Ed - more surface grinder questions

[JohnM]

Ed, when your ordered your wheels from Bertie, were you able to specify the bore size for the contact wheel? Did you order the idler wheel with the hub, shaft and bearings, then manufacture the upper end of the assembly to fit the idler shaft? I cannot tell in the photo and am wondering how you adjusted the offset of the idler to match the plane of the contact wheel. Thanks.

[Ed Caffrey]

If I remember correctly, I think he offered one bore size, but would machine it out if you wanted something larger. The idler cam with bearings, hub, and a threaded shaft. I used two pieces of 1" X 1/4" angle iron...... one that's welded to the extension arm, and the other is bolted to that piece at about the mid point. One end was drill and tapped for a 1/2" bolt (the lower end) (which is my tracking adjustment), and the opposite end was drilled to fit the idler shaft.

All I did to align the planes of the wheels was to measure from the extension to the edge of the contact wheel, then equal that distance when I affixed the idler wheel.

[JohnM]

The H.F. grinder has a tapered shaft with a slide-on adapter for the grinding wheel. Do Bertie's contact wheels fit snugly around the adapter, e.g. - similarly to the grinding wheels? Or, are there some other steps for fitting the contact wheel to the shaft?

Thanks a bunch, Ed.

[Ed Caffrey]

I'm not sure what your talking about here... my machine is from H.F. and all I had to do was take the shield off, use a spanner wrench to get that nasty stone wheel off, and then put the contact wheel in it's place. Of course the shield doesn't go back on......... where it fits on the motor shaft housing is where your extension arm will clamp on. If you can take a pic or two of your shaft and send it my way I might be able to tell more.

[JohnM]

Ed, I will see if I can borrow a camera and get some pictures this evening. In the meantime, I will try and clarify a bit more.

I have a small spanner on the end of the shaft (like the one in your pictures) and a large spanner (again, like the one holding on the contact wheel in your photos) that compresses the stone wheel onto the adapter. On my H.F., the entire adapter slides off of the tapered motor shaft. It is a friction fit. I normally change wheels by sliding off the adapter with the wheel still held in place by the large spanner. It is much easier to slide the adapter off of the shaft and loosen the large spanner, then install the new wheel and tighten the large spanner while the whole assembly sits in your hand or on the bench.

My question then, is do Bertie's wheels come with a straight hole that fits the adapter, or a tapered hole that fits the shaft? The adapter itself is 1.250" in diameter where the wheels mount. So I guess the very short version is: do the wheels come with a 1.250" straight bore?

I hope this makes a little more sense.

[Ed Caffrey]

OK! Now I understand. I just took mine apart ........... the contact wheel will come with the 1.250 bore, and will fit the adapter. I don't know why I didn't understand before........must have been CRS setting in!

[JohnM]

Thanks a bunch, Ed. That clarifies everything for me so I can contact Bertie and know exactly what I need. I was beginning to think that H.F. gave me a different design!