grinding wheel blues

[Tony Wheeler]

Guys I need help. i went and spent the big money on a notron SG grinding wheel and it wobbles on start up after sending on back and the kind company sending me another on after i keep tring to get it alined. The new one does the same thing only not as bad. The bad thing is that while I was laid up I didn't send it back again and I have ground on it. Then a freind came over that is a machinst with all his dail indactors and such. We could find no problem with the grinder or the comoression washers. The only thing we could come up with is that the hole in the stone is loose on the shaft. On the other side or the grinder the course (60) stone came with plastic bushings and fitts much tighter on the shaft and it wobbles very little on start up and cost a quater of the price of the norton. Has anybody had the same problems? I haven't mesured the grinder shaft yet to see if it is under sized or not since I didn't think it would be nessary since the course stone fits tight. By the way it is a craftsman variable speed grinded that I got for a gift from son is the only reason that it has not been replaced?

[Andrew Derhammer]

Did you true the stone w/ a dressing tool?

[Gordon Seto]

You are paying top dollar for the best grinding wheel, you shouldn't expect anything less in quality. If you true it up and it still vibrates, you should let them know they got a bad batch, and see what you can do to correct it.

I got mine from CSUSA. It has 5/8" hole for 5/8" shaft, I couldn't use the Oneway wheel balancer. I asked them about it. I was told the SG wheels are very uniform in density; it doesn't need to use the wheel balancer because they are fairly balanced from the factory. Mine runs very steady.

[Tom Godley]

I had problems with Norton wheels a few months ago.

When I was setting up my sharpening station I ordered a blue and a white Norton wheel online - I spent a little more to get the Norton white wheel and the blue is the newer 3x (or is it 2x) wheel that Norton makes.

Both of the wheels had a wobble -- as if they had warped -- The only way to fix the wheel would be to grind the sides! When I first e-mailed the supplier about the problem he did not understand what I was talking about -- he went and looked at some of the stock and e-mailed me back that other wheels had the same problem as those that were sent to me.

One thing about the Norton wheels that is really dumb is the use of cheap plastic for the arbor bushings. The bushings slip into one another depending on the final size needed - they are not as tight as others that I have. This design allows the bushing to move a little depending on the way your grinder holds the wheel. Both of my grinders have washers for holding the wheels that have quite a bit of space at the inside arbor area -- and this would allow the Norton plastic arbor sleeve to move.

This arbor bushing is a different design from my other older wheels -- one of the new wheels was made in China the other had no markings? I did notice the other day when I went to get a few small 4" grinding wheels for a handheld grinder that all of the Norton wheels for it were made in China - These looked to be of the same high quality of other Norton wheels that I have purchased.

I wonder if they moved some or all production of the larger wheels to China and changed the design at the same time??

I did get new wheels an also put a drop of glue into one of the sleeves to hold them tight - but I will look at other wheels when I need them in the future.

[Doug Thompson]

Forget the plastic bushings... make your own from wood to fit snug... problem solved.

[Andrew Derhammer]

Forget the plastic bushings... make your own from wood to fit snug... problem solved.
But he doesn't have sharp tools to make a bushing:p

[Tony Wheeler]

thanks guys this is not the 3x stone but the SG that cost three times the 3X I went todays to try to find bushing and the only thing I could come up with that might work is some shim stock . Thje wheel wobbles 60 thousands but the hole is only about 20 to 25 thousands larger than the shaft.

[Randy Degen]

I have a craftsman grinder and also bought some new norton sg wheels mine wobble too these wheels are made south of the bourder MEXICO. Part of the problem was the washers on the grinder as it would walk across the bench when I turned it on . I then balanced the wheels with the Oneway system and they smoothed right out. I am also a toolmaker and use Norton SG wheels at work and never have the problems I had with the ones from mexico the ones at work are from the USA. Randy