Post by cooknet on Sept 16, 2010 12:11:32 GMT -5
Hey Kev!
There you are! Hope your having a great time on your honeymoon!!
So sorry that I'm even a thought in the back of your head during this time, I wish you all the best and hope that you have an AWESOME time in your travels, you deserve it!
Good things should happen to those who are kind and giving and reach out to others in this world, as that is what I personally have been doing for years, helping others when I can, and I like to think that this is an example of something coming back to me, and you too will eventually have something good come back to you!
The shaft fits great, and everything thus far seems to be working out great, except I'm still fighting with a "slight" vibration issue, and still trying to track down what exactly is causing it.
It's always been there, so I'm suspecting the crappy bearings at this time, although it has markedly improved since switching to the urethane belting material that I purchased.
Also what I think may be contributing to the vibrations is the shaft adapters that convert 1" to 5/8" so the 1" wheels fit on the 5/8" shaft, (I really should have just gone with 1", but that's a whole other long story remember!...LOL) those adapters are only HALF as long as the wheel hole is, so really, I need 2 of them for each wheel, not one of them, but the seller of the Covington wheels only shipped me one set of them per wheel, which I don't really understand "why" they would think it's acceptable to use an adapter that's only 3/4", when the length of the wheel hole is 1-1/2" long, so only half of the hole in the wheel is being converted from 1" to 5/8".
I've taken 2 of the adapters, (which are somewhat "loose" in the shaft hole of the wheel to begin with) and cut one of them down a bit, so that both of them slide into place inside the wheel's shaft hole and then it takes up the whole shaft hole, instead of only half of it, and this seems to make the wheel spin a bit better, with less vibration.
I've heard comments about these Covington wheels causing vibration before, so now I'm wondering if those people who reported this were using the crappy adapters that were too short, or if also the wheels themselves have a balancing issue, it would not surprise me at all, since they appear to be so cheaply made.
Problem is, I've run out of adapters and need to get more, as now I need twice as many as I was originally sent. One would think these adapters come in various lengths, and perhaps they do, I just didn't get the appropriate ones shipped with my wheels for some odd reason. Has anyone else ever had this experience with "short" adapters??
I do have one "good" quality Galaxy type "hard" surface diamond wheel that is 2 inches or a bit wider, and MUCH heavier than the ultra light Covington wheels, and when I mount that wheel on the shaft, it seems to run smoothly when spinning "most" of the time, although I did notice that if I change the wheels around on the opposite side of the shaft (the Galaxy wheel is mounted on the left, and the other wheels I was changing around were mounted on the right side shaft) it somehow effect the vibration of the Galaxy wheel on the opposite side of the shaft, causing it to start to vibrate itself.
Is there a balance that needs to be in check between the left and right side of the shaft, that if not observed properly would cause one side of the other to go out of balance/alignment?
If I run ONLY the Galaxy wheel with nothing else on the shaft at all, it does seem to vibrate a little, and you can actually see this vibration when looking at the Galaxy wheel while it's spinning, it had a bit of a "double image" when looking at it, so you can tell it's vibrating.
I think the manner in which it is vibrating however is like a hoola hoop does, meaning that I think these adapters are not tight enough to the shaft and wheel, causing some play to occur.
I have a feeling that ALL of my weird issues are the adapters. Where can I get some good quality ones, perhaps even metal that are PRECICELY milled and not plastic crap?
If this "does" occur, is this a sign of something else than the adapters, meaning does it specifically point to a faulty component (like the bearings) or a component in need of tweaking some how?
In my mind, it really shouldn't matter what is driven on the left or the right side, being independent of one another, however, that would be in a perfect world, with an extremely beefed up sturdy system, and this is only a 5/8" shaft, not a sturdy 1" shaft, which "may" make a difference in requiring balance on both sides, would you say that is correct?
If I require a balance of weight on each side, that will mean that I need to mount ALL Covington wheels, instead of a heavy Galaxy wheel on one side, and not on the other.
If I need a "balance" to achieve proper spin, and I want to use that Galaxy wheel at all, that will mean that I need to run the Galaxy on one side either alone or with a Covington wheel, and have 3 Covington wheels on the other side. I will weigh them and see what equals what later on.
I guess what I'm getting at is the "play" in the shaft, and it's ability to perform properly, and support the weight of the wheels properly without and bending of the shaft during operation.
When I put one light Covington wheel and the heavy Galaxy wheel on the left side, and 3 Covington wheels on the right side, it did seem to balance things out a bit, with less vibration, but at this point, am I overloading it?
I don't want to cause any dangerous situations, since the shaft is only 5/8", as I only initially intended on running 4 wheels on this machine, even though there seems to be ample room for 6 wheels. I don't want to overwhelm the shaft, and have something bad happen!
What do you think, it's not vibrating "badly" or anything, and seems to perform OK or at least "as good" with 5 wheels on it as opposed to only 4 wheels, do you think that it "really" makes that much difference in having 3 of the super light Covington wheels on one side, and the Galaxy and one Covington on the other side, as opposed to only having 2 of the Covington wheels on each side?
I'm figuring if it can't even handle ONE Galaxy wheel it must be really wimpy!
Thanks again Kev for everything! I'm going to get this thing up and running and cutting stones in no time flat, I've got at least 6 pounds of top quality deep black matrix Honduras opal coming, along with lightning stone from Honduras around the Ruins of Copan, Petrified wood from Nicaragua, and Mayan Jasper from Guatemala, as well as a large parcel of Ethiopian Welo opals, so I need to get up and running as I have ALOT of cutting ahead of me in the very near future!
Take care!
Chris
There you are! Hope your having a great time on your honeymoon!!
So sorry that I'm even a thought in the back of your head during this time, I wish you all the best and hope that you have an AWESOME time in your travels, you deserve it!
Good things should happen to those who are kind and giving and reach out to others in this world, as that is what I personally have been doing for years, helping others when I can, and I like to think that this is an example of something coming back to me, and you too will eventually have something good come back to you!
The shaft fits great, and everything thus far seems to be working out great, except I'm still fighting with a "slight" vibration issue, and still trying to track down what exactly is causing it.
It's always been there, so I'm suspecting the crappy bearings at this time, although it has markedly improved since switching to the urethane belting material that I purchased.
Also what I think may be contributing to the vibrations is the shaft adapters that convert 1" to 5/8" so the 1" wheels fit on the 5/8" shaft, (I really should have just gone with 1", but that's a whole other long story remember!...LOL) those adapters are only HALF as long as the wheel hole is, so really, I need 2 of them for each wheel, not one of them, but the seller of the Covington wheels only shipped me one set of them per wheel, which I don't really understand "why" they would think it's acceptable to use an adapter that's only 3/4", when the length of the wheel hole is 1-1/2" long, so only half of the hole in the wheel is being converted from 1" to 5/8".
I've taken 2 of the adapters, (which are somewhat "loose" in the shaft hole of the wheel to begin with) and cut one of them down a bit, so that both of them slide into place inside the wheel's shaft hole and then it takes up the whole shaft hole, instead of only half of it, and this seems to make the wheel spin a bit better, with less vibration.
I've heard comments about these Covington wheels causing vibration before, so now I'm wondering if those people who reported this were using the crappy adapters that were too short, or if also the wheels themselves have a balancing issue, it would not surprise me at all, since they appear to be so cheaply made.
Problem is, I've run out of adapters and need to get more, as now I need twice as many as I was originally sent. One would think these adapters come in various lengths, and perhaps they do, I just didn't get the appropriate ones shipped with my wheels for some odd reason. Has anyone else ever had this experience with "short" adapters??
I do have one "good" quality Galaxy type "hard" surface diamond wheel that is 2 inches or a bit wider, and MUCH heavier than the ultra light Covington wheels, and when I mount that wheel on the shaft, it seems to run smoothly when spinning "most" of the time, although I did notice that if I change the wheels around on the opposite side of the shaft (the Galaxy wheel is mounted on the left, and the other wheels I was changing around were mounted on the right side shaft) it somehow effect the vibration of the Galaxy wheel on the opposite side of the shaft, causing it to start to vibrate itself.
Is there a balance that needs to be in check between the left and right side of the shaft, that if not observed properly would cause one side of the other to go out of balance/alignment?
If I run ONLY the Galaxy wheel with nothing else on the shaft at all, it does seem to vibrate a little, and you can actually see this vibration when looking at the Galaxy wheel while it's spinning, it had a bit of a "double image" when looking at it, so you can tell it's vibrating.
I think the manner in which it is vibrating however is like a hoola hoop does, meaning that I think these adapters are not tight enough to the shaft and wheel, causing some play to occur.
I have a feeling that ALL of my weird issues are the adapters. Where can I get some good quality ones, perhaps even metal that are PRECICELY milled and not plastic crap?
If this "does" occur, is this a sign of something else than the adapters, meaning does it specifically point to a faulty component (like the bearings) or a component in need of tweaking some how?
In my mind, it really shouldn't matter what is driven on the left or the right side, being independent of one another, however, that would be in a perfect world, with an extremely beefed up sturdy system, and this is only a 5/8" shaft, not a sturdy 1" shaft, which "may" make a difference in requiring balance on both sides, would you say that is correct?
If I require a balance of weight on each side, that will mean that I need to mount ALL Covington wheels, instead of a heavy Galaxy wheel on one side, and not on the other.
If I need a "balance" to achieve proper spin, and I want to use that Galaxy wheel at all, that will mean that I need to run the Galaxy on one side either alone or with a Covington wheel, and have 3 Covington wheels on the other side. I will weigh them and see what equals what later on.
I guess what I'm getting at is the "play" in the shaft, and it's ability to perform properly, and support the weight of the wheels properly without and bending of the shaft during operation.
When I put one light Covington wheel and the heavy Galaxy wheel on the left side, and 3 Covington wheels on the right side, it did seem to balance things out a bit, with less vibration, but at this point, am I overloading it?
I don't want to cause any dangerous situations, since the shaft is only 5/8", as I only initially intended on running 4 wheels on this machine, even though there seems to be ample room for 6 wheels. I don't want to overwhelm the shaft, and have something bad happen!
What do you think, it's not vibrating "badly" or anything, and seems to perform OK or at least "as good" with 5 wheels on it as opposed to only 4 wheels, do you think that it "really" makes that much difference in having 3 of the super light Covington wheels on one side, and the Galaxy and one Covington on the other side, as opposed to only having 2 of the Covington wheels on each side?
I'm figuring if it can't even handle ONE Galaxy wheel it must be really wimpy!
Thanks again Kev for everything! I'm going to get this thing up and running and cutting stones in no time flat, I've got at least 6 pounds of top quality deep black matrix Honduras opal coming, along with lightning stone from Honduras around the Ruins of Copan, Petrified wood from Nicaragua, and Mayan Jasper from Guatemala, as well as a large parcel of Ethiopian Welo opals, so I need to get up and running as I have ALOT of cutting ahead of me in the very near future!
Take care!
Chris