You are absolutely right and I appreciate the encouragement! I find myself, at my age, thinking about whether significant investments in tools are likely to be enjoyed long enough to justify the expense - a lifetime of trying to be frugal is a hard habit to break. The inheritance bit was an attempt to convey that in short hand.
"Clean up something" is much too vague.
What exactly are you wanting to be able to do?
In almost every instance, whatever you want to do on a bench grinder is done better, faster and safer on a belt grinder.
You can get belts that will effectively eliminate the need for wire wheels.
I appreciate the comments. I would like to stress this is not a grinder. This is the wide shaft buffer motor designed to let you get larger objects on the wheel without interference from the motor - total shaft length is about 22.5". I have a belt/disk sander and use it whenever I can. I use the buffer/wire wheel for cleaning threads on bolts and polishing tools and similar tasks where a sanding belt is totally inappropriate. I don't think I have access to facebook marketplace. I have done a search on Ebay and CL looking for a used Baldor within driving range with no success. I am not interested in a narrow shaft motor.
I used to joke with my parents that they were spending my inheritance which was sincerely just that, ribbing my parents. They laughed so much, now, any time they buy something, they joke back that they are spending my inheritance. I've told them several times and they know the wife and I don't need their money. They are supposed to have fun enjoying life and buy what they want.
Wasn't aware of shaft extensions - somehow that has escaped me. I do think I prefer to stick with the wide shaft buffers.
It is indeed a Multitool attachment. I salvaged it from another machine and didn't have the bracket for the grinder bell so I made my own. I also increased the belt size to 2x42 (from the usual 2x36) as I already stocked that size belt.
Good thoughts. I have now determined that the vibration was not caused by the wire wheel, but rather by the stacked 1/2" buffing wheels on the other end. I was totally surprised by that as I never thought some cloth bits could be heavy enough/out of balance enough to create the problem.
Buffing wheels by their nature are never going to be in balance. When you load up a wheel with buffing compound and the bits of wheel material constantly being flung off that is a fact of life. It's your motor bearings and lack of mass in your motor housing.
What kind of belts eliminate need for wire wheels? Serious question, I have never really looked at all the belt stuff nowadays."Clean up something" is much too vague.
What exactly are you wanting to be able to do?
In almost every instance, whatever you want to do on a bench grinder is done better, faster and safer on a belt grinder.
You can get belts that will effectively eliminate the need for wire wheels.
I have been using the maroon 3M Scotch Bright 1x42 belts for cleanup and they work pretty nice.
Currently at $100 for the Baldor 7" grinder
Apparently you didn't see post #40 above. After the second Eastwood failed, I decided to reassemble the first one with a JB Welded base. When I plugged it in with no wheels the motor spun at full speed with no apparent vibration. Then I installed only the wire wheel and turned it on and got the same result. I then installed the buffing wheels I had been using on the other end and turned it on and immediately had significant vibration. The wire wheel is not the problem. Bearings and shaft appear to be fine. I am not sure that your assumption about misuse is viable. The problem is a very poor design that has the base held to the armature housing by 2 machine screws that go through lugs on the base and screw into the armature housing. The screws can loosen with vibration and fall into the base. Once the screw on the side of the imbalance falls out, the vibration can increase in magnitude quite quickly resulting the the mounting lug on the opposite side of the base breaking off. As others have pointed out, buffing wheels are not likely to ever be in balance.Never owned a “buffer” (with long shafts) but using a wire wheel with one of these didn’t sound right.
Just for fun looked at the Eastwood operator manual and sure enough they are designed to be used with “light pressure” - using buffer wheels.
Surely everyone else that uses a wire wheel use a fair amount of force, getting the occasional hard “fump!” When it catches on something.
Not hard to believe a wire wheel on a long shaft, puts stress on the shaft, bearings and even the mounting base. Possible contributing to the damage and vibration
Buy the Baldor use it incorrectly and you might end up with similar results
@Jeff Ivers - if you're anywhere near Bartlesville, you might look into this. Unlike ebay, you'll be able to plug it in, run it and inspect it. And the seller is motivated - the price drops every few days. Cosmetically, it's no prize, but that's fixable.
Thanks for the tip. I do not have access to facebook, but a friend checked and said this was a narrow shaft grinder, not a wide shaft buffer. Not a project I want to take on.
I have seen lots of positive reviews on the Rikon grinders used with CBN wheels for sharpening. Just the extended end bells should give way more support for the arbor shaft. Hope this works out well for you.Thank you for the comments and hints. I would love to have a Baldor wide shaft buffer motor and will keep my eyes open for any deals. I simply cannot talk myself into spending the money for a new one with the expected amount of use I will give it. I have repaired both my Eastwoods with JB Weld and confirmed they both run with no apparent damage to shafts and motors. I replaced the machine screws holding the base to the arm. housing with longer bolts and nyloc nuts as shown:
If they had come this way, I do not think they would have failed. I have run the first one I repaired for about 2 hours of buffing with no problems. In the meantime, I have acquired this Rikon:
It runs at half the speed (1725 rpm) and I believe this will make it less prone to vibration problems. I can't deploy it until I make an adapter plate for my buffer stand, so will continue using the repaired one till then.
That other poster never responded, but I don't see how a belt is going to do 95% of the things I use a wire wheel for.
What do you use a wire wheel for? Rust removal? Deburr? Getting pipe dope off a plug or ******?
I'll disagree and leave it at that.
I want to see that belt get down into some 5/16-18 or some 10-32 bolt threads without detrimentally affecting the thread crests.
I won't do that. But a hand brush will and it will do it without pulling removing flesh from your fingers.
I'm not ******* around with handbrushes to clean bolts up when I have a wire wheel. That's like telling me a horse will get me cross country as fast as a car.
The topic of this thread is whether of not it is worth spending the money on a baldor wide shaft buffer versus alternatives.
Does it count if we call the grinder bad names?
Did you buy it?
