Bench grinder wheels

[Kram]

The new grinder has sillicon carbide wheels, I noticed these are really soft and need constant dressing if Im grinding steel. Should I swap over my spare aluminium oxide wheels as most of my grinding is steel?

Or is the wheel wearing just a feature of the higher powered grinder, vs the little silverline I had before?

I was after a finer wheel than the normal p60. Im guessing this p120 would not last long on steel?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08L6RKPRP/

Sillicon carbide certainly cuts steel but it seems intended for carbide, so they are all made with a soft binder?

 

[GraemeVW]

I believe the basic rule is harder wheel for softer material, softer wheel for harder material.

Other than that, I'm lost.
Apart from knowing they can sometimes be a nightmare to balance!

 

[mike os]

Basically yes, soft binder for hard materials

 

[500e]

Had a couple of 300mm ones we never got nice

 

[GraemeVW]

Had a couple of 300mm ones we never got nice

Are you talking about balance?
I bought an 8" white for grinding hss.
Could not get it balanced, grinder shook all over the place. Took it back as it came from a local grinding wheel specialists. They pretty much refused to accept the return and said there was no way it was that bad.
I argued, alot, they gave me a new one.
Second one was almost as bad as the first! It's just about livable with but cant be doing the grinder any good.
I'll be glad when it's worn out!
I probably shouldn't be using it.
The first one, I think it had to be 5mm off center to balance out or something daft. It was concentric, just way off balance. I'm not experience enough to know why.

 

[500e]

We made big thick washers with taped holes round circumference to screw bolts into helped but.
The first thing we do with new wheels is run the diamond over them to get true on spindle

 

[Kram]

So, SC wheel any good for steel or is it carbide only?

 

[graffian]

Normal green wheels are not much use on steel.

I had a silicon carbide cup wheel on my valve grinder. Not a green wheel.
It left a good finish on steel. I nearly always finished hss lathe tools on it and split
pointed drills with it. The stone must/may have worn but it wasn't noticable.

 

[mike os]

So, SC wheel any good for steel or is it carbide only?

They cut fast, but that’s because they are constantly wearing and exposing new carbide, they wear even faster, best reserved for hard materials

 

[Pete.]

Are you talking about balance?
I bought an 8" white for grinding hss.
Could not get it balanced, grinder shook all over the place. Took it back as it came from a local grinding wheel specialists. They pretty much refused to accept the return and said there was no way it was that bad.
I argued, alot, they gave me a new one.
Second one was almost as bad as the first! It's just about livable with but cant be doing the grinder any good.
I'll be glad when it's worn out!
I probably shouldn't be using it.
The first one, I think it had to be 5mm off center to balance out or something daft. It was concentric, just way off balance. I'm not experience enough to know why.

Most probably it's your grinder's clamp plates. If they are the pressed type instead of solid ones then it's almost a certainty.

 

[GraemeVW]

Most probably it's your grinder's clamp plates. If they are the pressed type instead of solid ones then it's almost a certainty.

Don't think so. It runs lovely with any other wheel I put on it. Just these 2 from this company throw it right out.

 

[GraemeVW]

I could go out there now, put any other wheel on it, paying no attention to balance, just center it up, and it will run super smooth.

 

[brightspark]

have u tried turning it round on the spindle and truing up with a diamond dresser

 

[GraemeVW]

have u tried turning it round on the spindle and truing up with a diamond dresser

I tried absolutely everything!
I made new bore adapters, tried it every which way I could. Just wasn't ever going to happen. It's like one half was wet, or had a lump of lead in it or something. Both were the same.

I clamp it to the bench rather than bolting it down. With any other wheels it just sits there happily if I don't clamp it (obviously I never use it like that though), but with these wheels it walks across the bench in a circular motion, with the unbalanced wheel tracing the diameter of the arc.

It's been on probably 5 years now and I've probably worn 1" off the diameter and it's never improved.

 

[Kram]

Put a bearing and shaft and spin between two points. Does it always stop in the same place?
Work out where its heaviest then use a dressing tool to thin it a little.

 

[GraemeVW]

Put a bearing and shaft and spin between two points. Does it always stop in the same place?
Work out where its heaviest then use a dressing tool to thin it a little.

It had a noticeable heavy area that always went to the bottom.
Could have thinned it I guess, but didn't feel right.
Could have set it off center and 're trued it too, but that didn't feel right either.
It's odd, felt like a good wheel otherwise, and works extremely well.

It's not interacting with the other wheel either, grinder runs happily with just then other wheel on, and still wouldn't balance with just this wheel. The grinder bearings are very free wheeling, takes ages to fully stop once turned off, so not an issue of friction in the machine throwing off the balancing procedure. Probably takes 5 mins to stop!

As I say, I've had enough use out of it, it will be replaced once I've set the grinders up properly in their new location.
Won't be going to the same "specialist" again though!

 

[500e]

We only fiddled with the 2 big ones because we got the cheap I wonder why!
Normally we dressed them if they vibed then we sent them back.
Grinding sides of wheels

 

[Kram]

Round tuit, got the SC wheels off. I dressed them flat first. Dont know if they were glued but the pressed washers too some effort to get off taking the card labels with it on the left disc.

New old wheels are 16mm thick instead of 20mm, found some turned spacers but the wheel faces are running out quite badly.

Should I bin the original pressed clamping washers and turn up new ones?