2x72 Belt Grinder

[Admiral_dk]

Just yesterday I wondered what happened to this project (not much or  ) ....

Oh boy have you just shown to be VERY productive     

Per

[cnr6400]

Lots of heavy duty parts made there Kim! It will be a robust piece of machinery.     

[Kim]

Thanks Jo, Per, and CNR!

Yeah, it is coming together quickly, and that's really fun!

And yes, CNR, this will be a substantial piece of equipment!  That's one of the things I liked about this design - it was designed to do some real work!

Today I welded the legs together.  In this picture, I’ve attached the upright to the foot and have just tack-welded a couple of the foot gussets in place.


After completing the legs, I set up the attachment receiver tube to be welded.  I tried to set it up carefully to keep the correct positioning of things.  I’ve just tack-welded it in place here:


And here’s the base unit. Still have to add the hinges, but those will come later.


I also cut the 1.5” square steel today and started shaping it, since now I’ve gotten past the place where I needed it for a mandrel for the tubes.  No pic of this, sorry.

It’s pretty rewarding to see that flat bar stock turn into something 3D like this so quickly.  Welding is a fun skill to have or at least to be developing – my welds really aren’t that pretty.  Hopefully, they are functional though!

Kim

[propforward]

Welding is a fun skill to have or at least to be developing – my welds really aren’t that pretty.  Hopefully, they are functional though!

Kim

Yes it is, and don't sell yourself short, your welds look just fine. That is going to be a very solid and very useful piece of kit. Great work.

[Kim]

Thanks Stuart!   
Kim

[Kim]

OK, so here’s a pic of the 1.5” steel bar cut and shaped for the various tool rest posts and accessory posts.  Since I showed all the other parts, I figured I should be fair and show these too
Cutting them was relatively easy (just let the horizontal bandsaw do it).  But the angled ends were a chore.  One is just flat at both ends (on the right), but the others all have an angle on one end: 45^o, 25^o and 70^o.  That part took a while.


The next step was to cut a relief out of the corner of the tilting tube.  I did this with the porta-band saw and files.  Then drilled a 1/2" hole in the center.


And finally welded a nut over that hole.  This will be for locking the tool attachment in place.


Here I’m suspending the tilting tube in the correct position just above and just to the right of the stationary tube.  This shows a lot of extra pieces clamped around in various locations to help locate the titling tube correctly.

Once I got it clamped in place all extra scaffolding came down so I could set the hinges on top.


The hinges were then positioned on top of the tubes with a long 1/2" threaded rod running through them.  I was going to show a picture of this, but apparently, I didn’t take one.  Go figure.  Anyway here’s a shot of the tilting tube in place after welding the hinges.


This step did give me some grief.  As careful as I tried to be, the hinges pieces did move when welding.  I ended up getting it centered as best I could and then (carefully!) running a 1/2" drill through the problematic hinge. That cleaned it up and now it works quite well.

Then in all my machinations, I ended up accidentally dropping the tilting frame on the garage floor and apparently bend one of the hinge pieces just a tad.  It took a lot of careful pounding and a LOT of effort to get it to where it would work again. But I got there.  I’ll have to be more careful with these heavy parts!  They can severely damage themselves if dropped!

Next step was to weld a 3/8” bolt into the upper hole in one of the fixed hinge parts.  This will be where one of those handles goes to lock the angle of the belt.


Now it’s time to weld on the motor mount arm.  This is a piece of 2x2 square tube that was cut in half – so it s a 1x2 C channel cut at an angle.  And I welded a 1/8” plate over the end to make it look pretty.


Then I welded on the motor mount proper.   Jeremy’s designs come with plans for mounting various styles of motors.  I just picked the one that worked for my motor and used that.


With the motor mount complete it was time to turn to the tension arm post.  This is a 2x2 tube with a cover welded over half of it, and a 1” DOM tube welded in for the tensioner arm pivot.


And here’s the scaffolding to hold the tensioner post in place for welding.


And the final shot is the tilting frame assembled to the base.


Next up will be the tensioner arm that connects to the top of the tensioner post.

Thanks for stopping by to check on my progress!
Kim

[gary.a.ayres]

Great work on all those parts!

[Kim]

Thanks, Gary! 

Today's mission was all about the tensioner arm.  This will hold the tension on the belt and provide the belt tracking adjustment.

The first step was to weld together the two parts that make up the tensioner arm.  The reason this was cut as two parts is that it allowed you to do it from 1.5 x 3.8” bar stock as opposed to much wider stock and thus costing more and having more waste. After it was welded and ground flat, I welded a short bolt onto one end to hook a sping on.


Next, I welded on the tensioner pivot.


And on the opposite end from the spring holder is the tensioner handle mount.


This 1/2” bolt, welded to the tensioner handle mount, will be for the tensioner adjustment handle.


Next, I set the tensioner arm to a specific angle that allowed the tilting frame to rotate without hitting the base.  When that was set I welded a little triangle piece of steel in place as a stop to keep the tensioner arm from ever going below that level.


Next, we weld the tracking hinge in place on the end of the tensioner arm.  There’s a little piece of aluminum can slid between two parts of the hinge to act as a spacer – to give room for the hinge to pivot after welding.


The bolt being welded on the side of the tracking hinge is the axle for the tracking wheel. It has to be positioned square with the rest of the frame.  You can see my steel scaffolding in place in an attempt to hold it at the correct location and square with the world.


And finally, the tracking fork – this is currently being held in place by a stack of washers and a bolt. But in action, it will move up and down, allowing the tracking axle to be adjusted.


And finally, the tensioner handle itself. I welded a 1/2" coupling nut to the inside of a piece of 3/4" pipe.  My nut and pipe didn’t fit as well as Jeremy’s did.  Perhaps I selected the wrong kind of pipe.  Nevertheless, I figured out a way to shim the nut in the center of the pipe and welded it together.  The tracking is adjusted by turning this handle to vary the angle of the tracking wheel axle.


That was a lot of work for one day for me!  Time to head in for some relax time.

Kim

[crueby]

Very nice - is it too late to get my order in for one?!   

[Kim]

Nope, not too late!

You can order a set of plans for $30 - instant download - no waiting!   

All joking aside, they are great plans!  A lot of good detail and clear step-by-step instructions (in addition to the YouTube video, of course)!  I would highly recommend them.  I believe you get a good value for your money with these plans!

Kim

[fumopuc]

Hi Kim, that seems to be an industrial machine tool at the end.
Made for a minimum 8 hours daily usage.
Waiting for the first sparks flying around.
The welding is looking very nice.

[gary.a.ayres]

She's gonna be a beast! 

[Kim]

Thanks, Achim and Gary!

Yes, it is going to be a beast for sure!

Kim

[Kim]

To complete the base power unit, I welded a 1/4" eye bolt to the back of the tilting frame to act as the anchor for the tensioning spring. Then put the spring in place.


Now the big step of attaching the motor. The motor is fairly heavy and it took me a while to figure out how to mount it and get it mostly squared up with the frame.  But I did it. Then I added the drive wheel and the tracking wheel to their respective locations. (This picture is from the back of the unit, just to help orient things.)


Next up is the platen attachment, which started with welding the ears for the platen idler wheels to the platen spine.  The 1.5” tube isn’t the platen itself, the platen will attach to it, however.


Then I welded the platen tool arm to the platen spine, being very careful to keep this joint at right angles.


However, for finetuning the angle of the platen we spot weld three little 1/8” thick pieces of steel to the spine.  These will later be filed to make the platen sit perfectly vertical and square.


That’s where I left off today.

Thanks for stopping by!
Kim

[gary.a.ayres]

Really taking shape now...