Posted By GavinR Just a quick question regarding pedestal grinders and bench grinders. Do they require the wheels to be balanced or at this size does is it required? I know on larger wheels this is required but can't find any advice regarding standard grinders. Cheers, Gav

Posted By Chris Jerman Just to add to GC's comments, I worked in grinding and fettling for many years, on wheels up to 30". During that time, we never balanced ANY wheel. All wheels after being mounted were run up to a specific schedule, inside a steel box or container. Any wheel that exhibited being 'out of balance' was removed and returned to the supplier. This was very rare, as using only top quality wheels, we received good service. New wheels did not require dressing from new, why would they? Dressing was only to return the face to square after grinding a particular profile on a casting for long periods. Or to expose a new cutting surface after grinding softer castings which effectively blocked the face. Small wheels should be treated the same. If out of balance, I would reject them. Given that bearings etc were all fine that it. Balancing small wheels therefore would not be done either. Mounting fibre reinforced DCD's is a different matter and clearly they cannot be balanced either. Running up can be done, but typically DCDs will fail almost immediately and given their reinforced nature as not as hazardous provided that correct procedures are followed in their start up. I agree with GC that the fact that one can buy these items openly and abuse them accordingly is worrying. Very often I feel that the quality of the consumables looks very poor. CJ