Split Point Drill sharpening

[tonyfoale]

When ever I replace the wheels on any of my bench and arbor grinders which is rare, the first thing I do is true all 3 sides of the wheel. .....

In my experience even cheap grinding wheels are made very flat and of even thickness. If that is generally the case then any lateral runout must be due to the grinder itself. Bench grinders generally have wheel washers which are quite thin and which bear up against inadequately sized shoulders on the shaft. This locates the washers very poorly as regards to wobble.
This is easily attended to and only needs doing once for any particular grinder.

I junk the inner washers and make a combined washer and stub shaft to hold a wheel with a larger diameter hole. I make this washer/shaft piece to be a light push fit on the grinder shaft. Unless the grinder shaft is bent this ensures that the washer will hold the wheel with the minimum of lateral wobble. Only rarely have I needed to true the sides of a new wheel.

Click for full size images.
Wheel with oversized hole.


This shows the comparison to the usual stock wheel inner washer of the custom washer/shaft that I use.

I use the narrow style washer on the outside of the wheel because that is free to align with the wheel, all the location is done by the inner custom piece.