Electric motor uses?

[Mark Roe]

I am just starting out making knives and am trying to set up my shop in the garage. I friend recently gave me a Baldor Industrial 2.5hp 2400rpm motor and I am trying to find a good use for it. I sure would appreciate any suggestions from those of you that have built your own equipment as to good possible uses.

Thanks,

Mark

[WinDancer]

Blind Dog [Terry McMaster] set up his main workbench with a single motor attached to a long shaft. He runs his grinder and a ton of buffers and wheels all on that one shaft. He used belts and pillow blocks for the connections. The buffers and such are all mounted on a hinged board, with the weight of the buffers and stones holding the board down. Whichever thing he is using next is just lifted and the belt slipped onto a pully on the shaft, then set back down. The pulleys allow him to optimized the speed for each 'work station'.
If I was setting up a new shop that is what I would do. The only change I would make is the belts- I would use the link belts so you don't have to tear anything down if a belt breaks. The link belts also allow you to adjust tension almost effortlessly by adding or removing a link to the belt.
The other advantage is you don't need to keep buying another motor with every tool. Kinda like the old shops that had the power rod down the center of the ceiling, connected to machines via canvas belts.
Might give this a little thought.
Dave

[Mark Roe]

I hadn't thought of that. I envision 6 buffers set up. Thanks again.

Mark

[Helicopterjohn]

Hi,

I am a newbie here and have been going through all the tool related posts. I have found a lot of very useful information on this site. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

I think this idea is great but to even further enhance this idea would be to hook this jack shaft up to the output of say a KMG grinder that has VFD variable speeds.

That way you could get variable speeds to all you buffers etc. from only 1 VFD.

You could even implement some type of eccentric lever for quick belt engagement for each of the additional items included on the jack shaft. Brings back the ole days when machine shops were run from a common power source and guys used flat belts and wooden sticks to engage tools as needed on pulleys located on the jack shaft. I realize that the VFD has amperage limitations and that you would probably only be able to use one tool at a time, but that probably is the case in small knife shops.

Another thought is that I intend to purchase a VFD in the near future. I am thinking of installing a 3 phase female twist lock plug on the output of the VFD and put 3 phase male plugs on any 3 phase item I have in my shop, that is within the horsepower/amp range of the VFD. I realize that I would have to properly size the input and output wire sizes to the VFD. Probably make some type of box or stand to house the VFD.


John