Lixa Fita Cuteleiro

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)
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Midwest Knifemakers Supply, LLC

Features:
Construction requires no welding or milling or lathe machine work.
Easy, simply to follow plans using common shop tools.
Commonly found materials are used in the design to keep costs very low.
Use a motor you supply. The minimum motor size recommended is 1hp. A 1 1/2hp is preferred and
2hp motor is the most you will need.
Design allows for single pulley operation or 3 step pulley for inexpensive speed changes. Of course a
variable speed motor can be used.
Tool bar holder design allows you to change tool bars holding different grind attachments such as flat
platen, assorted full size and small contact wheels in seconds. The tool bar holder will take Beaumont
Metals KMG tool bars.
Simple, intuitive design can be constructed in a few hours and can be easily modified for your own
needs. The NWGS can truly be customized inexpensively.
This design has only 2 non-precision holes to tap and again, no welding, machining or lathe work.
New in May 2010. We now include 5 pages of add on plans for a Swivel Arm attachment.
Plans include a complete source list for all materials.
www.USAknifemaker.com will carry most every part you need for construction of your NWGS. Most
of the materials for the frame can be purchased with one trip to full line hardware store and one trip to
the local metal supplier which is usually your local scrap yard.
Ask questions about your grinder build at our forum, www.KnifeDogs.com. KnifeDogs is owned and
operated by Midwest Knifemakers Supply, llc. That's us. It is "G" rated, professional, family and
business friendly. If you have any question about building your grinder, ask it there and you will get
an answer! Also, there are hundreds of pictures of grinder builds to reference. If you send me pictures
of your grinder build, I will post them for others to help them in their build. Send them to:
tracy@usakms.com
Minimum required tools are:
Assorted SAE wrenches or adjustable wrench, hack saw, hand drill, assorted drill bits up to
1/2, center punch, hammer, hand file, a 3/8-16 tap and tap wrench, Sharpie or other marker,
carpenters square (12 slide rule type), tape measure.
Optional recommended tools are:
A drill press, the bigger the better. A Unistep drill bit works very well in this project. A
Dremel or other hand held rotary tool to cut two woodruff keyways in the power shaft. A metal
band saw or you can have the pieces cut to length when you buy them for a few bucks a cut which is
well worth the charge. There will be around dozen and half cuts of materials that would take some
time with a hack saw but just a couple of minutes with a metal band saw.
Copyright 2007 Midwest Knifemakers Supply, LLC www.USAknifemaker.com No part of this document may be copied for distribution in paper form
or electronic form for any reason with out the express written permission of Tracy Mickley at Midwest Knifemakers Supply, LLC
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The design requires no welding and once constructed you will find the NWGS is exceptionally
solid and vibration free. I honestly dont think welding is needed but if you want to weld it, you can
very easily. 1/3 of builders weld their grinder as the design allows for quick and easy welding.
Getting Started:
Safety first.
WARNING!
Possible serious injury or death could result in your use of this power tool! I am not an
engineer, machinist or expert in power tool design. I believe this design to be basically safe in
materials and construction methods. I have extensive experience with grinding and sanding and know
these activities to be very dangerous. You should understand that grinding and sanding is a dangerous
operation and you should seek training if you have no experience with a power grinder or sander. I
know several very experienced metal working people that have been very seriously injured using their
grinder.
The shop tool that seems to cut or scrape me the most often isnt the grinder, its the drill press.
Secure or clamp the pieces you are drilling. Drill presses or hand drills have a lot of torque, more than
can be held some times.
Always wear ear and eye protection. Consider wearing a heavy leather shop apron while
operating your grinder sander.
These plans assume the individual constructing the NWGS has at least a working knowledge of
power tools and can safely operate a completed grinder.
This design is for a 1750RPM or 3450RPM motor with a 2 to 4 drive pulley. See Appendix
C Motors for a formula to calculate SFPM (surface feet per minute) speed.
Contact wheels and aluminum drive wheels all have bearings and high speed operation
generates a lot of heat. Small contact wheels are often unable to shed heat fast enough and the bearings
are destroyed by the heat. Run smaller contact wheels at lower speeds.
All bearing wear out. Regularly inspect and replace any worn bearings. Look for lubricant
leakage from the sealed bearing or rough action. Bearings are inexpensive compared to a critical shop
accident if one disintegrates at high speed.
Always wear a respirator when grinding or sanding! Metal dust in your lungs does damage.
Some metals outgas heavy metals while grinding and can cause heavy metal poisoning. Some exotic
woods can cause allergic or toxic reaction that can cause death while sanding. I always wear a
respirator while grinding or sanding. Note, wear a respirator that is rated for particle and toxic fumes.
These respirators cost anywhere from $25 to $40 with replaceable cartridges. Dust masks block only
large particles of dust and should probably not be used but are better than nothing.
Beware of the open drive belt! OSHA regulations require a powered belt to be entirely
enclosed in a commercial or business operation. We provide no plans for a belt drive cover as we are
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not in a commercial environment. I would recommend you cover the belt drive with some type of
enclosure. A simple 3 sided wooden box with cut outs for the two shafts with enough length and
height is all that is needed.
What we can not support or help you with:
Wiring the motor and switch will be up to you. We will provide some very basic information in
the appendix on motors but we can not provide any assistance on wiring or hooking up your motor.
Dont despair, it is fairly simple to hook up a motor and if you are not familiar with installing or
wiring a motor, buy yours from a store that will help you with the connections. Check the suppliers
listing appendix for help with purchasing a pre-wired motor from Wayne Coe.
We cant help you with any home made contact wheels. Contact wheels turn at incredible
RPMs that have very high centrifugal forces. This is not a place to experiment. A contact wheel that
explodes during use can seriously injure, blind or kill you. Dont try and save a few dollars here. Its
not worth your eye sight or life.
Wed be interested in hearing about your design modifications but we cant really consult on
them.
If you need help, go to www.KnifeDogs.com. There are a lot of members there with
experience in building grinders of all kinds and they will most likely have answers for you!
Membership in KnifeDogs.com is free.
Overview - Review the plans and shop for parts

Review the entire plans and create your materials shopping list. A complete materials list has
been provided for you in the appendix. You may not want to make every tool attachment for your
grinder/sander. Purchase your materials locally and place your orders for those parts you can not find
in your area. Most people will have to order their contact wheels and idler and power wheels through
one of our listed sources. If you have a lathe, you can machine your own aluminum idler and drive
pulleys.
You will have to plan your motor purchase. You will need to decide if you are going to make a
single speed or multiple speed grinder/sander using pulleys or possibly a variable speed power source
using controllers and different motor types. We have 5 pages of information in the appendix to help
you with this decision. A new 1 &1/2hp motor was around $180 when this grinder design was being
researched. I bought a used motor for $75 by shopping around the local motor repair shops. I bought a
new motor for $180 from the local farm supply store. Both were TEFC, 1 & 1/2hp single phase
capacitor start motors. It pays to shop around.
Contact wheels range in price from $45 to $300 for a huge 14 wheel. Many people dont use a
contact wheel at all and simply use a flat platen for their grinding or a slack belt sander set up. In those
cases you just need some additional aluminum idler wheels.
I would advise you to build the 8 or 10" contact wheel tool attachment initially. You can add
on several other tool bars as you need them later. I use the 8 wheel on my grinder more than any
other attachment. I think you will too due to its flexibility of use in various applications. The beauty
of the NWGS design is that it will grow with you as your needs grow and it will be very inexpensive
to add an entirely new capability to your grinder/sander. Of course you can go whole hog and build
every available tool attachment there is and then design some of your own. It will be easy to do with
the techniques in the plans and the supplier listings we provide.
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Midwest Knifemakers Supply, LLC at www.USAknifemaker.com will carry nearly all of the
parts you need (and many of the tools) in various kit forms or individual parts to complete your entire
NWGS. Every part with the exception of the contact wheels and aluminum idler and power wheels can
be found locally in a community of nearly any significant size at all at the local hardware store, motor
supply and metal supply businesses. I live in a town of 45,000 people and found at least 3 of each type
businesses that would supply the basic parts I needed in one afternoon of shopping my supply list.
Overview - Get organized and cut materials

Clear a large enough work space to lay out all of your parts. Taking the time to lay out your
parts in an organized fashion will save you an hour or two of construction time.
Cut your materials to size and using your marking pen, write notes on the parts to identify what
they are and the orientation such as top, bottom, front back. Chamfer all outside edges and de-bur all
inside edges. A power tool can be used to slightly chamfer the outside cut edges but cleaning up the
inside edges is usually a manual process using a hand file or de-bur tool. If you dont have a metal
band saw and hand cutting several cuts with a hack saw doesnt appeal to you, every metal supplier
will cut your purchase to your size specifications for a small cut charge. My local metal supplier
charges nothing for the first cut and $3 a cut after that.
It can not be over emphasized how important it is to label each of your parts at every step of
the construction process. Write directly on the part the orientation, hole sizes any other notes that you
think will help you keep things clear.
Cut your pipe square! You will need to measure from several sides of the end cut to measure
and mark for drill holes. If your cut isnt square, your through holes will not line up. I built several
prototypes of this grinder/sander. Every time I had a set
of through holes that didnt line up I found I hadn't
checked to make sure it was square. This simple thing
will cause you problems until you get serious about
square end cuts. This design isnt high precision by any
means but it does require you to pay attention to each cut
you make. These
pictures show a pipe
that was not cut square
one way but it was
square when measured
another way. Always measure for square two ways! Through holes
measured from this cut simply will not match up. Check at least two
sides when inspecting the cut.
Overview - Drill and assemble your frame

Drill your materials and assemble following the order laid out in the plans. Note that accurate
measurement of any hole locations are important or the NWGS will not fit together properly.
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If some of your holes dont align enough to allow the bolt to connect the parts, try drilling a
slightly larger hole in the affected parts. You can over size holes slightly larger to get parts to bolt
together. If you still cant get the through holes to line up after over sizing by the hole up to 1/8, I'd
suggest scrapping the part and make a new one. Cut your ends square and this won't be a problem.
All of the bolts used are 3/8-16 grade #2 bolts with nuts, washers and lock washers. These are
often sold by the pound at most hardware stores. There is no reason to buy higher grade bolts such as 5
or 8 also commonly found in bulk. Grade 5 and 8 bolts are designed for high load and stress
environments and they often cost 2 to 5 times more than commonly found grade 2 bolts and nuts.
There is no significant load or stress loads in this design that requires expensive fasteners.
Using a carpenter square, set your measurement and then scribe

along the ruler edge. Flip it to the other edge and scribe again.
In this picture, you can see two horizontal

scribe lines and one vertical. Split the difference in
between the horizontal lines and you will have your
true center.
Overview - Mount the motor and power train

Locate and place your motor to fit your belt and pulleys. (Your motor must rotate counter clock
wise!)Allow some movement in the motor mount to tighten the belt for proper tension and to adjust for
normal wear. Normally this is simply getting the belt in place and drilling over size mounting holes
that allow for some adjustment. Most motor mounts have slots that allow movement for this.
Overview - Wire your motor

Wire your motor and switch. Make sure you use a good ground contact. If your motor can
operate in clock wise (CW) or CCW (counter clock wise) make sure it operates counter clock wise.
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Overview - Shake it down and make adjustments

Double check your frame and motor wiring. Double check every single nut and bolt is tight.
Place a tool bar in the tool arm socket and mount a belt. Wear your safety gear. Start the grinder on the
slowest speed checking for vibrations, loose parts or other problems that may been overlooked. At the
lowest speed is when you should verify that all of your tool attachments are working properly. Once
you have shaken it all down, make any needed adjustments. You will almost certainly have to add or
remove a few washers for wheel and belt tracking alignment. Keep machinery bushings next to the
wheels. These machinery bushings have the right size ID and OD to fit the bearings and not bind on
the wheel. After your adjustments, try grinding or sanding some scrap materials, again testing every
attachment.
At this point, it would be normal to have to adjust the belt tension between the motor and drive
pulley due to slippage. It would also be normal to have to adjust the tension spring at this point by
cutting or stretching it. A belt that is loose wobbles and slides to one side or the other when being
used. A belt that is too tight bogs down the motor and stretches the belt so that it will not track
properly. It is almost impossible to get your belt too tight with this design. 95% of tracking issues with
a new build are the result of not enough belt tension. Note: If you are having issues with the belt not
tracking just right, try another belt, especially a different brand if you can before making any
adjustments.
Move it up to half speed and try every thing again. If it all goes well, try everything at full
speed to make sure it all works properly. Testing it now might save you a serious injury later when
you are less attentive to the machine and more focused on your project.
The second proto-type NWGS is shown here.

Note that there are some extra holes drilled in
the various pipes as a result of R&D and
should not be duplicated. I have this mounted
to 2 layers of plywood. The tool arm from
my KMG grinder has two wheels, a 4 and a
2. I simply flip the tool bar over to use the 2
wheel. Note that the grinder is actually
running full speed in this picture.
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The picture to the right shows the motor side of the tension
arm. A tracking wheel mount swivels on its two brackets.
The tracking adjustment knob swivels the tracking wheel
mount to adjust the track of the abrasive belt. You will need
to use machinery bushings on either side of the wheel.
These are narrow rimmed bushings with ID. These
bushings allow you to snug up the bolt/spindle assembly so
the wheel doesnt hunt back and forth.
The belt side of the tracking wheel

mount is shown in this picture. The
arrow points to part of the mount that is
basically a lever that is moved in or out
via the tracking adjustment knob. When
the tracking adjustment knob is turned, it
moves the lever part of the wheel mount
in or out, which in turn angles the
tracking wheel, adjusting the track of the
belt.
Tracking Block Assembly

Refer to the CAD drawings: Tracking Block Construction, Tracking Block Brackets and Tracking
Adjustment Pivot Block. Alternate Bracket construction: Bend 4 of 1/8x1 flat bar to 90degrees,
mark and drill holes accordingly. This method may be easier than cutting a piece of tube into
brackets. Plans update: We recommend you simply bend 1/8"x1" flat bar into "L" brackets here.
The following assembly steps assume you have cut all pieces to length and drilled all holes according
to the CAD plans.
Assembly Step 1 Refer to CAD drawing Order of Assembly

After you have drilled the holes in the base mount tube, bolt the base tube to your bench or a
base of plywood using 3/8 bolts.
For the portable plywood base, glue and/or screw a couple thick pieces of plywood together
in 30x30 square. Mark your base tube and motor locations and drill the mounting holes. Counter
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sink the connecting nuts on the bottom so your platform will sit flat on your bench. You may have to
cut the bolts to size. Refer to the Base Mount drawing.

Attach the Tool Arm Socket tube to the top of the base tube. Refer to the Tool Arm Rest CAD
drawing.

Attach the upright columns to the base tube using 4ea 3/8 x 6 bolts and washers. The
longer column goes to the back. Refer to the Front and Back Columns drawing.

Attach the tool bar holder horizontally to the two uprights using 4ea 3/8x 4 1/2 nuts, bolts,
washers and 4ea 1x 4 1/2 straps. Approximately 1 inch of the tool bar holder tube should extend past
the front vertical column. The tool bar tube should also be mounted approximately 1 below the top of
the shorter column. The bolts and
straps form a clamp to hold the tube in
place. See placement in the picture to
the left.
Refer to the Tool Bar Holder drawing
and Tracking Blocks/Straps drawing.
Note: Placement is not critical here.
Just mount the tool bar tube as high as
you can on the short upright and keep
it horizontal (square to the uprights). If
you mount it too low, you may have a
bench clearance problem with the
slack belt and platen attachments.
Assembly Step 5 Refer to CAD drawing Order of

Assembly
Attach the Tension arm to the rear vertical column using
a 3/8x 3 bolt. This tension arm will swivel so use a couple of
washers between the vertical column and the tension arm with a
drop of oil or grease. Since this part will rotate often, to stop the
nut and bolt to from unscrewing, double nut the bolt or use
Loctite thread locking fluid. If you are going to use Loctite
thread locking fluid, do this as the very last step after you have
made all the adjustments you need to during your shake down
testing. Refer to the Tension Arm drawing.
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Bolt the tracking assembly to the tension arm as pictured above. Note how the tracking assembly is
bolted slightly off center of the tension arm and is slightly closer to the tracking wheel side. The
tracking adjustment knob is threaded on the motor side of the tension tube with the wheel side drilled
larger to make it a through hole. Refer to the 2 Tracking Block drawings. Alternate Bracket
fabrication: Mounting brackets can be fabricated from 1/8 x 1 flat stock bent 90 degrees and 2 long
for each end. This might be easier than cutting a square tube into mounting brackets.
Attach the tension arm spring using bolts and large washers or eyebolts to back ends of both
the tension arm and the base tube. Attach the spring. The tension provided by the spring when an
attachment and abrasive belt is mounted should be quite stiff.
In this picture, you can see a common door spring doubled over and
attached to the tension arm and base tubes by a 3/8 bolt. Also note the
pillow block bearings are mounted with the drive shaft held in place by
locking collars next to the bearings. These locking collars prevent the shaft
from sliding side to side in the bearings. We suggest you use Power Twist
Link to simplify your belt selection. These link belts can be easily
adjusted to size by adding or removing links. These belts run quite a bit
smoother and quieter than a traditional V belt. Also, we strongly suggest
you use the triple pulley system to give you three different speeds instead
of just one speed with a traditional single pulley set up. To change speed,
with the motor off, simply move the belt to the smaller pulley manually on
the drive shaft first and then to the larger, matching pulley on the motor or
vice versa.
Changing speeds takes just seconds after doing it once or twice.

Attach the pillow block bearings to the base tube. Insert the 14 drive shaft into the bearings. It
may be necessary to oil or grease the shaft to get it to slide smoothly through the bearings. (The shaft
should already have keyways cut for the pulley and drive wheel. See the appendix for Cutting a
Keyway. There is no CAD drawing of the shaft.) Using locking collars, install the locking collars on
both sides of the bearings so the shaft doesnt move side to side in use. Do not tighten yet. Attach the
drive wheel and drive pulley. Adjust the shaft side to side so the drive wheel is in line with the tension
wheel and contact wheel. When you have every thing lined up, tighten the locking collars and the set
screws in the pulley and drive wheel. Some bearings have a set screw built in, these work fine also.

Screw in the tracking adjustment knob and the tool bar knob.
Assembly Step 10
Mount your motor to the wooden base or bench. Install the
drive belt and tighten the belt by moving the motor forward in the
mounting slots. Bolt down the motor to keep a snug tension on the
belt. Keep in mind the belt will stretch with use and you probably
have to tighten the belt again by moving the motor forward after a
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few hours of use. If you have a Power Twist Link belt, you can remove a link. When you mount the
motor, use a square to ensure the drive belt and square to both the motor and drive shaft pulleys.
Having the motor canted wastes power, increases friction, heat, noise and you will wear out your drive
belt prematurely. Your drive belt should last for a very long time. If it is too lose, the belt will slip
often and glaze over. A glazed belt will soon have to be replaced.
Step 10
Double check your nuts and bolts to make sure they are all tight. Insert a tool arm attachment
into the machine, mount a belt, pull the tool attachment forward to put tension on the belt and tighten
the tool bar knob. Stand to the side and start the motor. Be ready to quickly adjust the tracking knob to
center the belt on the wheels. Be ready to quickly turn off the motor if something goes wrong.
In the picture to the left, a completed grinder

is shown with the slack belt attachment in
place. Note there are two different sizes of
contact wheels on the slack belt for grinding
different radius contours. The tool table is not
attached in this
picture. In the
picture to the
right, you can see
a tool rest socket
pipe attached to
the base mount
pipe.
Fine Tuning the Alignment

You will almost certainly have to add a few washers and adjust some bolts here there to get all
of the wheels to align evenly across the length of the belt. In every case you will have minimum of 3
wheels and often 4 wheels to line up. Get your power drive wheel and tracking wheels lined up first
and then dont touch them again. Each tool bar wheel will probably require some tuning also. You can
stack any kind of washers you like as long as you use machinery bushings next to the bearings in the
wheels. If you use a typical ID washer next to the wheel, it will actually contact and be driven by
the wheel and not be snug in one position and will wobble. If you use one machinery bushing on both
sides of the wheel, you can usually stack any kind of washer next to the wheel as the single machinery
bushing provides enough clearance. You want the bolt to hold the wheel snugly in place but the wheel
should be able to spin freely. The most common issue with new builds is there is not enough belt
tension. Make sure your spring pulls the belt tight!
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Tool Rest Table

Building the tool rest is optional. It consists of three
moving arms that allow movement in all 3 dimensions. The tool
rest table provides a flat surface to rest a work piece one while
pushing it into the grinder. It is most often used with the flat platen
but can also be used with any of attachment arms. There are 2
drawings for constructing the Tool rest. In addition, there are 2
examples of table rests in the drawings. Bolts are used in the
drawings but knobs can be substituted for faster position
adjustments.
Attachment tool arms:

Contact wheels
The least complicated attachment tool arm is simply a
contact wheel bolted to a 1.5x1/8 square tube. The
tube length should be approximately 15 in length. The
mounting hole for the contact wheels listed in the
suppliers listing use a
diameter bolt. Use a machinery
bushing (1/2 diameter ID,
narrow rim,14ga thick) on both
sides of all wheels next to the
bearings. These have just the
right size ID and OD to not bind
against the wheels but touch only
the bearing. There are no pictures
or drawings provided due to its simplicity of this attachment.
Slack Belt Attachment

This is a fairly simple attachment to build. Refer to the CAD drawing
provided. Note you can use either steel plate or aluminum plate and bar stock in
construction of this tool arm. You can use 2x2 aluminum idler wheels for both
the top and bottom wheels to keep costs down. I use 2 different radius rubber
contact wheels so I can use these for different contours during slack belt
sanding. When your grinder is up and running, grind off those protruding square
corners you can see here in the picture.
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Flat Platen Attachment

This attachment is slightly more complex than the others but it is still a very simple build.
There are two CAD drawings for this tool assembly. Refer to the
Flat Platen Attachment Plate and the Platen Attachment Parts
drawings for detailed construction notes. These parts can be
constructed in either steel or aluminum.
This picture shows the back of the platen. You can see the slots cut
into the angle iron allow the platen to be moved in and out to
better match the belt.
You might be surprised at how fast the actual platen surface will
wear and become uneven. Some people use hardened tool stool
such as 01 for their platen surface. Heat treating 01 tool steel isnt
difficult but is beyond the scope of these plans. I use Pyrex glass
that I epoxy on with JBWeld. Nearly any glass store will cut you a
piece of fire place glass for a small charge. If you simply cant find
it locally we have Pyrex cut to size on www.USAknifemaker.com .
You can find others selling similar material on the internet called
Pyra-ceram. It is all basically low thermal expansion glass. The advantage to the glass face on the
platen steel is: it is very hard and wears much slower than steel, it is very flat compared to steel and it
runs cooler when grinding. The disadvantage is: it can come loose and shatter creating a very
dangerous situation. I know several knife makers this has happened to. Fortunately, none were
seriously hurt because they were wearing eye and other protection and they were very lucky. If you are
going to use fire place glass as a platen surface, consider adding a small ledge or support on the
bottom of the glass to hold the glass in place if the epoxy fails. When using epoxy to attach the glass,
dont clamp it during the cure. If you clamp the glass, it will bend slightly putting it under stress and
then it will crack when grinding due to heat expansion. Simply mix up the epoxy (I suggest JBWeld, it
takes high heat better than most), slather it on and push the glass onto it centered and then let it cure.
The sharp edges of the glass can be ground off just like grinding metal. Round each edge slightly to
keep the belt back side from getting cut. A sharp edge is going to wear smooth fairly quickly from
normal use but you dont need to waste a couple belts while it is breaking in. You will probably get
some static electricity coming from this set up. Simply spray a little StaticGuard (or other static
reducing spray) laundry spray type on the inside of the belt. It knocks the static electricity way down.

Appendix A Master Materials List
Page - 13 revised 12/6/07
Materials List (assumes you build all tool arms and table rests)
No margin for squaring up cuts is reflected in this materials list. There is a great deal of tolerance in the actual part
length. Nearly every part can be just a little shorter than the plans call for and it will still work. If you prefer to be
exactly to plan, consider adding a slight increase in parts length to allow for a margin of error in squaring up your cuts.
Again, most parts can be slightly longer or shorter than the plans call for and it will work out just fine.
Metal:
Qty Item
1.5 4 square pipe 1/8 thick
2.75 2 square pipe 3/16 thick
3.75 1.75 square pipe 1/8 thick (substitute 1.5" square tube if unable to find 1.75")
8
1.5 square pipe 1/8 thick
3.75 1x1/8 flat stock
3.25 2x3/8 flat stock*
(*only a 2 tool table is allowed for, if you want a
1.25 4x3/8 flat stock
bigger tool table, increase your materials list to reflect that.)
1
1.75 x 1.75 x 1/8 angle iron (2x2 is OK also)
14
5/8 round stock cold rolled
Connectors:
Qty Item
4
6 x 3/8 bolts
14
4 x 3/8 bolts
11
3 x 3/8 bolts
19
1 x 3/8 bolts
2
5 x bolts
4
3 x bolts
14
nuts for bolts
41
nuts for 3/8 bolts
45
washers with ID (inside diameter)
63
washers with 3/8 ID
14
Machinery bushings ID 14ga
Wheels:
1
Tracking Wheel
1
Drive Wheel bored for 5/8 shaft
4
2x2 idler wheel (suggest sub 2 or 3 contact wheels)
1
8 or 10"contact wheel
Other:
2
Pillow block bearings for 5/8 shaft
1
knurled knob 3/8-16 for tracking adjustment-can sub long bolt bend to 90degrees
1
4 bump knob 3/8-16 for tool arm holder - can sub long bolt bend to 90degrees
1
Common door spring
Power Train:
1
Motor recommend 1 1/2HP TEFC Heavy Duty
1
wiring supplies: switch, switch box, wire nuts, wire, electrical tape
1
pulley for motor shaft recommend 3 step pulley system
1
pulley for drive shaft of grinder recommend 3 step pulley system
1
drive belt recommend 2Power Twist link drive belt by Fenner
1
mounting platform recommend mounting onto 2 layers of plywood
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Appendix B Suppliers Listing

Suppliers Listing
All of the following is available from www.USAknifemaker.com :

Abrasive Belts, Contact Wheels, Idler Wheels, Power Drive Wheels, Drive Shaft
Rod, Pulleys, Step Pulleys, Power Twist Link Belt, Key Material, Measuring
Tools, Carpenters Square, Scribes, Layout Fluid, Pillow Block Bearings, Metal
Square, Cutting/Drilling oil, Drill Bits, Unibit drill bits, Bolts, Nuts, Washers,
Machinery Bushings, Pyrex. We also have most of the metal used in these plans.
In addition:
Knife Making books, videos and a full line of knife making supplies.
At:
Midwest Knifemakers Supply, LLC
1350 Lake Street
North Mankato, MN 56003
Phone 507-720-6063 Monday through Friday 8:00 to 5:30 Central Time
Fax 507-720-6305
www.USAknifemaker.com
email: info.usakms@gmail.com
Aluminum idler and power wheels, contact wheels, motors, bearings, pulleys
Rob Frink
Beaumont Metal Works
362 Beaumont Rd.
Columbus, OH 43214
Phone:(614) 291-8876 (9-5 EST M-F)
FAX 614-261-0094
www.beaumontmetalworks.com
Page - 15 -
Contact wheels
Burr King
1220 Tamara Lane
Warsaw, MO 65355
Phone Numbers
(660) 438-8998
(800) 621-2748
Fax Number
(660) 438-8991
info@burrking.com
www.burrking.com
Contact Rubber Corp.

8635 198th Avenue
P.O. Box 97
Bristol, WI 53104
Telephone: 262-857-2361
Fax: 262-857-9483
info@contactrubber.com
www.contactrubber.com
Metal, drive shaft material

Check in your yellow pages for local supplier, often it is under scrap metal dealers.
Most home centers such as Lowes or Home Depot have a mild metal rack and this will
almost always have 5/8 cold rolled round stock as part of their assortment.
www.onlinemetals.com
Motors and other miscellaneous

www.surpluscenter.com
Wayne Coe.
Wayne is a retired attorney turned full time Artist Blacksmith. He teaches classes on
Blacksmithing and building No Weld Grinders. If you go to a weekend class of Wayne's, you
leave with a completed, running grinder. He also sells motors and will pre-wire a motor for you
on request. I have bought a motor from Wayne myself and highly recommend him. Wayne can
be contacted at www.KnifeDogs.com. If you need a motor and can't find one locally or want
one all wired for you, contact Wayne. His direct email is: waynecoe@highland.net
Page - 16 -
Drive belts, nuts, bolts washers, bearings, pulleys, motors

Tractor Supply Co (TSC)
Ace Hardware Store
Most any farm supply store.
Knobs, bearings, drive shaft, keyway stock, abrasive belts, motors

MSC Industrial www.mscdirect.com
Enco www.use-enco.com
Page - 17 -
Appendix C - Motors, basic information

One of the problems with making your own equipment is that there are so many kinds of
motors and the choices are so confusing its just too much work to determine what you need
for a project. We are going to give you just the basics here to help you make a better choice for
your power source.
Motors operate in specific direction, either clock wise (CW) or counter clock wise
(CCW). Most motors can operate in either direction and are often noted as CW/CCW or
DUAL. Make sure your motor operates in CCW or counter clock wise. This is always stamped
on the case or ID plate. Single direction motors are usually cheaper
than multi-direction motors.
Motors come in all different RPMs or rotations per minute
(speed). You want a motor that operates at 1725 or 1750 RPMs or
3400 or 3450RPM. These are very common speeds for a motor and
this speed range is what your NWGS was designed for.
Motors are rated in HP or Horse Power. This isnt a great
way to measure a motor since every one seems to do it differently.
Some motors are rated for peak horse power, some are rated under
load, some are rated with out a load. Add to that some motors are less
efficient than others due to construction, materials and design. Like
most things, you get what you pay for. For our purposes, we want a motor that is at least 1hp.
This is the absolute minimum and even then you will probably be able to slow or even stop the
NWGS under heavy use. Plan on using a 1 1/2hp or even better a 2hp motor if you can find one
cheap enough. You will find that the bigger the motor in HP, the more expensive it is.
Motors may be better rated by the amperage they draw under load. Below find a typical range
of amperage vs HP vs 110v vs 230v. Note that the 230v(220v close enough) is generally more
efficient.
Calculated HP
AMPS at 115v
AMPS at 230v
1
13.0 - 9.3
6.5 - 4.6
1 1/2
19.5 - 13.9
9.7 - 7.0
2
25.9 - 18.5
13.0 - 9.3
Note that some motors are more efficient than others in converting electricity to
motion. This isnt hype and shouldnt be overlooked. Naturally motors that are more efficient
are usually priced as little more. A more efficient motor will cost less to operate and may be
cheaper to operate in the long run than the initially lower priced motor. If the motor is
marketed as very efficient, than you just have to take the manufactures word for it as there is
no consumer report ratings available for motors.
Motors come in different frames and styles. Here you have a lot more flexibility.
We want an inexpensive motor that fits our needs. We are building a grinder on a budget. You
want to make sure the shaft of the motor is 5/8 in diameter and the shaft is long enough to
Page - 18 -
mount a drive pulley. The method of mounting the motor is often an issue. The design of the
NWGS calls for the motor to be mounted to the same base as the grinder so you will want a
motor that has at least 4 bolt hole on the bottom of the motor. Some motors mount only to the
face (area around the shaft) C Face or Face Mount and those cant be used unless you fabricate
a mounting bracket. Youre on your own there, but it really isnt that hard to fabricate a bracket
if you come across a great deal on a C Face mount motor. Some motors can be face or base
mounted and would be fine to use. Just keep in mind that dual direction or dual mounting
options on a motor add to the cost of the motor. What you want is a base mount motor with a
5/8 shaft.
Motors are open or enclosed. The degree to which the
motor is enclosed varies. The better sealed or closed a motor is to
the environment, the more expensive it is. Open motors, or ODP
(open drip proof) have open vents that are designed to direct the
occasional drip of water away from the interior. These are cheap but
getting an open motor is false economy. If you use an open motor,
expect it to short out or break down prematurely. If you are grinding
metal, you dont want an electrical motor filling up with metal dust
shorting out against the case possibly electrocuting anyone that touches the metal motor case.
Ideally you want a TEFC (totally enclosed fan cooled) motor. These are more expensive but
they are worth the expense. There are also Explosion proof and Wet Environment motors.
These cost even more and this level of protection isnt needed but if you can find a good deal
on one of these motors, by all means get it.
Motors come in AC or DC, 120v, 220v, 230v,240v and 480v and 1phase or 3phase.
AC (alternating current ie like house current) motors operate on alternating current but so do
DC (direct current) motors! Whats up? Motors are made for all kinds of applications. In your
shop you most likely have 110v AC 1 phase typical house current. You want a 110v AC 1
phase motor. Look for things like Heavy Duty Use 110v AC 1ph or Farm Use AC 110V
1ph. The voltage, phase, HP, RPM and rotation will always be stamped onto the motor ID
plate attached to the motor. Shy away from any motors that dont have this basic information.
House current is 1 phase. Industrial plants often use 3 phase power. You dont have that in
your house so dont buy a motor that uses only 3 phase power. Many motors can use 1 phase or
3 phase power. You just have to wire them up a little differently.
DC motors actually operate on AC current but are wired differently internally using powerful
permanent magnets to produce their power. There are specific reasons for using a DC motor
instead of an AC motor. We are going to leave it at this. An AC motor is almost always quite a
bit cheaper than a DC motor. Get an AC motor. If you know the reasons a DC motor is
sometimes preferred over an AC, you dont need to be reading this. You want a 110V AC 1
phase motor.
What if I have 220v (230v, 240v) power available in my shop?
Great! Your motor might be cheaper! In general, motors that use 220v 1 phase power are
cheaper than dual volt motors or new 110v AC motors. If you have the option of using 220v in
your shop and you know you wont be moving your grinder to another location that does not
have 220v, you should use 220v. Why? Its more efficient to operate a motor on 220v than
Page - 19 -
110v AC and lets just leave it at that with out getting into a bunch of esoteric electrical
engineering debate.
Motors are just one speed unless you have a controller that varies the speed. That
is expensive. Take the basic motor cost and double or triple it and you can have a variable
speed motor. I think they are worth it and I wouldnt grind knives with out a variable speed
motor after having used one for years. Our NWGS design is on a budget so we use a step down
pulley system. Our design uses either a 3 step or 4 step pulley to change the SFPM (surface
feet per minute) speed of the abrasive belt. You cant do quality work all at full speed ahead.
There are a lot of times when you want to slow things down. Many woods simply burn at high
speed. Knife makers have to slow the belt down when they are working on the finishing polish.
The least expensive way to slow things down is to use the step pulley system in our design.
You have to stop the motor, move the belt over a notch or two and then start back up. It
probably takes longer to write those sentences than it does in practice to actually change the
belt. For a lot more money, you can get a motor speed controller combination that allows you
to control the speed from full blast to dead stop. Like most things, there are trade offs to this.
First it costs a lot more for a speed controller. Second, the slower you go, in many cases, the
less torque the motor has. In other words it may go real slow but looses all the power to grind
in the process. There are many different ways to control the speed of a motor and not every
method suffers from the drawback.
DC motors often can be coupled with a voltage controller (not always) to slow things
down. There is some loss of torque and the motor starts to get jerky at very low speeds. I use a
1 1/2hp DC motor on my KMG knife grinder. It has a Baldor 1 1/2hp DC motor with a
controller built into the base. It works just fine and I wouldnt be with out it. If it ever breaks
down, Ill replace it with a VFD drive and motor though. If you find a DC motor with a
controller at a good price, give it strong consideration. A variable motor will improve your
grinding or sanding quality of work. You cant put any old DC controller and DC motor
together. The controller must be rated to meet or exceed the HP or power rating of the motor.
A word of caution is called for before we talk about AC controllers. You will see AC
Router speed controllers advertised for very little. These claim to slow down an AC motor or
make them variable speed and they do but at a high cost. You can burn your motor out with
these fairly quickly and I advise you to never use one.
AC motors with variable speed must be matched with a proper controller and
should be bought as a set. Controlling the speed of an AC motor is fussy business and in most
cases, when an AC motor is slowed down, you lose a great deal of torque to the point where it
is almost useless under speed. There may be a good deal to be had with a variable speed AC
motor but only if the controller comes with it and it is a proven combination.
There is another form of AC motor/controller combination that is called a VFD, or
variable frequency drive motor. These VFD combinations are almost always used with 220v.
More correctly the controller is called the Drive and the motor is called a VFD type motor. (I
use one of these on my disk grinder and I like it very much. When the DC motor on my grinder
gives out, I will replace it with a VFD motor.) In a nutshell, the VFD takes 1 phase power and
electronically turns this power into 3 phase power to drive a VFD motor which requires 3
Page - 20 -
phases to operate. VFD motors are priced ridiculously cheap for their horse power rating when
compared to regular AC motors and especially when compared to DC motors. These VFD
motors are commonly used in industry, where most motors are so they are priced very
competitively. A 2hp VFD may be priced at only a $100 dollars where a similar rate AC motor
might be $175 and a DC motor might be $250! The catch is the controller is expensive. Expect
to pay at least $250 to $400 for a controller. The upside to these controllers is they are very
smooth and keep the torque of the motor quite high through nearly the entire speed range. A
VFD motor set up is the most expensive option but to many it is the best option. They give
very smooth infinite speed control with very little loss in torque. The motors are electrically
efficient, very durable as they are generally constructed for an industrial environment and are
usually protected against the elements quite well. Most are TEFC. The Drives however are
usually open and sensitive to dust and will short out if kept exposed to excessive dust,
especially metal dust. Ive lost one controller to this already. Just like motors, you can buy
different levels of protection for the Drives at additional cost. Either keep your drive out of the
dust cloud and protected or pay the extra for a sealed Drive so you dont loose it to premature
electrical shorts. One last thing about Drives, you have to buy one that is rated at least twice
the horse power of the motor. I dont know why, you just do. If you have a 1hp VFD motor,
you need a 2hp rated Drive. This isnt a hard and fast rule, its just a good practice. Ive heard
of several people using a 2hp Drive on a 1 1/2hp VFD motor and doing just fine. It comes
down to a heat issue and shedding heat from process of converting 1 phase to 3 phase. Using
an over rated Drive gives you protection from burning out the electronics under heavy use and
current draw.
Ive recently heard about 110v Drives. I have no experience with them. Most
household circuits are either 15 amp or 20 amp circuits. I can pop the circuit breaker with my 1
1/2hp DC motor by bearing down hard when I am flat grinding. 220v circuits are at least
30amp and usually have room to spare when running a 2hp motor. When a Drive converts 1
phase to 3 phase current, there is some loss in power to heat and the electrical conversion
process. If you use a motor that is 1 1/2hp to 2hp on a 110v Drive, this could possibly draw a
lot more current than the house or shop wiring is designed for. This puts you at risk for
constantly setting off the circuit breaker or even worse, over heating the electrical wiring in
your house and starting a fire. Electricity is dangerous and you should know what you are
doing. If you dont understand what is going on, get some one that is professional or some one
that has experience with the motor and set up you are building.
Some other things you should know about motors that might come up when you are
shopping are:
A Split Phase motor is often used for applications that have a light load initially. It has
start and run windings, both are energized when the motor is started. When the motor reaches
about 75% of its rated full load speed, the starting winding is disconnected by an automatic
switch. You will often hear a click in the motor when it kicks in or shuts down. I have an old
direct drive 1hp grinder that uses this and it works fine. These motors are used when a load is
applied after the motor starts and gets to speed.
A Capacitor Start motor has a capacitor in series with the starting winding and
provides more starting torque with less starting current than the split phase motor. The
capacitor start motor is used for loads which are hard to start like pumps, conveyers,
compressors and other applications where the load is immediate. These motors have good
Page - 21 -
efficiency and require starting currents of approximately five times full load current. This isnt
always a problem but turning one of these motors on under load may pop a circuit breaker
under the right conditions. The capacitor and starting windings are disconnected from the
circuit by an automatic switch when the motor reaches about 75% of its rated full load speed.
So after all that what should you get for your motor if you want to vary the speed?
On a budget: use a 3 or 4 step pulley and get a single speed CCW 1 1/2hp AC 110v
TEFC motor. You can try a 1hp but you will regret it if you do any heavy grinding at all. Using
a single drive pulley with a single slave pulley is the absolute cheapest way if you only need or
want one single speed. I am very impressed with how elegant and inexpensive a solution a 3
step pulley setup is. Changing speeds by changing the belt from one set of pulleys to another is
very fast and easy usually 3 or 4 seconds is all it takes.
Middle of the road: A 1 1/2hp DC motor paired with a speed controller. Ive heard of
a lot of guys using tread mill DC motor and controller pulls or surplus that work well. These
are open case motors and controllers and you will have to take some steps to protect the motor
and controller from dust, especially metal dust.
Top the line (if you have 220v): A 1 1/2hp or 2hp VFD motor controller combination.
If you havent worked with motors before, these are complex and you should work with a
dealer and pay a little more than taking a chance on going mail order or through eBay. Many
dealers dont know much about VFD motors and controllers. Oddly, most electricians know
even less. They simply can not believe that a little box changes 1 phase to 3 phase power.
Make sure that your VFD motor controller is protected from metal dust or has a type 4 NEMA
enclosure (sealed against dust) or it will be just a matter of time before it shorts out in a puff of
smoke.
Page - 22 -
Formula for SFPM (surface feet per minute):

Occasionally you will see talk about SFPM of a grinder. Here is a formula to calculate the
SFPM of your No Weld Grinder/Sander
D=belt drive wheel diameter in inches
M=motor pulley diameter in inches
G=grinder pulley diameter in inches
RPM=Rotations per minute of the motor
Pi= 3.14
*="times"
/="divided by"
(note the fixed number 12 converts inches into feet)
(Pi * D * RPM * M)/(12 * G)
which is reduced to:
SFPM = 0.262 * D * RPM * (M/G)
Example
We have a 4 belt drive wheel, a 1750 RPM motor, a 2 motor pulley and a 4grinder pulley.
SFPM= .262 *4*1750*(2/4)
SFPM=.262*7000*.5
SFPM=917
Page - 23 -
Appendix D Metal working tips and techniques

Drilling:
Drilling metal, even mild steel, is made several times easier with sharp drill bits. You will only
use a few different sizes of drill bits during the construction of the NWGS, consider buying new bits in
just these sizes. Dull bits wander and wobble in the hole. The holes you drill will be less than round
and could force you to you drill over size holes to get your project to bolt together. For a few dollars in
drill bits, you might save your self some head ache.
Always use cutting fluid when you drill metal. This will extend the life of your drill bits by
several times and helps the drill bit cut cleanly for a more symmetrical hole.
Always use a center punch to locate the exact center of your hole. Drill bits wander when
starting and you dont want to have to drill over size holes later.
Always use a smaller bit to drill a pilot hole initially and then re-drill it with the larger bit
specified in the plans. I use a 1/8 bit for my pilot holes. The pilot hole will keep your larger bit in
place and significantly reduce the effort needed to drill out the larger hole. If you have a small drill
press or hand drill, you may have to drill the same hole multiple times with progressively larger bits
until you get to the size of hole needed. A Uni-bit or step drill bit is perfect for this kind of drilling.
Secure the part you are drilling in a vise or clamp. The larger a hole that is being drilled, the
more likely the drill bit is to grab the piece and force it to spin or helicopter.
Adjust the speed of your drill to the size of hole you are drilling. Generally, the rule of thumb
is the larger the hole, the slower the speed of your drill. This is especially important when drilling the
holes specified in the plans.
Occasionally a long chip curl will climb up the drill bit and then start to whip around. This is a
dangerous condition and you should either stop drilling and remove the chip curl or use a piece of
metal to wipe it off the bit as it turns. Keep in mind that these chips are razor sharp.
Use a metal scribe or sharpened piece of metal to make your marks. A marker is too thick for
precision drilling and a pencil wont show clearly enough. In order to drill with precision, you need to
have sharp, thin lines to work with. If you dont have a scribe, use a sharpened nail or sharpened piece
of broken drill bit.
Wear safety glasses when drilling!
Measuring:
Use a Carpenters Square to locate your holes, not a tape measure.
Use a scribe to scratch your marks, not a marker or pencil.
To accurately center a hole in a piece of square pipe, measure and scribe from both the top and
the bottom. Usually, the scribe lines will not match exactly so you will need to split the difference
when center punching. This forces you to measure twice and verifies you have the exact center.
Cutting Metal:
Make sure your cuts are square. You will be measuring from these cuts for hole placement and
the tolerances will not allow you the luxury of sloppy cuts. If your cut comes out uneven, file or grind
it square. Losing a fraction of inch in length as compared to the plans of any part due to squaring it up
will not be a problem in this design.
Clean up any burrs from your cutting. These burrs are razor sharp and you will eventually get
cut or scraped from these.
Page - 24 -
Cutting a Keyway in the Drive Shaft:

Your drive shaft should measure 14 with 3/16 keyway slot at each end. A keyway slot should
measure approximately 1 long and 3/16 to 7/32 wide.
Each pulley and drive wheel will have a 3/16 keyway. This is a slot approximately 1 long and 3/16
deep. A key, slightly smaller than 3/16 fits in this slot. The function of this key to lock the drive shaft
and pulley together so the shaft doesnt just spin under load. To fit the pulley or drive wheel to the
shaft, you will need an identical slot cut into your 5/8 cold rolled steel drive shaft rod. There are
several ways to do this with out a milling machine and they are all a bit tedious and take a little time.
Keep in mind this keyway slot you are going to cut into the shaft does not have to be all that
precise. The key will do the work. You just need to make the slot wide enough and deep enough for
the parts to all go together. This can be a 15 minute job or it can be a 2 hour ordeal depending on how
concerned you are about these things. Remember the slot is going to be covered with the pulley or
drive shaft.
One of the easiest ways to cut a slot is to scribe a 1 1/2 line along the axis of the shaft. Center
punch several points along the scribed line and drill 3/16 holes approximately deep as close
together as possible along the line. Using a Dremmel or other high speed rotary tool, remove the
residue metal web between the dilled holes. Dont worry if it isnt perfectly square or flat in the
bottom. That doesnt really matter. Just hog out enough metal so the key fits in the slot and the pulley
or drive wheel will go on also. In developing these plans, this method was even faster than setting up
and using a mini-mill. If you dont have a rotary tool, you will have to use a hand file and that is going
to take some time but it will still get the job done. Drill along a line just like before but drill a 2 line
to allow for the strokes needed by the hand file. File away until you have enough clearance in your
keyway slot.
Some key way slots in pulleys are just a bit undersized making the key nearly impossible to fit.
Simply file or grind down the key for a looser fit.
We have a fully machined drive shaft with keyway already cut available at:
www.USAknifemaker.com if you want to avoid cutting a keyway. These shafts are precision
machined the entire length of the shaft. We source these from Beaumont Metal Works and these are
used on the KMG grinder.
Page - 25 -
Appendix E Abrasive Belt Basics

Open Coat vs. Closed Coat Abrasives
You will find abrasives listed as either open or closed coat. Open coat has less abrasive on the surface
to reduce clogging from materials. This is highly desirable in specific applications even though you
might think you will get more out of a closed coat abrasive. If open coast only has 50% to 70% surface
coverage, Closed coat has more than 70% surface coverage is better suited for metal or glass. As a
general rule, inexpensive belts, especially AO belts, are open coat.
Bonding
Abrasive belts use different types of bonding to hold the abrasive material to the backing belt. Some
bonding materials are waterproof, some are not. The difference in technology between bonding agents
is as significant as the abrasive material.
Backing Material
Belt and sheet backing material varies in stiffness and water resistance. A J-Flex belt is very flexible
and is used in the slack belt attachment. The J-Flex belt will roll around contours. A Y or X weight
belt is heavy and stiff.
Friability
All abrasives wear and break down as they are being used. The measure of this trait is called Friability
and is designed into abrasives. You want highly friable (easier to break down) abrasives in wood and
other soft materials. When grinding metal, you want materials that dont wear and break down so
quickly.
Grit size standards:
To make things even more confusing, there are at least three standards for measuring grit size. They
are the US based CAMI, Micron and FEPA. Most abrasives manufactured in the U.S. use the CAMI
standard. Engineered abrasives typically use the Micron basis which has a very small tolerance of
variation to the grit size. Many abrasives also use FEPA as a standard. None of these standards match
up exactly. It is important that you know which standard abrasive you are using when you mix belt
types and brands.
Abrasive material:
AO or Alumina Oxide: Commonly found in wood working abrasives. It is usually on the very low
end of quality and price. AO belts wear out quickly when used for metal but are very appropriate for
shaping and sanding handle material or even leather. Usually brown or sand in color and typically
highly friable which means it breaks up easily and exposes new sharp edges.
SC or Silicon Carbide: Usually black or gray in color. You will often find this in wet/dry sand paper
marketed toward the automotive body repair market. Often used on metal or paint. It is more friable
than AO and wears very quickly. Most often consumed in sheet form. It is not commonly found in
belts.
Page - 26 -
AZ or Alumina Zirconia: Typically referred to simply as Zirc belts. This is very hard stuff and is
used in better or high quality belts. The downside to using belts with abrasive this hard is that you
have to use a fair amount of pressure to break the material down to expose fresh, sharp edges. This
isnt usually a problem grinding knife blanks, especially with the harder super steels used in todays
knives. The low friability is a problem grinding or sanding wood or other natural material. Zirc or
Ceramic belts are recommended for knife grinding. They are more expensive but will out last several
AO belts.
Cork Belts: These belts have a thick surface of cork bonded to a belt backing. AO is embedded into
the cork to provide a grinding surface that has some give to it but will still grind or polish, depending
on the grit size.
Ceramic: A man made material just about as hard as diamonds in some cases. Ceramics are top of the
line in metal grinding abrasives but most experienced knife grinders consider them worth the expense.
Ceramic belts are more than just natural material glued to a belt. These abrasives are designed from
the bottom up for friability, uniform grain or grit size, cooler grinding temperatures and very long life.
A ceramic belt will out last several AO belts and while they are often 3 or 4 times higher in price than
an AO belt, they will almost always out last those 3 or 4 belts and provide better performance. These
belts are as hard as they get abrasive wise but also have different levels of friability designed into them
for various applications. If you find ceramic belts dont stay sharp as long as you think they should,
increase the pressure of your grinding application to break up the ceramic material and expose fresh,
new sharp edges. A quality ceramic belt is usually the most expensive belt initially but ultimately the
cheapest belt due to its long life and very consistent performance.
Engineered Abrasives: These premium belts are designed for specific applications. They have very
uniform abrasive material and can go to very small grit size. Norton Norax belts are an excellent
quality belt using engineered abrasives that are as small as 5x microns or about 1200 SAE grit. Norax
are exceptionally good metal finishing belts but are nearly worthless on any other material as they
release dark gray abrasive dust that tends to stain anything other than metal.
Other types of Belts:

Non-Woven: These belts are used to de-burr metal edges or to provide a uniform scratch pattern. Most
people are familiar with 3M brand Scotch Brite pads and essentially that is a non-woven abrasive.
These are commonly used by knife makers to put a satin finish on knife blades. These belts are often
found in coarse, medium, fine and extra fine. The coarse belts will actually remove steel while the
finer grits tend to polish metal. These are for metal use only.
Leather Belts: These are just what you think they are. They are loop of leather in the form of a belt.
They are used by some people as power leather strops after they have had some very fine abrasive
compound added to the surface.
Felt: These are belts made from the same material as felt. They are fairly thick at approximately
thick. These almost always have buffing compound applied to them and are used for polishing metal.

Grit Conversion Chart
U.S. Graded(CAMI)
Microns Diameter
FEPA
FEPA
U.S. Graded(CAMI)
Grit Grit Diameter Microns Microns Diameter Grit Grit Diameter Microns
0.3
0.0000118
36.0
0.00140
0.5
0.0000197
40.0
0.001575
1.0
0.0000394
2.0
0.0000787
44.0
0.00172
3.0
0.000118
45.0
0.00177
4.0
0.000158
50.0
0.00197
5.0
0.000197
53.5
0.00209
6.0
0.000236
55.0
0.00217
6.5
0.00026
66.0
9.0
0.00035
9.2
0.00036
12.0
0.00047
12.2
0.00048
15.0
0.00059
16.0
0.00062
600 P1200
0.00060
19.7
0.00077
500 P1000
0.00071
20.0
0.00079
23.6
0.00092
25.0
0.00098
28.8
0.00112
30.0
0.00118
Page - 27 -
1200
360 P600
P500
0.00100
0.00118
P360 0.00158
40.5
P320 0.00180
46.2
280
52.5
0.00257
220 P220
0.00254
65.0
78.0
0.00304
180
P180 0.00304
78.0
93.0
0.00363
150
P150 0.00378
97.0
116.0
0.00452
120
P120 0.00495
127.0
141.0
0.0055
100
P100 0.00608
156.0
192.0
0.00749
80
P80
0.00768
197.0
15.3
268.0
0.01045
60
P60
0.01014
260.0
18.3
351.0
0.0139
50
P50
0.01271
326.0
428.0
0.0169
40
P40
0.01601
412.0
535.0
0.02087
36
P36
0.02044
524.0
638.0
0.02488
30
P30
0.02426
622.0
715.0
0.02789
24
P24
0.02886
740.0
905.0
0.03535
20
P20
0.03838
984.0
1320.0
0.05148
16
P16
0.05164
1324.0
1842.0
0.07174
12
P12
0.06880
1764.0
800
0.00085
35.0
0.00204
400 P800
0.00137
240 P280
1000
320 P400
21.8
25.8
30.2
Page - 28 -
Appedix F Document history, errata and FAQ

September 9 Master materials list called for 2.25 of 2/sq by 3/8 pipe, it should have been 2.75
Master list updated.
September 30 Front View Tool Rest drawings called for 6ea 4 straps, this should be 4ea.
Drawing corrected.
September 30 Added comment to master materials list about tolerance of parts length. In short,
nearly every part can be a little longer or shorter than the plans call for with no adverse affect.
September 30 Added this appendix to track any revisions or error corrections.
December 6 2007 removed errata notices, added alternate method for tracking block bracket
construction, changed supplier web site to new domain (www.USAknifemaker.com) and to new email
contact address (tracy@USAkms.com)
January 1/10/09 fixed a minor typo correction here and there. Added Pyrex supply source.
May 5/29/10 We have revised our motor recommendation to now include 3450RPM motor. We have
dozens (hundreds?) of builders that have used this faster RPM motor with no problem. In fact on my
latest build I am switching to 3450RPM for the motor myself.
Some minor editorial changes.
Several typo's corrected.
Added Wayne Coe as motor supplier in appendix and assembly manual.
Added 1.75" tube can have 2" or 1.5" tube substituted. Locating 1.75" has been difficult for some.
May
We have added plans for a Swivel Arm attachment. These plans are optional as are all the attachments.
Some people find the Swivel Arm option as a very attractive alternative to tool arms.
April 4/14/12
Reviewed for digital version release. Minor formatting changes.
9/4/12
Final formatting for digital release.

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No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Midwest Knifemakers Supply, LLC

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Overview - Review the plans and shop for parts

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Overview - Get organized and cut materials

Overview - Drill and assemble your frame

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Using a carpenter square, set your measurement and then scribe

In this picture, you can see two horizontal

Overview - Mount the motor and power train

Overview - Wire your motor

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Overview - Shake it down and make adjustments

The second proto-type NWGS is shown here.

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

The belt side of the tracking wheel

Tracking Block Assembly

Assembly Step 1 Refer to CAD drawing Order of Assembly

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Assembly Step 2 Refer to CAD drawing Order of Assembly

Assembly Step 3 Refer to CAD drawing Order of Assembly

Assembly Step 4 Refer to CAD drawing Order of Assembly

Assembly Step 5 Refer to CAD drawing Order of

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Assembly Step 6 Refer to CAD drawing Order of Assembly

Assembly Step 8 Refer to CAD drawing Order of Assembly

Assembly Step 9 Refer to CAD drawing Order of Assembly

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

In the picture to the left, a completed grinder

Fine Tuning the Alignment

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Tool Rest Table

Attachment tool arms:

Slack Belt Attachment

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Flat Platen Attachment

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Page - 13 revised 12/6/07

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Appendix B Suppliers Listing

All of the following is available from www.USAknifemaker.com :

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Contact Rubber Corp.

Metal, drive shaft material

Motors and other miscellaneous

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Drive belts, nuts, bolts washers, bearings, pulleys, motors

Knobs, bearings, drive shaft, keyway stock, abrasive belts, motors

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Appendix C - Motors, basic information

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Formula for SFPM (surface feet per minute):

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Appendix D Metal working tips and techniques

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Cutting a Keyway in the Drive Shaft:

No Weld Grinder and Sander Plans (NWGS)

Appendix E Abrasive Belt Basics