Bench Grinder Blues !

I've always had this problem with bench top grinders. I finally abandoned the whole darn thing and went with a 2 X 72 belt grinder from Grizzly and a WEN (Tormek knockoff) slow speed grinder ($129 at Lowes) with a CBN wheel from Woodturners Wonders ($179) .
Balance doesn't really matter on the slow speed grinder. And there is simply NOTHING like this CBN wheel. Blows my mind every time I use it!

And the belt grinder has turned into easily the most used tool in the shop. Love that tool! Quick belt changes. Easy dust collection. Easy to see what you are doing!
Could not be more satisfied! The bench grinder is now only infrequently used for extreme, nasty grinding jobs.
 
I ended up making my own arbors out of aluminum to put 1" ID wheels on my small Delta 6" bench grinder.
These arbors have the flange built into one side, and you use the stock steel flanges on the other.
They are fit relatively tight onto the shafts so have virtually no runout, radially or axially.
Once trued up it runs very quiet and vibration free. There is a limited supply of 1" ID x 6" wheels but they work much better in my experience.
 
Went through the same issue with my Dewalt bench grinder
I pretty much gave up on my Dewalt 8" bench grinder. It's sitting on a shelf for a rainy day. Maybe it's time to revisit it.
I just can't seem to find decent bench grinding wheels. They are so out of balance it's ridiculous.
 
I ended up making my own arbors out of aluminum to put 1" ID wheels on my small Delta 6" bench grinder.
These arbors have the flange built into one side, and you use the stock steel flanges on the other.
They are fit relatively tight onto the shafts so have virtually no runout, radially or axially.
Once trued up it runs very quiet and vibration free. There is a limited supply of 1" ID x 6" wheels but they work much better in my experience.
That's what I was trying to say I did for mine, but not nearly as clearly lol. Though I made mine out of some scrap mild steel.

Even with that forcing my wheels to run true, they still make the grinder walk across the room due to the inconsistent density of the wheel. I'll have to put them on the balancing stand I made and see how much weight is needed to balance them statically.
 
These grinders generally do need to be fastened to a bench or stand... Should not walk around anymore.
I also paid dearly for the wheels on mine, believe they are Norton brand. I think they were these:

 
I made a couple of self balancing adapters for my Craftsman. The inner arbors are normal but the outer ones have a channel cut into the outside face, with a collection of ball bearings in the channel, followed up by a plate and then the nut. They do a great job with just a grinding wheel, but they can't quite balance a wire wheel, so I still get some vibration.
 
I had a really nice heavy old school 8" pedestal bench grinder. I had a minor accident with it. Sometime later, a fellow blacksmith was killed by his. I immediately sold mine on Craigslist for cheap. The fellow who bought it said it was funny. The factory he worked in got rid of all their wheel grinders and replaced them with belt grinders. This was enough for me. I still have a small bench grinder, but it is old fashioned and it runs slowly. I would like to look into one of those slow-speed grinders. If I want fast, there's the angle grinder.
 
I made a couple of self balancing adapters for my Craftsman. The inner arbors are normal but the outer ones have a channel cut into the outside face, with a collection of ball bearings in the channel, followed up by a plate and then the nut. They do a great job with just a grinding wheel, but they can't quite balance a wire wheel, so I still get some vibration.
You mean something like this? http://www.nwnative.us/Grant/shop articles/sharpTable/balancing/

I've thought about doing that for my own bench grinder for a while, but the arbor is barely long enough to fit the stamped flange and nut as it is. If I added an extra ball bearing balancer the arbor wouldn't be long enough for the nut. I might have to try adding internal threads to the balancer I could probably use it as a nut, might have to try that. I have yet to make internal threads on my lathe, let alone left hand internal threads lol.
 
I had a really nice heavy old school 8" pedestal bench grinder. I had a minor accident with it. Sometime later, a fellow blacksmith was killed by his. I immediately sold mine on Craigslist for cheap. The fellow who bought it said it was funny. The factory he worked in got rid of all their wheel grinders and replaced them with belt grinders. This was enough for me. I still have a small bench grinder, but it is old fashioned and it runs slowly. I would like to look into one of those slow-speed grinders. If I want fast, there's the angle grinder.
Looking at the various YouTube videos, there is a definite grouping of tool grinding fashions. The "slow-speed" genre seems to be using types that have one wheel right-angle drive, geared down, often originally with a wet wheel, as for sharpening woodwork tools. Leaving out the water, and mounting a low-cost diamond-coated thin metal against a MDF wheel, and setting up angle rests to grind tools on the flat(ish) face is another way.

I see a whole bunch of videos that use geared down drive and a cup wheel which has diamond impregnated resin around the rim. They vary from about 2" to 6". The result is a flat grind, and is apparently for carbide tools. Various projects go for the 12V or 24V DC motor worm drive.

Belt grinders is what I have not tried (yet). Working like a linisher, but with a long belt around a route of bearing rollers with a slight convex profile to keep the belt running centred, they are popular, especially the 2 x 72. Welding up one's own version of these seems to be a popular project. Folk also purchase these, and set about a series of "functional improvements" especially for guiding and setting angles.

The notion that grinding wheels are so dangerous one should trash them altogether is, I think, countered by the fact they have done useful work for centuries, and in the modern machine shop sense since the mid 1800's. I find it a bit disturbing the notion that maybe the wheel quality is going down, such that there are unbalanced mass regions internally. (Ref @Janderso #13).

Can it be true that the wheel uniformity and quality from brands like (say) Norton and others is now not what it used to be? Is it now only to be CBN (Cubic Boron Nitride) or PCD (Poly-Crystalline Diamond) in various resin bonds? They may be great, but to quickly carve away tool steel or carbide to a shape does seem quite well done by a aluminium oxide or silicon carbide wheel. They do very well on surface grinders also.
 
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I’m glad people are paying attention to the fact bench grinders can be dangerous. Yes they can kill and maim but so can everything else in the shop if not maintained and used with respect. It’s also why I don’t let just anybody waltz in and use my grinders. They are most dangerous in a big shop when some idiot can jam something in one and then walk away. In a case like that the wheel should be removed and inspected and checked that it still rings. But in a big shop that never happens, it’s just left for the next poor guy. But as far as I know a wheel that rings mounted properly has never exploded.

It seems the quality of wheels is not what it used to be, but in my case I’m happy there’s a fix. Bench grinders and wheels last decades if properly taken care of.
 
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