The Pragmatic Woodturning Woodworker

I wanted to pass on a tip I recently discovered while changing out a grinding stone on my eight inch bench grinder.  Over four and a half years ago I bought the system to balance some new wheels I was putting on my grinder in hopes of eliminating vibration I was experiencing.  I think I was also trying to convince myself that some of the trouble I was having, as a new turner, sharpening was related to the vibration. I followed the instructions for the system to the letter, but never could get the wheels to completely balance before running out of space to move the balancing washers.  I ended up setting both washers at the twelve o’clock position as that was the location that gave me the least vibration.  I had long forgotten about my troubles with the balancing and had grown use to the slight amount that remained until I had to replace one of the wheels.  While attempting to balance the new wheel I ran into the same problem even though I followed each step of the instructions .  Then it dawned on me, Oneway must have forgotten (at least I didn’t see it written) a critical step regarding new wheels that I had learned from another source during my journey learning to sharpen my turning tools for both wood and metal turning.   They had forgotten to mention that new grinding wheels might not be true from the manufacturer and that balancing of a wheel is dependent on the trueness of the wheel.  Therefore, I set the balancing washers at the twelve o’clock position (you could probably also leave them off during this step) and placed the wheel on the grinder to true it up.  I then removed the trued wheel and followed Oneway’s procedures.  Amazing, the wheel balanced as advertised!  I then repeated the process for the old remaining wheel and it too balanced.  I now have a grinder with almost no vibration that takes forever to spin down after turning off.  I thought I would post this to help others avoid the same mistake and also sent a suggestion to Oneway to include the step in their instructions.  I hope I have saved a turner some time and confusion.  Be safe and enjoy your turning!

Best regards,

Matt