Ron Spokovich
Elite Cafe Member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2012
- Messages
- 436
I touched on the subject before, I think, but it won't hurt to remind the fraternity of safety issues on abrasive belt grinders. Just a few minutes ago, I looked as some photos of commercially available machines. A lack of certain guards, or the non possibility of putting additional one's in place, would deter me from buying that one. One time I snapped a 2" x 132" belt on a 5hp machine without any guards, @ 3,450 rpm. The belt just fell down, but another I know of wasn't so lucky. The belt whipped around, in such a fashion as to encircle the user's arm, almost breaking it. As he was using a contact wheel, there could've been a simple guard in place that would've prevented the encircling. In the case of most, not all, grinders, the guards seem adequate, and with the 4" x 36" and the 6" x 48" machines, they generally are not going that fast to cause real damage. However, they can hit hard enough. Don't become paranoid everytime you turn your machine on, but take a look at the sites of the manufacturers and see where guards can be installed. If you have to do so yourself, so be it. You just need a guard to arrest the wraparound tendency of the belt, should it break. I plan to get, probably, a used grinder of some kind, and this will be my first order of the day. Been there, and done that, and it doesn't hurt to be cautious.
