Best small wheels for a Esteem grinder

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Storm W

Joined
Feb 19, 2019
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915
I burned up the bearing on my 1/2" wheel and need to replace it. I think it uses KMG style wheels. If I am going to get a new one a good price would be great but I also want ones that will hold up. Any help would be appreciated.
 
The bearing numbers are engraved on the bearings.
inch standard

The cheapest chinese bearings will do, just run them slow and change when you need to.
$2 each or something like that.

Slow speed is a necessity, the small size creates a huge speed step up ratio
 
608RS Deep groove ball bearing 8 x 22 x 7 mm can handle about 33.000 rpm . My choice would be C3 or C4 , quality one .
 
if this is something you use a lot, i would definitely be buying a spare, and replacement bearings for both..
i had this kind of problem on one of the platen parts of "old Betsy" my 25 year old machine... the replacement parts were more money than i WANTED to spend ,but worth doing ..
the replacement bearings for the wheels were like $5/$6 each so for under $20 i could/can put new bearings in whenever i need ,and i can just swap out the part to keep working until i can swap out the bad bearings.. just the way i solved that problem for me..
 
I need a new wheel as well as bearings. I probably ran it to fast while I was buffing. I don't have a buffer and use a kinda felt belt that a guy on here send me as a sample. I wish I knew where to get another of them as well.
 
Remember that you need to slow the grinder down with small wheels. The ratio of a 5" drive wheel to a 1" wheel is a five fold increase in motor speed. Small wheels are not needed, or intended, to run at 8500 RPM or 17,000 RPM ( depending on the drive motor).
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Remember that you need to slow the grinder down with small wheels. The ratio of a 5" drive wheel to a 1" wheel is a five fold increase in motor speed. Small wheels are not needed, or intended, to run at 8500 RPM or 17,000 RPM ( depending on the drive motor).
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I know. I just forget at times. They are several years old so I'm cool with it. When I got my grinder I was working 80 hour weeks and wasn't worried about cost and burned up a few K worth if belts and steel. When I learned to weld you just burned as much wire or rod as you can and I kinda treated knife making the same way and a few beers in at 4 in the morning you don't make great decisions. All of my wheels took a beating. I learned something from it so I guess it's all good. Now I just have to pay for all of that "practice". It's on me. I was just looking for some good wheels to replace them with. I haven't had a chance to try anything else so I wasn't sure sure if there was much difference between small wheels. Someday I need to get at least one really nice large wheel.
 
Has anyone here replaced the bearings on Beaumont small wheels? I have the extra bearings, but I'm not sure about the best way to go about it.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Remember that you need to slow the grinder down with small wheels. The ratio of a 5" drive wheel to a 1" wheel is a five fold increase in motor speed. Small wheels are not needed, or intended, to run at 8500 RPM or 17,000 RPM ( depending on the drive motor).
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Bearing you use in USA should be in dimension close to 608 bearing / 8 x 22 x 7 mm / Max . speed for that size bearing is about 33.000 RPM .So how you come to that numbers that small bearings are not intended to run 8500 RPM ??? Did you ever try to use quality bearing in C3 or C4 tolerance which is wise to use in application like this ?
On one of mu grinders I run them 35000 rpm and I don t see them to fall apart. On other /horizontal grinder/ they turn on about 8400 for hours......... the smaller the bearing the higher the maximum permitted speed is ..it is simple like that .
cold start up application my cause the balls to heat up quickly, the heat needs to go somewhere. Some of the heat gets passed through the outer race to the housing and the inner race to the shaft, this causes expansion which closes up the clearance in the bearing. If you did not allow for this clearance the bearing would not have room for expansion and lead to bearing failure.
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Yes, they are rated for 33,000 RPM. However, that is a no-load rating.
The extreme load and poor heat conduction of a small wheel setup on a grinder can burn out a small bearing in a relatively short time.
Case in point is the bearings on a Beaumont rotary platen. They last a year at most under normal use and only moderate speeds. It is the load that kills them. Back the tension off the belt a tad and they will last a bit longer.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Yes, they are rated for 33,000 RPM. However, that is a no-load rating.
The extreme load and poor heat conduction of a small wheel setup on a grinder can burn out a small bearing in a relatively short time.
Case in point is the bearings on a Beaumont rotary platen. They last a year at most under normal use and only moderate speeds. It is the load that kills them. Back the tension off the belt a tad and they will last a bit longer.
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If I just get KMG wheels that drop in I'm not missing out on anything right? That's more or less what I was looking for. I am more concerned about the wheel than the bearings. Bearings might affect the overall cost and might be a pain in the butt if they go out but they aren't the part that is actually doing the work. Whatever happens to the bearings is on me.
 
Storm W said:
If I just get KMG wheels that drop in I'm not missing out on anything right? That's more or less what I was looking for. I am more concerned about the wheel than the bearings. Bearings might affect the overall cost and might be a pain in the butt if they go out but they aren't the part that is actually doing the work. Whatever happens to the bearings is on me.
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i tried to look that up for you (yes it looks like he uses KMG wheels (if i remember correctly) Brett Matthews says it on his web site of Esteem Grinders
the only reason anyone is recommending replacement bearings is they are #1 pretty cheap #2 not terribly hard to replace #3 it can give you better OPTIONS for speed/load etc..
since you are no longer stuck with the bearings chosen by the place selling them..
you MIGHT be able to find better rated bearings to do the task (and not wear out so fast)
i did this when the bearings on my Wilton died and i had to swap out the wheel for a spare i keep. then i went out and bought better bearings/swapped them out and have a better "Spare" than the factory made part.. this is just Advise ,weather you take it /use it/or ignore it is all up to you..
 
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