Wooden Grinder Spacers

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SteveHGraham
Posts: 7788
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:55 pm
Location: Florida

Wooden Grinder Spacers

Post by SteveHGraham »

The other day, I replaced my white grinder wheels with CBN. When I took the old wheels off the grinder, two beautiful aluminum spacers fell out. I had forgotten all about them. I refused to use the crummy plastic spacers that were available, so I made my own.

I thought about that today when I saw a video from Woodworker's Journal, showing people the "correct" way to make grinder spacers. Obviously, the person who appeared in the video was not a machinist. Being a lowly wood butcher, he had no metal lathe. He made his spacers out of walnut.

I thought that was amusing. You do what you can with the tools you have.

It seems obvious to me that metal, or anything that can't split and won't swell, is better than wood.

I wonder how many things we make from metal, when we would be better off using wood. A lot of people make belt grinders out of metal, but there is no reason you couldn't make a very sturdy, long-lasting grinder, cheaper, with wood from Home Depot.

Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
earlgo
Posts: 1794
Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:38 am
Location: NE Ohio

Re: Wooden Grinder Spacers

Post by earlgo »

I have a wood bushing in one of my grinding wheels. Been there for years.
--earlgo
Before you do anything, you must do something else first. - Washington's principle.
whateg0
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Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2009 3:54 pm
Location: Wichita, KS

Re: Wooden Grinder Spacers

Post by whateg0 »

I often have a choice of material for various doodads. Often it comes down to what I'm already set up for. If I'm in the middle of a bunch of metal work, and need a thing, I am probably more likely to make it from metal, even if wood might work as well or slightly better. Back before I started working with metal, I made a lot of stuff from wood, or even particleboard that I can't believe I made now. Particleboard was used a lot back then because I was making speakerboxes in high school from it.

I once built a router table from particle board and 1x lumber that raised and lowered by way of a piece of all thread running from one side to the other and a set of linkages pushing up on the Skil plunge router I attached to the underside of the table. I wouldn't dream of doing that now, but back then, it was so cool to have a router table that could be adjusted without taking anything apart.

Dave
mihit
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Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2018 1:04 pm
Location: Tai Tokerau, NZ

Re: Wooden Grinder Spacers

Post by mihit »

Wooden pulleys are common on old lineshafting - and no reason not!
Gone is the wheelwright, but wooden-spoked wheels do good service, hubs, pins and all.
I'm sure many of the hardwoods are dimensionally stable once seasoned, and asides from burning better, don't offer any advantages over alloy...
spro
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Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: Wooden Grinder Spacers

Post by spro »

There was certain wood for every use and how another wood fit with it. They have their different grains and wear factors. This is a big subject but now I say stick with metal when using metalworking machines.
spro
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Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: Wooden Grinder Spacers

Post by spro »

If we look at the construction of one wagon wheel of 150 years ago; There is a certain hub which was old hard elm with wavy grains which wouldn't split. The spokes were different for pressure and the rims something else when banded. Each wood has its own characteristics and they knew how to put them together.
earlgo
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Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:38 am
Location: NE Ohio

Re: Wooden Grinder Spacers

Post by earlgo »

And speaking of wood machine tool parts....
I made the drive pulleys from plywood and they are still driving the Sebastian and May since the '70s. The flat pulleys are of unknown age. I pulled them off the overhead line shaft when I got the lathe from an "old guy".
wooden pulleys
wooden pulleys
--earlgo
Before you do anything, you must do something else first. - Washington's principle.
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