Belt grinder

[Spyros]

You might be able to but in a more organised way these days.  In VIC for example there is Outlook who employ people with disabilities and they operate recycled goods stores in 4 landfills.  Basically they screen what private cars bring in (not trucks) and if   they find something salvageable like a bicycle or timber/metal etc they have a shop at the entrance and sell it there.  I don't know if they are technically not for profit but they do receive funding and their main purpose is to employ people, so prices are basically next to nothing.  Probably worth supporting them.

https://www.outlookvic.org.au/outlook-recycled-goods-stores

[RockyAussie]

10 hours ago, Bert51 said:

I am think about the dust collection also Brian, I think some thing similar to yours would work well. Brian, do you have a cyclone or just a bag?

Sadly I have been told no more toys, until I start using what I have.

Bert.

I use a bit of a combination really. I use a dust bag system as well as a fairly powerful wall fan just behind the grinder to help collect the fine particles that the main suction doesn't manage to catch. The main one is a 2hp 1200cfm I think located just outside the sander. If I try going any stronger on this one I cant control a belt from being sucked into the tube. I have tried to use screens but then you can't keep the belts from getting stuck onto the screen all the time. With the wall fan I found it is improved a far bit by building a shroud that comes forward over over the machine. This serves to increase the air speed right where you need it. You can see in this first picture where I have a cardboard box shroud coming from the back. Now I have established how far forward the shroud needs to be I aim to improve it beyond the cardboard one.

This pic shows the perspex box I fashioned and hinged with a piano hinge and under the belt you can see a plumbing fitting I used which feeds into a 4"flexable tube.

That then goes outside into this garden shed which is inside a semi enclosed space

There is also some vents put into the side of this to increase air flow when the doors are closed which I do to keep the noise down.

Even with all of this done I would still like to improve it more if possible.

@Spyros I would love to be able to get a hold of one of those dust particle count meters if you would like to share from where I could obtain one. I am also interested to know a little more on your wall extractor and from where to get one. Thank you for going to the effort to share your findings with us all.

@dikman, Thank you very much for taking those pictures. I have seen one of those video's now and I am gobsmaked really. I have to put a link in here cause I reckon it just has to be seen (sparks dust and all)  I almost want to start making knives now- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwfbp_Lp-xY

 

[Spyros]

2 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

 

@Spyros I would love to be able to get a hold of one of those dust particle count meters if you would like to share from where I could obtain one. I am also interested to know a little more on your wall extractor and from where to get one. Thank you for going to the effort to share your findings with us all.

You need to mount the dust meter as close to your head level as possible.  The fan you can put across the room from a window, but you probably need bigger or more than one.  

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Household-PM2-5-Detector-Module-Air-Quality-Dust-Sensor-LCD-Display-Monitor-/302755086491?hash=item467d9c009b

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271463941313

i don't know that particular seller from China, but the hydroponics dude was pretty good

Edited June 4, 2020 by Spyros

[Bert51]

Wow @dikman I just watched the video of your new toy and I like it, I have played with a belt sander before , but never seen any thing like that. I will make a real nice knife.

Where I used to work we had the little vacuum dust meters that I had to where for a full shift, but they where sent off to a lab to be analyzed, that Spyros put the link up for looks like it would give you all you need.

We have a scrap metal dealer in town and he was only to happy to sell me tubing and anything else I could find, I found it cheap and he was getting better then scrap prices.

Bert.

[RockyAussie]

10 hours ago, Spyros said:

You need to mount the dust meter as close to your head level as possible.  The fan you can put across the room from a window, but you probably need bigger or more than one.  

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Household-PM2-5-Detector-Module-Air-Quality-Dust-Sensor-LCD-Display-Monitor-/302755086491?hash=item467d9c009b

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271463941313

i don't know that particular seller from China, but the hydroponics dude was pretty good

Thank you for that info @Spyros I will have to get myself one of those metres. Sanding many thousands of belts over the years has not done my lungs much good along with a filthy smoking habit on top.

[dikman]

I just love looking at things that folks have cobbled together! Fortunately I'll only be generating a fraction of the dust that Brian does so controlling it shouldn't be too much of an issue. You may have noticed that my grinder is mounted right next to the doorway, I did that deliberately when I installed my first grinder, and if I'm likely to be doing a bit of work on it I use a floor fan blowing out the doorway.

[RockyAussie]

11 minutes ago, dikman said:

I just love looking at things that folks have cobbled together! Fortunately I'll only be generating a fraction of the dust that Brian does so controlling it shouldn't be too much of an issue. You may have noticed that my grinder is mounted right next to the doorway, I did that deliberately when I installed my first grinder, and if I'm likely to be doing a bit of work on it I use a floor fan blowing out the doorway.

I have to say that as much as I LOVE the versatility of this machine it does look as though it would be a considerable challenge to adapt some form of suction that would work with it in an attached sort of way. I have now seen the other video and all of the attachments and am even MORE impressed. I am starting to think about making a less versatile version for leather work with an extractor set up in mind. 

[Spyros]

2 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

Thank you for that info @Spyros I will have to get myself one of those metres. Sanding many thousands of belts over the years has not done my lungs much good along with a filthy smoking habit on top.

Happy to help if I can.  I'm the same although I vape instead of smoking these days.

But yeah one of the reasons I got into leather, other than that I love it of course, is to get out of the shed a little and still satisfy my making/crafting needs without breathing sawdust all the time.  

Your set up there with the shroud and the DC machine outside looks perfectly adequate, I bet you don't have a problem there.  But stick the meter close to the sander at head/nose level and note down some readings before and after sanding, with the DC on and off, different positions of your fan etc until you find the best setup.  Like i said don't expect too much accuracy with those cheap units (a professional dust meter runs in the thousands) however if you look at the reading directionally and proportionately it still gives you a really good idea of dust levels.  With sanding it doubles/triples straight away.

Shipping from China is pretty terrible these days because of COVID, if you want I can send you mine for a while, let me know.  You don't need it all the time, only to take readings when you change something to make sure dust levels haven't change much.    

Edited June 5, 2020 by Spyros

[Bert51]

Having the ability to change layout of the pulley's makes me think you will need to think carefully about what you want before building an extraction system for it, maybe an adjustable suction funnel like under the rest might be the go.

Bert.

[dikman]

Bert, that's what I'm working on. A quick mockup showed that it should work and I was going well today until I got a call that my wife had fainted at the bank, so had to rush over there. She was ok, she had given blood earlier that day and the bank was hot and stuffy and that combined with a long wait got the better of her but the medics still insisted on carting her off to hospital. Couldn't do any more on the dust collector 'cos I had to walk back to get the car and then hang around by the phone.