Is it possible to buy a quality 8” bench grinder wheel?

[Janderso]

I am so tired of severe vibration from the bench grinders.
I know how to balance a wheel, I have a cheap Dewalt and a good quality Baldor 8”.
Am I better off going to a 6”?
These wheels have lateral runout exceeding .050”.
I’d be willing to pay for a quality wheel.
Norton are all made in Mexico, not that it’s a bad thing But the QC is awful.
I just unpacked a McMaster Carr Norton grain and grade 57A24-P7VBE. It’s awful.
I never use to have this problem.
My surface grinder wheels aren’t the best quality either.
Please recommended your brand preference.
Thank you

 

[benmychree]

Try A.P. DeSanno, that is what I used on my surface grinder at my downtown shop and at Kaiser steel back in the day; they used to have a plant in Santa Cruz, but I think they are back East now. Also check out how much wobble there is in the arbor washers on your grinders, the Baldor should be OK, but the DeWalt, who knows?

 

[Bob Korves]

Check the spindle for runout, and also check all the hardware that holds the wheels in place for issues. everything should fit snug to the spindle so they do not runout, wheel too. They also must be machined 'square to the world.' Some of that stuff is awful nowadays. You can shim stuff with paper or whatever to lessen the runout.

 

[Dabbler]

Lee valley sells a canuck made balancing solution for bench grinders. It is called oneway balancing system. it might give you what you want... (easy to find via Google)

 

[Ulma Doctor]

you can make new arbor bushings and true the wheel with a grinding wheel dresser

i have saved some pretty sad wheels that way

(Warning: Not recommended for the faint of heart- there is a risk of wheel explosion- if you try to save the wrong wheel)

 

[mikey]

In my limited experience, out of square arbor washers are the biggest cause of excessive vibration on bench grinders. Make sure the front and back faces of each washer are parallel to eliminate them as a cause.

 

[ACHiPo]

Lee valley sells a canuck made balancing solution for bench grinders. It is called oneway balancing system. it might give you what you want... (easy to find via Google)

I bought the OneWay system for my cheapo 8" slow-speed grinder and it is fantastic! It comes with replacement precision bushings/washers with moveable weights to precisely statically balance each wheel. I run a 36 grit Norton wheel on one side and an 80 grit white wheel on the other. Took about 30 min of fiddling with the weights to achieve balance, but once done the grinder is as smooth as a high-end Baldor! Highly recommended!

 

[Janderso]

Arbor washers.
I did not check them. The arbor spacers were resurfaced to exclude that issue.
Ill check into some of the suggestions.
Thanks

 

[C-Bag]

I'm so glad I found the Oneway system a couple of years back. After getting Norton wheels, checking the shafts, making new arbors yada yada adinffinitum and only the Oneway fixed it after countless wasted hours.

 

[tmenyc]

I replaced the hubs on my DeWalt with the Raptor hubs made for that purpose. Works wonderfully; that eliminated 90% of the runout. I then took the grinder outside and dressed it much deeper, until it visibly ran round. All of a sudden it looked right and the vibration almost disappeared.
raptor hub

Sure, they're easy to make, but I couldn't without a working grinder to grind the tools to make the hubs, so to get out of the circular error I bought the hubs.

Tim