EERF...(some details)

Here's a few bits that were glossed over along the way while I built my EERF grinder.

Tension spring. This is a pretty important detail. Too much tension and the belt is over stressed. Not enough tension and the belt will wander. A little research and I found that approximately 40 pounds was the right amount of tension.

I'm trying this out as a work holding table.

The tooling arm, which holds the contact wheel, fits into this "box". The knob on the side sets the position of the tooling arm.

The tracking assembly. The knob on the side tilts the wheel and changes the tracking of the belt in order to keep it centered on the contact wheel.

The drive wheel is 5". This grinder is direct drive, which means that the drive wheel is mounted directly to the motor shaft. The wheel spins at 1800 RPM.

A slightly fuzzy picture of the contact wheel with the working surface.

This is how the tensioning arm mounts to the frame. I added a thrust washer in between so that the arm and frame weren't in direct contact. Instead of a standard 1/2" bolt, they are fastened with a shoulder bolt.

Another view of the tension arm. In the background is the 50 year old motor that drives my Kalamazoo grinder. The Kalamazoo will stay in operation, but most grinding duties will now be handled by the EERF.

This was a very rewarding project. All in, I spent about $700. New grinders usually start at about $1400. So this was much more my style. Plus, I get the pride of saying I did it myself.

Next up is to save some dough for a couple of different contact wheels. The small ones aren't bad. However, 8" and 10" wheels can go for a couple hundred dollars each. I'll save that for a rainy day! I'm also going to try some different work table solutions to see what I like best.