Balancing grinder wheels/Oneway system

[Joe Cowan]

I have just received the new Jet slow speed bench grinder. I am a pretty good woodworker, but a klutz with mechanical issues. I have tried moving the wheel, the flange etc around but still have a wobble. I read a review on this grinder recently and the author commented on the trouble he had getting the wobble out. I did a search on here about this and came up with the Lee Valley Oneway system of wheel balancing. Anyone know about this? Below is the description from Lee Valley. One other question (I mentioned I was a klutz didn't I ?) wouldn't the arbor hole and shafts have to match up? This has arbor holes larger than the grinder shaft size???

"Suitable for wheels with 1" or 1-1/4" arbor holes, this simple jig comes with everything you need to balance two grinding wheels. The system includes a dual-bearing balancing stand and two mounting flanges, plus all the hardware needed to correct imbalance. Once balanced, rebalancing is not required for the life of the wheels.
Available for grinders with 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4" shafts with minimum spindle lengths of 2-3/16", 2-1/4", and 2-3/8" respectively"

[glenn bradley]

Lee Valley sells it. It is actually made by Oneway. It is pricey per wheel but, the system definitely works according to everything I have ever read about it. I would run your motor without wheels first to confirm it is really the wheels.

[Chris Fournier]

I have just received the new Jet slow speed bench grinder. I am a pretty good woodworker, but a klutz with mechanical issues. I have tried moving the wheel, the flange etc around but still have a wobble. I read a review on this grinder recently and the author commented on the trouble he had getting the wobble out. I did a search on here about this and came up with the Lee Valley Oneway system of wheel balancing. Anyone know about this? Below is the description from Lee Valley. One other question (I mentioned I was a klutz didn't I ?) wouldn't the arbor hole and shafts have to match up? This has arbor holes larger than the grinder shaft size???

"Suitable for wheels with 1" or 1-1/4" arbor holes, this simple jig comes with everything you need to balance two grinding wheels. The system includes a dual-bearing balancing stand and two mounting flanges, plus all the hardware needed to correct imbalance. Once balanced, rebalancing is not required for the life of the wheels.
Available for grinders with 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4" shafts with minimum spindle lengths of 2-3/16", 2-1/4", and 2-3/8" respectively"

When you say wobble what do you mean? Do you mean that you can see the wheel moving from side to side? Do you mean that the entire grinder vibrates?

Have you dressed the wheels on your grinder yet?

There really is no need for a system like you are asking about on the smaller wheels that woodworkers use. Properly dressing your wheels will likely sort out this issue for you. Goto a metal working forum and do a search in their grinding section to learn a lot from people who grind metal for a living, you will learn a lot.

[Bruce Page]

I bought the Oneway system to balance my wheels. It is a very simple & effective process but does require some patience to get the wheels perfectly balanced. The hardware is very nicely made.

[Bob Michaels]

+1 to what Bruce said. It works.

[Joe Cowan]

When you say wobble what do you mean? Do you mean that you can see the wheel moving from side to side? Do you mean that the entire grinder vibrates?

Have you dressed the wheels on your grinder yet?

There really is no need for a system like you are asking about on the smaller wheels that woodworkers use. Properly dressing your wheels will likely sort out this issue for you. Goto a metal working forum and do a search in their grinding section to learn a lot from people who grind metal for a living, you will learn a lot.


I have not even turned it on yet. I have just followed down the instructions and doing as they say about balancing the wheels. I had heard enough about vibrations with the wheels being unbalanced to feel it better to balance prior to getting the wheels up to full speed.

[Jeff Duncan]

I would run the grinder and see if it needs anything before spending money on ghosts. I have a couple grinders and I've never even thought about balancing the wheels. After some heavy grinding doing something like shaper steel I'll have to dress the stone a bit to get a flat face again. But I don't see a need to balance them? Seems to me if they needed to be balanced before using, then they were probably manufactured wrong?

good luck,
JeffD

[Benjamin Miller]

The wheels on my surface grinder do not need to be balanced, so I doubt balancing is what you're looking for here.

Your grinding wheel should be a tight slip fit on the arbor -- I'd expect edge runout to be less than .010" when measured with a dial indicator, and face runout to be less than .005".

You say that the wheel size is larger than the arbor. There should be a plastic bushing included with the wheel. If there isn't, you can order one from Enco for about $2 or have a friend with a metal lathe make one out of Delrin, UHMW, or PVC.

[Benjamin Miller]

I should add that you'll probably want to dress the wheel to be perfectly round and flat after mounting it. You can get a diamond dressing tool for about $10 from Enco and use a stop block or collar to register it against the tool rest, as seen at http://www.docsmachine.com/projects/baldor/baldor-09.html