Ryan Hooten Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 So im new to the forum and knife making all together. I just recently decided to purchase a 2x72 belt grinder from Diktator because of another blade forums recommendation. as you can see in one of the videos the tooling arm is very sloppy so I've shimmed it up and down. I put my feeler gauge in the side and when I tighten the tool arm down it moves .09". so after shimming the tooling arm I can get it plum vertically and the platinum plate wheels plum with the drive wheel. the issue is my tension arm no matter what I do I can not get my belt to track correctly. can anyone watch these videos and see something im obviously not???? IMG_2610.MOV IMG_2611.MOV IMG_2614.MOV IMG_2613 2.MOV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary LT Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 1.) Each of the wheels must be lined up correctly and parallel to each other. In particular the drive wheel and the two platen wheels first of all, then the tracking wheel. When I built my own grinders, I had to make a slight adjustment to the motor mount which then aligned the horizontal axis properly. 2.) Is the tracking wheel directly even to the rest of the wheels? Doesn’t look that way in the vids. The tracking wheel looks shy of the rest of the wheels, (1/4”), when looking straight on. Too much left of the other wheels. (I found a yardstick with a right angle was helpful to use to align all these parts.) 3.) The shim seemed to work in the arm. Does the arm for the tracking wheel also need a shim? Again.....it’s not just vertical tilt/alignment but also horizontal tilt/alignment. It would help to see the unit running and you adjusting the tracking. Gary LT 1 "I Never Met A Knife I Didn't Like", (Will Rogers) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Hooten Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 That’s exactly what I thought when I was aligning everything. I took a stick rule and measured in a 1/4 on each wheel and the track wheel is off about that much. It came pre shimmed from Diltator but it’s shims push it in towards the drive wheel and I’m like you I feel like it needs to go the opposite way that it is. Thanks for the input I’m going to go give that a try and see if I can get it closer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Salvati Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 If you bought a grinder named toobinator from a guy named diktater you get what you deserve. 1 Let not the swords of good and free men be reforged into plowshares, but may they rest in a place of honor; ready, well oiled and God willing unused. For if the price of peace becomes licking the boots of tyrants, then "To Arms!" I say, and may the fortunes of war smile upon patriots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Longmire Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 Not to be quite as rude as Sam, but yeah, those are not great grinders from what I've seen. I tried to steer a guy away from one a couple of years ago, but he wouldn't listen. I don't think he ever got it to track properly. Call the maker and give him hell until it works. That's the best option. I can't get the videos to work for some reason, so I don't know what else to tell you. Maybe run a couple of thicknesses of 1" masking tape down the middle of the drive wheel? If the drive and tracking wheels are not crowned, they'll never track right. Tape acts like adding crown, and it may help. Also, belt tension is very important. It ought to twang when plucked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary LT Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 (edited) @ryan hooten let me know what you did to attempt to fix (or fixed now). I am willing to help you. Diktator makes 2-3 base model in different design. All are copied from somewhere else. The one you have was like my first one I built. It wasn’t very practical for our end use. And my home made one (using this design) also required shims and assorted support unplanned. Gary LT Edited January 24, 2021 by Gary LT "I Never Met A Knife I Didn't Like", (Will Rogers) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Benson Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 I'm not an engineer, but file 2614 seems to show that all the wheels except the tracking wheel are close to in line, so it appears that the tracking wheel is not. The simplest solution would be to move the tracking wheel to the left the average distance the belt hangs over the other three wheels. The easiest way to do this would be to grind the nut on the left of the tracking wheel thinner to move the wheel to the left. As I said, I'm not an engineer, so if this is a bad idea, I hope that someone who knows more will chime it... Another thought - once you establish where the shims should go, weld 'em in place so you don't have to fiddle with them every time you change a belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Hooten Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 Thanks to all you guys for the input I think I might of figured it out. There was a jam nut in between the tension pulley and the arm itself. It’s about a 1/4” thick so I removed it and I’m tracking a lot better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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