Apparently I am stupid, grinder help please?

[Rick Cicciarelli]

Picked up a new variable speed Porter Cable grinder from Lowes and two
different Norton grinding stones for sharpening my turning tools. The wheels
seem to be pretty flat front to back (round) when mounted on the grinder.
But they have quite a bit of side-to-side wobble that I can't seem to get rid
of. I have tried to turn the wheel itself on the arbor to see if I can minimize it
which seems to help, but there is still a good about of side-to-side wobble
in the wheel. The wheel came with the plastic inserts for the wheel to correctly
fit the arbor on my grinder. Is there some trick to mounting this that I have never
been told??

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Rick, are the flanged washers true?

Do they touch the paper blotter on the side of the wheel the entire circumference?

Regards, Rod.

[David Hostetler]

And are you using the Norton plastic bushings or do the wheels ride directly on your arbor? I had some serious trouble with the Norton plastic bushings. I replaced them with steel machine bushings from McMaster Carr and have been happy as a clam since...

There is a very real, albeit slight possibility that your wheel was cut with a slightly off square mounting bore... It happens but is very rare, chances are you are suffering from lousy bushings...

I had a thread on here when I had trouble with the Norton wheels / bushings...

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...r-or-Wolverine

See post #19 for a listing of part #s for the various arbor bores. Chances are you need to order the #8491A562 bushings.

Once it is lined up, don't be so sure it is perfectly round. I still had a touch of vibration even after the bushings. I got Don Geiger's dressing and truing tool. Spendy, but it did the trick. Now my grinder runs smooth as glass... And that's with a cheap Ryobi 8" full speed grinder OneWay called for a full speed 8" grinder with the Wolverine system, I figured they are the experts... so I went with it. No regrets so far, but all my tools are HSS and I use a cooling water cup when grinding...

Too bad you aren't local. I'd offer to swing by and true that wheel up for you once you got the bushings corrected...

[Adam Alloway]

Might have to balance the wheels. They sell kits to do it.

[Chip Lindley]

Make sure the arbor shafts run TRUE on the brand new Porter Cable grinder. I'm jus' sayin'.....

[Rick Cicciarelli]

I just spent another hour fussing with it and got it within what I would call acceptable parameters. There is still a very slight side to side wobble. I have a feeling it is probably those plastic bushings. I might look at those metal ones that were suggested. It is now running smoother than any other grinder I have seen, but my OCD still notices the slight side to side wobble that causes some vibration upon startup.

[Gerald Senburn]

Are you sure they're actually wobbling? Many grinding wheels are simply lumpy. If the grinder is running smoothly, side-to-side doesn't matter.

In any case, the Oneway wheel balancing kit is a good investment. Even with good quality wheels, my grinder runs much more smoothly once the wheels were balanced.

[Eddie Darby]

Mark your plastic bushings so you know their location, and then spin by hand your wheel.
Mark the wheel where it is furthest out, and then rotate the plastic bushings to a new location.
Recheck the wheel to see if the wobble has changed.
If the wobble has changed locations, then it is the plastic bushings that are doing it.
Just buy some new plastic bushings.

[John McClanahan]

I have the Delta 8" VS grinder. The wheels are junk. I have the same problem with the gray one.

John

[Mike OMelia]

I thought grinders came with "trueing" tools... some kind of metal thing you press against new stones to round them out. Mine did... but I've never replaced the wheels, and not sure I know where that tool for trueing is either. But I did use it initially according to the instructions. Uh, you did, and I mean this with NO sarcasm, read those, right? I hate when someone says that to me... mainly because for me, the answer is usually no. I mean, why would you need instructions for a grinder?

Maybe I am on some other topic... sorry.

Mike

[Myk Rian]

I use the diamond hones to face my wheels.

[Ronald Blue]

You need to use a wheel dresser to "true" the wheels. There are two or three different styles for this type grinder. There are no grinding wheels made that can be put on and have no run out. If you are referring to side to side wobble that would be a different issue and could be the result of the bushings. You will need to be able to true the wheel from normal use anyway.

[Richard Dooling]

Wait a second. What am I missing?

The plastic bushings would affect front to rear centering but should have no effect on side to side wobble. Once tightened front to back true is fixed by dressing the wheel - an option not available for side to side wobble.

I believe poorly made wheels, flanges and arbors would cause side to side wobble. I have seen this on my grinder and I feel that poor QA on the wheels and the cheap stamped flanges are largely to blame. I'd be willing to buy properly MILLED flanges but can't find them. I bought a fairly expensive Norton blue wheel and threw it in the corner because it is so out of true.

One reason I suspect the flanges is that if I carefully rotate the wheels relative to the inboard flange I can get much less wobble. Plus even a cursory examination of the flanges show that on most machines they are poorly made.

The OP specifically noted side to side wobble. I occasionally hand spin grinders in the big box stores as well as in specialty stores and almost never see less than obvious side to side wobble on the wheels. Seriously, try it. It's amazing.

Poorly made bushings are an issue also, but it seems outside of the original subject of the original post.

So now I just ignore the wobble it and just use the grinder. Still it's very bothersome to me.

.

[John McClanahan]

Wheel dressing tools are to be used on the grinding edge of the wheel only, not the sides of common wheels. Side to side wobble could be the flanges, but most likely its the result of a poorly made wheel.

John

[Richard Dooling]

Wheel dressing tools are to be used on the grinding edge of the wheel only, not the sides of common wheels. Side to side wobble could be the flanges, but most likely its the result of a poorly made wheel.

John

I am in no way advocating attempting to true the wheels side to side wobble with a wheel dresser.

As I stated,"Once tightened, front to back true is fixed by dressing the wheel - an option not available for side to side wobble."

If the flanges, or at least the shaft shoulder that the inner flange rests against are not a common problem then why do so many suggested cures involve carefully rotating the wheel to a new position relative to the inner flange and then seeing if there is an improvement. I've done this successfully but without an arbor lock it's hard to tighten both wheels enough to not slip a little during the first few uses and then you're right back where you started!

I still can't see how bushings that do not control lateral position can help with side wobble.

I do intend to look into better bushings for what I believe they can fix though. If it fixes the wobble then I'll very happily eat my words. I developed quite a taste for crow over the years.