Correct.

You guys were dead on, (1) you hit it on the side (2) on the side makes being above the CL non issue. what I overlooked (DUH) is the fore/aft and in/out positions of the stone (mini steering wheel) and the base where the holder is bolted down (big lever that shifts the valve chuck over) both have to be positioned dead on. here it is (A) correct(ed!) and (B) a pic of a finished rocker & it has a good curve and is as smooth as a babys butt. thanks guys!

Glad you got it figured out.

I don't think you understood what I was referring to about putting a radius on the rocker.
The way you had it the first time would grind out the center of the rocker and make a hollow that matches the radius of the wheel. When you put the rocker on the engine the left and right edges would dig into the valve and the center would be cupped above it.

That is no longer an issue now that you've changed the setup but it might be a good thing to keep in mind on other jobs.

Using the outside radius of a grinding wheel will grind the same radius into the part.

actually it will not & was not grinding out a hollow cuz you move (rotate) the rocker back & forth against the wheel at the same time as you move the rocker forward lightly against the stone. what it was doing was grinding a nice smooth curved surface but it was "tilted" from vertical. If I'm missing something holler back as knowledge is power. EDIT on second thought I (now) grasp what you are saying

I did this quick drawing much earlier but waited for other replies. I see your Edit and realize you now grasp the radius feets was talking about, which is 90*'s from the radius your trying to produce. I'll just add it to the thread fwiw.

Again this was drawn quick & crud, not seeing your video link.

You know, I knew something was off cuz the pedestal assy was above the CL & I knew Mopar rockers couldn't be that much taller than others & I had even youtube searched & found a video on it but I got it in my head that they were grinding on the OD & I couldn't figure out how I coulda missed that & I just now looked at the video again (grinding rocker arms for a BMW) & the OD is in plain view and them hitting it on the side is slightly hidden & now I see how I got a brain fart on this (+ I am distracted on other things). I appreciate all the love and support you guys have given me on this (what goes around comes around) & Hemi, good drawings!

You're welcome. Sorry they were a bit hasty though.

Doing a little thinking out loud here.

Do you have several rockers to do? If so you may want to make a presetter with pad & swing stop for consistency from rocker to rocker.

Come to think of it you could probably use the wheel surface for the pad stop once the pad is squared & in the center of its swing/grind with the wheel, then build a temporary stop (that can also swing out of the way) for the swing arm of the fixture. A bit crud but may work.

actually they are in good enough shape that a light brush against the wheel is gonna make em perfect & in fact I coulda (shoulda) left em alone (these 16 at least) but my OCD said nah I gotta do SOMETHING!. Plus I have done plenty of valves but never rockers so its about time I learned that procedure as I'm sure it will come up again in the future & now I know

I went over to you tube with your description and viewed 2 videos on the BMW rockers one that wasn't so critical about how true the radius was with his double pivot and by hand. The other quit crud but more true to the radius but didn't care for the sander drum. So maybe it's not as critical as I had thought.

Nothing maintains the original pad radius, it's entirely the operator's skill at how fast he sweeps the pad past the wheel and with how much pressure.
There is no math formula, template, fixture etc. that duplicates the original curvature.
The good news is that your intuitive grasp of how it's coming along is probably very good, and your visual of the end product a good safety margin. Just angling the piece under a strong light will tell you if the curve is interrupted, slanted etc. Remember, ALL of the the pad's lateral surface (left to right) MUST be parallel to the rocker shaft, or it will quickly eat the stem tip.
I did this on forged rockers 40 years ago, never had a problem.

yeah I'm gonna go real light & check for parallelism & also as you mentioned compare the radius on some untouched ones to my final work but I think with a real light touch I will be OK. Thank you!