Making grinding wheel bushings; is this a dumb idea?
Picked up a nice 0.5 HP single phase Craftsman motor for $10 at the surplus tool place, plus a very coarse grinding wheel for 50 cents. For some evil reason, grinding wheels have 1" holes, while shaft diameters are anywhere from 0.5" to 1". Mine is 5/8.
I don't happen to have a bushing of the right size, plus I read all kinds of complaints about Norton's plastic bushings having too much slop, so I had an idea.
I cut 3 locating pins from 3/16" brass. I coated them with grease, and also greased a piece of 5/8" stock. Then I placed the stock in the center of the grinding wheel hole, and shoved the locating pins in place to insure that the stock is in the center of the hole. Then I started pumping in the hot glue.
When the gap was filled, I waited a couple minutes, then pulled the locating pins out & filled the holes left behind with more hot glue. When it all hardened, I pushed out my newly cast plastic bushing; a very ugly but perfectly fit plastic cylinder.
Now I'm afraid to actually try it.
Is there any online source of quality reducing bushings? I couldn't find one. Or should I try this again with some other material, like RTV perhaps?
I'm looking into a little phase angle controller that's rated for inductive loads to use as a speed control. Not as good as a variable frequency drive, but maybe good enough. Or maybe I'll gear it down as far as I can using pulleys.