BG-272 DIY 2 x 72" Belt Grinder

DIY 2" x 72" Belt Grinder Project

Like almost every newbie knifemaker owning a decent belt grinder is dream. When I realized the price of
a machine, my jaw hit the floor. Most of us getting started cannot afford a $2000 grinder. So I set out to
design my own and I shamelessly borrowed as many ideas as I could. One special shout out
to Alaskabearhawk for his great design and detailed videos on YouTube.

Wish List
My wish list for my new grinder would be:

 2 x 72" belts
 1.5 to 3 horsepower
 Variable speed
 Removable attachments, platen and contact wheel
Variations
Before building I considered some variations:

Stepped sheaves for varying speed. This would be a lower cost build, but still allow some speed
changing. I would need two pillow blocks, an axle and a stepped sheaves (or pulleys as some folks call
them). The drive wheel could be 4" diameter still. This arrangement would let me use any motor, whether
it can be reversed or not.

Fixed speed would be lowest cost and simplest build as there are less components and less alignment
issues. The motor can be 2 pole or 4 pole and must be rotating in the CCW direction. That's fairly easy.
Drive wheel size becomes a focus. For a 1800 RPM (4 pole) motor I'd use a 5" or 6" wheel. 2335 or 2826
surface feet per minute. For a 3600 RPM (2 pole) motor I'd use a 3" or 4" wheel. 2826 or 3768 surface
feet per minute.
To get the surface feet per minute, use the formula:
(Motor Speed in RPM x 3.14 x Wheel Diameter) / 12.
Take a look at some of the other builds on the BG-272 Gallery of Builds page. Some very clever ideas
going on there. Thanks to all that sent in photos and made such great suggestions.
Procurement

The search for suitable wheels proved fruitless as the most common
maker in the US did not ship to Canada at the time. I found these wheels from Europe on eBay. You may
want to check out Oregon Blade Maker's belt grinder wheel set.

Note: If you want to machine your own wheels, here is a PDF and
a CAD drawing graciously provided by K. Langeveld.
For the drive wheel, I am using a 4" nylon caster that is 2" wide. I had to push the roller bearing race out
and insert a shim with a 7/8" inside diameter. I then had to cut a key way for the 3/16" key stock. A fair bit
of work, but I have made what is effectively a sub $20 crowned drive wheel.

The motor came from an ad on Kijiji . I scored this 2 horsepower T145C

face motor, 3 phase 230/460V for a whopping $35. I wasn't too sure about this but after a quick ohm
meter test and a spin of the shaft I think we're going to be fine.

For the variable speed part, I chose a Yaskawa J1000 VFD. My work
associations with Yaskawa have been top notch over the years and basic shaft spinner came into my
hands at a very reasonable price.
I am going to install the VFD in a sealed enclosure (NEMA 4) and wire a control panel for the operator to
start, stop and vary the speed of the motor from the front of the grinder.
For the basic electrical I sourced from eBay, Digi-Key and my locals like Home Depot, Canadian Tire and
Peavey Mart.
 Not everyone can chance upon a nearly free motor. I have made a Belt
Grinder Motor Guide to help you in selecting a motor. Aside from a few electrical things, remember to
check the shaft size on the motor and make sure the drive wheel's bore is a match. Drive wheels usually
come with 5/8", 3/4" or 7/8" bores.

Construction
The basic construction is of HSS (Hollow Structural Steel) pieces and some plate and scrap pieces from
my shop and from Metal Supermarket. The pieces I cut on a band saw so they are nice and square.

I bought 48" of 2" HSS, 0.188 wall and cut them like this.

Very important! You must remove the seam inside the 2" HSS
receivers before any welding takes place. This seam will prevent the inserted 1-1/2" tubing from sitting
square inside their receiver. Use a long file or a small grinder wheel in a drill with an extension and
remove the seam. Once the frame is welded, it becomes much more difficult to do this with a file.
As suggested by Ken DeRosier, make sure the welded seams are positioned on the left (where the lock
down nuts will be installed.) This reduces the seams from being an issue, and provides a perfectly flat
face for the tool arm to rest against.
Pieces A, B, C and D are squared, clamped and welded to make a frame like this.
 I drilled some holes and tacked some 3/8" NC nuts for the lock downs.

I then welded the frame to a 12" x 20" plate of 1/4" steel, again
checking for squareness and clamping everything in place before tacking.
 I added four 1/4" x 1-1/2" studs for mounting the motor. These are flat
head capscrews and I countersunk the underside so that they didn't stick out. I used hex nuts and placed
fender washers on to support the motor. These being a bit smaller than the motor foot mount holes,
allows for some rotating of the motor to get the belt to track properly. Also a 6" piece of strut to mount the
operator control panel. The motor is positioned so that the center of the shaft is about 4" to the back
of the vertical receiver.

30 pound spring. Thanks Dave! I measured this on a scale. Pressing

down on the spring about 30 pounds caused it to deflect 1". More recently, we have found that springs
from screen door chains will work okay.
Update March 2017. I have made some better drawings of the frame.
Tracking and Tensioning Pillar
The tracking and tensioning pillar slips into the upright receiver part C of our frame and sits on
top of the spring. It has a tracking hinge that can be adjusted to tilt the tracking wheel.

The hinge part has a hole drilled right through, 3/4" from the top and 1-1/8" from the left side as shown.
This hole is slightly larger than the 1/4" bolt that will act as the hinge pin.
The axle hole is 2" from the top, centered.
The pillar itself is 13" long. This may have to change depending on the spring that you have available. My
spring is about 4" long, so add or subtract a little if your spring is shorter or longer.
The axle hole is 3/4" from the top and drilled right through. See photos below for construction.
The cutout hole for the tracking wheel axle is 2" from the top of the pillar so that the head of the axle bolt
goes inside of this cutout. If you use a carriage head bolt for the axle, you need only make a round hole.

I clamped the hinge with shims around it before drilling a pilot hole right
through both pieces on the drill press. Add 1/16" shims on the sides and 1/8" on the face.

I tacked a flat washer on either side then hit them with the belt to thin
them down to a good friction fit inside the hinge piece. The pillar will need an area removed for the bolt
head of the tracking wheel axle to come through. If you were to use a carriage head bolt, this could be a
circle. I had no luck finding a 12 mm carriage head, so I made a square to fit the hex head of the bolt.

Test fitting the hinge.

The top and bottom of the pillar get capped with some 1/8" flat bar.
Before tacking the top plate in, I drilled and inserted 5/16" x 1" bolt, then tacked that around the head.
This will be for my shifter ball. (The ball will make it easier to push the pillar down.)
Also note the 1/4" nut mounted for the tracking adjustment knob. The bolt going through here will press
against the tracking wheel axle bolt and allow the tilt of the hinge to be adjusted.
The Platen Attachment
The platen attachment slide into a receiver and is locked in place. The tool arm is of 1-1/2" HSS with 0.250" wall that
is 17" long. The plate that the wheels attach to is 3" x 12" made of 3/16" steel. I set the holes 10-3/8" apart so as to
leave a good amount of space between them for a 9" platen. The platen is made from a piece of 2" angle iron. The
angle is 0.188" thick.I put a backing piece of 1/4" plate behind theangle to step it away from the plate. This could be
accomplished with a small stack of flat washers as well. This space is to bring the platen directly in line with the belt
and wheels. If you need to tweak the platen to the left or right, add or remove a washer from three bolts securing the
platen to the plate.
The wheels are mounted typically with 1/2" bolts. In my case I have metric wheel bearings, so 12 mm bolts. The
wheels cannot run against the plate, so I made some spacers from schedule 40 3/8" pipe cut into short sections
about 1/4" and with a hacksaw and shaped with a file to uniform thickness of close to 3/16". Slip the spacer over the
bolt, slide the wheel on and the inner race should be kissing the spacer.
Below are some updated drawings for the flat platen.
 Tilt adjustment is made by loosening the two bolts and and adjusting.
Once in the correct angle, lock the plate in place with the two bolts.

For the work rest, a found a piece of 1/4" thick plate about 4" x 6" and
welded a piece of 3/8" x 3/4" bar stock to it. I drilled and made two slots for the 1/4" NC socket head
capscrews to secure to the bottom of the tool arm.
Note that this work rest has been replaced with the Adjustable Work Rest.

Test fitting and tracking evaluation. Before painting,

I added a 1/4" x 1/2" bolt on the vertical piece so I could mount a brush to remove static charge from the
belt.
One thing to note here. The pillar is a little bit loose inside the vertical receiver. I added two strips of
plastic (from an old oil jug) to act as shims. These are dusted with a little graphite to make them slippery.
 Unit painted.

Added the tool rest made of 1/4" plate on a 1/2" x 3/4" flat bar mounted to the underside of the platen
tubing with 2 tapped 1/4" holes and hex socket capscrews to match.
Powered up the motor for live tracking test and VFD programming.
 Grabbed two extension cords from different plugs in the garage
and made 240V. A little high but should be ok. See the section on VFDs if you want to source 240V.

Powered up the VFD for initial programming.

VFD Power WiringThe VFD requires a 240V / 20A supply. I have opted for a NEMA L6-20
receptacle and plug. The L means 'Locking' and this will assist in preventing any accidental un-
plugging of said plug. I am using some supple SOOW 3 conductor #12 AWG for the input
connection. I'd like some length so I piked up about 15 feet of this. Inside my VFD enclosure I
have two midget type fuses that protect the VFD proper. A low current takeoff of 240V for the DC
power supply is done immediately after the fusing. For convenience I've added some surplus
terminal blocks mounted on DIN rail. The output of the VFD is rated for 10A (three phase) so I
used some 4 conductor #14 AWG SOOW (cab tire) cable.

Operator's Control PanelTo control the VFD I am going to bring out the sequence inputs
SC, S1, S3 and S5. This will allow me to START and STOP the motor as well as change the
direction FWD and REV. I will also wire in the VFDs status contacts to drive two LEDs indicating
motor on and off. Finally, I have a digital tachometer that will count pulses from a small magnet
placed in the side of the drive wheel. The net result is that the operator's control panel will look
something like this.
 The magnetic (Hall effect IC) sensor that picks up magnetic
field from the small magnet inserted into the drive wheel.

When the magnet passes close to the sensor the sensor

switches to make a 24 VDC pulse going to the tachometer. This will count the revolutions per
minute of the drive wheel.

To install the magnet in the drive wheel I drilled a 3/8" hole

about 1/4" deep. Put a small daub of epoxy and pressed the magnet in with a vise.
 The Hall effect sensor is mounted on the C-face of the motor and
positioned about 1/4" away from the wheel so that the magnet passes near it each revolution.

Drilling the holes to get the jig saw blade in.

Masked off the face for drilling,jig sawing and filing the various cut out
shapes.

Test fitting the tach.

Control and tachometer cables with strain reliefs in back of

operator control panel enclosure. For the cable, I found some old-school 25 pin printer cable that
has an overall shield.
Grinder Stand

Running The Grinder

Small Wheel Attachment