Hi,

I've decided to go ahead and use castor wheels on my grinder.
They'll spin around 1700 rpm. I'm told that they might be noisy as
they won't be adquately balanced. So long as I get a smooth wheel (no
spokes), does balancing consist merely of evening the surface? If not,
how do you balance wheels?

Or more urgently, just tell me asap, is it feasible to balance a
castor wheel?

If so, I'll order it now, and then learn how in the days/week or two
before it arrives (multi-tasking! :-) ).

Alternatively, it seems that pulleys ARE balanced, so I can look for
a flat-belt pulley large enough? But the castors are convenient for
several reasons, if they aren't too hard to balance.



thanks!
-Bernard Arnest

Note that many caster wheels that are described as 2" wide are actually
1 5/8 to 1 3/4. They seem to be 2" wide at the hub and taper a little.
I ended up buying a contact wheel on ebay.

The other potential issue is whether the bearings will hold up at speed.

Are you interested in my not wide enough casters?

Steve

Bernard Arnest wrote:

Hi,

I've decided to go ahead and use castor wheels on my grinder.
They'll spin around 1700 rpm. I'm told that they might be noisy as
they won't be adquately balanced. So long as I get a smooth wheel (no
spokes), does balancing consist merely of evening the surface? If not,
how do you balance wheels?

Or more urgently, just tell me asap, is it feasible to balance a
castor wheel?

If so, I'll order it now, and then learn how in the days/week or two
before it arrives (multi-tasking! :-) ).

Alternatively, it seems that pulleys ARE balanced, so I can look for
a flat-belt pulley large enough? But the castors are convenient for
several reasons, if they aren't too hard to balance.



thanks!
-Bernard Arnest

What are you using for bearings? The only thing I've seen that will
hold up are some standard fully enclosed ball bearings.

Bernard Arnest wrote:
Hi,

I've decided to go ahead and use castor wheels on my grinder.
They'll spin around 1700 rpm. I'm told that they might be noisy as
they won't be adquately balanced. So long as I get a smooth wheel (no
spokes), does balancing consist merely of evening the surface? If not,
how do you balance wheels?

Or more urgently, just tell me asap, is it feasible to balance a
castor wheel?

If so, I'll order it now, and then learn how in the days/week or two
before it arrives (multi-tasking! :-) ).

Alternatively, it seems that pulleys ARE balanced, so I can look for
a flat-belt pulley large enough? But the castors are convenient for
several reasons, if they aren't too hard to balance.



thanks!
-Bernard Arnest

I was going to get needle roller bearings, and then I saw that the
larger casters already came with them.

it appears when buying bearings alone that the speed is no problem,
according to the specs. Now, whether the needle roller bearings that
come with the wheel (3/4" ID, I asked technical support) are of the
same standards, perhaps you could advise me there.

"Bernard Arnest" wrote: (clip) Or more urgently, just tell me asap, is it
feasible to balance a castor wheel? (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I once had to balance a fan that vibrated a lot--but the out-of-balance
weight was too small to overcome the bearing friction when the fan was
stopped. I held a vibrating engraver against the fan, and the thing slowly
rotated 'til the weight was on the bottom. A little work with a Dremel
tool, and the thing was fixed.