2x72 Belt Grinder Drive Wheel

thingiverse

Update 12/21/2021: A couple days ago I thought that I messed up my original wheel (no fault of the wheel) by getting a small part I was sanding jammed between the grind platform and the belt causing it to immediately stop moving. Well the 2HP motor had no complaints and kept spinning and liquified the vinyl electrical tape I was using for a crown enhancer in the 3 or 4 seconds before I could hit stop. When the "tape" cooled it was a hot mess literally and seemed to fuse to the wheel in clumps. So I set about finishing the design I started with a larger crown in it to avoid the need for the tape. While it was printing overnight I took to the original wheel with my bench grinder wire wheel and it surprisingly cleaned up nice. I rewrapped it and put it back in service where it is in use still. I now have the new "more crowny" version printed and if something happens again I'll put that in service. I built myself one of the great 2x72 belt grinders from the online plans http://dcknives.blogspot.com/p/2-x-72-belt-grinder.html and when it came to a drive wheel on the motor I was presented with limited options since I bought a cheap 56J motor instead of a 56C. So my drive shaft was 5/8" and threaded with 5/16-24 vs the more standard 5/8" keyed shaft. This limited my options without paying heavy costs so I decided to make a 3" drive wheel that threaded on the motor and just see how it would work. After a couple iterations I've settled on this one here and been using it for over a month now. It's never hiccupped or acted like it was unhappy being spun up to 4200+ at the shaft. I printed mine from Carbon Fiber infused polycarbonate because it was the strongest material I had on hand and it prints so beautifully. This design is such that the 5/16-24 nut firmly press fits in the shaft and there is an internal M4 nut and screw used as a setscrew to make sure it doesn't walk or move. I printed this with no infill and upped the walls till it was solid. It was designed with a crown on it but that ended up not being enough to work as well as I wanted so I reverted to the old electrical take crown many others have used on skateboard wheels. It works like a champ in that sense but make sure you center the tape or the belt with track funny or off all together. When you print this make sure you take shrinkage into account or it won't fit, the opening in the design file is EXACTLY 5/8" so any shrinkage is going to prevent the nut from fitting inside and it won't slide down the shaft of the motor. For me I scaled up to 101.5% in Cura I think it was. If your not sure just print the first 10 or so layers and kill the print then test fit after it cools. It should be snug but not need a rubber mallet to drive it on. I started making the idler wheels too for the grinder but haven't circled back on them yet so when they're done I'll post them up as well.