Aluminum Oxide grinding wheel

[redvan22]

Hello again,
Hope everyone is well.

A popular gal on YT with blond hair recommended throwing out the grey wheels that come with most bench grinders and going with 60 grit Aluminum Oxide wheels, which I must say, I obeyed. I did this primarily to get the most out of my tiny 6" bench grinder after learning quite a bit from another post of mine about wheels (thank you).

There was another reason as well. The wheel I had on the grinder was out of round considerably and using a star wheel (recommended on my other post) I was unable to true the wheel to the point where the grinder didn't want to shake, rattle and roll off the bench once turned off. It was horrible listening to it wind down.

Anyway, a new Norton 6" x 3/4" 60 grit Aluminum Oxide wheel came from Amazon today with the most deplorable plastic arbor sleeves to accommodate shafts from 1/2" up to 1" that I had to make an aluminum arbor spacer to eliminate the sloppy slack these sleeves provided which naturally led to a wobble I've never seen except for the town drunk and a horrible wind down to match.

Much to my amazement, my well fitting spacer turned to the exact size of the wheel hole and reamed to the exact size of the shaft didn't make much of a difference, the new wheel still seemed to wobble and the wind down was worse than with the old wheel.

Did I get a bad wheel?
Do I need to true it after installation?

I did check the shaft and without the wheel, it seems to run true with no discernible run-out.

What is going on here, any serious suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Mike.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

if the center bore is out of square,
all bets are off- you will chase your tail

 

[francist]

I bought a new Norton 3X wheel last year (this is the ceramic-alumina one) and had the same experience. I can’t remember if I made new bushings or not, but I did have to true the wheel to get it to run acceptably. Not a big deal and it trued quickly, I just expected more from a fairly expensive wheel and the Norton name. Live and learn, as they say

-frank

 

[springer]

I had similar experience with a cheap 6" bench grinder. I basically wrote it off and just used my nice 10" for everything until I saw a video on youtube about fixing a cheap 6" bench grinder. Basically, the big washers or whatever they are that clamp on the wheel are junk. I turned new ones from aluminum and it's like a brand new, well better than new grinder. Took 99.9% of the wobble and walk out of it.

Easy and fun project, i practiced hitting very tight tolerance even tho it wasnt necessary. Might be worth a try.

 

[Tozguy]

A wheel is not meant to be mounted using the bore to align it. The wheel should be only held and guided by the side flanges.
The bushings for the hole are only to get the wheel in the ballpark and there should be clearance to allow you to adjust the wheel in the flanges for minimal run out of the outside circumference. Once the wheel is mounted and the side flanges snug but not tight you can tap the wheel with a wooden dowel to get the circumference running true. Then tighten the flanges.
Any metal tight in the hole that expands from heat might crack the wheel.

 

[Lo-Fi]

If you don't mind a little project and want to make life easy getting the wheel running true before dressing, this method may be worth considering:

 

[WCraig]

Grinding wheels often need to be balanced to run without vibration. There are tonnes of resources out there. Following is Youtube search:

YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Craig

 

[Tim9]

Even Norton wheels seem to be way out of round these days. I usually throw away the spacers that come with the wheel and make a new spacer out of Delrin. Don’t use aluminum. I have read warnings about possible damage to the wheels if the aluminum expands. Anyway PVC or Delrin works great. And make sure you have good flange washers on each side of the grinding wheel. I’ve made new ones out of aluminum. It’s fine there. Make sure the wheel has the paper washer on each side. If not, you can get construction paper...poster paper and make these. Cereal boxes even work good for a paper washer. You just don’t want that steel or aluminum pressing hard against a grinding wheel.

Even then... New Norton wheels aren’t much better than most of the other brands. I’ve been using the ones made in Israel. CGW brand on EBay. I like that brand. They aren’t too expensive and seem to be pretty good in my opinion. They too need to be trued.

I true my wheels with the star wheel tool to get them up to snuff when new. Once trued....I then keep the little boron trueing black bars to keep them nice and smooth.

but, bottom line is all the new wheels seem to be way out Of round when new.

But, even then I have to true all of my new wheels I’ve recently installed. That said, nice big old cast iron grinders tend to be less troublesome. And the old craftsman grinders are excellent too. I have a couple of them. Sears sold the crap out of those grinders and you can find nice used ones on EBay all the time. They are great little shop grinders.

by the way....that Robenz video posted by Lo-Fi is cool. It’s on my list. But that list of mine is Lonnnnnnngggggg.

 

[projectnut]

Even Norton wheels seem to be way out of round these days. I usually throw away the spacers that come with the wheel and make a new spacer out of Delrin. Don’t use aluminum. I have read warnings about possible damage to the wheels if the aluminum expands. Anyway PVC or Delrin works great. And make sure you have good flange washers on each side of the grinding wheel. I’ve made new ones out of aluminum. It’s fine there. Make sure the wheel has the paper washer on each side. If not, you can get construction paper...poster paper and make these. Cereal boxes even work good for a paper washer. You just don’t want that steel or aluminum pressing hard against a grinding wheel.

Even then... New Norton wheels aren’t much better than most of the other brands. I’ve been using the ones made in Israel. CGW brand on EBay. I like that brand. They aren’t too expensive and seem to be pretty good in my opinion. They too need to be trued.

I true my wheels with the star wheel tool to get them up to snuff when new. Once trued....I then keep the little boron trueing black bars to keep them nice and smooth.

but, bottom line is all the new wheels seem to be way out Of round when new.

But, even then I have to true all of my new wheels I’ve recently installed. That said, nice big old cast iron grinders tend to be less troublesome. And the old craftsman grinders are excellent too. I have a couple of them. Sears sold the crap out of those grinders and you can find nice used ones on EBay all the time. They are great little shop grinders.

by the way....that Robenz video posted by Lo-Fi is cool. It’s on my list. But that list of mine is Lonnnnnnngggggg.

Your experiences have been just about the opposite of mine. I purchased a few CGW wheels a while ago. Every one of them turned out to be junk. They either wobbled side to side on the arbor, or were out of round. I ended up tossing all of them in the trash and replacing them with Norton and Radiac wheels

 

[redvan22]

Well,
I see my post once again has been swamped with helpful advise, I truly love this site.

I took the flanged washers (stepped washers? don't know what to call them) to my surface plate and indicated them and they can best be described as wedges. I need new ones or maybe just big flat washers. I don't think they can be corrected being stamped no doubt from 3/32" steel. (Funny thing is a friend told me that the wheel and flange washers have become one over time and and disturbing them would be a mistake. I now wish I had a rewind button for my actions.) There is just far too much in the way of videos, which I've been watching all morning, one says do it this way another contradicts that method, just too much so here's my plan...

I do not have Delrin nor do I know where to get any so I'm going to use the shabby sleeves that came with the wheel and get some 2" or 2 1/2" washers with a 1/2" hole and use them. I saw one video where it was stated that the supplied sleeves are meant to be slightly loose to allow tapping the wheel visually with a wood dowel to get it reasonably centered. I will use this 'tapping' method and then I will have to true it using a star wheel (most preferred) and go from there.

Thanks again everyone for the help and guidance.
Mike.