Bench grinder wobble

[DamicoTileCo]

I went and returned the Porter Cable grinder, got my money back and then went to Orchard Supply and they had a grinder on display, the last one, and the wheels didn't have and perceptible wobble in them.
I bought it, brought it home and set it up and it runs smooth. It does need to be dressed for our of roundness. I have a diamond and a star dresser so I will dress them tomorrow.
As for making my own flanges, I do have a lathe and will try making some.
Can aluminium be used? Or do they have to be made out of steel?
My lathe is a 12x24 Craftsman. It may not be big enough to do steel.
So no one sells flanges, right?

 

[Ray C]

Steel would be ideal as aluminum just won't hold-up. I've tried making aluminum bushings for grinder hubs and it just won't last long.

There's no reason in the world you can't make steel parts on that lathe. It's perfectly suited for stuff like this.


Ray

 

[Dave Smith]

Yes --you can make them out of aluminum, and your lathe should have no problem making them out of steel---glad you got a better grinder---Dave

I went and returned the Porter Cable grinder, got my money back and then went to Orchard Supply and they had a grinder on display, the last one, and the wheels didn't have and perceptible wobble in them.
I bought it, brought it home and set it up and it runs smooth. It does need to be dressed for our of roundness. I have a diamond and a star dresser so I will dress them tomorrow.
As for making my own flanges, I do have a lathe and will try making some.
Can aluminium be used? Or do they have to be made out of steel?
My lathe is a 12x24 Craftsman. It may not be big enough to do steel.
So no one sells flanges, right?

 

[Tompron]

Yes, I've made flanges too. Fit them as tight to the shaft as you can and make them as thick as you can, so the shaft and flange can stay true to each other. I have concaved them on the wheel side to make sure the outside edge of the flange is pushing against the wheel. one flange on each side of the wheel, Thye work really good this way. Then it should be a simple matter of dressing the OD of the grinding wheel. I wheel dressing stick is all you need to dress a bench grinder wheel.

Are all machined flanges made of steel or can aluminum be used?

 

[Jake M]

Aluminum flanges work fine. I made a set. They worked fine. I like 'em. I still use them on a different grinder. The next step was that I made another set, again from aluminum. This time, the inside flange and the reducer bushing were made into one piece, with the outer flange separate. Better, but still no dice at fixing the problem. These now live on my problem grinder that caused me all this headache... I then bought (among other things....) a pair of generic, plain old hex nuts, one right handed and one left handed Mcmaster. Boom. Problem solved. The flange/bushing contraptions worked. The machined aluminum flanges and plastic spacer worked. The chitty stamped steel that came with the grinder even worked "good enough" that I would have almost certainly never pursued it any further. Don't overlook those when chasing grinder issues. They (typically) are very cheaply made.

Since I learned that, between my stuff at home, and the shop stuff at work, I've "fixed", or greatly improved a handfull of grinders just by replacing the nuts. If the threads in the nut are not perpendicular to the faces, (especially the left hand threaded one it seems), They will pull even a rigid, well fitting flange out of true. I'm sure that the Mcmaster nuts aren't as true as a nut that was both threaded and faced in one operation, but so far I've not recieved any "bad" ones. Trying to fix a crooked factory nut is theoretically possible, but I havn't found a practical way to do it. Referencing on the flats is obviously out of the question, and threading on a mandrel will cause it to pull it's self crooked when it seats. Making the nut yourself, start to finish, that would yield excellent results.

And then of course, dressing the wheel to round will go a long way as well to making a grinder behave well.

Or get lucky and find one on the shelf that's already set up and works well.... That works too. Kinda how it should should be. Probably how it "should have been" on the first try for many of us.