Belt Grinder Safety

Machinery_E · Oct 5, 2011

Couple days ago, I was grinding away on these small parts on a Burr King belt grinder. I was using 4 of my fingers to manipulate the part, and the other 6 were just hanging around the belt. I didn't realize what a safety hazard this could be until one of my fingers just touched the edge of the belt...I had no idea that its like a razor when its running! :eek:

I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread to see if we could share safety tips on the belt grinder to help others avoid accidents...so my two additions would be-

Be sure all fingers are clear of the belt, especially if you are not using them, tuck them towards the palms of your hand so there are clear of they belt.
The edge of the belt when running is like a razor it will cut you like you won't believe!

Mark Rand · Oct 5, 2011

The edge is far more dangerous than the surface, bear that in mind when positioning digits.

Metalcutter · Oct 5, 2011

NEVER JAM YOUR HAND into the Grinding Belt when it's running!!!! EVER!

Ask me how I know! It's kind of a raw meat process. I don't recommend it.

Regards,

Stan- Fortunately is was a quick but moderate touch. Burns like fire!

gwilson · Oct 5, 2011

Yes,and when they break,they go BLAM!!!! Haven't been cut by an exploding belt YET. Those edges are definitely sharp,and,they leave a dirty cut with abrasive,metal,etc. in them.

Close Work · Oct 5, 2011

Once had a 6" wide belt sander laid down with the top cover removed so it could handle a long piece that I planned to hold down on the moving belt. That works fine but the piece I was sanding (wood) was a crescent shape with two narrow ends and wide in the middle. I started to feed the part onto the moving belt to make a pass and it went fine until the wide part got to the belt. The friction force pulled the part along at a rate which increased as the part got wider in kind of an exponential way which means it moved faster than I expected as the area in contact increased. I was holding the back end with my fingers under the stock so they got sucked onto the moving belt between the part and the belt. Only for just a touch but I learned that a course sanding belt can file your fingernails way back in a hurry and way too far back. My fingernails eventually grew back in good condition with no problem. The small narrow end was difficult to hold but if I ever do something like that again I will work out a handle of some kind so I don't hold the wrong end of the stick. Really stings.

Darbski · Oct 6, 2011

Do alot of linishing in our shop and of all the belts I have had snap, only one has ever smacked me and left a bruise. I reckon the worst is when you are linishing right into a corner and the sharp burr manages to get under the seam in the belt and it tears a bit off about 5-10mm wide, 100mm long, and it whips your finger about 800 times before you have pulled away, OUCH, bastard things. Of all the safety guards I have thought of making for them render the thing useless for most of the bits you have to get into, you learn fast which guys have enough brains to use them, and which ones dont. Fist aid cabinet is over there champ. I also get sick of telling them that there is abrasive on the whole width of the belt, not just the middle 20mm, common sense seems to be getting pretty rare these days.

sandiapaul · Oct 6, 2011

Here is one not as obvious:
I had a grinder against a wall and the ground particles were thrown up against the wall and down onto the plug. Eventually the stuff built up and shorted the 2 sides of the plug, BLAM!
The grinder, being up against the wall hid the fact the plug was note quite fully plugged in.
After that it had a guard to prevent that.

Paul

Guest · Oct 6, 2011

The best belt sander safety is to keep novices away from them. I can have a belt last for a year until it goes slick bald. Let helpers use the sander and I will have to replace the belt every few days.

John Welden · Oct 6, 2011

So many accidents start off with, "I was working on this small part".

I always try to be extra careful when working on small shit, especially on a vertical bandsaw or buffer.

"hey, I'll just bandsaw this little part in half... Real quick" :rolleyes5:

My favorite thing is hitting a finger on a grinding wheel and then thinking it's not too bad because you don't see any blood. The blood just hadn't made it out yet....... Sonofabitch!

Or welding burns.... Pffff it's fine, doesn't even hurt! Oh wait, I just vaporized and cauterized my skin. :bawling:

I still have a big trench on my leg from where I set a red hot piece of 1" round against it. Whoops. Always a good idea to wear shorts when welding!

ColoradoBoy · Oct 6, 2011

My Bader belt grinder has the last section of belt pretty
much horizontal & headed my way. I learned long ago to
always wear a baseball hat brim in front to prevent anything
from bypassing safety glasses when you are looking down
at the work.

SAG 180 · Oct 6, 2011

ColoradoBoy said:
My Bader belt grinder has the last section of belt pretty
much horizontal & headed my way. I learned long ago to
always wear a baseball hat brim in front to prevent anything
from bypassing safety glasses when you are looking down
at the work.

A guy I subcontract to, was using a longish belt grinder horizontally when the belt broke and whipped around. He has a 3" scar halfway down his bicep that runs horizontally across the bicep with a forked scar as if the skin tore rather than be cut.
It's the main reason mine has a couple of steel bars to catch the belt as it breaks......been real lucky so far but I do wear a full face mask and glasses under it.

ColoradoBoy · Oct 6, 2011

SAG 180 said:
A guy I subcontract to, was using a longish belt grinder horizontally when the belt broke and whipped around. He has a 3" scar halfway down his bicep that runs horizontally across the bicep with a forked scar as if the skin tore rather than be cut.
It's the main reason mine has a couple of steel bars to catch the belt as it breaks......been real lucky so far but I do wear a full face mask and glasses under it.

The steel bars are probably a good idea. Thanks for the tip.

Bob E · Oct 6, 2011

SAG 180 said:
A guy I subcontract to, was using a longish belt grinder horizontally when the belt broke and whipped around.......

I always cringe when I see someone using a 6" Rockwell style belt grinder vertically, w/o the top guard in place.
When a strip of belt is torn loose, it whips around and smacks the operator...it's not pretty.

Winterfalke · Oct 6, 2011

Seeing as how no one has touched on this, I would like to point out that the space under most types of sanders can hold quite a lot of dust. And under certain conditions, the dust from wood, plastic, aluminum, and steel can be highly flammable. For instance, if you let too much dust build up in the collection tube under a 30" disk sander, the air draw from the dust collection system can cause a spark to ignite said wood and pvc dust and shoot flames 30 feet out the side of the blower. For over a minute. At least I assume the flames can travel 30 feet, thats how far away the wall that melted was. I only caught the tail end of the performance.

On a side note: there is much speculation that aluminum and steel dust in such a situation could provoke a thermite reaction, but there is no proven cases that I know of and the chemistry is not very supportive.

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