Abstract: Method and apparatus are provided for grinding ophthalmic lenses by mounting the lens blank on a rotatable pedestal having three additional degrees of freedom on respective orthogonal axes one of which is parallel to the axis of rotation of the mounting pedestal. A grinding wheel is mounted for rotation on an axis parallel to a second of these orthogonal axes and mounted for oscillation in a plane parallel to the third. While the grinding wheel is rotated and oscillated the base and cross radius constraints for the finished lens are superimposed on the lens blank along its axis of rotation and the lens blank pedestal is moving along the second orthogonal axis. This permits the grinding wheel to complete a grind on the blank by traversing only from one outside position to a central position and substantially precludes edge breakage in the blanks.