Anyone try a very soft small wheel?

M

Maelstrom78

Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
1,574
I'm just daydreaming here about doing less hand sanding on my handles. Parallel grinding on the chef knives has really cut down on hand sanding the blades ( Huzzah!! ) and now I'm thinking about the handles.

I do quite a bit of the shaping with a 3/4 small wheel with the grinder horizontal and a 90 degree table.

My thought is a soft durometer small wheel with similar diameter using 1 or 2 inch scalloped belts.

Brilliant or Buffoon?
 
There is no reason why that wouldn't work. Give it a try and let us know how it comes out.

You might make one on the cheap by getting a 3/4"or 1" rubber cylinder , drilling the center to 1/4" and slipping it on your 1/4" small wheel.
 
Be careful of the tension on the belt. If the rubber is too soft it will get squished on the inner rod and start to tear apart if run too fast.

I just noted in a previous post that I like using a small angle grinder with a flap wheel for western handlEurope rough sculpting. Really easy to make inside curves. It takes very little hand sanding after to smooth everything out and they last many handles unlike belts.
 
Thanks, guys. I don't have a weekend free for a little bit here but I'll give it a whirl and post it here.

I also wonder about just mounting a dowel wrapped in a low durometer rubber or something and just let the belt run on that. No bearings or bushings or anything. I run my current 3/4" slow as it is. Just have to change it from time to time.

Something soft but not too soft. I'll do some poking around. If I can find something that exists already that I can just slip over a rod or something that would be great. I have some 10oz leather as well as neoprene. I should give that a try wearing a full face mask for if it shreds itself apart.
 
You can buy rubber tube in any durometer that will slip fit on a small wheel from Mcmaster Carr. Just know you have to glue it on or it will pull and move into your bearings.
 
kuraki said:
You can buy rubber tube in any durometer that will slip fit on a small wheel from Mcmaster Carr. Just know you have to glue it on or it will pull and move into your bearings.
Click to expand...
I'm looking at putting some rubber on some of my wheels, you don't happen to have any links to these kind of rubbers? I think I'm doing a bad job at googling these. ;)
 
The only draw back might be tracking. I've noticed the softer the wheel, the more squirrelly the tracking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top