Foley Belsaw Model 380 Tool Grinder

jjtgrinder

JJTGRINDER
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Posted a picture on the "Antique, Vintage, Other " forum of this machine.
Does anyone have experience with the Model 380 or 374 machines?
I plan to use it to sharpen slitting saws , drills, reamers, ect.
I need to know how to take the table off so I can clean it up and so forth.

JJTG
 
I picked one up when I visited my son on our way out of town at Thanksgiving. Will pick it up when we head back home in the spring. My plan is the same as yours, so I will follow along with great interest. Mike
 
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Don't know about your Foley grinder, but on a lot of surface grinders, that have tables visually similar to yours, the table just lifts right off.
 
Found a pic of the one I got on line. It's the one to the front. The one you have looks like it would be more readily adaptable for our intended use. I found mine on the Denver Craigs list for $100, figured I couldn't pass it up for that. Of course this is why I have buildings full of stuff I may never get to. :) Mike


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Fomogo,
Here is a photo of the one I bought. I did get the table off by taking the grinder off the stand and flipping it "upside down". I had to then take the four hex cap-screws off and
slide the table to the front of the machine so the front roller bearing would clear the track it runs on. The main track is a 1" precision ground rod that "runs" on a pair of linear
ball bearings on the "back side" (under the table). The opposite underside of the table has a slot that a roller bearing runs in to support the table and let it move back and forth very smoothly.
The grinder has a 1/2Hp 3450 rpm motor (belt is removed in photo). There is a "work head" mounted on the table that uses a 4c collet to grip a round tool to be sharpened. The work-head has an indexing feature and can be set at an angle in both the horizontal and vertical planes. I plan on making a fixture to sharpen large drill bits in the 1/2" to 1 1/2" range. I will use this fixture to grind a "four-facet" tip on the drills. Another fixture will sharpen slitting saws. I will be able to mount a rotary table and tail-stock for grinding things like reamers and such.
Foley made two machines model 374 and 380. The 374 had a smaller 1/2 Hp motor and the 380 (which I have) has a "full size" 1/2 Hp totally enclosed motor. Both are listed as a "Router Bit and Tool Sharpener". The user manual shows setups to sharpen router bits, circular saws, milling bits, reamers and other tooling.

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UPDATE: I called Foley Belsaw and talked to a guy there. I told him what I had , His first comment was "this is an old machine that is obsolete, I cannot help you with it." I was directed to him by a lady that said he was familiar with the older machines.
It may be "obsolete" but I cannot imagine the time it would take to make a tool like this from scratch to use for all the sharpening tasks we need to do! I was not looking forward to a big project like a "Quorn grinder" or such! This puts me "way ahead" in the sharpening effort.
 
I never knew that this machine existed? Nice looking grinder for the HM. Thank you for sharing…Dave.
 
Uploaded a user manual under Downloads,Army Manuals.
 
Foley-Belsaw has not been very helpful, particularly with the documentation on THIS machine. I looked at the wheels I have for it today and there are a lot more than I had first thought. JJTGrinder wanted to know about the wheels I have so I'll try to make a list of them. As I said before, I have been working on cleaning it up and getting all the years of grease and gunk off of it. It is now in relatively "respectable" shape "looks wise." I found the Army TM on it and will go through it in slow, methodical detail to hopefully be able to work with it. It is supposed to work on drills, end mills, and the book even says saw blades but I have plenty of other machines for them.

I'll keep you posted on my progress with this machine.
Cheers,
Trim sends
 
Found a pic of the one I got on line. It's the one to the front. The one you have looks like it would be more readily adaptable for our intended use. I found mine on the Denver Craigs list for $100, figured I couldn't pass it up for that. Of course this is why I have buildings full of stuff I may never get to. :) Mike


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FOMOGO,
I have been studying the picture here and can identify several of the machines, but none that I see is the 374 or the 380. The machine in front is a sharpening machine but I can't tell you which one although I think it is one of the "later models". The one to the right of it looks like the 387 automatic filer. The one immediately behind it looks like the 357 and the one behind that on a stand, I don't know about.

Have you been able to work with your machine yet? How is it going?
Cheers,
Trim sends

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