Bench grinder wheels

[Prashun Patel]

Any recommendations besides the Nortons? Are the 3x stones much better than the regular ones?

[Don Geiger]

I am very happy with the 3X wheels. I like the fact I can get them with a 1" hole, ditch the plastic bushings and replace them with 1" o.d X 5/8" i.d. X 1" long steel headless drill bushings (available from McMaster-Carr for $9.60 each).

When you install any wheel: use 3/4" o.d. paper sticky dots placed between the edge of the cup washers and the sides of the wheel to correct for side to side wobble.

Then use a wheel truing device (not just a hand held wheel dresser) to make the wheels truly concentric to the axle.

Do these few things and the vibration in the grinder will be significantly reduced and your tools will not bounce on the surface. You can do all this without investing in a wheel balancing system.

Don Geiger

[Roger Chandler]

Ditto what Don said!

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Do these few things and the vibration in the grinder will be significantly reduced and your tools will not bounce on the surface. You can do all this without investing in a wheel balancing system.

I followed Don's advice and directions on my WC slow speed grinder in my shop. I was amazed at just how amazingly effective it was at getting rid of all of the wobble. I still need a better truing device than the T-Handle diamond thing I have but all in all I have been extremely pleased with that I have been able to do.

I was having somewhat mixed results with the Oneway balancing system. The first wheel worked perfectly. The second wheel after 4 tries with 4 different wheels was never been than OK.

For my wheels I went and got the white wheels from Hartville tool. They were on sale and had free shipping and they have been working really well for me. I want to try and blue 3x wheel but given how well the white are working I just am having trouble justifying the added cost. On sale I paid about $20 a wheel, normal price is $24. And the service at Hartville tools was pretty darn amazing.

With those wheels I had some side to side wobble. With the addition of just 4 sticky dots there is now NO wobble.

I just have to fix the bearings in the stupid thing, get a good dressing system and I should be truly golden.

Just my $0.02 worth,
Joshua

[Reed Gray]

Woodcraft does have a diamond wheel now, 120 grit, sold as green river, or wood river. Saw a long post about it on the Aussie Woodworking forum. It is on an aluminum core, 1 inch wide, with 3/16 to 1/4 inch of abrasive bonded to the wheel. No balancing necessary, suppossedly never needs to be trued, or cleaned. Price is over $100 (maybe $150?) I haven't tried it out yet, but it got a good review.

I have CBN wheels, and to date, I am the only turner who uses them that I know of. CBN (cubic boric nitride or some thing like that) is an abrasive material made for grinding steel. Same set up on an aluminum core. Cost was $300 per wheel. One wheel is 5 years old and hasn't worn half way through. They do need to be cleaned with hard aluminum oxide abrasive sticks applied to the wheel. Diamond dressers won't work because the CBN eats them. I take them back to the maker maybe once a year to get them trued up, as they do get some run out. They are custom made to whatever grit you want. I have 80 and 150 grit. They run pretty cool, and leave a shiny surface, smoother than comparable grit aluminum oxide wheels.

robo hippy

[Rob Cunningham]

I have a Norton 3X wheel on my 3450 rpm grinder and like it. It holds up well between dressings and I haven't turned any tools blue from too much heat.

[Jake Helmboldt]

Can someone elaborate on the sticky dot thing? First, what are the sticky dots, and secondly, how are they used to correct for wobble?

thanks, JH

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jake...I suspect you put them on the stone to fill any gap between the washer and the stone when you tighten the nut. Any gap would allow the stone to wobble. You stick a sticker in the gap...it fills it and the stone can't wobble. You are using it as a stick-on shim.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I like my 3X wheels. They work great.