Fixed my grinder

Fixed might be stating it too strongly… More of found out verry little was wrong with it and compensated for what was wrong Until I can properly fix it(yeah, it’ll probably be in its current “fixed” state for years…). 

It had died on me about… ohhh… a while ago.. fall 2008, spring 2009? somewhere in there. It was messing uo for a year or more before then too. When you went to turn it on, it would just sit and hum, flip the swith a few times and it would bump the belt a bit, trying to move, do it fast enough and it would start and run… towards the end, for a few months you had to just turn it on then manually spin the belt for a few seconds and it would free up and then run..

I figured motor bearings siezing up.   So, one day it stopped all together, wouldn’t go no matter what I did, so I thought the motor had completely froze up.  I was giving up knife making anyway, and didn’t really need it for other stuff having another belt sander on hand to use… So I wrote it off, and didn’t fool with it.

Thankfully I saved the whole thing… Was waiting on having enough want/need to fix it, to swap motors, theoretically for a bigger motor. 

So, anyway, last night in the shop, nothing to do, just tinking areound, I though WTH, I’d take it apart, and see how much trouble it’d be to mount another motor I have laying here… Can’t hurt it, its already not working…

Plug it in and try it one last time before I start working on it. The belt moved a bit. Hmm. Spin it by hand, it almost wants to go.  Ahh well, will take it apart, be easier to use if I can fix it.

Take the belt off…

Huh. Iddler wheels are kinda stiff to turn….

AND, now the motor wheel spins free by hand.

Plug it back in and turn it on.

Runs beautifully!

Its the iddler wheel bearings siezed up, not the motor!! 

WD40ed the heck out of the iddlers, and they freed up OK… not great, but OK.. Belt back on and voila! I have my belt grinder again!

Need to dig up my spring clip pliers, so I can pull the retaining clips for the wheels, and look at the bearings… If they’re not sealed, I’ll grease the snot out of them… if they are sealed, I’ll drill some holes in the side plates and grease the snot out of them 😉  And take measurements for getting new bearing units.

Yes, I made knives for about 5 years with a 1×30 1/4 hp sander… It worked and I liked it, and belts were cheaper than it would have been for a “real” knife grinder(usually 1×42  minimum or 2×72 with a 1hp motor… ) Not to mention I mever had the several hundred $$s for a “real” grinder anyway 😉

Posible projects, if I can scrounge up some good belts;

Some other projects I’m fooling with;