If you have the rail just bolt it on and see if you can dial it to "zero" reading with a DTI. You may still have to grind it.
When you do that you need to relieve the back of the wheel except for a 1 to 1.5mm wide band at the very edge of the wheel with a diamond dresser or Boron Carbide stick. Paint the rail edge with Dykem or black marker. Then you VERY lightly side grind the rail to clean. And never touch it again except to maybe pass a stone over it to check for burrs. I just leave mine on all the time.
I just lightly push mine squarely up against the side of the grinding wheel and clamp it down, making sure the wheel clears on all four sides of the chuck.
Had to regrind the chuck after a removal a while back. Kept burning. Didn't do that before, what is wrong??? Turns out that the wheel had worn to 6 inches. I was able to compensate by whippin' the table back and forth as fast as possible. Oh, my aching arm.
(04-19-2015, 10:05 AM)Sunset Machine Wrote: I just lightly push mine squarely up against the side of the grinding wheel and clamp it down, making sure the wheel clears on all four sides of the chuck.
Had to regrind the chuck after a removal a while back. Kept burning. Didn't do that before, what is wrong??? Turns out that the wheel had worn to 6 inches. I was able to compensate by whippin' the table back and forth as fast as possible. Oh, my aching arm.
Wheel diameter makes a difference.
I don't understand what you mean by "push mine squarely up against the side of the grinding wheel...." Say what? Are you suggesting using no back rail at all and instead using the side of a grinding wheel as a reference surface?
I wouldn't if that's what you mean. Have you dressed the side of the wheel to be square? Is there no give to the wheel (I sometimes use 1/4" wheels and those bend w\easier than you would think.) I believe if that was a reliable way of setting work squarely on the chuck, makers of chucks wouldn't bother including the rail. I don't like steel touching my grinding wheels unless the wheel is spinning, but that's what works for me.
When the wheel burns the work it's loading up. Too low of a wheelspeed (cutting speed) from smaller diameter wheel can exacerbate the problem, but you did the right thing by just getting more aggressive on feed rate.
Yup. Real gentle. Comes close, and the top side doesn't matter at all. Can't say I've ever needed a rail. It'd just get in the way and collect grit, make things hard to wipe clean. Might be useful in production, but I don't know. On a manual?
I'll sometimes put paper under the work to keep it from getting scratched. The magnet doesn't grab as hard, so a rail might be handy as a simple stop, or even as a reference, but there's usually room for a shorter chunk to stick to the magnet that can be dialed in if necessary. There's enough residual to hold it between setups.
You are talking to a hobby guy (me) and all that, ya know..
I have not had any issues with the rail collecting grit because I always have it sitting "off the deck" by a 1/16" or so. That's plenty of room to wipe out any swarf with a paper towel.
Having the rail there, ground "dead parallel" to the table travel is quite handy. I usually put a flat parallel between the rail and the work to space it away, or if I need to assure the shoulder I am about to grind needs to be square to the 90º end of a piece, I lay a solid square up against the rail, butt the work to the opposite side of the square and remove the square as I apply the magnet.
The chuck isn't drilled for an end rail? Mine has two rails, making a corner for crud to gather in. There are gaps but they still make it difficult to clean. Without them, it's like wiping a table top clean. Whoosh, done. I guess the need for rails depends on what kind of work is usually done.
I've never seen a surface grinder chuck with an end rail, and see no need for one because it's not something you can grind in-situ to assure it's square.
What's the make on your magnetic chuck, and can you post a photo of it?
04-21-2015, 07:37 AM (This post was last modified: 04-21-2015, 07:46 AM by Sunset Machine.)
No idea the brand, the tag is missing. For some reason I thought it was a Walker. Two holes on the end. And take a look at Mayhem's, post 57. His rail is tucked away but you can still see it.
I would only use those holes for lifting. Putting a stop at the end like that could stop a part you're grinding from ejecting out the end in the event of a tragic mistake, jamming work between the stop and the wheel. The result could be a blown up wheel and chunks of aluminum oxide hurtling at high speed in myriad directions. Better to let the slipped work just sail off the end of the chuck and fall harmlessly off the end.
I still maintain that I've never seen an end rail used. Here anyway. Perhaps it's just a local thing, but having worked at the biggest maker of grinding wheels in the world, I know they never used end rails either.
