just extend the arm holding the flat platen out a bit bast the platen and ill attach a small table directly to it. So far though I just have the flat platen "plate" assembled. I cut a shallow cutout in the stainless angle iron so the fireplace glass sits on a small "shelf" and have it JB welded on. The platen does protrude past end of plate a bit, enough so that I dont think it will interfere with plunges BUT I may end up taking a bit of metal off between the rollars so there is a little more freedom, I havent decided yet.

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Very nice go ahead with that grinder! I'm sure there will be many the will be pleased you posted all that information for them. Nice doin's ! Frank
 
exitium,
That was my thought when looking at your Platen. You may want to relieve about 1" of metal between the bolts on the left so you can get in there evenly on both sides for your plunges.

Looking good!

Laurence

www.rhinoknive.com
 
rhinoknives said:
exitium,
That was my thought when looking at your Platen. You may want to relieve about 1" of metal between the bolts on the left so you can get in there evenly on both sides for your plunges.

Looking good!

Laurence

www.rhinoknive.com
Click to expand...


Laurence, I thought the exact same thing. If one was to use a file guide (which one WILL, eventually), the current setup wouldn't really allow it. Looks like a great grinder all around, and it looks like our buddy exitium has both the wherewithal and machinery to modify as and when needed.
 
You guys are right, I was thinking about that right after I posted. There is room for the plunge but not with a file guide so I will throw it on the mill and take some metal off.

I made a little more progress tonight, put in the time-sert for the tracking wheel adjustment knob, and got the tension spring installed for tracking arm as well. I need to put another hole in the tracking arm for the handle I got and then another time-sert in the main body to hold the tool arm and I will be ready to connect the motor and spin some belts.

On a side note, ive really come to appreciate why these grinders cost as much as they do, there is a lot of work that goes into them.

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Don Robinson said:
Great work! :s11798: What's a time-sert?
Click to expand...

Thanks. Since Im using aluminum Im a little worried about the strength/longevity of the threads for spots that will constantly be articulated like the tracking wheel adjustment knob and the tool arm retaining lever so I used a "time-sert". Its in essence a thread repair product that has a steel threaded insert which is put in place of damaged threads to restore them. The kits come with a drill bit, countersink tool (the inserts have a small lip on them) a tap and an "insertion tool" which is a threaded bit you screw into the insert which snugs it into the newly tapped hole to hold it firm. I also used a dab of locktight to make sure the insert stays put. This way I have steel threads where the high use knobs will be.

You can find out more about timeserts at http://www.timesert.com/
 
Its more than just the file guide,while you work free hand you want the same clearence on both side of the Platen, You will be amazed at the differnt ways you will grasp the steel and feed it along with your fingers while grinding, cleaning up stock,etc.

She is looking great!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
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