Mini belt grinder

[dikman]

After seeing one of these on Road Agent Leather's latest video I just had to get one! Although I have a couple of belt grinders this one looked ideal for leatherwork - it's fairly compact, portable, uses 1" x 30" belts and is variable speed. This one is sold by Vevor and the quality looks very good. It uses a sewing machine servo motor (550w) and a modified control box. It's got some grunt behind it, I pushed a piece of steel into the belt -hard - and it didn't slow down. Impressive. 4"contact wheel, platen and best of all it can be tilted horizontal. First thing to do is make a larger base for it and then make a longer tool rest which will be better when it's used horizontally.

[Dwight]

If you do many belts . . . like me . . . you'll find you are changing that 30 inch rascal all too often.

I still use both of the two I've got . . . but just as soon as I can get some of the junk work out of my hair . . . I'm going for a 2 x  72 inch knife grinder . . . with a bit less than 5 times the belt surface . . . I'm looking to get 5 times the use out of it . . . plus the 2 inches wide will do better than the 1 inch I'm now using.

But I do like your rig  . . .  and if I did any real serious wood working . . . I'd be very much interested in one of those

May God bless,

Dwight

[bruce johnson]

Interesting timing, I ordered one this morning. Even with two 2x72 belt grinders and a 2x48 belt grinder, I still drag out my trusty 1x30 Harbor Freight pretty often. The HF has paid for itself many times over, but on it's last lap. I was going to replace it with another HF until I saw the variable speed option on the Vevor. I do like my variable speeds.... 

BTW for belts - Combat Abrasives, Red Label, and TruGrit all have a ton of options for 1x30 belts in grits ranging from iron munching flesh eaters to insanely fine grits. I get abrasive, conditioning, and leather stropping belts from a mix of all these folks. 

[dikman]

Yep, for anyone who does full-time leatherwork a 2x72 (or 2x48) grinder is the only way to go if you want a grinder. For me this has the advantage that I can easily move it wherever I want so I can keep all the fine dust outside, something I can't do with my other belt grinders. I also have a small wheel attachment for the 2x48 and I intend modifying it so I can fit it to the little one, it should be great for getting into tight corners.

Bruce, this one is a bit dearer than the others but it's far more versatile. The quality of mine is excellent, once I had it assembled it worked with no issues. I've mounted it to a slightly larger wooden base so I can clamp it down wherever I want, now I'm trying to figure out how to fit larger, stronger tool supports. Thanks for the belt info, problem is we can't always get the same stuff you can but I'm looking to see what's around.

[hans25]

Vevor can be hit or miss depending on the product category, but this grinder is one of their better-reviewed tools, and the use of sewing machine components is genius — reliable, and readily available if you ever need parts.

[dikman]

Unfortunately the controller appears to be a custom job, you can't just replace it with any old sewing machine controller without modifying it. I've bought several items from Vevor over the years and only ever had issues with one - a spot welder for assembling Li-Ion batteries. It kept tripping the circuit breaker when switched on! It turned out to be a poorly designed main transformer so I replaced it with a re-wound microwave transformer that I built. Then it worked as it should with no problems. This issue, by the way, isn't confined to just Vevor, other brands used the same machines with the same results.