I'm in the process of buying variable speed bench grinder and I would like to mount it on a movable stand to preserve valuable work bench space. I have seen guys make mounts with an old car rim as the base and I have even seen some with 2 fixed casters to allow you to "tilt it" on the wheels... More on garagejournal.com

I think most entry level grinders I've seen mount the rests on the flimsy shields, and most have rests that are too small to be very useful. I'm sure there are more experienced people out there, but here's my input: get yourself a "friable" wheel. These are softer wheels that shed abrasive more easily and help reduce heat build up. But still, keep water next to the grinder and dip it after every pass. If you're just using this for bevel setting, don't get a super fine wheel. A lot of people (myself included) make that mistake on their first wheel purchase...figuring it's safer to remove less material when learning. But finer wheels build up more heat, as you have to grind longer and they make more surface contact. Go coarser and just use a lighter touch. 2) if it didn't come with one, get a diamond truing tool. You will need this during setup to balance your wheels, and you will use it to clean the wheel surface when it gets clogged up 3) now for the vibration, you just need some patience and time to fiddle around. Your wheels are out of balance, this is just something that happens, and you need to do this every time you get a new wheel. Take both wheels off, examine all your parts. Make sure the washers that hold the wheel on are flat, and no visible damage to the wheels. Reassemble one side and use a pencil to mark a line on the wheel and washer. Turn it on, let it get to speed, and for the first time use your truing tool to make sure the wheel is round, see if the vibration stops, then turn it off....watch it as it's slowing down and make sure there's not a lot of side to side wobble. If it runs smooth now you're good on that side, if not loosen the nut and rotate the wheel a bit and try again. Keep doing that till you find the spot with the least vibration, mark the orientation with a marker, true the surface one more time, then repeat for the second side. When truing you will need a sturdy rest, light pressure against the wheel, and hold the tool very tight to the rest. You need to be sure you're actually making it round by hitting the high spots, not pushing in hard and following the out of round surface. 4) tool rests - i tried the veritas tool rest with the sliding jig thing...it was a waste of money. Looks good, but not very sturdy. No matter how hard I tighten things up on it, it is just tall and skinny and flexes. I have a tormek, so I bought the tormek jig system for my bench grinder. It's pretty great because i can do major reshaping on the bench grinder then finish on the tormek without having to reset jigs on each. I would recommend it if you have gouges and turning tools to sharpen often, but it's probably overkill for just straight chisels. If all you really want is rough shaping of chisels before taking them back to your stones, i would look for something cheaper or build something yourself. I have a few grinders at this point. I mount each one to an mdf base, so jigs and rests can be permanently mounted to the base and the whole thing can be moved around as one unit (i have a small porch "shop", so most tools don't have a dedicated spot full time) For getting your chisels square, don't worry about having to have a fancy rest with a square jig on it (they don't always work if your chisels are tapered anyway). For straight chisels, just use a small square and a fine sharpie to mark a line to grind to in the back of the chisel. If your chisels are tapered, just make a little marking jig. More on reddit.com