I tried out the Pro-Wheel Shaver yesterday on some #14 mold cavity BSA wheels. I picked this cavity number as they are pretty bad off to start with. I ran two through the whole process and kept two as a comparison. There was a vast difference between the ones I worked with the Pro-Wheel Shaver and the original ones. I'd say that if you don't have a powered lathe to true your wheels on that this is a cost effective alternative. You don't have the run-out that you do on drills and drill presses and it is a lot safer for the boys to use.
Some things I ran into:
The Pro-Wheel Shaver fits very tight to the Pro-Hub Tool. So much so that I had to try and spread the nothced part to get it to move. As I read the instructions before I started [I realise that this is a new concept for men, but you ought to try it!
] I went ahead and marked up the Pro-Hub Tool at the distances shown for each step. I had used a sharpie pen to do so but the Pro-Shaver fit so tight that it obliterated the lines. Maybe I should have put some NyeOil on the Pro-Hub Tool so the Pro Shaver would slide on it with minimal friction...
The Pro-Wheel Shaver is intended for adult use as it requires adult hand strength to loosen and tighten the adjustment bolts and to turn the wheels.
This is an understatment as the cutting blade was very hard to tighten. So much so that I was afraid I was going to bend the whole Pro Shaver Tool.
The cutting blade was hard to set so that it cut even (I used a square to check it with) and yet would be set low enough to remove material. Some of this gets back to it being so hard to tighten the cutting blade. I'm guessing that this would have been easier with another person helping but my derby partner was inside with the flu.
The nice thing about this is that once you have the blade set, you can run each wheel through that setting before having to reset it.
If you have big or arthritic hands, it sure is hard to turn those little wheels in one setting. This is another plus as you can walk away and eat dinner before coming back to finish them up.
The two wheels I did looked good on the tread surface when prepared according to the instructions. Of course I couldn't leave it at that and since I had the Pro Shaver set to it's last pass position, I thought "isn't that just enough clearance to get a piece of 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper through?" I found that if you rotate the wheel while holding on to the sandpaper, it does a very good job of sanding the tread surface even smoother. You don't have to worry about rounding the edges of the wheel (illeagal for some of us) or if you are sanding the tread perpendicular to the wheel bore. Just a thought that you may want to include in your instructions Randy.
A question here: with all the turning that a wheel goes through in this process, should some type of lubricant be used to keep from damaging the wheel bore? I ask as I noticed some plastic residue in the bore of one of the wheels when I was done. I also ask this as I have this bottle of NyeOil that I can't use for racing and with what liitle bit I have used it, that bottle will last me 1,000 years!
Just some thoughts on this valuable tool from Da Graphite Kid!
Next test - son of Da Graphite Kid tests the Pro Tools out!