Learning the art of surface grinding

[Janderso]

I have to either rotate the wheel, or attempt to dress it until an acceptable balance is achieved.

I haven't tried rotating the wheel on the adapter.
Dressing the sides is doable.
I'm thinking from now on, I buy a wheel, check the balance and send it back if it is out more than a tad.

 

[projectnut]

I haven't tried rotating the wheel on the adapter.
Dressing the sides is doable.
I'm thinking from now on, I buy a wheel, check the balance and send it back if it is out more than a tad.

That's one of the main reasons I buy from tcitytrans. They have a 30 day return policy. Since they sell through eBay they are also bound by the eBay money back guarantee. Having said that since 2013 I've bought probably between 15 and 20 surface grinding wheels from them. I haven't had to return a wheel or make a claim on the eBay guarantee.

 

[Tim9]

Check this out. Pretty damned cool

How to make a wheel balancer

 

[Dabbler]

I guess there's balance and there's balance. I've never had a wheel from Norton that didn't need balancing. That's 50 or so wheels. If you mount them on a hub, and put them on a balancing rig, there's always 4 or 5 grams out of balance. I was taught to take out as much of the imbalance after dressing as possible. Now the guy that taught me used to grind 20 punch inserts and stack them in a vertical stack and still hold to 2 tenths at 14" or so...

He taught me to be very picky because you only mount the wheel once until it is all used up. At around 30% wear (which is around 20% of the diameter) they will need rebalancing again. FWIW, he taught me to check the balance before mounting any wheel. So everyone's mileage seems to vary.

 

[francist]

taught to take out as much of the imbalance after dressing as possible.

So in that scenario, you would mount a brand new out-of-the-box wheel on the machine, true it, then un-mount the wheel and balance it, then finally mount for good after that? Do I have that right?

-frank

 

[Dabbler]

Depends on what you mean. to be specific:

1 Unbox the wheel, and check for ringing.
2 Mount it in the wheel adapter.
3 Mount the wheel and adapter in the grinder. Run the grinder a slow speed, (if available) and radially true the wheel.
4 Unmount the wheel and adapter pair. Find the low spot on the balance rig.
5 Now drill or adjust the balancing washers.
6 Repeat 4 and 5 until the wheel balances.

... now, finally remount the wheel and adapter in the grinder and final dress, and grind.

 

[francist]

Got it, thanks.

-frank

 

[mmcmdl]

Jeff , 2 questions . When starting your grinder , do you spin the wheel to minimize torque upon startup ? Also , if using coolant , do you let the wheel run for a few minutes when the job is done ? In all my years of grinding , I've never had an issue with wheels being out of balance , especially on the Micromasters . We had cylindrical grinders that used 36" diameter wheels that needed to be balanced when mounted . We used the knife edge wheel method with the movable weights in the hubs . One of these days soon I'll fire up my 618 and see what happens .

 

[pdentrem]

Every morning we start up the SG and leave it running until we leave for day. We do the same with the Landis Cylindrical Grinder if it is to be used that day. This keeps the spindle bearings at temperature which reduces vibrations which lead to poor finish. Every time someone goes to use it, they dress the wheel. Naturally the wheels don’t last forever.
Pierre

 

[Janderso]

I replaced the wheel. It is not balanced, it didn’t move on my balancer no matter how I clocked it.
Great results. It’s the block of metal