Belt Grinder Ideas

Are you a DIY'er? Are you comfortable fabricating simple machinery? If so, you NEED a decent belt grinder, preferably in the 2"x72" belt size. You'll find a thousand and one uses for it once you put one together, and it's very easy to put one together. This page is all about the resources and ideas you'll need to plan your own belt grinder project.

Belt Grinders are great for blending smoothly flowing shapes, deburring, and generally improving the look of parts. For the latter, you also want to make sure the surface finish of your other machining processes is all that it can be. Check out our guide to Milling Machine Surface Finish Tips for some ideas.

Bill Pace grinder has been made by several on the HSM boards. Shows tracking mechanism at the top very well...

Platen inspired by Lane added to Bill Pace's grinder...

More on the tracking mechanism by George Barnes...

Lane over on HSM built one along the same design...

Andrew McLurkin's Bader III is mounted on its side to make it easier for him to do fine work. Note the very small wheels and wrap around tool rest so he can get inside tight areas.

Dozier makes some of the best grinders there are. This series shows off the different accessory configurations they have available:

Here is the grinder. Note the pneumatic tensioner.

3 Configurations, left to right: the basic wheel, slack belt grinding, and a platen grinding setup...

Beaumont Metalworks offer the excellent KMG grinder:

It would be knife to turn this grinder horizontally like McLurkin shows at the top of this page and then use this attachment with a rest that fit nicely. You could really get into some tight spots with it!

Tooling arm rack is a clever accessory that makes changing the configuration fast and easy.

Here is the grinder sporting a platen attachment, and a rest on the lhs photo. Note the solid CNC construction. Minimal welding. Picture on far right is the slack belt attachment.

Or, how about a rotary platen? Seems like it could take the place of several of the other accessories. The actual "platen" is a rotary belt under tension with rollers.

Here is a variable speed JL grinder:

The venerable Bader III grinder is well respected:

Big Belt Grinder Links Page Best of Links:

Mike Alexander's Belt Grinder: Easy to construct 3-wheeler

Emerald Isle's KMG Copy...

Great looking kit by Simplatic. Looks like a good plasma cutting job...

Fogg's PDF Plans for a KMG Clone...

Talented Frenchman builds a nice knife grinder. Plans are in English.

The Dream KMG Attachment:

Check out the "Dream" KMG attachment, pretty cool!

Wilmont's Cool 3 Attachment Grinder

The rest is slightly reminiscent of the "Dream" KMG rest shown above. The Wilmont is a nice variation on the KMG and the site includes plans for a home shop model you can build.

The Australian Radius Master Grinder

It has 5 interchangeable contact wheels that can be indexed into position--these 3 plus the other 2 corners of the triangle have larger wheels...

They also make a hollow grinding attachment that's pretty neat...

Knife Making Resources: Micarta