Wilton "slow down wheel" revisited

J

jrabuck

Joined
Sep 25, 2008
Messages
6
A smaller diameter drive wheel sounds like a nice compromise as far as slowing this baby down. What are your recommendations for vendors to purchase one of these? Is it called a slow down wheel or what is it referred to?

Of course I am sorry I did not get the variable speed to begin with...
Is the only other option to add the variable speed controller? For the price I am seeing on that, I would rather look into selling my Wilton and upgrading to a completely new grinder.
 
I put the slow down wheel on my old Wilton years ago. It helped but still too fast for fine
grit and finish work.

You must replace the motor along with a controller to have variable and this is what I
would do. I'd not think twice about doing it either.
 
I love mine. The stock wheel is about 10,000 mph too fast to work on a knife with. The slow down wheel made my Wilton managable. Two suggestions: 1) be prepared for the fight of your life getting the original wheel off....ended up using a steering wheel puller and still tore the old wheel to pieces. 2) tap the new slow down wheel on a bit at the time and see how it tracks...then tap tap a little more, until its perfect. I tapped mine in just a tad too much and it won't pull back out for nothing...nothing ruined, but I would give anything to have that last 1/8" back.

Go ahead and get ya one.
 
The slow-down pulley is a good start, but I agree with Don. For me, it was an intermediate step that likely wasn't worth it, and would have been money better spent toward converting it to variable speed.
Use a large gear puller with three jaws and you should be able to get the stock drive wheel off. Remember to loosen the set screw before you try and pull it, and a little penetrating oil wouldn't hurt.
 
Jason the slower drive will help manage the speed but as has been said its not
the answer. When getting any thing new for the shop it should be fun or help to
do better work (hopefully both) email me and if I can't talk you out of it I've got
one you can have.
Ken.
 
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