What make is this surface grinder

[Dr Stan]

How did you dress the wheel?

It would be best to remove the wheel so you can read the specs on the paper washers.  Most wheel manufacturers have charts on their web sites to sort out the grade, grit, etc.  If you cannot find the wheel manufacturer just go to Norton's site and use theirs.

While the wheel is off make sure you ring it.  If you are unfamiliar with wheel ringing there is a good example posted on YouTube.

You probably will not get the out of parallel situation taken care of unless you re-grind the magnet.  When I went to school back in the days before electricity it was standard procedure to regind the mag whenever it was taken off the grinder.

BTW, I spotted at least one bench grinder missing the ends of the wheel housing and the spark arrestor.  Big No-Nos in my book.

[PixMan]

From that last photo I think I spy a wheel arbor puller. Pretty cool that you got one of those too!

I think one of the more common errors when new to this is the dressing speed. It's hard to describe, but your speed across the wheel with the cross slide (actually the Z axis, parallel to spindle rotation axis) should be "brisk." Go too slow and you will be making the wheel too smooth, and likely get excessive heat on the diamond.

A general rule of thumb: Soft material, use a hard bond. Hard material, use a soft bond.

The orange bond in a Norton wheel is often an N or M bond, very pliable. Since it appears you were trying to grind a softer steel, you want an H or I bond and a friable grain structure. A good ol' Norton 32A-46HVBE is a great general purpose wheel to start with. The pattern I think I see is a little bit of burning and some chatter. That's often a clogged wheel that you get when the bond isn't allowing the grains to break away to expose new sharp edged grains.

You-Tube videos can help a lot, if I have time I'll find a few.

[Rickabilly]

Hello guys,
I'm back again...
that finish looked like an undressed wheel was used or even a wheel that has sat for a long time, Such a wheel can sometimes build up contaminants on one side if hung through the centre hole on pegs on the wall, it used to happen all the time where I did my apprenticeship, especially with thread grinding wheels as a particular pitch might not be used for a decade so would just hang on it's peg and of course thread grinding wheels are a real pain to dress so... you just don't if you can get away with it anyway while the wheel is on its peg dust of every kind sits on the top and apparently humidity carries water and contaminants into the wheel too and they settle on the low side. Of course thread grinding is a different process but the idea must be the same and when I bought my surface grinder which had a heap of wheels all hanging on pegs for decades I had the same trouble dressing helps but you might need to dress a long way in some of mine lost a quarter inch before the colour was consistent all the way around, but they came from a very dirty environment too,

Just my 0.02P

Oh BTW soon after I got my wheels true, clean and working I hung them up and didn't do much with them for nearly 15 years so... it's time to do it all again... Grrr

Best regards Rick

[Vinny]

If it's a problem with dust and humidity, why not slip a cover over them when you hang them back up?

[Dr Stan]

A cover should work if you also include a package of silica gel or Damp Rid.

Another thought is a cabinet with a 200W light bulb like one would use for stick welding rods.

[Vinny]

Insulate the cabinet and put the bulb on a PID. I did that for my plastic curing oven.

[f350ca]

Welcome back Rick !
I did give the wheel a light dressing, maybe not enough to totally true it up. The wheels were stored laying flat in the cabinet, maybe not the best system either.
Haven't had time to play with it since I got it running, Need to go through the wheels and see whats there and maybe order a few.
Should have been playing with it today, with the humidity its in the 90's working on the veranda, the machine shop is 60.

[Rickabilly]

Hello Again Greg,
As has been mentioned by others there's a load of ways to get a "Choppy" finish from out of balance wheels to bad bearings, Incorrect wheel selection incorrect feed rates, poor dressing, etc.

I can't think of a better way to store wheels other than horizontal in a cabinet, maybe heat would help a little, maybe a lot, never tried it, the reason for the old hang'em on a peg method is simply because it's really space efficient and quite OK as long as they aren't there for decades, problem is we all buy a lot of old gear and it's often left as it was used, as I did through a lack of planning, I walked away from a shop at the end of the day and that was it, I thought I'd be back a weekend later and all of a sudden fifteen years, a wife, two kids, moving to a different country, two businesses and four busted vertebrae later, I realised I left this stuff for others to maintain and they hadn't, It happens and that's why we get this stuff cheap I suppose.

The good news is there's loads of easy fixes to try before you're stripping the bearing cassette down and spending cash on high grade bearings.

No1, Really get your dressing and balancing straight,
No2, Experiment with feeds and speeds,
Maybe then look at wheels at this point, wheels can get expensive and if you've not dressed it properly no wheel will work properly as is true with balance.
When all else fails strip the bearings but remember cleanliness is critical and that includes lubricants (no shortcuts)

Oh and always grind wet, I have always had more sucess with a wet wheel whether it's off hand, cylinderical, T&C, threads or surfaces Heat is the enemy.
I hope this helps
Best regards
Rick