Geoff
Member
I just did a quick job for a fellow and I thought I would share it here. It was a wheel for a belt grinder. The wheel had a 4" OD with a 2 Deg. crown and a 2.25" width. It also needed a bore of .001 over 5/8. The wheel body is aluminum and I sleeved the bore (steel). I had to put a sleeve in the bore because I had a problem with my lathe and I found that after I finished the bore, it measured .626 on one end but the back end measured .670. That wasn't cool and I found that my lathe ways came out of level so I had to shim the tailstock end. I tuned it in so that i'm getting very straight cuts now! After I discovered that the bore was out of tolerance, I bored it to 7/8" and turned a sleeve out of 12L14. I turned the sleeve .0015 over 7/8 and pressed it into the wheel. Since pressing into aluminum comes with challenges (gall / bind), I stuck the sleeve in the freezer and heated the wheel. The sleeve pressed in with little pressure and once everything normalized, it is a very tight fit. I turned a quick arbor to have a loose press fit on the .626 bore and mounted the wheel on the arbor. A quick turn down to size and then I cut the 2 Deg. angles. A bit of cleanup work and the project was done. It turned out very well and the fellow I made it for was extremely happy! Attached are a few pics.