Trueing Hard Felt Wheel

[Doug Mason]

Does anyone know of the best way to true a hard felt wheel? I put a gash in it from a plane blade so it is now uneven. Thx for your suggestions.

[Tony Zaffuto]

I feel for you (but only because I did the same thing twice). I put a knick in a plain, hard felt wheel about a year or so ago and last week, I put a nasty cut/knick in a Lee Valley shaped hard felt wheel. The first wheel cost $15.00 or so, so that wasn't too bad, but the Lee Valley was close to $40.00 if not more! That one hurt!

I cut out several MDF wheels on my band saw and trued them up on the grinder. The MDF works for me as well as felt does. You can also shape it to fit a variety of tool shapes beside flat. I've seen some MDF wheels with saw kerfs cut in an inch or so. This is supposed to help the wheel hold compound better, but I have yet to try it.

T.Z.

[Doug Mason]

Found and bought a truing rake from Brownells. It worked. While not using the felt wheel, I used a leather stroop charged with green rouge. From what I can tell, the felt wheel works better; except for the gash I put in the felt wheel (I was on the wrong side of the wheel), I haven't had any problems using it.

Also, everything I have bought from Brownells has been top quality. They have excellent products. I'm very impressed with them.

[Jake Darvall]

I did that once. I've got my wheels at home moving away from me. At work, the turn towards me, and being used to my wheels at home, I put a gash in the wheel at work, throwing the chisel accross the room.

The way they describe in the instructions of a wheel I bought a while ago, is to mount a little sanding drum in a cordless drill, and stroke the wheel back and forth whilst the grinders spinning.....worked well......but, If you've already got buffing compound on the wheel, then, that maybe not the thing to do. I can see that little sanding drum clogging up pretty quick.

How bad is it ? ......the wheel will still work as long as the blade doesn't bounce about when your buffing......Maybe to fix, its just a matter of prunning off any exposed bits. Then do a little truing like above.

To true it you could also try some coarse sandpaper adhered to something flat and rigid like a bit of wood or steel and just stroke it on the wheel off the rest . Maybe use up some 2nd hand paper that way. Thats the best I can come up with.

With time I've noticed they tend to mend themselves a little as buffing compound builds up etc.

Goodluck.

[Bill White]

Does anyone know of the best way to true a hard felt wheel? I put a gash in it from a plane blade so it is now uneven. Thx for your suggestions.

Take an old band saw blade and cut it into 8" or 9" pieces. Turn the teeth in an alternating pattern (one pc. turn teeth to left, next pc. turn teeth to right, etc.), tape up the ends to hold the 5 or 6 pc. "bundle", hold the device gently to the wheel to wear off the damage. Don't get too rowdy, and you'll restore the edge.
This also works well to fluff up buffing wheels.
Bill