The Armour Archive

So, every now and then I watch an armouring video on youtube, and i'm always stumped when they get to the grinding sections, they say- "Ya, then I use this belt grinder I made", and I think 'how in the hell does one make a whole belt grinder'-
So here I am asking for sources/explanations on how one either makes, or where someone can buy a good belt grinder for smoothing edges/surfaces, as well as shining things up (basically a belt grinder with interchangeable belts)

Option one, buy one. Grizzly is a top of the line name, and it's currently on sale!
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Knife-B ... ffer/G1015

Option two, build one. This is kind of a tricky thing, because it assumes that you have access to a welder, knowledge of how to set up a motor to interface to the wheels, and either the money to buy the wheels, or a milling machine to make them. Still, there are a wealth of examples and how-to's scattered around the internet. You'll find examples from dead-simple modifications to corded drills, all the way up to professionally milled machines. I've found that a quick search on Pinterest for "homemade / DIY belt sander" gives you a good collection to sift through.

It's on my "to-build" project list too, just a bit further down.

Polarbear Forge has a grinder in a box you can buy. It doesn't come with the motor but I think it's mostly complete. I have to make one down the road as well, but aside from that option there are a million different designs, some of them no weld some weld required, if you google search belt grinder designs you will find a ton of them.

Personal opinion here....

Since I mostly want to build armour, not modern tools I went with the Grizzly.

I have used it for years of casual use without problems. when I do use it, I am not terribly nice to it and it just takes what I throw at it. Tom has used his a lot more extensively in his business for several more years. He is finally seeing some signs of age, but I expect it has been after more than 10 years of (at times) really heavy use - hours each day.

Many of the others are designed and built by knife makers so the geometry works better for them. I like to be able to work on the slack a lot, so the grizzly (when you rotate the belt down) works really, really well.

Wade

Years ago popular mechanics regularly published similar articles.
Gingery also published a series of pamphlets on building equipment from available parts.
There are also a lot of YouTube videos and newer online articles.

Most tools operate on fairly basic mechanical designs.
If you can work with a .005 tolerance building tools is only a matter or time and materials.

To be honest buying equipment or reputable "kits" saves a lot of time.
Do your research, warrantee and proformance reviews help ensure a good investment.
The same goes for used equipment, sometimes a little time and a few parts can pay off.

Are you confident in building things? Do you have a welder? [optional] A drill press? [not optional] Can you tap threads into holes well?

Then you can build the same simple grinder I use [now 10 years old, as is the diagram]. The attached pic shows roughly what I built. Wherever you see two pieces of metal connect, either weld or drill/tap/bolt them. You MUST have all 4 wheels perpendicular to the SAME plane, or the belt runs away off one side or another. At the time I built this, it was cheaper than a kit elsewhere, including buying the heavy steel parts and the special drill/tap combination for the wheel mounts [1/2"-20 and whatever the right drill was]. I already had the welder and drill press.

This is my $150 rig. $100 of that was the 1 1/2 horse single phase HF motor. No welding or drill press required! The frame is mostly wood. The rear wheel is a large caster, and the contact wheel is a stack of tightly spiral sewn buffs. The clamp adjusts belt tension. The rear caster... I'll have to take another pic. I've been using this thing for over twenty years. Same contact wheel, as hard as that is to believe. I don't understand its durability.

Have you looked at the the coote belt grinder? I'm a Bader guy myself.

I've had a Coote for about 15yrs no, it's an excellent value. I have a Burrking and a Wilton as well but the Coote has always been the workhorse for slackbelt work.

Keegan Ingrassia wrote:Option one, buy one. Grizzly is a top of the line name, and it's currently on sale!
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Knife-B ... ffer/G1015

Grizzly? Top of the line? You're kidding, right? They are one or two steps above Harbor Freight. All made in China these days and often in the same factories the Harbor Freight machines come out of. Nowhere near top of the line. Something like a Baldor would be considered top of the line, but way more expensive and probably overkill for most armourers.

That being said, the belt sander you linked to is not too bad, especially for the price. A lot of armourers have used and abused them. I was seriously considering one until I got a weekend to play on one. I thought the belt tracking was horrible so I built my own rather than buying one. It ran me about $300 for the parts, including a 1.5 HP motor.

This guy sells the parts to build you own as well as a completed machine I've heard good things about.: http://www.beaumontmetalworks.com/shop/

Its always an intresting time trying to balance things.
Tool, budget, and space
If you have cash a burr king is usually enough for most smiths.

Jurgen wrote: This guy sells the parts to build you own as well as a completed machine I've heard good things about.: http://www.beaumontmetalworks.com/shop/

He's local to me, I've been to his shop and used his grinders. They are nearly perfect and priced as such. He's targeting the high end auto restoration market, where a $8K grinder is just a rounding error in a 100K classic car restoration. The kind of buyers who haven't heard of a Bader, but will buy this because its what their buddy bought. I bought a drive wheel from him to make the grinder I mentioned earlier. If you've got the money, you'll never find anything his grinder can't do.

If you DON'T need:
-variable speed
-infinite configurations and attachments
-race car styling and function that will impress everyone who sees it [but doesn't know what it IS]
-to use this every day for hours

Then a grizzly will work for you.

If you want a better tool, then Bader is great.

Kalamazoo is also great. I learned on one of these on weekends at my Godfather's machine shop: http://www.kalamazooind.com/products/be ... t-grinder/
They did one-off R&D machining, and Kalamazoo saws and sanders were everywhere.

@james 20 years?? That's a mighty fine piece of machinery

A lot of cool suggestions and rigs, Lots to look into!

Jurgen wrote:

Keegan Ingrassia wrote:Option one, buy one. Grizzly is a top of the line name, and it's currently on sale!
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Knife-B ... ffer/G1015

Grizzly? Top of the line? You're kidding, right? They are one or two steps above Harbor Freight. All made in China these days and often in the same factories the Harbor Freight machines come out of. Nowhere near top of the line. Something like a Baldor would be considered top of the line, but way more expensive and probably overkill for most armourers.

That being said, the belt sander you linked to is not too bad, especially for the price. A lot of armourers have used and abused them. I was seriously considering one until I got a weekend to play on one. I thought the belt tracking was horrible so I built my own rather than buying one. It ran me about $300 for the parts, including a 1.5 HP motor.

This guy sells the parts to build you own as well as a completed machine I've heard good things about.: http://www.beaumontmetalworks.com/shop/

Grizzly and belt tracking -

The belt tracking when you use the slack becomes perfect when you rotate the arm to "down" instead of "up". It is a real eye-opener. In the way they picture it, tracking is terrible when you get off the wheel and aren't using the platen. Upside down (loosen a set screw and rotate - easy to do) and it tracks perfectly forever. I have never adjusted a thing to get it to track.

And (when I bought mine) it was bout $300 including freight and ready to use. The price has gone up. I guess that shows how long I have had mine.

Wade

Probably tracks better that way because the belt has a longer distance to travel - after it deforms around the piece - before it reaches a wheel. So, the belt isn't hitting the wheel with so hard of a twist on it, like it does when you're working the slack right-side up and the wheel is directly below the piece.

Nifty! That's good to know.

Keegan Ingrassia wrote:Probably tracks better that way because the belt has a longer distance to travel - after it deforms around the piece - before it reaches a wheel. So, the belt isn't hitting the wheel with so hard of a twist on it, like it does when you're working the slack right-side up and the wheel is directly below the piece.

Nifty! That's good to know.

In short.

Yes.

The difference is absolutely shocking though. "right side up" I can walk the belt back and forth based on pressure. "upside down" it doesn't move at all. Rock solid.

Nifty experiment to play if you have the belt sander and time.

Wade

@james 20 years?? That's a mighty fine piece of machinery

Well, it certainly has had a very high use to cost ratio! The arbor bearings are getting a bit worn, though. A couple more pics to show how it works; the arbor is mounted on a block of wood that is in turn mounted on a big door hinge, so it can swing up and down. The C clamp controls the tension. I took the wheel out of a large caster and put it on the outside of the caster with a long bolt as its new axle, and attached a long piece of angle iron to the frame of the caster with the head of the bolt. The belt's tracking is mostly controlled by putting a heavy weight at the end of the arm and moving it back and forth till it's good, though changing the tension on the belt with the C clamp also affects tracking. A large piece of scrap wood is the frame of the sander, to which the hinge, caster, and motor are attached, in case it isn't clear. The lag bolts holding the rear of the motor to the frame are another point of adjustment to control tension on the belt from the motor to the pulley on the arbor. The fact that the contact wheel is composed of buffing wheels gives it some give on curved surfaces, and the use of Klingspor cork belts makes this even better. I don't think anyone would complain about the results I've obtained with it when it comes to armour, although for swords, it makes them look a little too real.

Wait a second..

I have a sander where the belt wanders back and forth a lot. Should i just rotate the arm so the wheel not connected to the motor is below the other wheel?

Here is a link to an older thread on belt sanders. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=164962&
Mac

Buy Square Wheel belt grinder. IO have had one for 30 years and it is still going strong, plus repair parts are fully available. Tracks well and comes with 1 1/2, 3 amd 8 inch wheels plus a platten for flat grinding. They are the best.

Mark