Shop Made Belt Grinder

[Mark Baldwin III]

trying to post this again...I guess it disappeared into the ether..

My shop made 2x72" belt grinder. Based on the Wilmont EERF grinder. I made several of the parts in my shop, but a few were too large. The big frame parts were water jetted at a local machine shop.

My overall cost was about half of buying a ready to run machine. It has a 1.5hp motor, 5" drive wheel, and 5" contact wheel. A cool project, and definitely going to be useful.

[Randy Viellenave]

Nice job Mark. It is built like the perfect car . . . All Motor!

[Ralph Boumenot]

Mark, is the slot for the belt to go through on the table open right to the back edge? Or is there a roller there? It appears in the pic to seem to go over the top and the belt is running out of a square hole.

[Keith Outten]

Mark,

That's a real beauty. I would love to see some construction pictures if you have any.
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[Mark Baldwin III]

Thanks, all. Quite a fun build, and got to put my mill through the paces.

Keith, I'll try to get some construction posts up...otherwise it's on my blog here: http://milwaukeemonastery.blogspot.c...EERF%20Grinder

Randy, from what I can see, 1.5hp is the smallest recommended!! And it's a lot of motor, I guess lots of guys run 2hp+.

Ralph- here's a pic from the other side...

[Mark Baldwin III]

Some random construction pics:

[Mark Baldwin III]

Now that I've had some time with my new grinder, I made some new attachments. This is the flat platen I just completed. By being able to do flat work on this grinder I don't need my 2x48" grinder any more. That opens up some shop space. The work rest is fixed, an adjustable one will be underway soon. The platen itself is removable allowing slack belt work.

[Mark Baldwin III]

I also added a 12" wheel. I had been running an 8", but that was too small for some applications. Along with the new wheel I made a new work rest. The new rest was designed to be more consistent and easier to adjust. Also shown, is a small wheel holder for a 1" wheel.

[brad jansen]

Very nice work! They are a lot of fun to build and once you have one it gets used daily. Thanks for posting pics.

[Mark Baldwin III]

Very nice work! They are a lot of fun to build and once you have one it gets used daily. Thanks for posting pics.

Thanks. I run this grinder nearly every day. I built it primarily for knife making, but they can do so much more. I think the thing I like most about a belt grinder over a standard bench grinder is that it doesn't care what kind of material I'm working on. Brass, aluminum, steel, wood...it eats 'em all. I can grind a knife or a plane iron, then turn around and shape a piece of wood. Next to my mill, it's the most versatile piece of equipment I've ever owned.

[brad jansen]

If you get the itch to built another one, I would recommend a 2x48" horizontal grinder. I built a version that looks quite a bit like the Beumont EF 48, (but with a few adjustability improvements) and I think I actually use that horizontal grinder more than any other. I have some rough plans & parts list I made for the horizontal if you would like them, let me know.

[Mark Baldwin III]

Brad, I'll keep that in mind. Those horizontal grinders look useful.
I just noticed your location, I used to live in Germantown before I moved to Milwaukee. Small world.