Belt Grinder Safety Question

2 photos. A visitor raised a good question regarding our Engelberg belt grinder. The design of the “vise” won’t allow the vise front edge to get closer than 3/8 inch to the grinding belt, and it is usually further away than that. Of course, no fingers are very close as the articulated vise and workpiece are advanced against the belt by a side lever. He’s always been taught that on any type grinder, the maximum clearance between the moving abrasive and work rest is 1/8 inch. I have no manual for this machine. Any thoughts?

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I could be wrong, but I thought that advise/rule was for things that were HAND held while grinding them. A vise will grip things a lot better than any set of hands and so it can probably tolerate larger distances between the nearest point of support and the belt or wheel.

Answer, as always, "it depends." How thick is the stock? How is it supported on the bottom side? How is it clamped? How aggressive is the abrasive? How many FPS is the belt moving?

Agree, on hand-held workpieces, working on a tool rest, keeping the tool rest close to the belt/wheel is best science.

jack vines

Thanks. Guess I forgot to mention that folks are telling me I must have a 1/8 in. Gap or less because OSHA says so. I wish I could find it there but I can’t. Their 1/8 in. Is for bench-type grinders with wheels turning at high rpm which can explode etc. I read it. Found nothing about belt grinders, and there’s nothing about gaps on belt sanders.

The OSHA gap rule has nothing to do with speed or fragmenting wheels, it is intended to help keep parts, fingers or parts and fingers from being wedged and drawn into the abrasive. The same problem exists with a belt grinder but in your case I don't see a problem with your setup, unless as alluded to above, you attempt to grind small parts that won't be held and supported adequately.

What's the rest gap on a surface grinder?

I'm not a safety professional but, I have had to make several guards for machines very similar to that one. There is a gauge that gives you the guard opening to the hazard. If you want to do anything your only option is to guard everything that moves. https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Systems-LLC-Guard-Opening-Scale/dp/B00VQR9XV8

EPAIII said:

I could be wrong, but I thought that advise/rule was for things that were HAND held while grinding them. A vise will grip things a lot better than any set of hands and so it can probably tolerate larger distances between the nearest point of support and the belt or wheel.

Click to expand...

Yes, the way our OSHA rep explained it to us was this, Belt sander, if it has a rest to HAND hold the part to be sanded then a 1/8" maximum gap between the inside (facing belt) edge of the rest and the belt is to be maintained to prevent the item that is being sanded from flipping in between the belt and rest. And as OHSA believes pulling your hand in as well.
Now for the disclaimer, our belt tube coping sander and a couple other custom belt sanders passed the inspection as they all use fixturing to hold the material to be sanded. Our large flat belt sander and a few other larger vertical belt sanders were kind of bypassed as there is no hard and fast rules for them as they down utilize rests. Free hand sanding, go figure.
Seems that Belt sanders are kind of up to interpretation by who ever is preforming the inspection.