Help with homemade grinder setup...

Lagrange

Lagrange

Well-Known Member
I built my own grinder and was setting it up to run the first time.
I bought a pair of 2" idler wheels from Beaumont to use up front on my platen. I put a new belt on and fired it up. I adjusted the tracking and just sat back and watched it run for a while. When I shut it down I was checking the fasteners etc. to see how things were and I felt the new wheels and both of them were warm. I would guess they were somewhere around 90 degrees or so. The other 2 wheels were still cool.
I checked the wheel alignment, and my measurements come out fine. My drive wheel is 4" and my idler/ tensioner is 3.5".

I'm wondering if anyone has had this experience, or has any idea what is going on?

Eric
 
Do the 2" wheels spin freely?

IIRC, the 2" wheel from beaumont MAY NOT have a spacer between the bearings, so that when you crank down on the bolt to attach them to your platen (or what have you) they tend to bind a little bit.

Also, how are you bolting the weels? Are you using appropriately sized bushings on the outside of the bearings so that the bearings don't bind on your bolts or washers? the pressure needs to be solely on the inner rings of the bearings so they spin free.

All that beind said, you should expect a little bit of heat as these are smaller wheels that are moving much faster than your contact wheels or larger idler wheels.
 
If it's only 90 degrees, don't worry too much. The biggest thing I see with these wheels is they get tightened just a bit too much. Too tight and they bind and then get too hot.
 
I used a 1/2" piece of threaded rod w/ washers to space on the inside of the wheel and a washer and lock nut on the outside. There was a slight bit of drag on both wheels. I am going to cut a few pieces of tubing to use as spacers so there is only contact on the inner rings and see if it makes a difference.

Eric
 
Sounds like they may have been just slightly over tightened. They need to be tight enough to prevent any wobble but only tight enough to touch the bearing not stop their movement! You should be able to hand spin them and get rotation after you let go. It is kind of a fine line for proper tightness that is why I use lock nuts, I can vary the tightness just slightly and not have to worry about the nuts backing off later! Of course this is just my O2 not gospel! :p:biggrin:
 
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