Search Results for “kmg belt” – Thedyslexiccraftsman

How to build a KMG type belt sander – Part Seven

Tue, 25 May 2021 11:48:07 GMT

Commissioning the sander

Before you start the motor for the first time, try to make sure that all the pulleys and the platen are align. Start the motor, using the lowest possible speed.

It is out most important to make sure that the rest table is parallel, dead right angle and align to the platen. If not you will find it impossible to symmetrically shape the bevel on both sides of the blade .

Do start your practice on the sander by using a jig. Here you can see my primitive jig. I use the nails as marker to make sure that the position of the blade is exact on both sides.

The internet is full of jig design, so go there and choose one that you like.

My is not particular good. The bolt to adjust the angle of the jig is scrunching the rest table and I suspect it will ruined it in the end. I saw one that look promising on the internet. I don’t know who made it, but look on the web.

If your belt sander is not dead straight, you will find that even with jig it’s difficult to make the blade bevel symmetrical. One way to solve that problem is to free hand sand the blade. Don’t use jig, just hold the blade with your hands ( the internet is full about that technique).

I started with a jig but I found that the more experience I obtain using the belt sander, the more I can use the free hands technique.

Word of advice

I been trading two of my knives with nice well equipped table router. So I was very anxious to start using the machine. I forged out of old car suspension spring coil two nice blades.

Took it to the belt sander and,,,,,,,, ruined it.

For the last twelve years I built my knives using nothing (mainly) but hand tools. What do I know about using belt sander?

So, make yourself (or get it from some ware) few knives blanks from mild steel (it is easier on the belt) and practice. Also you can practice on wooden blank, it is not the same as steel blank but it will give you idea about the grinding pattern on the blade.

Don’t, don’t start with blade you want to do knife with, until you confident that you can do it.

Last word on How to build a KMG type belt sander

As I mention on the first post, I thought to publish(for the British crowd) the parts supplier’s names. But by the time you will read the post (GOOGLE do not favour with me) they will probably cease to exists. Instead I tried to write the parts professional names, so you can look for them on the net.

Due to my limited knowledge in web blog design. I can’t post PDF or DWG files. If you want KMG 2”x72” belt sander DWG or PDF files, well you will have to email me and I can email it to you.

That it.

How to build a KMG type belt sander – Part Six

Tue, 25 May 2021 11:48:07 GMT

Building the motor base and attaching it to the sander.

I saw the design for the base in one of the British knives forums. I can’t remember the name of the person who wrote the article. If someone do, please let me know and i will gladly give him his due credit.

This time it is not that important to cut it very precise, but make sure that the dimensions of the cutting will allow you to mount the motor.

Begin by drill and thread all the necessary.

Then all you have to do is to weld parts (e) on top of part (c), then part (b) to part (c).

My best weld so far. Pity is through word the end of the construction

You will have to cut out the black parts of the prints. Use the sharpest and most pointy knife you can find.

and your done.

You don’t have to worry about how to tension the belt, as the weight of the motor will look after that.

As you can see from the images I had to mount it on top of piece of wood. So or do better design or get piece of wood.

And finally, my pride and joy seat proudly on newly built work bench. All there is to do is to mount the electric box on the wall.

That it, but….. I will post another post in regards of The Belt sander. It’s going to be about commissioning the sander and some tips & tricks after few weeks of using it.

How to build a KMG type belt sander – Part Five

Tue, 25 May 2021 11:48:05 GMT

DECORATION.

I decided to go wild. Hopefully by now my friends know me and won’t lift eyebrow, and if so the tough.

So, first, disassemble all the parts that needs to be painted.

You will have to clean the metal parts firs. The best way is send blast, but for me it wasn’t viable option, so i thoroughly wiped it with white spirit. I am sure there are better way but you will have to do the research for it. i then sprayed paint it in primer paint.

Now the decoration is going to be skull silhouette (it was around Halloween at the time) in black on top of yellow background paint.

So I made stencils by using me boy book cover material leftover. Word of warning it is not good stuff for stencilling purposes.

Any way i found skull silhouettes on the internet, cut some A4 size sheets out of the book cover and print them on the paper side of the sheets.

You will have to cut out the black parts of the prints. Use the sharpest and most pointy knife you can find.

By now the primer paint as dried, so go about to paint the black colour, try and use the same paint manufacture for that.

When the paint is dry, peel the paper backing out of the stencils and stick it on the blacked belt sander and make sure it is properly stuck. Now spray paint it with yellow paint (use the same paint manufacture). You can peel the stencils when the paint is dry.

As you can see my result is not the best. It is dew bad paint and improper stencils material.

Assemble all the parts. I am sorry, you will have to work out which bolt go to were, but it shouldn’t be a big problem.

Once all is in the right place, step aside and ad stencils admire your work. If everything is okay it should look like that.how to build belt sander

Or better.

We nearly at the end. In the next and last post about’ How to build KMG type belt sander’ I will show you how I attaching the motor to the sander.

How to build a KMG type belt sander – Part Four

Tue, 25 May 2021 11:48:04 GMT

Construction of the platen.

First thing is to drill and thread parts (J and H). It is bit tricky, as the threads for the bolts connecting parts (J and H) need to be very precise. No much point for me to tell you how i do it (i don’t think it was good method). However try to pre mark the location of the holes by asking the laser specialist to do it. then try to clump the part together and drill both at the same time. And pay attention when you do the threads. Don’t forget to do the countersink holes as you want it to look nice.

As it large enough, you can ask the laser man to cut the hols for housing the platen rollers.

Again it is very important to attached the rollers parallel to each other.

Now start with the platen plate parts (I and K).

You need to do the slots for the bolt on parts (k) and make sure it’s okay by measuring it against flat piece holding to the rollers.

Mark the location on plate (I) and weld. Make sure it is straight.

Yeah well, as i say, i am not a welder.

Two more posts to go. In the next one i will talk about the decoration.

How to build a KMG type belt sander – Part Three

Tue, 25 May 2021 11:48:03 GMT

Construction of the tracking hinge.

Letters for various components refer for the marking on the drawings / photos. See previous posts.

Begin by inserting the axel (O) to the brackets (P). Don’t fit it too tight. Then weld part (S) to the sleeve (U). Now clump it to bracket base (Q). Note the chamfered hedge for better welding.

Then weld part (R) to the tracking hinge arm (Part N), again drill and thread it before welding. And we done.

The spring.

I found it tricky. You have the spring but i couldn’t find a proprietary part to attached it to the main body and the tracking hinge arm. So i had to improvised.

I insert two wooden plugs into both sides of the spring. I form the plugs in a way to allow me to insert the spring platform into them.

Now secure M8 bolt into the pre drill and thread on top of the main body (Part A) and into part (R).

Fix the spring platforms to the bottom bolt and the one in part (R). Now you can slides the spring (with the wooden plugs in it) on to the bolts. Finally secure it with nuts.

And voila!!!

In the next post we will do the platen.

How to build a KMG type belt sander – Part Two

Tue, 25 May 2021 11:48:02 GMT

Construction of the machine.

As I mention in the last post, I cut all the steel (engineer’s grade mild steel) items using laser cutting specialist.

To save money I add to use two pieces of steel for the tool arm(Parts D), but I recommend to use one piece. It is very important for the arm tool to be dead straight.

Prior to welding you want to drill all the hols and do all the threads that needed. I marked them all on the drawings. As i know myself, it is possible that I made a mistake, so please check it.

I started by well the two (Parts D) pieces together. As you will see, I am not a welder, so I add to learn how to do it from the internet. I can recommend you two web site with good instruction.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/learning-arc.htm

http://www.weldability-sif.com/pages/process_introductions.asp

I then moved on to building the main body (parts A,B,C). Assemble all the parts around the one piece tool arm, just to make sure you will not mess with the order that you are going to weld it.

You need pay attention for two things. One is to make sure that the pieces are 90˚ to each other.

And that you need to live slight gap between the main body and the tool arm. I would say 1mm on the vertical side and one on the horizontal side. That is to enable the tool arm to slide nicely inside the main body.

After welding you can grind the welding mark. If you do so make sure you grind it flat as possible as you still need to weld few more items on to the top side of the main body.

In hind sight you i should have assemble the part in away the well will be on the sides and not on top and bottom. That will ensure the top to be flat. If you do that you will have to change the dimension of parts A,B and C.

Now it time to attached bearings ‘bracket’ (parts F) to the main body.

Bolt the two F parts to achieve the exact width and make sure they are parallel to each other. Then position them in the right location under main body and make sure in is in 90 ̊to it and clump it.

You can use set square or one big lump of steel.

Now weld the front leg (Part E)

And lastly you need to attached legs base (parts G) and the leg for the tracking pulley hinge.

I advise you to mark the position of the parts by using ‘engineers marking out fluid’ as a back ground for the scribing mark. you can use heavy duty felt tip marker. It is do the job just as well and cost a lot less, and last longer.

That it. in the next post I will continue with assembling the tracking hinge and the tension spring.

How to build a KMG type belt sander – Part One

Tue, 25 May 2021 11:48:01 GMT

General Thoughts and Material List

The belt sander is the number one most important tool for making saleable knives. This by no means implies that you can’t build very high quality knives using only hand tools. I did that for many years. And by knowing exactly what I put into the blade in regards to heat treating, I can positively say that my blades are very good.

Alas, saying that, there is one big drawback for using hand tools only. Most of the people that show an interest in the subject of knives are purchasing them for a collection and not as a working tool. That is fine, but as they buy it for display, the knife needs to be of a higher visual quality. I am not saying that connoisseurs out there are not looking for other qualities, things like materials, construction method, heat treatment method and alike. But I think the majority of knife enthusiasts (at least where I live in, the UK) are looking first of all for a good visual appearance.

So by using hand tools only, you can never (or at least it will take you forever producing a knife) build a knife that is one hundred percent symmetrical and looks immaculate and shiny with crisp lines. Also you will find that to make the knife’s ricasso area completely flat is very, and I mean very, difficult, and this is such a crucial area of the knife.

Selling knives without a belt sander can never really be turned into a long-term viable operation.

I decided to get one. I had been looking on the Internet to buy one, but in the UK it is a very difficult item to find, and if you do find it, it’s very expensive (I bet this is the case everywhere).

So I went about building my own. I did a lot of online searching and found a few plans for building a belt sander. The KMG type is one of the more simple models. Although it’s simple, it is a very nice entry level belt sander. It is versatile enough to accommodate several attachment heads and it is not so sophisticated that it is complicated to construct.

I did not find however a good enough blueprint for construction, so I drew my own one. It is based on instructions I found on one of the British knives forums.

I have now got it in DWG and PDF format and I will be happy to share it, and In the next few posts I will go about explaining how I built my KMG belt sander.

Here is what you need:

I decided to cut all the part using laser cutting service. It is by far more accurate and fast then what you can achieved cutting it yourself.

If you send it for laser cutting, asked them to hatched the exact location of all the halls you will have, it will save you hell of a lot of time. Also I recommend to asked them to make all the halls that you need to thread, especially those for the pulleys, as they need to be dead striate.

You will also need:

Drive wheels: 100mm diameter x 55 wide with 20mm bore.

2x Platen rollers: Billet aluminium, 50mm diameter x 55mm wide, fitted with 10m ID bearings.

Tracking Pulleys: Billet aluminium, 50mm diameter x 55mm wide, crowned and fitted with 10mm ID bearings.

20mm Shaft: In suitable length. See assembly drawings in next post.

2x UCFL.204 bearing: UCFL.204 metric bolt oval cast iron flange housing with 20mm bore insert. Make sure the total width of the bearing can fit in between parts F.

2x V Pulley: 100mm dia.

V belt: To match the pulley. See (or wait for) post part 6.

2x Taper bush: One to fit 20mm shaft and one to fit the motor shaft (presumably 24mm).

One pulley bush lock: For locking the pulley in to the shaft.

Electric motor: 2-3 hp electric motor, three phase, dull voltage, 2 pole foot mounted. Three phase to control the speed of the motor. Make sure it is a frame size 90, to fit in the No. (Parts F) brackets.

Phase convertor: Phase convertor to enable using three phase motor on domestic electric net, and to enable the motor to change the direction of its rotation. You will also need a box for it and two electric batten, one for on/off and direction and one for controlling the speed. It is rather beyond my understanding so you had better ask an electronic engineer for advice.

Main tension spring: Wire dia 3.5 or 4mm. Free length 127mm or thereabout.

Spring platform: It proved to be a difficult thing to find. However it needed to be of a size that matched the diameter of the spring. You need to find one for the top and one for the bottom. I had to improvise the kit (see in next post) and it worked. I used M8 High Knurled Nut.

2x Tracking adjustment knob: I used M8 Five Lobe Grips with External Thread. One is for the tracking idler and one for adjusting the platen.

Clamp lever: M10 clamping lever for locking the main tool arm.

M8 Cylindrical revolving grip handle: For the tracking arm.

Nuts and bolt that you need:

Length is approximate and not absolute.

For the bearings: 2x M10 Hexagon Head Setscrews 96mm + 4x Hex Nuts, + 4x Washers, 4x Spring Washers.

For the tracking hinge arm: 1x M10 Hexagon Head Setscrews 60mm + 4x Washers, + 1x Hex Nyloc Nut.

For the tracking hinge: 2x M6 Hexagon Head Setscrews bolt 28mm + 2x Washers.

For the tension spring: 1x M8 55mm Threaded Rod + 1x Washer, + 1x Hex Nut. 1x M8 Hexagon Head Setscrews bolt 60mm + 1x Washer, + 1x Hex Nut.

For the platen: 1x M12 Hexagon Head Setscrews bolt 72mm + 1x Washer, + 1x Hex Nut. 2x M10 Hexagon Head Setscrews 90mm + 2x Hex Nyloc Nuts, + 4x Hex Nuts, + 6x Washers, 2x Spring Washers. + 6x M6 Socket Head Countersunk Screws 25mm.

For the platen rollers and the idler: 3x M10 Metric Socket Head Cap / Allen Screws 90mm.

For the rest table: 2x M6 Socket Head Countersunk Screws 20mm. 2x M8 Hexagon Head Setscrews 30mm + 2x Washers, + 2x Spring Washers.

For the motor: 1x M10 65mm Threaded Rod + 2x Washer, + 3x Hex Nut. 1x 12mm dia axle rod, both end threaded 245mm, + 2x Washer, + 2x Hex Nut. 4x Hexagon Head Setscrews 96mm + 4x Hex Nuts, + 4x Washers, 4x Spring Washers, to suit the motor base.

In the next few posts I will talk about the construction and commissioning of the belt sander. So if interested, do follow by subscribing to my blog.

For people in the UK I will publish the name of a company that can source all of the above in future posts.

Have fun.