Wheel wobble

[copep]

Hi can anyone help?

I am  experencing wheel wobble on both stone and leather wheels. The machine is about 6 years old.
Has anyone else had this problem and been able to fix it?

[jeffs55]

Did it just start to wobble for no apparent reason? Did you remove one or both of these items from the machine and then replace them? If the latter. then one at a time, loosen their respective lock nuts and rotate them 1/4 turn or less in either direction and retighten the nut. Keep doing this until the wobble stops. You must of course rotate the wheels in the same direction each time you give it a partial rotation. Go a little at a time on one wheel at a time. There should be a "sweet spot" on each wheel that will allow it to be parallel, 180 degrees to the bearing washer that the shaft rides on and 90 degrees to the same shaft.

[Ken S]

Welcome to the forum, copep.

I agree with Jeff that it is important to determine when and how this started happening. Have you used this machine for a long time? Has the machine been dropped?

My first thought is that you may have a bent shaft. If you have access to a machine shop, this is quickly and easily determined. If the shaft is bent it might be able to be straightened, much like a drill press shaft. Considering the cost of repair versus the cost of a new stainless steel EZYlock shaft (which includes new nylon bearings), I would probably go with the new shaft.

It is possible that your grinding wheel needs to be trued with the diamond dresser. I would try that first and see if the problems lessens.

I upgraded to an EZY:ock shaft in my first Tormek. It is a real improvement.

Good luck and do keep us posted.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

Hi Copep. If the main shaft is bent you should see the grindstone and honing wheel wobble 180^o out of phase.

When one leans in, so does the other. And when one leans out, so does the other. Have you tried removing the main shaft? If you do be careful. If there's a lot of rust it's easy to break the grindstone trying to free it from a rusty main shaft.

If the main shaft is bent it's an easy fix with the MSK-250 kit:

http://tormek.com/international/en/spare-parts/shafts/msk-250-stainless-steel-shaft/

[Ken S]

Good thought, Herman. The 180 degree out of phase observation flew under my radar.

Ken

[copep]

That's for the repleys guys.
I've tried rotating the wheels and still having the same problem.
I have purchased a new shaft with nylon bearings. Maybe someone could of dropped it and failed to mention it to me.who knows. Just waiting for it to be delivered. Keep you posted how I get on.

Many thanks

[Herman Trivilino]

My original main shaft became bent after a few years and I never dropped it. I did have a heck of a time removing it when it rusted itself onto the grindstone, so I may have bent it getting it off.

[jeffs55]

My original main shaft became bent after a few years and I never dropped it. I did have a heck of a time removing it when it rusted itself onto the grindstone, so I may have bent it getting it off.

How did it get bent? If you did not drop it are you saying that the pressure applied to the grindstone was enough to bend the shaft? How thick is it, about 1/2 inch, right? It is hard to imagine bending it when there is very little leverage that could be applied to it in normal use. Even after you had the stuck stone and as careful and competent as I know you are; how could you have bent the shaft?

[Herman Trivilino]

I don't know how it got bent! Perhaps I'm not as competent as you think? 

[Ken S]

Whenever I was on a case of telephone trouble where I was not sure of the exact cause (usually  "came clear" typical of a noisy line which was quiet when I arrived), I tried to eliminate a prime trouble contender.

In that spirit, I think upgrading the shaft to the new EZYlock is logical. It is an real improvement and it has a good chance of correcting the problem.

Ken

[Stickan]

Hi,
You need to be pretty strong to bend the shaft and the power being used would stop the stone from turning, so I dont think thats the problem. However, if you have transported the machine in the car and drove in a big pothole, and the car jumped (and the machine) the weight of the stone and sudden force could maybe affect the shaft. I guess my answer is a long shot but something like that could maybe be the reason. I am pretty rough when I sharpen and apply high pressure and have never had any problems with this issue. I would guess that if the machine has been moved sometime and got some rough treatment something may have happened.

Stig

[SharpenADullWitt]

I am going to open my mouth and try not to insert my foot here (stupid question alert)...........

What do the bushings look like when they break down?  (how do they break down)

I helped disassemble and rebuild an oven door axle assembly at my friends pizza place.  The local place was out of the correct temperature bearings when done 3 years prior, so some lower temp ones were used (without them knowing).  The one bearing pretty much disintegrated on the one side, so it looked like the door was off kilter.
Would a wore out bearing (maybe not likely) make it look like the shaft was bent and wobble?  What about vibration if two were bad?

This is an inexpensive part and something on the maintenance list, so I am wondering what happens if ignored and it fails.

Should I zipper it, or did my foot stay on the floor?

[Ken S]

Stig makes a very good point about the risks of transporting a Tormek. Jeff Farris posted that he always removed the grinding wheels in the Tormeks he used before traveling for his demos. This was before EZYLock shafts!

Stig, I think a good post from you or whoever does a lot of Tormek repair about bearing wear would be useful. Posting photos would be even better. (good auggestion, sadw)

Ken

[Richard A]

I'm experiencing the same (or similar) wheel wobble issue. I just started noticing it a few of weeks ago but I'm not sure if it has happened gradually and is now very obvious or it just happened one day. Very noticeable on the stone wheel and it appears the leather wheel is moving in sync with it, though not as noticeable. So what it looks like is if you watch the stone wheel pass by the measurement marks on the machine, the high spot of the stone hits at 230 and as the rotation continues, it comes back in towards maybe 228 or so. The leather wheel is in sync with that motion, i.e. hitting the high spot together.

I do move the machine every week to a sharpening location but I'm very careful with it so I doubt the shaft is bent. I'm going to try what Jeff suggested tomorrow and see if that helps and true the stone as well. I'm wondering if the weight at the bottom of a soaked stone could cause a slight warp while it is drying out. Seems doubtful but wondering if anyone has any thoughts about that aspect.

One other thing I seem to have noticed is that the machine makes more noise now than when new......it's less than one year old but gets a fair amount of use.

[Herman Trivilino]

I have also noticed that my machine sometimes becomes noisy. Try applying sandpaper for few seconds to the drive wheel to rough it up and prevent the drive shaft from slipping.