I have this exact grinder. From Lee Valley I purchased the OneWay grinding wheel balancing kit. The kit comes with two very high quality balancing flange set-ups and a simple balancing stand. After fussing with the balancing procedure with this kit, I ws able to eliminate 90 percent or more of the wobble, and 99 percent of vibration. But... the wheels that come with this particular grinder have 5/8" arbor holes. The balancing kit will only work with wheels that have 1" arbor holes so, I purchased an 80 grit wheel from OneWay for my fine grit wheel and a 46 grit Norton 3X wheel ($62) from Lee Valley. Combined with the OneWay jig and tool rest kit, their diamond truing jig and a few other OneWay accessories, this budget grinder does function well and is vibration free. I am able to sharpen lathe tools much better, quicker and easier than ever before. Many serious turners use CBN grinding wheels which are much more expensive than these premium wheels I have. I've never had the opportunity to use a high quality professional industrial grinder, but I imagine the same process to wheel balancing etc would apply to those as well. Bottom line, this grinder for $99, better wheels, well designed tool rests and sharpening jigs plus some investment in time and effort learning how to tune all of this have resulted in a fairly decent grinder that is more affordable for me.
It was nice to see this illustrated…I do share the frustrations of other buyers…But further…my metal flange would not move relative to the outer flange and I hesitate to do anything to possibly damage the wheel…???
Good Video, But a Couple Extra Tips From a User First, to bolt the unit to your bench or a thick (3/4-1" thick) plywood platform, the dimensions will depend on whether you use aftermarket tool rests. If not, the footprint of the plywood platform will be the size of the unit plus a few inches all around to accommodate a couple "F" Clamps to attach the unit and the platform to a bench. I made a template out of 1/4" plywood to accurately locate the bolt holes. Surprisingly, the grinder's holes were not centered front to back on the unit (off by about 3/16"), so to avoid surprises, make a template. I used 5/16" machine screws, but 1/4" will work. Use a lock washer, and countersink the machine screw heads on the bottom of the platform and bolt from the top. Second, my unit had quite a bit of wobble on both wheels. Following the instructions on this video did not help, but turning the wheels over, e.g., making the outside surface of the wheel the inside, made all the difference. Another departure from the video is how to remove the wheels, and one really needs either two sets of wrenches or two vise grips, because turning the nut on one wheel causes the other wheel to spin, and hand holding it did not provide enough grip. Third, I swapped out the right tool rest with an aftermarket tool rest from Veritas, which I highly recommend. It is bolted to the platform one makes in my first comment, which necessitates enlarging the platform to accommodate this tool rest at the front of the grinder. The Veritas Tool Rest also has a matching sharpening jig which fits into small miter gauge slots in the tool rest, to allow accurate sharpening of chisels. The unit has an angle setting jig as well. I may swap out the left tool rest with that jig as well, but that depends on how well that drill sharpening rest actually works.
Love my 80-805, just couldn’t justify the (1 hp for myself). Aside from something like a Veritas Magnetic Base light (the one that flexes and runs off three AA batteries) do you have any good specific lighting suggestions. I have an Otte light system that I can move around for tasks as needed and then too I have swing arm light that I set in various places on my work bench. I’m interested in any suggestions you all my have for a light won’t need to move all over every time I need it (quite often when chair making and constantly stripping/dubbing drawknives/inshaves/scorps/adze/hewing axe/travisher). I have my grinders on pedestal grinder stands and attaching a dedicated swing arm light isn’t the best, because I end up with far more range/swing than I need. Is the the swivel base the best thing going? I certainly don’t want to open up the grinder and wire my one light in and there’s really no need since I’ve got a 4 outlet hard electrical receptacle box I’ve already mounted to the stand just below the accessory rack. Thinking that flex one like the Lee Valley/Veritas maybe the best storyteller at to go since there’s no cords and I could also use it to add extra light to drill press when I’ve got a funky set up… any brand/style recommendations? Thanks, Shannon
