Belt grinder build along

[brad jansen]

I built this 2x72" belt grinder about a year ago and posted this on a couple other forums I use. I am primarily a woodworker and I have found that in addition to knifemaking, I use this grinder for all sorts of tasks in the shop. I thought I would re-post it here as well to maybe spark an idea for someone, or to provide some insight on how to build a grinder (with primarily a woodworking shop equipment list)

I decided I was going to make my own belt grinder, specifically a KMG clone. I knew that the cost of making my own chassis would not be too far off from actually buying a professionally built KMG chassis, but for me the fun is all in the make. I obtained Michael Clerc's plans from a post online and reviewed them along with many pictures of other grinders to make adjustments to make it just a tad different (and easier to build).

I have a woodworking shop, thus selected 6061 aluminium for ease of working. I found a new 1.5HP surplus motor from **** and purchase a new KBAC 27-D VFD from Wholesale Electric Motors. Nuts/bolts/wire/gas spring were from McMaster-Carr. I purchased pre-cut aluminium from MetalsOnline and I bought the tracking wheel, drive wheel and platen directly from Beumont Metal Works.

Note: I would suggest if you are ordering anything from Beaumonth Metal Works, to call them to place the order and ask them for the price for the total order including shipping.


Here is the start. Most of the components to get started.

To start, I thought I would make the tool rest. Something simple to get the hang of drilling/tapping. I used layout fluid and some woodworking scribes to get the layout.


Worked pretty well.

It was evident that I needed to square up the rough cut pieces. No mill, but I used my 6x80 sander with a 36 grit zirc. belt and that worked well. I used a bolted down miter guage and an extra piece of aluminium for the 90 degree fence.

[brad jansen]

Next the tracking adjustment and tracking arm.



$100 drill press, $250 drill press vise (borrowed from my buddy Mark). Could not have done this good of a job without that drill press vise. Precision where you need it I suppose.


For the arm holder, instead of using a solid piece of aluminium (and having to mill it), I used 3 seperate pieces bolted together. This worked well and I am certain that the spacing and tolerance is far better than I could have achieved trying to cut a solid piece.

[brad jansen]

I used a piece of ¾” round stock for the handle

On to the main piece

Drilling the initial holes

[brad jansen]

Lining it up to drill through the bottom (to ensure a precise line up)....my measuring/layout/marking would never be as precise as a cheater method. I marked all the inside surfaces with fluid and marked front/back/top bottom to make sure I would not misplace a piece.

Drill one at a time, tap, bolt, line up and drill another.

[brad jansen]

Once you get at least 2 or 3 bolts in, then do the rest.

[brad jansen]

Now for the side supports. I used masking tape on each side of the tooling arm to provide for adequate spacing.

[brad jansen]

Same deal, drill to mark....take apart and drill all the way through, put back together and bolt, clamp and drill the next.

To attach the swing arm to the body:

[brad jansen]

Feet and base plate:




Tooling arm:

[brad jansen]

Check square one more time:




Gas spring:

[brad jansen]

Now for a base....a piece of LVL beam

Quick dry fit:


Dado that in a bit:

[brad jansen]

Time to get filthy polishing alumimum. I basically scuffed everything with 220 first, then polished with whit rouge on a sewn wheel. I intended to polish up the moving surfaces

And got a little carried away

And then might as well jewel it

[brad jansen]

And ended up polishing all moving pieces, and jewelling everything else

[brad jansen]

Made a aluminium mounting plate for the VFD


And then final assembly I used .020 washers as a spacers to allow adequate room for tooling arm movement. Worked well and you can’t hardly tell they are there.

[Eric DeSilva]

Great post--I love the detail. It's also timely--I've got one of these on my must-build-in-the-near-term list.

[Bruce Page]

Great post! You should build yourself a milling machine.