Home built no weld 2x72 belt grinder

I built this 2 x 72 belt grinder using plans that I bought from John Heisz at http://www.ibuildit.ca/ - his Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/jpheisz

When I was younger and dumber I might have tried to work this out without paying $20 for the plans, but I assure you that they are well worth the price in saved time and frustration - not to mention material wasted in failed mock ups. Trust me. Buy the plans.

The main reason that I built this grinder is to use for making knives, but a stationary belt grinder is an extremely useful tool in any shop. The great thing about the 2 x 72" size is that it is usually an industrial tool so there is a very wide variety of belts available for this kind of tool. In any event it is probably the most popular size among custom knife makers.

As mentioned in the video this grinder is powered by a motor which I salvaged from a treadmill. Unless you know a lot more about electronics than I do you need to get all of the electronics along with the treadmill motor - just the motor itself will be hard to utilize because it requires a DC Power supply. Also as mentioned in the video - treadmill motors use a transducer to monitor the speed of the machine - it detects a magnet as it goes by on a spinning pulley or other rotating part. The motor will not work without the transducer and magnet - it will come on, but within a few seconds it will go back off when the controller does not detect rotation.

However, since making this video, I discovered a cheap easy way to make better use of the motor - without any of the treadmill electronics. You can use an SCR motor speed controller and a bridge rectifier - about $15 total. The SCR controller basically pulses the AC on and off to regulate the output - the bridge rectifier turns it into direct current. Just look on eBay - get the good one with a fan, I didn't and mine gets hot and shuts off if I run it too hard.

Thanks for looking.

Видео Home built no weld 2x72 belt grinder канала David LaFerney