This grinder is an excellent value, but you have to understand its limitations. The motor and mount are excellent. The shaft is precisely machined and well balanced. The sheet metal guards are good. A good Diamond dresser is included. What's less good is the quality of the grinding wheels supplied. While better than the typical grey wheels supplied with cheap grinders, the samples supplied with my grinder and those I've seen on others show a wide variation in how well they're drilled and balanced. One of the wheels supplied with my grinder was drilled at an angle, and was completely unusable. I was able to align and balance the other after a lot of work using shims.

I replaced the bad wheel with a Spartan CBN (cubic boron nitride) wheel, something I strongly suggest for sharpening high speed steel lathe tools, and I plan to replace the other soon. I'd suggest you do that, or at a minimum use pink Norton wheels and machined steel inserts. I've also added a Oneway Wolverine sharpening jig. The cheapest CBN wheels will cost you almost as much as the grinder, but they last much longer than friable wheels, and require no dressing. A good sharpening jig will cost as much as the grinder, but will make sharpening much easier and do a better job than freehand grinding, and allow you to create profiles that are extremely difficult to do freehand.

I am a wood turner and don't use the supplied tool rests as I use the Wolverine system for sharpening my tools. As i use 1 1 1/2" D-way CBN wheels I also don't keep the wheel covers or the "eye guards". My previous grinder was a Delta VS 8", but it died after about 4 years. I bought a replacement "off the shelf" at a local Lowes, but it was faulty (motor noise). I then researched the web and came up with the Wen and the Rikon. The specs and the reviews on Amazon are similar but I chose the Rikon for a bit more money as one of my correspondents (Dave Schweizer of D-way) had good experience with Rikon.

First a comment on VS versus slow speed. I think the part of my Delta that died was the rheostat for varying the speed - were I younger and in a larger shop I might have taken it apart and replaced the rheostat. It was nice to be able to go to 3600 rpm and use my coarser CBN wheel to make major regrinds on tools, but if it shortened the life of my grinder it wasn't worth it. I can go to my belt sander and rough shape the tool by hand. At 1725 my 80 grit CBN allows me to make any radical reshaping I want of a tool in about a half hour, and minor reshapings in 10 minutes. I think the slow speed is the better choice for wood turning tools as the electronics are less complicated and should last longer.

Now which slow speed? The CBN wheels are heavier than the composite "stone" wheels so one might think they need more power. This 1/2 HP Rikon brings them up to speed in about six seconds with no motor noise that might indicate strain (that was the fault in my faulty Delta VS). I lose no wheel speed and hear no motor strain when grinding heavily on my course wheel in reshaping with the half horse, I think the 1 horse is an unnecessary expense for my application.

May I add that a couple of days ago I had been touching up a tool and then went to test it on the piece I was turning without turning off the Rikon. I was distracted and left my bedroom shop to take care of other things. I came back about three hours later and found the grinder still spinning. I felt the motor cover and the heat wasn't excessive, it had been running the heavy wheels but wasn't straining. BTW, I neglected to turn it off as the free running sound from the grinder is zero (and I have good ears).

One caveat, obey the instructions to remove the rubber feet if you are bolting it down. I spent hours setting it up to duplicate the exact height of the wheels above my Wolverine base that I had with the Delta so I could use my home made gauges for my gouges. I made shims under the feet, but it never came out right. OOPS, I made one little error, I forgot that when I tightened down the grinder on the base platform the rubber feet would compress and change the height unevenly.

I can't tell you how long this grinder will last, but I can give a pretty good guess that it will be a long time as the lack of motor noise, or change in motor noise under load, suggests a long life. It may not be the best for general grinding, given the negative reviews on the tool rests and such, but it is excellent for my purpose - which is regular use to touch up or regrind wood turning tools. The 1 1/2 CBN wheels fit the arbor, although witn no room to spare. The bolts holding my wheels aren't fully used, but it only about 1/16" shy which is plenty of grip on the wheel.

Best, Jon

Like many other reviewers have commented, the wheels are pretty rough. The diamond truly tool, is so uneven it left deep scratches in the wheel. At least it is now round.

I use this tool along with a jig to sharpen one cutter, over and over. To that end it does work well.

The 4 star is for crappy wheels, but Amazon had the best price of anyone in town, or online. Took a bit to get here, especially for a Prime 2 day ship.

I rarely write the review, but this worth mention it. I started sharpening my own tools (normally sent out) and I got Rikon, because of its slow speed and good price for my use. When I received the grinder, which has been opened and lost some of parts. the internal packing material has been damaged and I was not sure of what else has been damaged. So I sent email via Amazon to Yellowhammer Tool Works. Very next day, they replied by sending out a replacement unit, no question asked. Two days later, I received the replacement (the original order tool a week for shipment). Everything is in order. Assembled and test ran. There were a lot of comments relating wobbly wheel. The left wheel has a light wobble, which is acceptable for my use. however, the right wheel wobbles noticeably. I cleaned and sand-papered the flange faces, which reduced wobble, but I was not concern. I replaced it with a CBN wheel, but without the flanges or washer, I ran out of thread. So I purchase a machined washer and self -aligning spherical washer. With those washers, the wheel runs straight, no vibration, noice, wobbles. I am very happy with that. very quiet. Highly recommend this grinder.

Its speed is consistent enough and the motor doesn't vibrate. I checked by removing both wheels and turning it one for bit. But, when I put the wheels on that came with this grinder, it wants to almost jump on my table. They are cheep and even after dressing them carefully they just don't want to balance. Going to buy some CBN wheels. I wish i could have just bought the grinder with no wheels. Not sure what I am going to use these crappy ones for.