I went ahead and bored out my band saw wheel and added a sleeve to it. I had a hard time finding an off the shelf sleeve. So I just made one with a galvanized fence tubing that happens to have the right size for me to cut. It was hard to find something of the correct size that can be used to for making the sleeve.
Then a funny part was after I clamped the wheel onto a milling machine and all was centered using a dial indicator on the center hole. That took me a long time since it's a horizontal mill. I had to run around many times to line it up. I went to something like 0.17 thou. I was really happy, then I can't put the boring tool in. I was frustrated after all that work, and not want to move out of alignment so I can put the boring tool in before re-align.
I decided to try something different. I put a face plate on the lathe, used some extra T-nuts I bought before and clamped the wheel up nicely. It is still hard, but I only need to stand there and hit it with rubber mallet here and there, versus running around the mill, climb up and down, etc. The mill, I can use the knobs while with the lathe, it's a rubber mallet. Once done, boring was the easy part.
I also cut out the outside, just to make sure it's good. Well, it's a mistake. I cut the backing ridge, but also put very light cut on the crown area. It's so light that the old rust or black metal is still there. But now, the blade doesn't sit back anymore. I need to cut the crown for it.
Would someone please tell me what's the shape or bevel angle for it? I read somewhere about 1/3 from the backing edge, but I am not sure.
The sleeve went in very nicely, and so did the bearings. However, the bearing was a bit tight. I can tell by rotating it by hand, I can feel discreet resistance, not smooth feeling. Probably it was because the sleeve was compressed, making its ID even smaller than the under sized ID it was cut to have a tight fit. They went in real easy, so I thought it was good (I cranked the hydraulic press with my hand, without the bar, just using that tiny little bar insert hole).
So now that I have to align the wheel again for the crown cut, I would bore the sleeve down a few more thous to make sure the bearings will be alright. Test cut is ok (even with the blade side half way), I just feel the bearings are going to go with that pre-loaded state. If it gets hot, it's probably even tighter.
