Grinder Wheel Help

[Rex Williams]

I bought a couple norton 32A 8" 100 grit grinding wheels and they are so unbalanced they shake my table almost across the room. I have a delta varible speed and thats on slow. No way you can turn it up on high speed it shakes so bad.

I ordered one of those oneway balancing systems and realized when I got it it won't work on these wheels. The hole has to be 1" to work with the oneway system. These are 5/8" for my 8" grinder.

Does anyone know how to balance these things so it won't be this bad?

[Bill Huber]

I don't know the answer to your question but I will say that I had a wheel I installed on my grinder and when I started it, it almost jumped off the bench.

What I found was the bushing that should go over the shaft of the grinder was not installed in the wheel.

The wheel should go on the shaft of the grinder with NO play in it at all, if there is some play you need to get a bushing to take that play out.

[David Hostetler]

Rex,

I had the same problem when I mounted the Norton wheels a while ago. It ended up not being a problem with the wheel itself, but with the cheap stack of plastic bushings that throws the mass off balance.

The Thread where I hammered this out is in the turning fourm...

Long story short though, you need a pair of single piece press fit drill bushings. Don Geiger was nice enough to give us a listing of the part #s from McMaster Carr.

Next, and this is the spendy part, order up Don Geiger's dressing and truing solution. (Wolverine jig or similar platform required) and shave off the excess from the wheel making it concentric.

Just let me say this about it, When I installed the Norton wheels, the grinder would actually make my entire workbench try to dance across the shop floor. By chucking those cheap plastic bushings and putting in the single piece steel ones, and truing it up, my grinder now runs smooth as silk.

Just for reference, my grinder is a Ryobi BGH-827.

[Rex Williams]

My norton wheels doesn't have any bushings. It is a 5/8" hole in the wheel, no bushings what so ever.

I have done everything I know to try and it's still like you say my work bench almost dances....The lite bulb in the grinder will unscrew it's self...

[Keith Westfall]

Even though it doesn't have any bushings, does it fit the shaft snugly? If not, you can shim it with almost anything - I used brass shim stock.

Then you will need a wheel dresser (diamond stone) and true up the wheels. That should make it work properly...

Keep us posted.

keith

[Joe Bradshaw]

Rex, return the Norton wheels to the store that you purchased them from and try a new set. I recently bought 2 Norton wheels for my Baldor bench grinder and attempted to balance them with the Oneway system. Both of the wheels were so heavy on one side that they were impossible to balance. I returned them to Woodcraft and got two new ones. I also, took my balancing system with me so that I could show the folks at Woodcraft how bad they were. I also tried out 2 new Norton wheels and balanced them in the store.

[Tom Godley]

I had a problem with the Norton wheels - both the white and the 3x. Putting a straight edge on the side of the wheel I could see that they were like a potato chip! I sent them back -- the replacements were better but not perfect.

IMO the newer grinders add to the problem. They are lighter and just not built to the tolerances of those just a few years ago. The new Delta is a perfect example.

I just ordered the wheel dresser from Don G to go with my Vertical Solution that he sells - and I am going to follow his advise setting up the wheels on my new 8" Industrial Grizzly.

[John McClanahan]

Tom, you are so right. I own one of the "prefect examples". Its an 8" VS model.

John

[Tom Esh]

...I recently bought 2 Norton wheels for my Baldor bench grinder and attempted to balance them with the Oneway system. Both of the wheels were so heavy on one side that they were impossible to balance...

+1 on that. The Nortons work nicely, but I ended up fabricating extra weights for the Oneway to get one balanced.