Power feeder wheel lifespan?

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Quick question, how long does a power feeder wheel usually last? I need to replace some, they are getting hard and slipping.

[David Kumm]

What comes with the machine originally are so crappy I consider their span to be -0-. I replace immediately with urethane. Dave

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Thanks Dave, it's definitely time then!

[Mark Bolton]

We order urethane out of the gate as well. We keep the old wheels for super rough work because they will almost always drive dead rough material and if we are doing a ton of rough ripping or edge work we will swap the urethane out for the stock wheels.

I would guess a lot of people never change out the stock wheels and the life would seem to depend on use and type of use. I made a plate with a cleat and 60 grit on the cleat. Lower the stock wheels down onto the plate and de-gloss them and they run pretty well but when they start to get ripe there is just about no saving them.

Weve been running the yellow from western roller but have been having some situations where the blue may be nice. Spoiled with the new design on the comatic dc40's as they dont require a tool anymore to remove the wheels. They have a large wing nut so you can swap wheels in seconds.

[Bill Dufour]

I would think the wheels last forever. Or are they cast in one piece with no tires?
Bil lD.

[Mark Bolton]

Some are on a two piece hub and some are one piece. The stock rubber is very hard and tends to glaze and get harder over time and then slip.

[Rick Alexander]

I just replaced mine on the Delta 1 HP with the softer urethane ones from Western Roller and my god what a difference. Those stock ones (color of brown paper bag) never gripped anything remotely like these. Just call WR customer service and talk to them about what you might want to use. I wanted maximum drive - slightly less life (softer wheel) and super glad I did. 5 minute install once they came in. They weren't that expensive - just need to have the feeder sitting there when you call to make sure to get the right ones - they will ask several questions other than model #. Now I wish I hadn't sold that baby feeder - might would have been just the ticket for the router table with new wheels.

[Mark Bolton]

We recently got a set that were cast on plastic hubs. I know some will cringe here but I found something really great about the plastic/composite hubs. We were running an odd job with a decent amount of footage where I didnt want to lose the hold down of the four wheels and removing a wheel and adding a half wheel wasnt going to gain me anything. Having the plastic hubs I just setup the job and milled the wheels on the shaper to the exact profile of the part which milled into the hubs at their edges. It worked perfectly and we had feed wheels that perfectly matched and gripped the profiled part.

Ive never had a crash with a feeder but doing this made me think the plastic hubs would likely save a cutter if you ever did have a crash.

[Cary Falk]

I bought a used power feeder on CL with rubber wheels. They were awful. I turned on the feeder and used a sanding block to remove the glaze. That worked until I ran it the next time(couple of months?). Broke down and bought some yellow urethane ones from Western Roller. Night and day difference.

[Martin Wasner]

Ive never had a crash with a feeder but doing this made me think the plastic hubs would likely save a cutter if you ever did have a crash.

It's not pretty. Something came loose or was bumped, (or idiot employee screwing with something), on our main shaper a while ago after it had run a zillion feet. The head survived, but it took out the knives and ding'd up the backers. It happened when I was operating it, and I picked up on the change in sound pretty quickly.

[Larry Edgerton]

It's not pretty. Something came loose or was bumped, (or idiot employee screwing with something), on our main shaper a while ago after it had run a zillion feet. The head survived, but it took out the knives and ding'd up the backers. It happened when I was operating it, and I picked up on the change in sound pretty quickly.

Aigner makes a stop that bolts to the feeder to prevent this. https://www.scosarg.com/aigner-powerfeed-protector-setting-spacer

I have done the same thing, aluminum wheels, and have been going to make one but have not gotten to it. Should just buy the Aigner..........

[Rod Sheridan]

You know Larry, I find that Aigner has solutions to problems I haven't had yet, but will in the future.

That's a great solution, I think I'll make one or but one...............Thanks for posting that........Rod.

[Mark Bolton]

I've been doing something similar just clamping a cabinet screw to the fence with the back edge (thicker) butted up to the edge of the feeder if we are having to feed with a lot of down pressure and worried something may slip.

[Martin Wasner]

Aigner makes a stop that bolts to the feeder to prevent this. https://www.scosarg.com/aigner-powerfeed-protector-setting-spacer

I have done the same thing, aluminum wheels, and have been going to make one but have not gotten to it. Should just buy the Aigner..........

The pivot where the feeder itself rotates in the first connection point on the mount came loose. That shaper uses an outboard fence and we never bother clamping it at the where it connects to the deck since it just pushes against the regular fence. With it canted out, it's just the infeed side of the feeder that hits.

It was just one of those dumb things. It's freakin' cranked on hard now. I'm tempted to remove the handle after thinking about it again.

[Mark Bolton]

I'm tempted to remove the handle after thinking about it again.

Its a sucky place to be but I have yet to have someone in the shop that takes the time (while at work and at home, in the shower, on the toilet, while driving all over the place, mowing the lawn, etc) to get their head around the subtleties of setting up a feeder much less an entire operation being run on a shaper. Its not uncommon for employees to give me crap or laugh when they ask if I sit and think about these things all day or if I spend my off-time reading trade magazines. Or that I actually sit and read a manufacturers catalog like a book.

And then they ask why they are never allowed to setup the feeder/shaper, feeder/saw, etc.

As I remember it when I was young and working for someone else, I would take catalogs and books home and read them. It was part of your job. Ive had guys on for a couple years that have never taken the time to read a trade magazine or catalog ever. I have one like that now that took a book home months ago and when I asked for it back he said he never read the first page. If they do, they are the type that will skim through one quickly in a night and come back telling the shop everything its doing wrong and all the other tools it should buy lol. I can deal with the exuberance and learning about new operations and machinery, but the ones that will even scan a few issues of CabinetMaker FDM are few and far between.

We had one close crash recently with a guy ripping material on the saw (with feeder). We run a hi-lo fence on on the saw (was in low position), guy was trying to run at a million miles an hour to get close to "endless board" rather than just taking his time and being smart, and fed a board with the corner up on the low portion of the fence. I couldnt believe the feeder had that much travel in the wheels but it did and I had all the clamps reefed down baboon tight. The board climbed up on the low portion of the fence and started to drive sideways. I heard it from 40 feet away and started running when I saw the guy just reach down and shut off the saw (while the feeder was still running) so the blade came to a hault and the feeder proceeded to run the board up over the non spinning blade. I could hear the teeth clicking as they drug past the blade rotating bent and mashed under the board against the cast iron top. As I was running as fast as I could I just envisioned the entire corner of the cast iron table where the feeder is bolted snapping clear off like a saltine cracker. I could see the vertical column of the feeder stand flexing and am shocked it didnt snap the corner off the table.

This was all one of those slow-motion scenarios where your like Neo in the matrix.

I grabbed the feeder switch and kicked it into reverse and backed the board off the blade.

Thankfully it was only a $100 blade getting roached and not someone getting hurt. Oh the joys.

[Larry Edgerton]

The pivot where the feeder itself rotates in the first connection point on the mount came loose. That shaper uses an outboard fence and we never bother clamping it at the where it connects to the deck since it just pushes against the regular fence. With it canted out, it's just the infeed side of the feeder that hits.

It was just one of those dumb things. It's freakin' cranked on hard now. I'm tempted to remove the handle after thinking about it again.

Doesn't show it in that picture but in Euro shops I have seen them on both ends of the feeder which is how I would do it myself, for the same reason, thats what happened when mine ate a wheel.

[Martin Wasner]

Mark, the best I can say is, me too. I was just whining to a buddy this evening when we were running the pointers. If I could clone myself and have three of me running around we could do north of a million a year, have virtually no rework, sleep at night, and rarely work more than a forty. I swear some people's IQ plummets about 40 points the second they get a paycheck. They don't understand either, I don't pay for your screw ups or unwillingness to move your ass. YOU do! Why the flip would I pay for it?

I hate managing people. How much I care about our product is unhealthy

Larry, I've got the feeder mashed up as close to the cutter as I can get it. Kicking it out further wouldn't help my cause in this specific scenario, but most others that would be a good idea. I might screw a block onto the panel raiser tomorrow just to make the setup of that a little more idiot proof.