10" contact wheel suggestion

[gdpolk]

I have a KMG grinder that I bought off of my mentor to get me started into knifemaking. My 10" smooth faced contact wheel has the rubber delaminated and either needs refurbished or replaced. I've contacted Beaumont about the possibility of having it refurbished and got a quote. I play with making knives as a hobby but do some pretty decent work. I value having quality tools to work with that will allow me to maximize my potential for quality. That said, I am not doing this for supplemental income and have no plans to in the future. I just want a hobby that is self sustaining that I get to work with my hands doing. My shop runs on a shoestring budget; I turn out very low volume, relatively speaking, and I have no plans to take away time from my family or my career job as an occupational therapist to pick up production to the point that I could actually make some supplemental income from this hobby.

My two options that I'm considering at this point are:

1. Send the wheel back to Beaumont for a resurfacing. The cost will be $172.50 round trip including shipping both ways.
2. Pick up this dynamically balanced Ameribrade wheel off fleabay for $120 shipped.
   1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-smooth-...893098?hash=item2cce21f5aa:g:MaEAAOSwRbtaMqU3

I know the Beaumont Metal Works wheels are fantastic quality and should hold up well over time. I have no experience with these Ameribrade wheels. Are the Ameribrade wheels good to use with tight tolerances for runout and are they well balanced? If they are pretty solid products, I'd love to just skip the refurbishing and shipping time and save the $53. If any of you guys have bought some of these and found their quality to be a little less than desired, then I have no problems paying a little extra to get Beaumont to refurb my existing wheel.

What do you guys think that have owned the Ameribrade wheels and/or both?

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Get this one https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1685458569.html?spm=a2g0n.store-products.0.0.79c52c121iGzc6#autostay

Probably the exact one ameribrade uses

 

[bjansen]

I agree. Get the one from aliexpress. I have several- they are all very good. Excellent value.

 

[gdpolk]

Get this one https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1685458569.html?spm=a2g0n.store-products.0.0.79c52c121iGzc6#autostay

Probably the exact one ameribrade uses

The pricing is certainly cheap on these! I do have a few questions about them from those who use them though:

1. Do the 6202 bearings fit the standard 1/2" thru bolt/axle that KMG uses on their tooling arms? The machine that I bought came with some extra steel tooling arms and a tooling arm tree. I'd like to not have to reconfigure one of them for an oddball axle sizes.
   
2. Are these wheels balanced? I'm not really set up, or know how to do any sort of dynamic balancing. I really don't want to add wobble or vibration to my machine and it's worth it to me to pay more up front for contact wheels that I can just bolt on and have run smooth and properly right out of the box. That said, if these run well there is also no sense in paying more than I have to to get the job done and done correctly. This hobby is expensive enough without throwing money into tooling that isn't going to help me make better knives.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

A fee guys use these. Mostly they buy tge 6202-1/2 bearings separately. There is another post about press fitting an 8in contact wheel that talks about what other guys use .

 

[Tin.Man]

Contact contact rubber Corp about resurfacing. 70 duro. Or contact sunray poly about resurfacing they use poly but same specify 70 duro. I think either will be cheaper than Beaumont’s quote.

 

[LARRYZ10]

I agree with Tin.man suggestion about using contact rubber corp. I would prefer rubber to poly myself. . Have new rubber put on your wheel. Larry

 

[SBuzek]

I agree with Tin.man suggestion about using contact rubber corp. I would prefer rubber to poly myself. . Have new rubber put on your wheel. Larry

This.

 

[kuraki]

Contact Rubber would be about $120 + S/H based on my previous quotes from them.

 

[Ken H>]

I got a 12" wheel from aliexpress and seems to be a good wheel, but did need balancing a tad. No big deal on balancing, just mount to axle and grinder, slowly rotate wheel and watch where it stops. Put a mark at bottom, give another slow spin and see where it stops. If stops with mark at bottom again, it has a heavy spot there. You'll see it rotate past mark, then reverse and rotate with heavy spot (mark) at bottom. Drill a bit of a hole there to remove metal. Spin again - continue until wheel stops at different place each time.

 

[gdpolk]

Thanks for all your input guys.

 

[gdpolk]

A fee guys use these. Mostly they buy tge 6202-1/2 bearings separately. There is another post about press fitting an 8in contact wheel that talks about what other guys use .

Got a recommendation for some quality, sealed bearings that will fit the 6202 wheel and a 1/2" diameter bolt?

I am going to pick up a solid 3" and 10" wheel from Ali Express for now to try out. That will get me through this batch. If I like them I may add some other sizes and serrated options over time as needed. I have an arbor press to help seat bearings and can drill holes to balance as needed. So long as these don't have noticeable runout that affects my grind quality it seems like they will be a very viable and inexpensive option to get the job done. I think they are at the very least worth a shot.

 

[Natlek]

I got a 12" wheel from aliexpress and seems to be a good wheel, but did need balancing a tad. No big deal on balancing, just mount to axle and grinder, slowly rotate wheel and watch where it stops. Put a mark at bottom, give another slow spin and see where it stops. If stops with mark at bottom again, it has a heavy spot there. You'll see it rotate past mark, then reverse and rotate with heavy spot (mark) at bottom. Drill a bit of a hole there to remove metal. Spin again - continue until wheel stops at different place each time.

You have two sealed ball bearing on that wheel , they make quite resistant for free spinning .It is much precisely to do that on tool like this for bike wheel .Not complicate at all to make one .

Or something like this way.....

 

[Ken H>]

Yes, there is a slight resistance to turning with the bearings, but it's not much. The setup shown in first video is similar to what we use for balancing tires on Goldwing motorcycles. This works really good.