Grinder Vibration Question

[Patrick Schneider]

I replaced the wheels on my slow speed grinder with 8" 60 grit and 120 grit aluminum oxide replacements. While I know they are on tight, I'm getting excessive vibration and I notice when sharpening gouges that only portions of the wheel are coming in contact with the gouge when sharpening. I can tell this from the portions of the wheel that have metal residue on them. The new wheels have a 1 1/4" mounting hole that has plastic bushings that stack inside of each other to fit it to my spindle. I'm thinking that maybe this arrangement is what causes the wheels to be out of balance. I could try dressing the wheels to get them back in balance but I hate to remove material unnecessarily, especially when they are new from Woodcraft. I've also thought about turning a set of properly sized bushings from hard wood to see if that eliminates the problem. Anyone with ideas or comments about how to remedy this issue, your input is appreciated.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Patrick,

The first thing I would do is remove the wheels and take a tape measure and measure every 45º around the wheel and make sure it is circular.

The 2nd thing I'd do is pull the wheel and measure from the hole in the middle to the outside edge every 45º to make sure the hole is centered on the wheel.

If the wheel is circular and the hole is centered, then I start worrying about the bushings.

JMHO.

I have a Woodcraft slow speed grinder. I had vibration with it when I first got it. What I found was one of the nuts that holds the wheel on was defective. The threaded hole in that nut was not perpendicular to the surface of the nut. Thus when you tightened it, only about 20 % of the surface of the nut was making contact with the washer. This allowed the wheel to wobble sideways as it was spinning. Replacing the defective nut fixed the problem. I doubt if that is your problem, however.


Good luck!

[robert hainstock]

You might want to see if the wheels are turning in the round. Lay a screwdriver tip on the tool rest tight against the whel, With the power plug pulled, rotate the wheel 360 degrees. This will establish the most outward area of the wheel. then holding the tip at that spot, rotate the wheel another round. If much spacing appears, the wheels are out of round or the bushings are forcing them out. May narrow it down a bit. As has been said already, good luck! :eek::):)
Bob

[David Wilhelm]

I had/have the same problem with I'm betting the same wheels. I took a chunk out of my stock wheel and orderd a new 120. When I installed it it ran so out of round it looked like a old wagon wheel. I called WC and the guy told me i had to dress the sides of the wheel???? I told him i had a call on the other line and hung up. I removed the wheel and cleaned and recleaned the staft, debured both inner and outer wheel cups. This took care of the side wobble issues. I checked the cheap bushings and there wasn't much hope there so I dressed the wheel after torqing the nuts. I still have high spots. But i get a good grind and my toold do not bounce I'll dress her again and again in time. But i wont buy another one of these wheels

[Frank Drew]

Wow, that's odd advice from Woodcraft; dressing the sides of grinding wheels can be extremely dangerous.

If the face of one or more of the wheels is slightly out of round, but the side nice and true, dressing the face won't sacrifice too much material.

[Wayne Cannon]

It's pretty rare to find a wheel that is well-balanced out of the box. Look at OneWay's wheel balancing kit. It really makes a big difference.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Patrick - had the same problem and dressed the wheels - multiple times to no avail. Finally broke down and picked up Oneway's Balancing system - works great now!

[David Wilhelm]

Yes It was WRONG advice and I'd have to point out it came from the person I was speaking with who worked for woodcraft. I know I coudl have taken the wheel back and exchanged it or got a full refund no questions asked but I didnt' care to bother the time and gas it would take was not worth the effort.

[Dennis Yoder]

Between the Oneway balanceing system and Don Geiger's trueing system, I took care of just the same problem with my system. Dennis Y

[Terry Achey]

I replaced the wheels on my slow speed grinder with 8" 60 grit and 120 grit aluminum oxide replacements. While I know they are on tight, I'm getting excessive vibration and I notice when sharpening gouges that only portions of the wheel are coming in contact with the gouge when sharpening. I can tell this from the portions of the wheel that have metal residue on them. The new wheels have a 1 1/4" mounting hole that has plastic bushings that stack inside of each other to fit it to my spindle. I'm thinking that maybe this arrangement is what causes the wheels to be out of balance. I could try dressing the wheels to get them back in balance but I hate to remove material unnecessarily, especially when they are new from Woodcraft. I've also thought about turning a set of properly sized bushings from hard wood to see if that eliminates the problem. Anyone with ideas or comments about how to remedy this issue, your input is appreciated.

I just had the same problem with a wheel I got from Woodcraft! The wheel had a one inch center hole with flimsy stacking plastic bushings that felt sloppy when aligned together. I find it hard to believe that you can attain a relatively true center mount with such a flimsy mechanism. I too felt that dressing the wheel to center (knock off high spot) wasn't the correct approach so I simply didn't do anything about yet. I understand the one way balancer will address balancing, but this plastic bushing is so grossly flimsy when trying to bush from 5/8" shaft to 1" hole that it seems there must be a better way.

Thanks for the post. I hope to learn a fix, too.