Bench Grinder advice

[Brian RutherfordParticipant @brianrutherford79058]

Hi all,

The grinder i'm currently using is a cheapo clarke 6" that i had given me. Thinking of replacing with a new 8" one. Is there any benefit to buying one with wider wheels i.e 40mm white and 25mm coarse as against 20mm. In particular i have been looking at the record range.

The clarke one vibrates a bit and will be used for roughing out tools.

Atb

Brian

[Brian RutherfordParticipant @brianrutherford79058]

[VicParticipant @vic]

I’m not sure if it makes any practical difference but the 40mm wide white wheels are normally aimed at wood workers. Record Power in particular sell wood working machines. On a personal note I’ve found 1” wide wheels more than adequate for sharpening metal working tools although these days I normally use a belt sander instead.

[Andy CarruthersParticipant @andycarruthers33275]

Might be worth keeping the exising grinder for mild steel and a new grinder with wheels for TCT and HSS – brown and green IIRC

Edited By Andy Carruthers on 08/02/2018 10:39:10

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Hi Brian you have to think about the types of tooling you are going to grind and the type of wheel you are going to mount e.g. green grit for tungsten carbide tools or diamond also for tungsten carbide tooling and a wheel suitable for HSS tooling e.g. white or blue wheel. If you get a larger diameter wheel the costs go up so take that into consideration but buy the best quality grinder as you get a better wheel support flanges and better tool support also.

David

[EugeneParticipant @eugene]

In particular i have been looking at the record range.

Probably the best you can do is just look. My experience with a Chinese made Record grinder was pretty dismal.

Horribly out of balance, very poorly machined spindle, flimsy light that fell off, an all round dog. I chucked in the skip after putting a hammer to it to prevent some innocent skip diver from demolishing himself.

Arc Eurotrade sell their "Allwin" 6" and 8" bench grinders for a bit more money than the Records, but they are much superior. I use a 6" in conjunction with Harold's simple grinding jig and find it a great combination.

I've also had a second hand Warco 8"… very sturdy and smooth machine, but a bit of a lump for what I wanted.

I wouldn't use any grinder that wobbled at working speed, the potential for a catastrophic accident just isn't worth it. If your Clarke does so I'd either sort it or bin it.

Eug

[larry PhelanParticipant @larryphelan54019]

Seems like most bench grinders have the shakes,no matter what the make. Do they all come from the same factory,just painted a different colour and name tag ?

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Posted by larry Phelan on 08/02/2018 12:44:51:

Seems like most bench grinders have the shakes,no matter what the make. Do they all come from the same factory,just painted a different colour and name tag ?

I would imagine all the cheapo grinders do shake, Creusen grinders don't neither does the Warco heavy duty version.

Tony

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I got a titan 8in from screwfix with free wire brush. It is perfectly balanced which is a bit annoying as I got it to put the wore brush on and now don't want to disturb the wheels.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Whatever you get avoid Silverline! I got a 6" for a particular job, took it out of the box and gave the wheel a spin and could see lots of wobble. Removed the wheels and could see that the spindle was bent. Phoned up to arrange a return. Was imediately given a refund and told to "bin" the grinder as it wasn't worth them organising a return…

John

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

If your existing grinder is OK for rough grinding and you have a Lidl to too far away maybe consider the 5" / 125 mm Parkside disk sander currently on offer for finish grinding. Picked one up this morning for £ 30 and was favourably impressed. See post in the couple of things at Lidl thread.

Best way to exploit the sanding disc type is to use the periphery of your ordinary grinding wheel to hollow grind the main face then finish off at the desired angle on the disk. No need to get the whole face flat. For our sort of machinery a generous 1/16" or 2 mm deep flat below the cutting edge at the correct angle is probably ample.

If you put the nascent tool solidly on the rest and go straight in the hollow grind should be good enough for all the angles we need. Lifting the tool with a spacer increases the hollow. Theoretically you can compute the height of the tool relative to the wheel centre for any desired clearance angle immediately below the cutting edge but, in practice, life is probably too short.

Clive.

[Brian RutherfordParticipant @brianrutherford79058]

Think the record is a no no. Had 2 lots of bad reports. There also seems to be a lot of second hand ones about.

I think the Allwin ones on arc euro look ok the cheaper Titan ones on Screwfix are very cheap but come with 20mm wheels and not 25mm. One thing with Screwfix you can try it and if it vibrates or wobbles you can take it back for an easy refund no arguing

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

My experience goes back to 1963. I am still using the old Black and Decker 6 inch double ended bench unit I bought after my father died. It still runs true as a die and gets a great deal of use. There are perhaps some of you who have never heard of the make!

That grinder was made from two interlocking diecast metal housings and looks anything but pretty. Sadly, I had to replace the toggle switch maybe 5 years ago, that has been the only fault in all that time

Naturally I used a metal housed war surplus spare as a replacement

Try getting that durability today!

Brian

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Brian – Snap – but slightly later – about early 70s. Similarly, not a hint of a shake or vibration and just hums away with that looooong run down when switched off. Would not expect anything like that from B&D nowadays.

rgds

Bill

[BrevaParticipant @breva]

I had an 8" grinder under the bench for several years. Not alone did it vibrate, it would go "walkies" all over the bench I read up about balancing and trueing the wheels and had a go . After some trial and error it now runs very smoothly.

It is usually the wheels that are unbalanced and the supporting washers are sloppy. Sometimes also the centre hole in the wheel is too big and causes the wheel to be off centre. Start by winding a hard paper slip around the shaft to take up the slack. It might be all it needs.

Then have a go at balancing the wheel if it still vibrates.It costs nothing and will transform your grinder. There's plenty info online.

I used a thin (1mm) lead washer with a centre hole for the shaft and a long pointed nose off it on one side. Find the heavy side of the wheel. Fit the washer with the point opposite the heavy end. You may have to trim the washer a bit to adjust the counterbalancing weight of it and move it around to get it to run true. I would do it with only one wheel on the shaft. Then put on the second wheel and repeat the operation.

Very satisfying when it works!

[Philip RoweParticipant @philiprowe13116]

Brian & Bill, I too have one of the B&D grinders, one of my better purchases from around 1972/3 a superb piece of kit that doesn't walk around the bench when in use. In fact I have only screwed it down in recent times because it would move under pressure from the actual grinding process. Still has the oriinal wheel but could probably do with replacing as the diameter has reduced from 45 years of wheel dressing. We'll have to start an owners club!

Phil

[Dan CarterParticipant @dancarter89683]

Bazyle – don’t put the wire wheel on. Mine shook the whole garage when I did. I put better fitting and non wobbling bushes on and it is still awful, and stalls if you apply any pressure anyway.

Does anyone know if the arc wire wheels are ok? The titan one is horribly unbalanced regardless of the grinder itself

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Cornish Jack and Phil,

How interesting to get similar experiences. We also had an identical model at my last place of work and just as well behaved as mine has been

I didn't mention the run down time but it is very impressive. I wonder if the company is still in business and if so I would be pleasantly surprised if the old quality was still there.

Brian

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by larry Phelan on 08/02/2018 12:44:51:

Seems like most bench grinders have the shakes,no matter what the make. Do they all come from the same factory,just painted a different colour and name tag ?

Sometimes, I've heard of expensive and cheap ones coming off the same production line.

I've been very luck with both of mine. I suggest running any grinder without a wheel on before deciding if it is out of balance as it is often a cheap grinding wheel that causes the vibration.

Make sure unmounted wheels 'ring' when tapped gently with a screwdriver, use a well fitting plastic insert and card washers and ALWAYS wear googles and stand out of the line of fire when spinning up a grinder.

Neil

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Surface grinders often have adjustable weights built in to the hubs for static balancing as any out of balance will be shown in poor finish on the work. True running hubs has to be a good place to start and then diamond dressing of the wheels after mounting should minimise any out of balance issues. If the sides and periphery run true then any vibration could be in the wheels consistency, difficult to resolve unless you have adjustable weights.

Mike

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