****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
The fine grit wheel is perfect for sharpening most garden and yard tools. It hones metal well without leaving course groves in the iron or steel tools.SHIPPING AND HANDLING. I ordered four grinding wheels from amazon for my two bench grinders. Two were six-inch Norton white wheels, one was a Norton seven-inch regular wheel, and one, a seven-inch Forney. In each case, the wheel was flopping around in the box with an ineffective bit of packing material. The Forney wheel was bare naked and had worn a hole in a pack of countersink drills. It was happily unsharpening them.The Norton wheels were in their own box inside the amazon package. The white wheels arrived undamaged. The seven-inch wheel had a chipped edge. Despite the poor amazon packaging, it probably was damaged BEFORE shipping because the internal box was dirty and scuffed with corners split.Amazon has always had a stellar reputation with me but (are you listening amazon?) they need to do a better job packaging (and handling) grinding wheels. Damaged wheels can fly apart explosively. For some disturbing reality, Google "grinding wheel deaths."Following are salient points regarding handling and storage from the government standard on grinding wheels, ANSI B7.1-1970.1. Handle wheels carefully to prevent dropping or bumping.2. Do not expose to high humidity, water or other liquids.3. Do not expose to freezing temperatures or any temp low enough to cause condensation.4. Perform the `ring test' to detect hidden cracks in vitrified wheels.For the ring test, support the wheel through the center hole with your finger or pin and tap the side of the wheel gently in several locations with a non-metallic object, such as the handle of a screwdriver. You should hear a clear metallic ring. If you hear a deadened thud, DO NOT use the wheel.INSTALLATION. From my perspective, there are three major considerations:1. Safety. Perform the ring test, don't exceed RPM rating, have all guards in place, and stand to the side for a full minute before starting to grind.2. Wobble. Clean the surface of the wheel flanges of any label or blotter residue from the previous wheel. If necessary, true the surface of the flange by rubbing it on a piece of fine sandpaper that is laying against a flat surface. Rotating the flanges with respect to the wheel sometimes helps.3. Out-of-Round. Dress the wheel. I use this wheel dresser, it seems to work well. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KNOK9W/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00EVALUATION OF WHEELS. The wheels that I put on my good grinder (yeah! Milwaukee 1980's vintage) were fairly well balanced from the beginning. The inner flange is cast with a machined face and a collar to hold it vertical on the arbor. The wheels had about 1/32 inch or less wobble and 1/32 inch or less out-of-round. I left the wobble, but dressed the wheel so it was perfectly round. There is very little vibration at full speed, with slight resonances as it slows down. I saw no difference between the Forney and Norton wheels.I put the Norton white wheels on my cheapo (boo! Craftsman 21st century vintage) bench grinder. The one wheel seemed well balanced. The second wheel wobbled like crazy. It was going a full 1/8 inch from side to side. I played around with the flanges and was able to reduce the wobble to less than 1/32 inch. It appeared that the cheap stamped flange was not seated properly in a lip in the arbor. After dressing the wheels, the Craftsman ran as smooth as the Milwaukee.I am happy with the Norton grinding wheels. And contrary to the experience of other reviewers, all came with adapters down to a ½-inch arbor. I may update this review after using the wheels for a while. I'll try to keep it shorter (-:Out of the box they were not balanced (to be expected). Used oneway system to balance the wheels and installed them on my bench grinder. I've been using the 80 grit wheel for softening corners and some other light-duty tasks. Every time I bring metal to this wheel grit flies everywhere and I end up with grit coating every surface nearby. After 1 week of light use, the 8" wheel is down to about 7". It will be gone soon, or rather, inside my shop vac. Pretty disappointed with this performance. The 150 grit wheel, on the other hand, is super hard and appears to be wearing very slowly. I'd stay away from the 80 grit one, either get 150 or maybe look into CBN - that's what I plan to replace this one with.Puts a sharp edge on drill bits.These wheels are fantastic compared to the "cheap" alternatives. Cheaper wheels cut about like concrete -- i.e., they rub and generate heat without removing much metal. Norton white wheels, on the other hand, are "softer" and are designed to continually shed the top layer of abrasive revealing fresh, sharp grains to cut metal quickly without heating it. There is a night and day differencce between cheap wheels and these Nortons when you want to rapidly remove a lot of metal. (By the same token, if you are just touching up tools that aren't terribly dull, then the cheap wheels will probably satisfy you.)While Norton wheels are very good at what they do, there are two issues to be aware of. The first is applicable to ANY wheel, no matter the brand or quality: ALL wheels must be dressed the first time they are mounted to true them up. No wheel can be manufactured with a precisely centered arbor hole, and a lot of grinders don't even have a motor shaft that spins perfectly true. By dressing the wheel immediately after mounting, any eccentricity is removed and the wheel should be fairly well balanced. I don't blame Norton for this issue because I don't believe any other wheel maker can do better -- failure to dress your wheel is a user problem, not a manufacturer problem.(Note that a side-to-side wobulation is usually a problem with your grinder's mounting flanges, especially on cheap grinders.)The second problem is the plastic adapters supplied with the wheel. I was still able to get my wheel to run true using them, but I had to remove a lot of material off one side of the wheel by dressing it excessively. This issue definitely IS Norton's fault, however remember that we as consumers tend to demand price before quality, so Norton is just doing exactly what we want -- supplying cheap adapters. So, if you are serious about grinding, the real solution is to go out and purchase metal arbor adapters that will be on-size and run true.The white grinding compound for high speed steel does not get the tool as hot as regular grey carborundum does. This wheel works as it should. I am giving it one star because I had to bolt the grinder to the bench as it vibrates so bad way worse than the cheap wheels that came with the grinder.Cumple perfecto, entrega antes de lo esperada.
