work rest for KMG belt grinder?

A

Alan H.

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I have a KMG 2 x 72 belt grinder. I bought my base grinder from Beaumont Tool Works and then fabricated the stand and put together the drive. This is one of my favorite machines in my shop and it gets used almost daily for something when I am in the shop. I grind my own HSS lathe bits for special tasks and use the belt grinder for some steps of that.

I am now on the hunt for a work rest design to either buy or make. I am imagining a T-slotted rest that could accommodate a small miter gauge when desired. Also hoping for one that is easily adjusted for different angles relative to the platen.

I have seen the D-D Work Rests that are prevalent on ebay and they look good. I do not think they offer the T-slot that I am after. I recently ground a HSS bit to make some hose barbs and I needed a fairly precise angle on the nose, so a T-slot gauge would have been helpful.

Any ideas or examples would be appreciated.
 
See the one that Mikey made. I have no idea where to find it, but I think he will be along pretty soon to reply to your post...
 
See the one that Mikey made. I have no idea where to find it, but I think he will be along pretty soon to reply to your post...

Alan is aware of my design, Bob.Thanks for remembering.

Alan, I should think that making a T-slotted table would be simple. Rabbet an edge on two pieces of steel and plug weld them to a third piece that will form the bottom. Then make a miter gauge and you should be set.
 
Hey Alan, I was thinking about this during dinner and wondered if a T-slot arrangement is a good idea for a belt grinder table. The grit and metal dust will accumulate in the slot and may interfere with smooth operation. My table slot is just a slot and the protractor I use never gets sticky.

Anyway, food for thought.
 
Thanks Mike, you are absolutely right. An actual T-Slot would be a bad idea. I really meant a slot for a miter gauge. To get a T-slot the thickness of the work rest plate would need to be too thick anyway. So yes, a slot is what I was thinking about and all I am after.

In addition the miter gauge needs to be low profile and small. I did a bit of searching to see if there's one commercially available with no luck yet. That is likely something one would need to make.

I sent the gent who makes D-D Work Rests a note to see if he made slotted work rests and he does not. He is willing to make a "one off" but of course I have all the equipment to make one myself. An option is to buy his work rest system and be done with it. Since he makes them in some volume his pricing seems reasonable. For those unfamiliar with his work, here's an ebay link to one of his several offerings.

So on with "the studies".
 
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Alan, I made this miter gauge for my carbide grinder, was missing when I bought the grinder. Nothing fancy, made with remnants found in the shop, but it does the job well. The table slot is only .131" deep and I made the guide from 1/8" thick material. That sounds shallow but is actually plenty of depth for the slot.
SAM_1724.JPG
 
Thanks Bob,
Looks good - is that a protractor that you put on there?

I think that depth is quite adequate for this service and easy to brush out/clean.
 
Alan, I suspect you will find that a protractor on a grinder table will have limited utility. Not saying you don't need it; just that you won't use it often. In fact, if your table edge is square to the platen I would say you don't need a slot at all; just two straight arms (one of which will reference off the table edge) joined with a locking screw will be sufficient and will likely be more accurate since it eliminates the play that exists in a table slot.

About the only time I used my protractor was when I needed to grind threading tools and the play in the slot made this process not that accurate. Nowadays, I scribe my grinding line on the tool and grind by eye. It's more accurate for me to do it this way and I almost always nail the angle the first time.

Not being a naysayer. Just wanted to offer the perspective of a long-time belt sander user.
 
Mike,
You may well be right and a metal protractor is cheap enough and works as a guide.

However grinding a HSS lathe tool recently made me believe it would have been nice to have a good miter gauge guide.

Here's a photo of an 8 mm - 1 threaded 3/16" hose barb adapter I made and a HSS tool I ground to cut the barbs. The nose of the HSS tool is at 7 1/2 degrees and it's 3/16" wide. The second photo shows this adapter in place for the discharge of a Trico single shot lubrication pump I am working on. I ground the HSS tool to shape on the KMG and then finished the cutting face on an 8" CBN wheel.

When grinding the tool on the KMG I thought it would be easier to achieve the 7 1/2 degree bevel on the nose with a good guide vs. the metal protractor I used on the edge of my work rest. Obviously the pursuit of a perfect 7 1/2 degree angle on the grind is likely not necessary but that is what I wanted to replicate the barbs on some other hose barb fittings I acquired from McMaster.

I must admit that the edge of the KMG supplied work rest is not machined well enough to act as a great bearing surface for a guide. Perhaps the metal protractor would be fine on a higher quality rest and it may well work as well as a slotted miter gauge which started this thread.

Thanks to you and Bob for the input to "the studies", much appreciated.

cutter and fitting.jpg



Barb in place.jpg
 
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