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What Size Belt For A Diy Belt Sander
- Thread starter mattthemuppet2
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cool, thanks for the tip. Lots to think about, which is way more fun that doing the work I'm supposed to be doing 
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- Feb 2, 2013
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hey Matt, if i'm not mistaken, HF has 1"x30" al2o3 sanding belts very cheap, it may be worthy of consideration given the hp
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- Apr 30, 2012
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Contact wheels for your grinder can get expensive. I made mine out of boat trailer rollers. I picked them up at a local Cabelas on clearance for $4.00 I've used them on several different grinders.
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for this one I'll probably go without a contact wheel and use a platen due to the design
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- Dec 20, 2012
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Can you incorporate both? A contact wheel for the lower (drive) wheel with the platen above, and a separate work rest when using the contact wheel? I don't have one on my belt sander - my wheel is on another machine - but there have been many times when I thought it would be simpler and better to have one on the sander.
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- Feb 17, 2013
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Wow! That's a keeper!!! I've been kinda thinking about all the uses I could get from a belt grinder. You may well have lit the requisite fire under my a$$. Thanks!
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I don't really know what the relative merits of contact wheel vs. platen are to be honest - this will be for general use and perhaps roughing in HSS tool blanks, not knifemaking in my foreseeable future Any opinions from those who've used both?
Any opinions from those who've used both?
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- Dec 20, 2012
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I don't use a contact wheel that often but when I need to hog off a lot of material fast, as in profiling some metal before welding or reducing the size of something with precision, then the contact wheel is hard to beat. It does grind a slight concave radius in the part, however, so if this is a deal breaker then it might not work for you. One thing for sure; if you use it for your drive wheel on your machine you will have less slippage.
The platen allows for fine control and produces a flat, precise surface. With a good tool rest it is very hard to find a better tool for grinding HSS lathe tools (that most of us can afford). Good for you that you're going to use a Pyroceram liner. It is one of the most valuable mods you can make to a belt sander in my opinion.
Matt, since you're building your grinder from scratch I would encourage you to come up with a really good tool rest that you can repeatedly set to precise angles. I know you use an Atlas and you need lathe tools that cut with less cutting force to get the best performance from the lathe. The keys to that lie in the tool rest and a platen that will stay flat.
The platen allows for fine control and produces a flat, precise surface. With a good tool rest it is very hard to find a better tool for grinding HSS lathe tools (that most of us can afford). Good for you that you're going to use a Pyroceram liner. It is one of the most valuable mods you can make to a belt sander in my opinion.
Matt, since you're building your grinder from scratch I would encourage you to come up with a really good tool rest that you can repeatedly set to precise angles. I know you use an Atlas and you need lathe tools that cut with less cutting force to get the best performance from the lathe. The keys to that lie in the tool rest and a platen that will stay flat.
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- Sep 28, 2013
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interesting, I'll have to think about the contact wheel deal. I wonder if plastidipping a 2in alu pulley would work?
I'm with you on the tool rest, I made one for my bench grinder and it made a world of difference to my grinding. I have some different ideas about how to make one, but they'll have a while to percolate as I'm not likely to get to this before spring break or possibly even the summer. Some kind of angle scale will feature though and I'll have an angle settable fixture on my disk sander side too.
I'm with you on the tool rest, I made one for my bench grinder and it made a world of difference to my grinding. I have some different ideas about how to make one, but they'll have a while to percolate as I'm not likely to get to this before spring break or possibly even the summer. Some kind of angle scale will feature though and I'll have an angle settable fixture on my disk sander side too.