Treadmill motor disk grinder build.

Calvin Robinson

Calvin Robinson

Moderator Christian Forum
I needed another disk grinder,one dedicated to grinding dovetails and stuff like that.
I had a treadmill that my daughter threw out,soooooo,I BUILT ONE!
I photographed some of the process to show y'all how I did it.

First I had to remove the motor,power supply,control board and wiring harness.
 
Using the motor mount from the tread mill I built this sliding piece that will mount the motor to a slide rail for adjustment.
I made a 1/4" x9" aluminum disk and J B Welded it to the integral pulley/flywheel from the treadmill.
 
I made a base plate from 1/4" steel to mount a tool rest (one I had taken off another grinder) to,the slide rail for the motor assembly also mounts to this base plate. The last photo shows the assembly in the upright position,looking at the front. I made the motor slide rail from a piece of material I had on hand in my scrap pile,I think it was part of a steel frame building.
 
I made two 1/4" studs from all thread ,drilled and tapped the slide rail and secured them with nuts from underneath. (I didn't want to crank up the grinder and plasma cutter for this project so I guess you can call it a NO WELD BUILD.:1:)
I built this thing from stuff that I had laying around my shop,I didn't go out and buy anything. This is that stuff that I can't throw away because I MIGHT NEED IT SOME DAY!:lol:
 
The integral pulley/flywheel is also a dust shield for the motor the way it is mounted in the treadmill but I have reversed it so I made a dust cover out of an old coffee can lid. (I told y'all I never throw ANYTHING AWAY.)
In photo #14,if you look real close,you can see one of the motor mount bolts,I have to put a socket on an extension into that hole to loosen and tighten those two motor mount bolts,they hold the slide,motor mount and motor frame all together,they screw directly into the motor frame. I built that slide mount out of a piece of the treadmill frame.
The disk is glued to the integral pulley/flywheel and that is screwed onto the motor shaft.
This is the reverse of the way the pulley/flywheel is screwed on in the treadmill.
 
Now to the electrical part.
I got these photos out of order,if you look at them according to the numbers on the photos they will make more sense.
I mounted the power supply to the wall where this grinder is going to reside,hooked up the motor leads and wiring harness to the control panel then tied everything up nice and neat. The control panel will simply lean against the wall behind the grinder and cover the power supply.
 
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Now for the smoke test.
Plug it in and STAND BACK!
No smoke so lets turn it on and see what happens.
HOLY MOLY,IT RUNS! Thank you Lord!
 
Good job Calvin. I need to show this one to my wife, she is always after me to get rid of my "good stuff" that I might need some day.
 
Careful sir.... Your wife will load it with clothes and boxes... You'll never see it again. Can I get an "amen"?
 
Calvin, I haven't decided whether I want to build an EMP or a spaceship this weekend. If you are available to assist I'll fly you over this weekend.
 
Great job, I often re-purpose and that is a great use of materials. How is it working, as well as you hoped?
 
It works well,it's dedicated for grinding dovetails on bolsters and handle material and for grinding scale ends down to fit in my slipjoints where I have milled and left bolsters and need to add scale material.
Thats why I need the adjustable tool rest. I have another one I built a few years ago,it's horizontal,I use it to round off the sides of my folders, I lay them flat and rock from side to side.
I just got through adding dust collection capabilities to this grinder,I'll take some photos and add them latter.

Thank you all for your compliments. If any one wants to try one of these and I can help just let me know.
 
Here is the grinder I bought from Uncle Al.
I took off the adjustable tool rest and added this tool rest when I recently started flat grinding some blades.
The tool rest that came on this grinder is the one I used for my treadmill grinder.
 
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