Hi, Trying to figure out what belt speed in ft/min a guy should be looking for. Watched lots of YouTube video's and checked a bunch of forums trying to get a ball park idea. Looks like we will give a shot at building a grinder and only have 110 available to use, so will have to go with a stepped pulley arrangement and a 1.5 hp motor. This guy can grind a hardened blade faster than our disc sander can sand wood. 7500 ft/min! Sorry I couldn't figure out how to edit the link Ted
Hi Ted, Probably going to get some different answers from different makers. It would be cool to know how others run. I have a VFD and run mine between 800 ft./min. to 4500 ft./min. depending on the belt and tool. Profiling, I'll go fast with a ceramic belt. Finishing, I set the speed slower. Believe it or not, a Scotch-brite belt can burn a blade and kill the heat treatment if you are not careful. One case of setting the speed to suit the tool may be when using the small wheels. They need to go slower to prevent the bearings from premature failure. I'd be a little hesitant to get going super-fast on hardened steel as it only takes one a little moment of friction to ruin the temper. If your drive wheel is 4" in diameter, this is very close to 1 ft. of belt per revolution (4" * pi = 12.44" circumference) If your drive wheel runs between 1000 and 4000 RPM, (approximately 1000 to 4000 ft.//min.) that should be fine for most belts and applications. I had a pulley to belt speed chart somewhere. I'll see if I can dig it up. Dan
