Grinding cams between centers? Possible?

[na300zx]

Hey guys, I have a pretty simple question that some of you may have an answer to. I was told that it was not possible to grind a cam between centers using a drive dog because of the possibility of the "play" in the drive dog running the cam into the grinding wheel. I do not really see it being a problem, but I am fairly new to grinding. To give some insight into the part in question, it consists of three OD's. The first OD is on running on center and the third OD is also. However, the middle OD is offset .016 from center line. Is it safe and possible to grind this cam between centers without the drive dog and "play" being an issue? I run a Hardinge Kel-Viva http://pdf.directindustry.com/pdf/ke...6-3571-_4.html that is very capable of grinding forms and non round shapes easily, so grinding the cam is not the issue. My only question is it safe and possible for me to try this part between centers. I have round cams off the magnet and chuck but not fully between centers. Any and all feedback would be very helpful.

[Andre' B]

You could rig up a spring to hook over the drive dog arm to keep it up against the driving surface.

[Kevin Taylor]

The automotive cam grinder's I'v looked at have a spring plunger and thumb screw to load the drive dog and on my crank grinder it is used to trim the index in on the rod throws by rotating the face plates that the chuck is mounted on . on a long cam a stedyrest is used on the main to keep the cam from flexing away from the stone Good luck Kevin