Needing help badly on 7/8 bore drive wheel in Canada

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Grayzer86

Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Messages
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So I will start by explaining my situation here. I am converting my no weld grinder to variable speed with a 2hp motor and VFD setup. The motor is a baldor industrial 3ph which has a 7/8 shaft. Currently the grinder runs single speed via a belt drive and single pulleys running a shaft on pillow blocks. This setup has been my nemesis from day one as all three sections of drive shaft I consecutively bought were warped just enough to cause vibration and slight belt wobble. For this reason I want to go complete direct drive. My issues are that very few places sell a 7/8 bore wheel and those that do, seemingly will not ship to me in Canada. So option one I thought was to get a step down shaft adapter, and run my current 5/8 wheel, which turns out to be more expensive than most other options. Cheapest place wants 32 bucks for the part and 63 bucks to ship it. I'm not even sure if this would be a reasonable solution. Second option is to mount a 7/8 pulley to the motor, try again for a perfectly straight drive shaft, and attempt to continue on with belt drive, which seems kind of stupid. Third option is to find somewhere I can purchase a drive wheel with the correct bore. I checked sunray as I see their name mentioned often but it says their wheels are only rated to 800rpm which I don't think is a good plan. Unless they can make me a wheel for higher rpm I'm kind of at a loss. I'm sorry for the rant here guys, I have just been frustrated lately with many of the things I need not shipping to Canada, delays in getting my shop back together after a move, and now finally having my finished shop within sight, except for a few of these small but vital pieces. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.
 
There is a guy on Ebay that sells drive wheels in different shaft sizes. I think his username is VWJackstraw. I've bought a drive wheel and an idler/tension wheel from him and the quality is top notch. His prices are also very reasonable though, shipping to Canada will probably negate that. His listings say he ships outside the USA.

Bob
 
It cost me about $80 to have the shaft on one of my motors turned from 7/8 to 5/8 and a new keyway broached. Jess
 
There are no machine shops in nearby towns? Opening up the wheel you have and broaching the keyway might not be terribly costly.

Try a precision drive shaft if you go that route. They run true simply cause Manu applications require this.

Or just go the ebay way and give that a go.
 
You could check out sahtudesigns. He might have something or know someone. He's in Alberta.
 
Grayzer86 said:
Third option is to find somewhere I can purchase a drive wheel with the correct bore. I checked sunray as I see their name mentioned often but it says their wheels are only rated to 800rpm which I don't think is a good plan. Unless they can make me a wheel for higher rpm I'm kind of at a loss.
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It's tough finding stuff in Canada and the prices are always higher...


The poly wheels Tracy Mickley sells are from Sunray.

I read some posts, he specifies a higher grade of balancing.

Perhaps he could help you with how to order, or call Sunray and talk to someone to spell out what you need.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. As far as any machining work, that's pretty much a lost cause here. The one machine shop in town closed down when the owner went to work for an oil company and the only other ones close by won't do anything for me. They are always busy with the mines around here, and the mines pay big bucks so they pretty much laughed when I asked about having bearings bored into my contact wheel before. They simply told me "it's not worth it".

I have been looking on eBay but can't seem to find what I am after their either. What I really want is a 6 inch drive but would settle for a 5 if I had to. I may have to contact the seller directly to see if he could make a different wheel size.

I sent emails to a couple places that had drive wheels listed to see what could be worked out, so I guess we will see what happens
 
After much frustration I managed to find one from Terry at Sahtu as LoRez suggested. It's smaller than I want but the 4.5 inch will have to do. It will still give me a belt speed of 4200 fpm, which is a bit more than I have now, and more control In the lower range without under driving the motor too bad. Hopefully all works out in the end. I have some projects coming up and really need to get back in the shop.
 
Ranger Bob has the best idea. I have purchased two tracking wheels, two idler wheels, and three drive wheels from "Jackstraw" who sells on Ebay. His wheels are excellent and are priced well below the competition. I have seen a drive wheel with a 7/8ths bore on one of his listings. I paid about $50 each for my drive wheels. Larry
 
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