Balancing Bench Grinder Wheels

Normark

Normark

Joined
Nov 7, 1999
Messages
6,651
Hey Guys...

Got a big honkin bench grinder.. New Stones,, however when I fire it it it Vibrates like a Mother....

Someone explained to me once how to true up the stones,, however I forget who it was and how it's done..

Could someone explain this to me,,so that the grinder doesn't Vibrate the living crap out of everything on the bench and syurrounding area...

Any help would be much Appreciated...

ttyle

Eric...
 
Assuming you have the proper size bushings, They have diamond point dresser tools that remove the high spots on the stone and do a nice job truing them. They are cheap too. Under $10 Check out the machinist tool catalogs like Enco and J&L.
 
Bruce..

Thanks dude..

That's Exactly what it was,,I remember now....

I now found out,,one of the Expensive wheels has been dropped :mad: and there is a chip out of it...Bugger!! Now I gotta buy new wheels....

Do the wheels have to match ???

This is a big HP,,high RPM machine

ttyle

Eric....
 
Eric,
There are alot of old machinists that are called Stumpy and One Eye because of wheels that have been dropped and cracked.
Replace them suckers. I'd rather call you Normark than Stumpy or One Eye.
 
I do all my grinding on an 8" 3450 rpm benchgrinder (its listed as a 1/2 HP continuos duty, but you can't stop the sumbitch), and then do finish grinding on an 8" 1725 rpm machine rated at 3/4HP.
I use a dresser that has wheels on the end, they're called stone cutters. Best luck has been to dress them LIGHTLY and OFTEN.

As far as wheels, they need to be the same size, but other than that it doesn't matter. To be honest I don't think its even all that important for them to be the same size as my dad has an old mac tools 6" grinder thats about 20 years old and always seems to have a brand new wheel on one side and a half worn out wheel on the other. The machine might run a little smoother it your balanced from side to side though, and there's no point in putting wheels on there any smaller than the max it will take anyhow.

If you have a brand new one that was dropped I'd go back to the store and try to get an exchange or refund. The damn things aren't cheap, about $30 to get a good quality 8"X1" wheel.
The white ones glaze fairly quickly on my slow grinder, but since your dressing them back to keep the shoulders sqaure fairly often it doesn't matter. Your not taking a lot off either, I've probably worn the wheels down by a 1/4" at most over the last 2 years and 30-40 knives. The blue wheels will load up with junk from softer stuff but for the most part just need to be kept square.
 
When you have dropped a wheel it may have cracked. To do a simple test, put something like a screwdriver in the hole and stike the side lightly with a piece of metal . If it rings it's probably ok, but if it goes clunk you have a cracked and dangerous wheel.
 
A bunch of good advice already: I'll just add that dressing the wheel not only balances it, it also exposes fresh free cutting abrasive. It doesn't take much to re-dress a wheel once it is balanced. I recommend looking in your MSC or ENCO catalog and then talking to their tech support to get their opinion on the best wheel dressing tool for your purpose.
 
If you are lucky dressing the wheel will make it concentric with the center of rotation, if not the arbor. That should solve a lot of your problem. My wheels are also ballanced. I use the system sold by Oneway, but a clever dude could probably rig something.

http://www.oneway.on.ca/Oneway/balance_kit.html

They also sell an over the top wheel dressing system.
 
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