Belt grinder frame tubes - DIY or buy? 

I should have mentioned seamless / DOM tubing. It’s hard to find, not available in all regions, and expensive, but if you’re able to get it and afford it then it could be a good option! I haven’t ever used it so I’m not sure how the precision compares to regular tubing.

Hey Jer, hope things are going well. No pressure, just wanted to let you know I'm sure I'm not the only one missing your content and wishing you well.

A piece of advice I learned from Tom Lipton's book is to not start your welds at the tack. It liquifies the tack, essentially letting go of that small section. When you weld into the tack, your initial weld has frozen by the time you reach your tack.

Honestly I’ve always thought that square tube would be the easier method but after watching this I’m fully convinced that welding the tube is the way to go, great explanation!

Woohoo! Jer is back.

I'm not a maker but I watch all your videos. Not sure why, but I do enjoy them.

Thanks, Jer, for sharing this. While DOM tubing would be pretty accurate internally, it's not as readily available and more expensive... and this project doesn't call for much tube length. So, from a practicality standpoint, the home welded tube wins in my book. 😃

More videos please. The world needs them!

I built my grinder from your plans but I used the square tube knowing about the seam. I do have a milling machine to cut a groove in the solid bar and that is what I did. During the build I realized it would be so much easier to build this machine if I already had one completed. Thanks for the video keep on keeping on.

Your grinder is on my list of things I want for the shop. When I have the time and fuds to put towards it. Great job on the design.

Jer, I built your design a couple of years ago. Your method of building the tubes from flat bar is the right method. The weld stitches are not a problem. I’m one of those who attempted to fill in the gaps with more welding but I stopped midstream because the tube began to tighten onto the square bar, probably from warping. As completed, it all worked well. If I continue to dress it up later, bondo is a reasonable option.

I 100% agree home-made is always better, excellent information, thanks for sharing..

Thanks for sharing, nice to see you working again. Charles

Always love to see a fresh video pop up from you Jer!

Still have and LOVE my grinder from your plans. It’s sooo good

Keep making videos its always a pleasure watching them...

Can confirm the irregularities in SHS, I spent hrs cutting and rewelding my receivers to make them work. Your design is superior without a doubt, and I’m a qualified steel fabricator/ welder for over 35 yrs! Good job shutting down the naysayers mate.

I was just thinking about your channel and the grinder! Thanks for the update.

Love the videos you post. I always look forward the notification that another is out. You do terrific, practical work. Your version of the belt sander remains, IMO, the best, most versatile version on the internet.

I think you can get seamless tube just like DOM round tube. Or just use DOM instead of square tube. It would be more expensive of course. One thing you forgot to mention is always use cold rolled flat bar if you go with the welding. Hot roll has a lot of mill scale and is never straight and smooth like cold rolled. Other than that, I know where to go when I decide to build my own. Thanks for the upload Jerry, I am a fan

Alway a humbling pleasure to watch you work my friend!

I may never actually build one (but may eventually lol), but I just purchased the Gen 2 grinder and attachment bundle to support you and your channel (as well as your modular box plans in the past). Thank you again for sharing your awesome inventions, talents, creativity and vids. You are one of my top RU-vidrs.

Hope to see you on more now I love your precision work it's relaxing and satisfying

Function over fashion. The precision is worth it.

Glad to see you after so long.

I think you are right on Jer. Personally I think the skip also shows the work done to make it along with the better fit up. But as you said, it just personal preference. 🙂 Great video and thanks for sharing.

I built a 2x72 from Jers plans and one from House Made kit. Here is my comparison, it relates to this video. HM uses tubing with the seams removed. (already removed in the kit, nice). All of the HM tubing is Pre-made .025 wall. Brian House makes it easy , Jer makes it industrial. Adjusting the tool/platen arms is the difference. JS tubing, once made, is MUCH smoother to adjust. For me, it is worth the extra time to make Jers. Jers is an industrial machine, IMO. I am a blacksmith btw, so I grind lots of metal. JS machine is in the shop, BH is in the garage. I gets much use from both. I should also mention that the JS recommended motor is 3x more $, at least. I am sure that influences performance. The balance of the HM machine, when tilting, is helpful, you really have to muscle the JS. I love the JS design of supporting the tool rest directly under the platen (no flexing), a rock solid grinding rest. If I did it once more I would do the JS plan. I just bought the small wheel kit from BH so I still think well of it. Jeremy, what the hell does that thing weigh once completed?

Nice overview of the pro's and con's.. Thanks Jer ! ATB...

Genius and creativity👍

When I made my grinder from your plans, I ended up having to use tubing instead of solid bar. No one around me had it. The only downside to the tubing is some vibrations when doing some serious grinding. Otherwise the plans you got are awesome! Recommend them to anyone

We made the frame tube from two pieces of square root angle iron.

I like the make your own tube option. If you continue to step weld around the pieces you can make the welds complete and look nice if you are careful at the weld tie ins.

You’re the best! Miss you

I really like what you made Belt grinder🎉🎉🎉

Really interesting process indeed, Jer! Awesome work! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊 And happy holidays!

I'll try "Stuff that's home made " for two hundred Alex😄 Cheers

Having built your grinder with the limited welding skills I have, the manufactured tube is by far the easier option. For what it's worth, I build a temporary belt grinder body out of plywood with the wheels I purchased for the final product so I could grind all the curve parts instead of trying to angle grind/file them into shape.

I've built your grinder earlier this year and the welding of those tubes isn't as much work as one might think. Just go with Jer's plans, it works well. Wouldn't want to miss the grinder from the shop.

Very good point.

Yes a Jer vid .... Nice one Jer... peace

I have a small, yet strange project. I am very curious how you’d go about fabricating it. It’s another case of “nobody makes it, so I’ll have to make it”. Brilliant work, young man!

I modified your design to build it with the materials I had, and made it using square tubing...I left the seam and haven't had any issues...it all depends on what level of precision you're aiming for and comfortable with

I sure do miss your vids.... 😀

I bought your original plans however here in Australia the belts are almost impossible to get so I haven't done anything with it yet. Love the improvements and starting to really get a good workshop set up. Looking at buying the updated metric version soon with all attachments. keep up the awesome work. Your design is by far the best I've seen anywhere on the market and that's in the DIY designs available. There's nothing that comes close even if you were to spend 10G here in Australia

1000%, build the socket tube! And to add another pitfall, a random spatter blob or wall thickness/ I.D. variance in the middle of the tube and your screwed. Not to mention you can't rotate the mod'd solid arm with out needing to mill all 4 sides of it. Huge PITA! And realistically, you could probably do half the welds and it would still be plenty.

I much prefer your method its simple and as long as a person can weld a little bit its easy. Im just a DIY welder and your method is still very easy to achieve.

another issue is having to modify the bar of any other adapters or fixtures you decided to attach later. The home made tube is "one and done".

I used receiver/hitch stock and that made it MUCH EASIER

I'm in the middle of building your fantastic grinder. 1) I notice the gussets between the legs and main tube. Do they help with machine performance? 2) Your grinder table is very shiny. How did you get it so shiny and how do you keep it shiny?

@Jer_Schmidt ... hope all is well ... we miss you

I suppose if you wanted to go crazy with this you could turn the end of the square bar into a broach. I'm going to simply weld mine though.

Gr8 build

Another problem with welded tubing is that the inside flats are never exactly 90 degrees to each other, and the inner curved corners all have slightly different radii.

Bought my plans from you 2 years ago and just put the last coat on the cabinet today. Still have the VSD stand to build. BTW, where's your trolley/cabinet gone?

Jer, how ya been ?

to my mind if you are making something tah needs to be precise then you are doing it by far the best way, it also looks like it was made properly, flat bar wins for me.

I have a question : You stated that the solid bar is the weakest part of the grinder, and that the tube is stronger (homemade or otherwise), so why not replace the solid bar with an equal outside perimeter hollow tube? I do understand that the solid bar will have a dampening effect on vibration, is this why you use it?

Hi Jer, I could not quite follow your reasons for using solid bar instead of hollow for the inner bar? Would hollow tube not be much more rigid, and would that not be desirable? One day I will build this, and I am looking forward to it!

If you used flat 2 flat bars the same width as the square bar, and 2 flat bars as wide as the thickness of 2 flat bars plus the width of the square bar, you could butt weld the seam full length, then grind the welds flush. After beveling the appropriate edges to be welded, of course. 😊

You can also just chisel the weld out of the tube, pretty straight forward stuff

have you decided on a surface grinding attachment for this belt grinder ?

Hi Jer. I looked at your plans on Etsy. Do you have a DXF version so I could plasma cut many of the parts. let me know if that's available or not. Thanks

Jer, I bought your grinder plans a couple of years ago, and I've been wondering: how difficult would it be to modify it to the 4" width? Have you considered designing one for heavier use?

the bar need not be tight at all, you can use a bigger size square tube without modifying and tighten the bar with bolts fastened to few locations on the tubing. This part of the build does not need to be precise at all

This is an excellent and useful presentation, but I think the essence of the Schmidt grinder design is the way it can be used vertically or horizontally without changing the table position, and the flexible design of the wheel and table attachments. In other words, the rigidity afforded by the welded steel tubes and the fit of the sliding elements is a very good thing but _not_ the major contribution of this globally-celebrated design.

I disagree in both cases. much easier and more efficient would be two pieces of sheet metal split to form the two squares we want by sandwiching three pieces of solid metal. it would be better because there would be no metal welding but all the pieces would be bolted together. I also build machines and I can say with confidence that my way is easier and better because after many years someone can disassemble the machine to clean it very well. I say this friendly and with a lot of love. Hi from beautiful Greece.

It’s so logical. I don’t even know why somebody asked you that question.

👍👍👍

Good 👍 👍 👍

👍🌟‍‍👍‍‍

If you just have a welder, making the tube is the clear winner.

It called Box Section in Australia, tube are round,stop calling it tube,

Why use a solid bar? A square tube would be cheaper and neither are going to have great tolerances on the flatness of the mating surfaces out of the box.

Jeremy - You wasted an opportunity to learn something extra new. What about going back and welding the gaps between the stitch welds, and then finishing the welds and grinding them smooth? Then it will look nice, and also be more precise. I know the fear is warpage from welding, but, it would be nice to have it confirmed, since you made an extra one anyways.

"You have your way, I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way and the only way, it does not exist". F W Nietzsche [Response via Quora By proffessor F Dolan Strictly speaking, Nietzsche didn’t say this. He put these words into the mouth of Zarathustra, a fictional character. In the world of Nietzsche interpretation, assuming that Zarathustra invariably speaks for Nietzsche is a rookie mistake. Briefly, what Zarathustra means is that there is no single goal or good that applies to all persons, just in virtue of their being persons. The only general statement that can be made about what’s good is that it is whatever enhances your will to power, i.e. your ability and agency. Good is what’s good for you, and there’s no reason to believe that will be good for anyone else, or that what’s good for anyone else will be good for you. Your task in life (it’s not really a task) isn’t to determine what you ought to live for but rather to discover what in fact makes you want to live, what makes you feel most alive.] ... Thank you Jeremy. Your posts inspire will, to a higher integrity.

Why not just ditch all this fu*kin around and just use DOM square tubing?

You're so humble. you could have just said "I'm right" but you went above and beyond to explain alternative methods. Top notch.

Make more videos! Keep em coming 🎉

So I purchased the plans,, Wow the level of detail and information is 2nd to None. Its like a Brilliant guide to build a great Grinder. Im very proud to say I built it and yes its home made and Its Jer's Design. It took some time but well worth it. Fantastic Kit.

Also using the tube might prevent you from having an attachment that can be rotated 90 degrees, if the inner tube opening's cross-section isn't square enough.

I wish you would make more videos. You were a favorite go to person for great videos. Have a blessed holiday season

I think that was a clear enough reason for a home made box section jer and a pretty cool time saver too

I like the make your own tube option

It is one of my favorite channels that pass on knowledge with quality, congratulations for your excellent work and motivation that you provide to us, mere spectators. Thank you for your inspirational content. Stay strong and blessed. Always looking forward to the next video.

Thank you very much for this video!

Good to see you posting again Jer! Another option, is if you happen to have a metal supplier, or trailer supply vendor in your area that carries square tubing meant for building truck receiver hitches. Basically square tube, that already has that annoying seam weld removed from the interior. You'd still have to dog ear the corners of the solid bar. I built my grinder per your plans using the welded flat bar, and it was no trouble really. Great job on the plans BTW, I love my grinder!

definatly make your own tube, is the way too go, thanks for sharing

that looks nice i have no idea why i watch all these videos i dont even have a single tool that can cut metal harder than aluminium besides an angle grinder but yeah metal

Glad you're back! Hope all is well

Great follow up to the grinder project. :o)

Just found your channel and Subscribed. Nice job

PS it is stress-free most other build shows is like watching an episode of red and green😅

My eyes lit up when I saw a new video. So thankful!

Cool! You are back!!! Nice Video.

Use waxed paper as a shim

There is a much easier way to weld this diy square tube! Here a instruction on how i did it and it was so simple while holding tight toleranzes( i made it with the metric plans): Take the 40mm squarebar as normal and clamp one of two 50mm with flatbar onto the side of the squarebare with two clamps (tight them to max). Then clamp down on of the 40mm flatbar and weld it into an L shape( also clamp it tight). Then lose the clamps and look to the angle and make it 90⁰ to another(probably warped). After that clamp the L shape piece onto the square bar again and put the other 40mm flatbar to the other side of the 50mm flatbar(It should look like a U shape) [PUT SHIMS BETWEEN THE L SHAPE PIECE AND SECOND 40MM FLATBAR TO CREATE A SMALL GAP FOR CLEARENCE, i used 2-3 soda can shims and one paper folded once] After you have weld the u shape you can take it off of the squarebar and make it square again. Then you clamp it down one the squarebar again and put the second 50mm flatbar onto the U-Shape piece and put shims under it( again 2-3 soda can shims and a folded pice of paper two layers thick) you only have to clamp it slightly at the last part or it will be get stuck a one point. All other weld can be clamped very hard. The upside is you can weld it solid and warping will not effect it activly. And you will not spend more time then in the "Normal" way. I probably will make a video and show it. I am sorry for my writing, it not my best😂 for any quastions please comment under this comment.

You should put about 3 welds on each corner, not 9. This is not a part that experiences much force. If the appearance bugs you, you can apply Bondo or epoxy putty. Overwelding is a the bane of amateur metalworkers. We use steel with a tensile strength of 70K psi, and we put huge welds on things that might experience 50 pounds of force on a really bad day. It causes distortion and wastes time, wire, and electricity. You can hang about a ton and a half from a 5/16" bolt before it starts to deform, so imagine how much tension a weld an inch and a half can take.

would love more videos on the cabinet system!!

What a perfectly timed video! I just bought your plans and am going through this exact quandary.

I was just telling my cousin this grinder is THE grinder last night