What Am I Doing Wrong

[Reginald Burgess]

I recently bought the One Way wheel balancing kit for my 8 inch slow speed grinder. I balanced the wheel and it appears to be balanced on the base according ding to the directions but once I put the wheel back on the machine and try grinding a tool, it's "bumpy" like driving down a pot-holed road. What am I doing wrong? Any help will be GREATLY appreciated!

[Brian Kent]

I assume that after balancing you dress the wheel with a diamond dresser?

[Aric Krueger]

My first thought is the same as Brian's. Have you re-dressed the wheels since you reassembled it? If not, try that and see if that helps.

[Justin Stephen]

Yup, if the grinder spindle is true (which it almost certainly is) and you do not see any horizontal travel/wobble, the only cause of the bumpiness must be that the wheel is out of round. Dressing it would be the way to go.

[Brian Kent]

And then just to be difficult, after you re-dress he wheels does that just throw off the balance?

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Reginald,
The One Way balancing set up works well if you take some tome to get it set right. Here are the steps I go through with a new wheel. I mount the balancing hubs on the wheel being sure to tighten them enough so the torque you assert when tightening the grinder wheel won't loosen them. I'm sure you saw that one is made for left and the other specifically left hand thread for the right. Balance them until you can turn the wheel anywhere on the balancing bearings without the wheel wanting to move. That's half the battle. Now you have a balanced wheel but not necessarily one that will run true.
Mount the wheels and true the surface with either a Oneway dresser or a Geiger dresser. Unfortunately, a hand held T shaped dresser won't do it when you are trying for precision. When you true the wheels, you may take off more on one side of the wheel than the other. That will cause the wheel to become unbalanced again. Here is the trick. Mark an alignment mark on the wheel and the grinder then remove and rebalance the wheel without loosening the balancing hubs. Move the weight screws until true balance is achieved then remount on the grinder aligning the marks so the wheels are in the same place on the shaft as they were prior.
After you do all this, throw away the wheel and the balancing hubs and buy a CBN wheel from Dave at D-Way.
faust

[Roger Chandler]

One thing you ought to check and that is the bushing in the center of the wheel......some wheels come with plastic bushings and that can cause all kinds of issues with a wheel running true........I replaced the plastic bushings on my Norton 3x wheel with a steel bushing from McMaster Carr........that solved all the issues with an unbalanced wheel for me......

[Alan Trout]

As others have suggested I bet the wheel is not round. A good single point diamond dresser like Don Geiger makes will get it trued up.

Alan

[Reginald Burgess]

Thanks for all your comments. The issue did amount to truing the wheels. I had been using the hand held thing and they were way off. I bought the Wolvarine diamon point and trued the wheels and now they work geat. I think I will take the advice to get the steel bushings as well. Sounds like a great idea.