If the wheels are wobbling, that could be either a symptom or cause of other problems. A symptom, if the wheel is wobbling because a bearing is bad or because the wheel has been damaged. A cause, if an unbalanced wheel caused excessive wear on a bearing.
As far as affecting the work goes, the answer is yes. There's no way to put a straight face on a wheel that's moving in an arc.
As for fixing it: if the problem is a damaged wheel, then you could replace them. But if the problem is a damaged shaft/bearing, then it's pretty much shot, and the new wheels would be wasted money.
As far as books, I highly recommend The Complete Book of Woodworking: http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Book-Woodworking-Detailed/dp/1890621366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335885982&sr=8-1. It's easy to follow even for the uninitiated. It goes over the major tools, what they are used for, and has excellent instructions on some starter and intermediate projects. There are even some workbench projects toward the end, one of which is made only from plywood and 2x4 lumber. I made it with a jigsaw and really uneven cuts, and it's held together well for about a year (it's usable for everything except hand planing). I'm also a software engineer by trade and learn well from books, so I spent a good few months obsessing over this book in my apartment before buying a house and really getting started.
For video instruction, The Wood Whisperer is one of my favorites; he gets into what tools are used for, how to set them up and tune them, and has some videos dedicated to safety. He's also very technical and comes from a science background, so the engineer in me relates well with him. He doesn't leave out many details. Fine Woodworking is also very good and for $5 a month you can get access to a ton of video content.
http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com
http://www.finewoodworking.com
SawmillCreek and WoodworkingTalk are nice forums to search through for tips and discussions about what tools are best used for what projects.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com
Most of these will discuss fine woodworking, furniture making, and detailed joinery, which you may or may not be interested in. All of them, however, will give you information you want about tool usage. It may be more detail than what you're interested in for the projects you describe, but if anything you'll be over-prepared.
Best Answer
Often seen grinders mounted on a pedestal, as long as they don’t move it gives more access for odd shaped work pieces.