I picked mine up from a variety of places, but these sites are worth reading for general information

Master Abrasives

PBR Abrasives

Abtec Abrasives

Academy of Lagado

Bill

Dry grinding is painful but if you want a couple of open wheels let me check what I have. I’m sure I will be able to supply one or two.

The Eagle grinder has a problem with the cross-slide lubrication (in that there’s no facility for it). Often you’ll find the ways galled up even if it’s otherwise in apparently good condition.

Same as Chris use Coventry Grinding Wheels. Give them a call and they will recomend a good wheel for what you are grinding.

https://www.coventry-grinders.co.uk/product-category/norton-grinding-wheels/

David

Hi Pete, thanks for that info ! I decided to put a new wheel on my Brierley, bought a wheel from a company in the MIDLAND, it had the companys name on the blotters NOT Norton or one of the well known names. Try as I would I was unable to get it to balance and the machine was useless as the vibration shook every thing. A second wheel was supplied supposedly true and balanced, this may have been marginablly better, I got a third FOC along with some bushes as by now they thought I may have the wrong ones. I was not going to be beaten and bought a J&S wheel balancer, and discovered just HOW far out these wheels were ! I had given up with the suppliers who had tried to be helpful but failed. It was at this point that I became a bit fanatical ! The Brierley is supplied with 2 small balance weights, little cones with a 1/4″long grub screw. By the time I had got one wheel balanced I had made 5 more cones, used 1/2″ grubscrews AND screwed nuts on the grubscrews !

The wheel was £30, 180 X 25.The trouble it took far out weighed any saving I might have made by NOT buying a Norton Etc To the OP I would say DO NOT buy a cheap wheel, it may well cost you dear in the long run. The Eagle not having any means to balance the wheel may prove difficult to use and get a good finish with a wheel badly out of balance. Good Luck. Noel.

You are right about the vertical axis ways being very important. If they are loose then the whole assembly will rock from side to side as you move weight of the table from one end to the other. If it’s binding at the upper and lower limits of travel that indicates wear. If they are binding at their most used position with the chuck perhaps 1-3″ below the bottom of the wheel yet allowing movement then they are only out of adjustment. The slide is somewhat fiddly to adjust having jack screws and clamp screws. You have to loosen the clamp scres only just enough so that you can screw in the jack screws to adjust the clearance then tighten the clamp screws. It will take a bit of trial and error to stop the gib from binding when you clamp it up.

You have the wet table version then? They are not so common. I had to make a guard for mine but a couple of weeks ago I helped my friend collect one that had the original alloy splash guard.

You can read up on my rebuild of mine here: https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/eagle-mk3-surface-grinder-rebuild.96469/

I would say that’s a 60 grit V hardness AlOx wheel – bit fine and hard for general things.

I tend to use a 46 J iirc, also from Coventry Grinders. Ive not had an issue with any of there “own brand” wheels for balance, but I only run 1/2” thick on my J&S 540.