Thread: Belt Grinders

Originally Posted by Bob E

This must be one of those things that the first good tool you used is the one that is the best. I first used a 6x48 Rockwell belt grinder and was hooked on it. Bought one for my myself and often use it to square up saw cuts for weldments as well as blending chamfers. Customer of mine loves 1x42 belt grinders to deburr parts at each machine...I hate them because they don't track well.

Depends on the use I guess. I have one of those Rockwell 6X48s and hate it. It was the first belt sander I owned, bought it new in '79. It sits in storage just because I think I'll regret selling it if I need it someday. Most 1X42s are cheap POSs, I hate them too. I have a 1X42 Gemco and love it so much i wish I could buy another but they are gone now. I think it's the most used item out of everything I own. However, it's made of hardened and ground parts, very precision, very solid, better than a Burr King.

I have two Stephen Bader. Space Saver grinders which run a 2 ” x 132 belt . It’s a great contact wheel grinder but no platen. I know they also make a 2 x 72 bench top grinder. It’s a really versatile machine as you can run a platen or contact wheels from 1/2” to 14” on the 72” belt
. USA made and cast (iron?) construction. I think they are the ultimate bench model belt grinder.




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Originally Posted by gbent

Can you explain? I get Pyroglass to be a woven glass tape or cording.

Don't know for "pyroglass" but my platen uses cut up mineral crystal from an old wood stove door. I'm very happy with it. This on a 2x72" grinder shop built from scratch.

If I were going to do it over again, I'd copy Jeremy Schmidt's design (see YT).
And variable speed is a must-have in my opinion. If you try to use a 2000 grit belt at 6k fpm you'll just rip your belt to shreds. My grinder's belt speeds go from 600-6000 feet per minute. That's about all the speed range I could get out of a VFD.

metalmagpie

Originally Posted by Bob E

Customer of mine loves 1x42 belt grinders to deburr parts at each machine...I hate them because they don't track well.

I remember when HF sold 1x42 belt grinders. When they switched to 1x30 I lost interest. I had an old Rockwell 1x42 and it tracked great. Its wheels were plastic, though, and got hot and fell apart when I ran a fat 3M deburring belt on it. I owned a couple of other 1x42s and they all tracked OK. The last one I sold to a guy who still swears by it. Very handy indeed for quick deburring by a saw or mill.

metalmagpie

I have an old but nice Rockwell/Delta 6x48. For deburring it works real well. The Burr King's and Baders are much nicer but much more expensive too. I don't think my parts know that they're not getting deburred on a $2500 belt grinder and I don't intend to tell them.

I think if you were doing a bunch of shaping and fancier stuff it might be worth the extra but for deburring I can't see it.

Originally Posted by Oldwrench

I am after a 4-inch version, which what we bought from Kazoo. 50 years ago they were serious pieces of machinery, such that in a pinch you could band-saw a part and finish it on one—provided, of course, it was all straight or outside radiused contours. The belt was backed up by a fairly thick plate so you could really lay into it. The current Kazoo has just a short piece of bent 1/8 plate and it's not even flat. Makes you ashamed to see "Made in USA" on something like that.

Don't remember the brand, but pretty dang sure it was a 4" with a 60 grit (coarse by any means...) that I laid a strip of under my thumbnail. I had at that point had several stitches put in me for various cuts. I don't think one of them hurt more that those belt pieces going under my thumbnail!!

Originally Posted by gbent

Can you explain? I get Pyroglass to be a woven glass tape or cording.

hard high wear slick belt backer
Ceramic Glass Platen Liner - for Flat Platen

unless you are deburring slag from o/a or plasma, a scotchbrite type nonwoven wheel on an 8" pedestal grinder is much
more effective . you can buy them on ebay from china for about $10 shipped. i can say that they are just as good as the $60
norton or 3m wheels. they stink like dead bodies if you run them hard... perhaps they're made from falun gong muslim christian dissidants? if that is a concern, the mexican-made wheels work well too.

THE belt grinder.

Love the shot of the shaper juxtaposed with the waterjet. The pins in the worktable is a great idea.

Originally Posted by gbent

Can you explain? I get Pyroglass to be a woven glass tape or cording.

"Pyroceram"

It's heat resistant glass, fireplace, oven door glass.

It's not tempered glass

Pyroceram is the original glass-ceramic material developed and trademarked by Corning Glass in the 1950s. Pyroceram is an opaque white glass material, commonly used in kitchenware, glass stove tops, wood stove doors, etc. (CorningWare - Wikipedia) It has high heat tolerance and low thermal expansion.

I’ve got and older Kalamazoo 6x48 with 3 hp motor. Plenty of surface area to work larger parts. I’ve got a KMG 2x72 with 3hp Baldor with VFD. Both are great.

Originally Posted by Whetstone

I have two Stephen Bader... I think they are the ultimate bench model belt grinder. ...

second this motion

Couple weeks ago there was yard sale down the block. Guy had an old Craftsman all cast iron 6”x 48” belt sander on a large wooden table. Just curious I asked how much. $5! Has almost no wear on the platten, still has machining marks.

I have a Porter Cable G4 project that I have been working on rebuilding, it is a heavy duty piece. It is a well built machine, parts haven't aren't easy to find but can be machined. I have seen others that move a large amount of metal. Still, a 4x48 grinder for deburring is a little much, unless your burrs are magnitudes bigger than what I deal with. I have a 1x48 Kalamazoo that I use for deburring, I also have a 1hp Jett with a belt grinder setup on one side. The 1x48 does a hell of a job deburring, the Jet works well also but it moves too much metal for deburring.

This is what you fellows really need.



Note the switch by my thumb.

And here it is sitting on my 2x72:



Perfect for sharpening cockroaches, deburring Pop-Tarts and putting a chamfer on your Viagra.



Doc.

Originally Posted by Steven-Canada

"Pyroceram"

It's heat resistant glass, fireplace, oven door glass.

It's not tempered glass

Pyroceram is the original glass-ceramic material developed and trademarked by Corning Glass in the 1950s. Pyroceram is an opaque white glass material, commonly used in kitchenware, glass stove tops, wood stove doors, etc. (CorningWare - Wikipedia) It has high heat tolerance and low thermal expansion.

you can cut up a ceramic (induction) cooktop as well.

Greetings,

Add another vote for 2x72. There's loads of belts out there cheap.
I've got a pair of old Burr-King 2x60 machines, and have to have the belts made for those.

I also just picked up this thing:
Maximizer 2"x72 grinder New Led Lights - YouTube
Grinders - Abrasives R Us / Hog Brand - Abrasive items including grinders, finishers, belts, wheels and wet/dry papers at the best prices - AbrasivesRUs.com

A thing called a 'maximizer'. It's a 2x72 with a VFD that normally lays down flat, but can stand up vertically, and has *heavy* steel flat platens, along with the option to get a variety of different contact wheels and work tables to set across all the various faces. It also spins around the motor axis, so you can have whichever face of the square suits you facing forward. It's weird and spendy, but works *really* well for deburring. I've never really used it vertically for full on knifemaking style hogging, but for controlled deburring, it *works*. Made in the US, mostly out of 6061 billet. Fit and finish is good. The work tables are type 2 (soft) anodized, and I wish they were type 3 (hard), but that's the only major change I'd make to the thing. If they get too screwed up, I'll just make more out of steel. (They're about .190" thick, 6061 slab, so not flimsy.)

No connection with them other than a satisfied customer.

Regards,
Brian

Is there really a company called Kazoo making sanders?

Or is that some hillbilly way of referring to Kalamazoo?

Originally Posted by Alberic

Greetings,

Add another vote for 2x72. There's loads of belts out there cheap.
I've got a pair of old Burr-King 2x60 machines, and have to have the belts made for those.

I also just picked up this thing:
Maximizer 2"x72 grinder New Led Lights - YouTube
Grinders - Abrasives R Us / Hog Brand - Abrasive items including grinders, finishers, belts, wheels and wet/dry papers at the best prices - AbrasivesRUs.com

A thing called a 'maximizer'. It's a 2x72 with a VFD that normally lays down flat, but can stand up vertically, and has *heavy* steel flat platens, along with the option to get a variety of different contact wheels and work tables to set across all the various faces. It also spins around the motor axis, so you can have whichever face of the square suits you facing forward. It's weird and spendy, but works *really* well for deburring. I've never really used it vertically for full on knifemaking style hogging, but for controlled deburring, it *works*. Made in the US, mostly out of 6061 billet. Fit and finish is good. The work tables are type 2 (soft) anodized, and I wish they were type 3 (hard), but that's the only major change I'd make to the thing. If they get too screwed up, I'll just make more out of steel. (They're about .190" thick, 6061 slab, so not flimsy.)

No connection with them other than a satisfied customer.

Regards,
Brian

"Hardcore Billet" was in the title of the video....Uhm yeah.