Radial arm saw grinder conversion

I made a little progress on this project. I got the drive shaft finished, and everything aligned and bolted down.

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I built the drive roller out of 5 pieces of acrylic. I first cut out a rough circle and drilled out the center to the shaft diameter. Then I glued the pieces together with a length of shaft running through them for alignment. I was then able to turn the piece while it was on the shaft which made it easier as well as true to the shaft.

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The roller is held on the shaft by two clamps, which I drilled a hole through and ran a screw into the roller. I also managed to mill a key slot into the shaft for the pulley and have it work on the first try. No big deal for you long time machinists, but it was a first for me.
Next is the belt tensioner, which should be fairly straight forward . I also want to add an adjustable work rest.

Ted
 
I got the thing basically finished, but was having tracking problems. I found that the adjustment roller was cocked off to one side. Once I straightened it out things started working better.
I think I may crown the drive roller. I can't get the belt to stay in the middle of the platen. It wanders to one side or the other. I found that getting the belt to run right where I want it to has been a challenge.

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I used the crank handle from the radial arm saw for my height adjustment. The whole assembly is a bit Rube Goldberg, but it seems to work. I tried about 4 different ways to raise and lower the arm and nothing seemed to work out right. This works but it is binding after I corrected the roller alignment. I probably should have built a whole new arm, but I thought it would be relatively simple to adapt this one. I've adapted it so many different ways now the steel looks like swiss cheese.

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It's unique anyway.
 
The tracking still wasn't all that it should be, so I made the tracking roller adjustable from side to side. Now it has XYZ control so I can dial it in just perfect.
This was the addition I made:

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The bar coming back pivots on the bolt which swings the roller from side to side. There is a screw adjust since it is a fairly touchy adjustment. It's more of a course adjustment, with the tilt being the finer adjustment.

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The amount of tension on the belt also affects tracking. I found that being able to tweak all three axis results in a very steady belt.
 
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