Surface Grinder Question

ddickey

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How do you check for alignment of a surface grinder besides grinding a part.
 
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From what I read there are a few things.
Spindle run-out.
Flatness of the chuck.
Crossfeed travel-table tracking parallel to the spindle axis.
Longitudinal travel- table tracking square to the spindle axis.
Squareness- spindle axis square to the working table in a vertical plane.

I did notice on the front of my spindle there are four adjustment grub screws. I'm not sure how to make any adjustments if needed.
 
Spindle runout is checked with a tenths DTI mounted on the chuck or the wheel head. You want to test radial runout and also test the vertical back face of a GOOD wheel adapter for wobble after the runout is within a few tenths.
Flatness of the chuck is also tested with a tenths DTI, attached to the wheel head. What you measure is not necessarily what is going on, the table travel may not be in a straight line.
The last three are more involved. For checking and correcting the grinder geometry, reference "Machine Tool Reconditioning", it is far too long winded to type here...
The grub screws likely tilt the spindle in four directions, depending on design they could be pushing or pulling. My surface grinder does not have that feature, would need to be corrected by scraping on mine.
 
And I don't know why you would want to tilt the spindle.
You dress the wheel flat to the vise. what difference does it make if the spindle is tilted slightly or not?
 
Surface grinders also cut on the sides of the wheel. The upright member with its four ways, 2 front and two rear, are the datum for a surface grinder. Everything else is referenced to them.
 
Oh yes of course. The wheels i have can't cut on the side so i forgot about that.
Thanks Bob.
Probably won't get a chance today to mess with it as I'm installing new lights in my garage. Tomorrow some new outlets I think.
 
I don't have anything like that now.
I have a wheel flange that goes onto the spindle, then the wheel is kept on with a left handed lock nut/flange. Mines a small grinder so it must be different than the normal sized ones.
 
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