The tracking wheel on my KMG style belt grinder has recently and abruptly "smoothed" over on one side and will not track properly. I haven't done any modifications or made any alterations to the machine since I built it several years ago, so I'm not sure where I should start. If anyone here has dealt with this problem before, I would really appreciate hearing from you. Thank you
The one on my bader eventually wore down. I sent it to Bader and had it re-crowned. I think it was around $35.00 plus flat rate shipping. If you know someone with a lathe, they might be able to do it for you.
Dale
Dale Huckabee
Journeyman Smith
dalehuckabeeknives.weebly.com
|quoted:
The one on my bader eventually wore down. I sent it to Bader and had it re-crowned. I think it was around $35.00 plus flat rate shipping. If you know someone with a lathe, they might be able to do it for you.
Dale
Yep, I had the Bader experience of the crown wearing down in less than a year. I called and they said to send it back and I had to pay shipping both ways plus re-crowning fees. I will never purchase another Bader. I've since built a number of grinders for me, and friends, and have used Beaumont Metalworks for all the moving parts with no problems. FWIW.
John
a machine that uses a 72 inch belt is difficult to keep the belt tracking properly. I too have experienced a few problems. Assuming the wheels are all lined up and the tool arm is exactly parallel to the centerline of the wheels, try checking the platen and idle wheels to make sure they aligned and not canted to one side or the other. It only takes a tiny bit to throw everything out of whack! Get a new tracking wheel from Beaumont and check the situation with the platen and idle wheels. Also, make sure every thing is tightened up. This fixed mine plus, the small wheel arm tracks great too!
Thank you all for your advice! I know a machinist near where I live so before I buy a new tracking wheel I'm going to have him give me his price for recrowning. Btw I think I may have found out why it wore on one side only. I can't believe I didn't notice sooner, but the hinge my tracking wheel is mounted to has an "excessive" amount of play in it that I'm pretty sure wasn't always there. I'm going to replace it and see what happens.
I've been able to re-crown the wheels on my grinder by ripping a 2x72 sanding belt into a 3/4 wide by 72" sanding belt and then run the grinder with the ripped belt all the way off to one side. Run it on high speed and then take a normal angle grinder and reshape half of the wheel, then track the belt over to the other side and angle grind the other side as you please. It's quick and easy. I know it's a "caveman" style of doing things but it woks well for me. I can re-crest a wheel in about five minutes. Make sure you wear a respirator when shaping your aluminum wheels as it's not good to breath the aluminum dust.
Well, as it turns out it wasn't the tracking wheel or its hinge at all! (Although said wheel does need to be reground, most likely via Kyle's suggested method) now I'm certain about what's throwing the whole thing out of whack. Long story short, the driveshaft is misaligned... Thanks for the advice Kyle!
