O.T. repairing cracked grinding wheel


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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 13:27:00 :

Last summer I bought a Boice Crane wet knife grinder at a flea market for too much money. I completely went through it, cleaned and repainted everything, trued up the grinding wheel, and mounted it on a stout maple plank with a suitable antique motor to drive it. I figured it would be good for sharpening plane irons and chisels without burning the edge, which indeed it does very well. It's just a grinding wheel about 1.5" thick and 8" diameter that turns with its bottom in a tub of water. It's driven by a small rubber drive roller that presses on it by spring pressure. The grinding wheel itself has a lead or babbit bushing molded into the center of it, and turns on a polished steel shaft that's drilled with an oil passage to an oil cup on top of the unit. The thing was all rusty when I got it and the wheel ran crooked, but the bearings were still tight so I figured it would be good.

The strange thing is I was using it yesterday to sharpen a large knife and all of a sudden the wheel cracked. It still turns and works after a fashion, but there's a crack from the center to the edge, about 1/16" wide at the outside edge. I can't figure what would make it do that since it doesn't get hot or turn fast and I didn't hit it with anything. Before you say "buy a new wheel", tell me where to find a wheel that size with a poured babbit center that is meant to serve as a bearing rather than be clamped between flanges. It appears to be a natural sandstone, not carborundum or alumina, and is fairly soft.

I know that they say to never run a cracked grinding wheel, but this one turns so slowly that it doesn't even throw water off of it while turning, so it's not like it could throw pieces of itself at me if it fell apart. All I can think of to fix it is to bake it in the oven until all the water is out of it, and then try to press epoxy down into the crack as much as possible. I don't know if it would stick or not once the wheel gets wet. I don't think I could use any refractory cement like sairset that would require firing it in a kiln because that would melt the babbit out of the center. Or, am I wrong and are these old-fashioned natural stone grinding wheels with babbit centers still available somewhere? Just thought I'd ask here since we're all into old machines. I'd hate to give up on this wet grinder now that I've put so much time into rebuilding it.



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