Ski Grinder restoration (Complete!)

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 9:05 am

The belts my machine uses are 8" x 60". I haven't been able to find ready-made belts in this size, but I can get custom belts made from Norton (the manufacturer of the belts I have now). I haven't gotten prices for it yet, but I'm expecting it to be a lot, and I think its a minimum order of 10 belts.

The size of the drum not only dictates the overall size of your machine, but the speed at which the belt moves. The larger the drum, the faster the belt (assuming constant motor speed). So it also depends on what size/speed motor you're using.

Alex13 · Post by **Alex13** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 6:18 pm

twizzstyle wrote:I think the tricker part with the drum would be balancing it, if its not balanced right once running it would shake the whole machine apart High speeds and lots of mass!

It's possible if you have a friend who works in a tyre store, get them to fit it up and balance it, providing it's not tooooooo wide (most tyre stores should be able to do up to around 14" wide). However, it would be a good idea to design it as dynamically balanced as possible in the first place.

MontuckyMadman · Post by **MontuckyMadman** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:44 am

hey twizz, this company is in WYO and they do custom with a 2 day turnaround in silicon carbide and its cheap, like 15 bucks a belt. Awesome.
www.customsandingbelts.com

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:45 am

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy crap AWESOME!!! THANK YOU for that link! That is crazy cheap! No minimum order, any size I want. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

MontuckyMadman · Post by **MontuckyMadman** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 10:55 am

Yeah I was pumped when I found that. If you search for custom belts you will find more than one company that does this I was very surprised.

I called these people and they seemed to have it down. Seems the thicknesses are like really thick, like 1/4" thick belt? I dunno. I didn't ask about that.

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:16 pm

Yikes, 1/4" That can't be right, unless they were made of rubber or something.

On my grinder - I've got the 2nd drum (along with the tension adjuster and skew adjuster) all freshly painted and rebuilt, it looks great. I also cleaned out the water pump, which looks brand new now.

I've removed all the wiring, and have pieced together all of the new stuff (new, heavier duty wire for the plug, new waterproof plug, new relay, new start/stop buttons, etc). I've also got a local vinyl guy making me some TOKO stencils for when I paint the machine, and I'm having him make me some piggy decals (like my picture on here) to put on the machine (I put the piggy on my skis)

I've got most of the access panels/doors stripped down to bare steel, I've just got the bulk of the machine itself to strip, which is going to be a mess...

jvangelder · Post by **jvangelder** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 4:25 pm

could the drum be made hollow and have plates welded onto the end's with some means of attaching a bushing/bearing?

I havent looked at all into building a base grinder, however i know its going to pop up on the list soon enough

If its as simple as that, they could be made under 1k easily, if more than one were made proabaly a few hundered each

Edit: I just quickly browsed the misc cutoff's that are available on a few of my vendors websites. If you could use aluminium, its 100.68 for a 17.75 wide 8.5 od with 1/2 wall 6061 tube (longest they had) and enough 1/2 thick plate to weld in caps, then just buy some comercialy available bearings to bolt on and done?

While alu isnt ideal, just throwing out the idea

-Jacob

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 2:48 pm

The drive drum on mine is aluminum... but its a giant cast piece of aluminum

The motor is all cleaned up and re-painted, and I've started painting the access panels/doors.

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 8:49 pm

MontuckyMadman · Post by **MontuckyMadman** » Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:46 pm

eagerly waiting an update...

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 8:18 am

Sorry, been a busy few days, I'll get some pictures up tonight.

All of the mechanical bits are done. The new wiring is mocked up on my work bench and working well. I still haven't started stripping the paint on the body, I think I'll do that tonight, its going to be the biggest mess... A few of the access panels are painted with POR-15 now, and I'll probably paint a few more tonight.

I also did a bit of welding on the body. The previous owner never adjusted the skew (cause it was stuck) so the belt went to the side, and cut pretty deep into the metal there. So I welded all of the gouges and ground them down nice and flat, so it looks new again.

I need to make a new control panel to mount the new start/stop switches. McMaster-Carr has some really nice panels, pre-cut with switch holes, but they're like $90... so I'm just going to make my own from sheet metal, might start on that tonight too.

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:09 pm

Ok Update. All of the access panels/doors have their base POR-15 sprayed now. Later in the week they'll get a quick shot of primer, and then the top coat. I started stripping the paint off the main frame, got about half of it before I ran out of paint stripper. I'll finish stripping it tomorrow.

I did a test spray of the top coat on the catch basin grill just to see what the color looks like, its awesome. Nice glossy bright red (technically I should be doing yellow since its a Toko machine, but meh).

I also welded up the new control panel/box. I'm using new buttons/wiring/relays, and I didn't want to mess with trying to wire all of this stuff up internally. So I came up with something quick in Solidworks and got to cutting/welding. My plan right now is to have it hinged on the top so you can be swung open to access the wiring. In the pictures below it's just held onto the machine with magnets.

MontuckyMadman · Post by **MontuckyMadman** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:25 am

supercool. I am in cali and not skibuilding for like 2 weeks. Looking forward to all the progress.

The control box: you welded the inside and ground back for a nice bevel? I never thought of that if that's what you did.

Or did you weld the outside seem as well?

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:31 am

Yeah I just welded in the inside. I'm still getting used to my new MIG welder (I learned to weld on a flux core welder). Originally I was going to do external welds and not grind them, but after some practice pieces I decided unless I could get it perfect, it would always bug me. In retrospect, I probably could have done it just fine.

After welding I did a little grinding on the outside just to get nice corners, but then got ahead of myself and ended up grinding a chamfer on all the edges... which I didn't like so I rounded them all over into a filet.

MontuckyMadman · Post by **MontuckyMadman** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 6:49 pm

looks great. that mig will be allot better and easier in the long run.
I still have a flux core but learned on a mig. Moving backwards in life for the past 13 years.

I might have to change that soon, maybe.

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Ski Grinder restoration (Complete!)