Set up a 1/2 HP Baldor 7/6 inches grinder.
 

Ignoramus12789 wrote:

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/baldor-grinder.jpg

It is a military surplus grinder. I bought a 7" and 6" wheels for
it. It works, it is very quiet and vibrates very little. The wheels
have plastic insert to match the hub and seem to be a bit off
center. How can I center them?

Make bushings on a lathe - aluminum or brass are fine - and make sure they run
true by themselves (I'd drill/ream the hole first, then put it on a mandrel
between centers) and then remount the wheels and true them up with a dressing
stone, diamond, or even a star wheel (Harold will kill me for mentioning it).

GWE

"Ignoramus12789" wrote in message
.. .
http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/baldor-grinder.jpg

It is a military surplus grinder. I bought a 7" and 6" wheels for
it. It works, it is very quiet and vibrates very little. The wheels
have plastic insert to match the hub and seem to be a bit off
center. How can I center them?

i


What Grant said, but make certain that your new spacers are not a press fit
in the wheel, or on the mandrel. There's good reason for this suggestion.
Should the bore of the wheel not be dead perpendicular to the side, when you
tighten the nut and the flanges restrain the wheel, it could crack it.
Make sure the bushing is an easy fit, but not sloppy. Also, insure that
it's shorter than the thickness of the wheel, so it isn't the high
spot-restricting the flanges from making full contact with the wheel. Be
sure to run wheels that have the blotters on them----the papers on each side
that have the nomenclature. They're not there for advertising alone, they
prevent wheel fracturing from uneven clamping of the flanges. Make sure to
ring the wheel before mounting it. If it doesn't have a clear ring, break
it and discard it. Do that even if the wheel is new. You have no idea how
wheels have been handles once they've left the manufacturer. To ring the
wheel, place it on a screw driver or other object, then tap it lightly with
a screwdriver handle. A dull thud or thunk sound comes from a cracked
wheel, a sharp ring from one that is intact.

When you get your wheel mounted, it's highly unlikely it will run true, and
even more unlikely that it will remain so, even if it is. Dressing a
grinding wheel is very much a part of using it. As much as I dislike the
star dressers Grant mentioned, they are the best possible dressing tool, but
present their own problems. For one, it's almost mandatory that one have a
tool rest to use them successfully----and I never use one for grinding tool
bits. The other problem is they're hard to use if you want to true up a
wheel with minimal waste. They work very well at removing wheel surface,
leaving what is the best possible surface for off hand grinding, but you can
go nuts getting the wheel absolutely true, a requirement when you use wheels
the way I do. YMMV.

If you find you're unhappy with a star dresser, use a diamond to bring the
wheel true, then rough it up slightly with a dressing stick. Make sure it's
not one of the boron carbide type, which are typically 1/4" thick, 1/2" wide
and 3" long. The proper one will be made of sintered silicon carbide ,
typically 1" square and 6" long. One, which shouldn't cost you more than a
couple dollars, will last your lifetime unless you get real serious about
dressing wheels. So you'll know, a wheel dressed with a diamond will be
more difficult to use, and will cut very hot, especially as compared to a
wheel dressed with a star dresser.

Good luck!

Harold

On Fri, 02 Sep 2005 03:50:47 GMT, Ignoramus12789
wrote:

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/baldor-grinder.jpg

It is a military surplus grinder. I bought a 7" and 6" wheels for
it. It works, it is very quiet and vibrates very little. The wheels
have plastic insert to match the hub and seem to be a bit off
center. How can I center them?

i
You cant. Not really. Make new ones out of alum or steel.

But if they were off center..the wheels would be vibrating like a
marital aid

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner

In article ,
Ignoramus29984 wrote:

Thanks Grant. I bought some diamond thingy on ebay this morning. It's
amusing that there is a sticker on my grinder that warns about a
"hazardous level of noise", whereas, in fact, it is unbelievably
quiet.

When it's actually in use, Ig, it can be quite hazardous, depending what
you are grinding. Unless you're one of the folks that's been wearing
headphones turned up to 11 since you were 5 years old, in which case
there's no more damage to be done. Huh? I SAID UNLESS..OH, NEVERMIND.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

"Ignoramus29984" wrote in message
.. .
snip

Hm, okay, so I should true the wheel with a diamond tool, and then
dress it with a star tool?

i


That's one way to go---a diamond is far superior to a star dresser in that
it will easily cut the wheel, rounding it out without removing anything but
the highs. A star dresser is hard to manipulate such that it does the same
thing, although it can accomplish the task. The alternative is to use the
diamond, then a dressing stick. Once you get the wheel dressed with a
diamond and try to use it, you'll see that it cuts hot and slowly-especially
when compared to a wheel that has been dressed by a star dresser. All of
this will come together when you start using the wheel.

Each of us end up doing what works best for us under our own circumstances.
It's not a "one-size-fits-all" kind of thing. The guy using his grinder
for sharpening tool bits faces way different issues than does the guy that
uses his grinder in a weld shop, for example.

Harold