Oneway Balancer System

[John Ponder]

Has anyone tried the Oneway Balancer with the stock wheels that come on the Woodcraft slow speed grinder? The hole in the center on mine measure 7/8 with a reducer to 5/8 and the kit says they must be 1 inch.

Thanks,
John

[Jim Becker]

I seem to remember that the Woodcraft wheels are a no-go with the balancing system. (But the balancing system is outstanding...I have it on a pair of Norton 3X wheels and couldn't be happier)

[Larry Marley]

Darn! I was thinking of picking this up.
guess I need to pick this up with a couple Norton 3X wheels...

[Larry Marley]

I see on the oneway web site that they sell 1/2", 5/8", and 3/4" versions

[Steve Schlumpf]

Sorry I missed this thread until now. I picked up the 5/8" Oneway Balance System about a year ago and it works great. I have the Woodcraft slow speed grinder and was able to balance the wheels that came with the grinder. I have since picked up a Norton and a Rockler wheel so I could have different grits than what came with the grinder.

[Mike Minto]

i spoke with a rep at woodcraft the other day, and he told me the reason the balancing system comes in different versions is so that it may accomodate grinders with different sized arbors; after fit onto the grinder, it then required the wheels to have 1" arbor holes to fit the 'balancer' arbor. true? not? please expand & explain. thanks, mike:confused:

[Steve Schlumpf]

Mike - you got me to thinking and I couldn't remember the details - so I went digging.

Found the manual for the balancing system as well as for the grinder. The balancing system comes in 3 different sizes to fit different size arbors. The Woodcraft slow speed has a 5/8" arbor. I looked in the box that the balance system came in and found a number of plastic bushings that are used to adapt the grinder wheels to different size arbors. Figured they must have come off the original wheels...

I remembered that I had kept the original grinding wheels - so dug around until I found both of them. Amazingly - the arbor size on both of those wheels were fixed at 5/8". So - there was NO WAY I balanced the original wheels. I just remembered getting everything balanced and running and being real happy with the end result.

So, looking back - shortly after getting the balancing system, I picked up 2 new wheels (120 grit and a 150 grit) both with a 1" arbor (I know because I just looked) and then used the Oneway system to balance each wheel.

My mistake - sorry for any confusion this has caused!

[Larry Marley]

OK,
Thanks Steve!

Woodcraft Slow speed grinder is 5/8" arbor, need 1" wheel for oneway balancer system.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Went down to the shop and grabbed the boxes - so no more memory lapses. The 5/8" Precision Balancing System from Oneway is part #2272. The Norton stone that I picked up is listed as a 8x1x1 - so that would be 8" diameter wheel x 1" wide x 1" arbor hole.

Hope that helps. Now I have to go find some memory pills or something...

[John Ponder]

Thanks Guys,
You confirmed what I suspected (and didn't state well) originally. If I use the balancer I have to buy new wheels. Has anyone tried the Sorby belt sharpening system?

John

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Memory pills? Is that by prescription only? I need to get me some......

That Sorby system looks really good. But probably pricey, as all Sorby products are. Not saying anything bad. They make a damn good bowl gouge. You pay for what you get. SUCKA! (A-team B.A. quote. Anyone remember?)

[Narayan Nayar]

John,

Honestly, the 3x Norton wheels don't have to be an up-front cost for you. I'd recommend getting the Woodcraft grinder and using the wheels which come with it, which are perfectly fine and in general, reasonably balanced, then get the balancing system with replacement wheels as you need them.

That's what I did. I may have gotten a nominal performance increase by switching to the norton/one-way up front, but keep in mind, most people don't use either Norton wheels nor a balancing system and get fantastic results.

So if it's of concern to you, I'd recommend just staggering your purchases a bit and using the OEM wheels that come with the grinder until you need to replace them. No need to throw them out.

And yeah, the balancing system won't work with the WC wheels.

[John Ponder]

I had not thought about B.A. in years and right after reading your comment, there he was on TV.

Steve, where did you get the 120 and 150 grit Norton wheels? All I can find are the 80 and 100.

The stock WC wheels cut fine, they just wobble and I can't seem to get them to run true. WC replaced the grinder shortly after I got it for the same reason, this one is better but still not right. I can't blame them, I maybe expecting too much for $99. I hate to spend over $200 to fix a $99 grinder so any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Steve Schlumpf]

John, here are the sites that I ordered the wheels from:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10088&filter=grinding%20wheels for the 150 grit and for the 120 grit -

http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/10846
(http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/10846)

[John Ponder]

Steve,
Many thanks, I had not thought of Rockler and Hartville is a new source for me.

John

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - I have been a customer of Hartville tool for many years now and they are worth checking out when you are shopping for something. They do have sales every once in a while that really can save you some money!

[Narayan Nayar]

John,

I have an article from Woodcraft on how to fix common wobble problem with the WC grinder. It's very simple, and in effect, works much the same way as the Oneway balancing system (it involves making some marks on the wheel and the flange then rotating the flange/wheel until balance is better).

I'll see if I can dig it up. PM me your email address.

[Wyatt Holm]

Memory pills? Is that by prescription only? I need to get me some......

That Sorby system looks really good. But probably pricey, as all Sorby products are. Not saying anything bad. They make a damn good bowl gouge. You pay for what you get. SUCKA! (A-team B.A. quote. Anyone remember?)

Try garlic, you will remember after that.