Surface grinder?

[great white]

Heres a questiin thats probably been answer a at least a dozen times:

Do I really need a surface grinder if I have a vertical mill?

Obviously, no hardened metals on the mill (I only have hss tooling), but can I get acceptable results (for a home shop) using end mills and/or fly cutters?

 

[C-Bag]

Do I really need a surface grinder if I have a vertical mill?

This is such a broad question because of application it is all dependent on the project at hand. Are you talking surface finish, precision, or both? Over how big an area? What kind of machines are you fixing up?

There is a lot that can be done with a vertical mill and if it’s all about precision hand scraping from there can be as good as it gets. As far as surface finish I was lucky to find an old Atlas shaper that can put out a finish as close to ground as you can get. The place a surface grinder really shines is the ability to use a mag chuck as often a mill vise can’t hold small thin stuff without warping it etc.

 

[matthewsx]

Heres a questiin thats probably been answer a at least a dozen times:

Do I really need a surface grinder if I have a vertical mill?

Obviously, no hardened metals on the mill (I only have hss tooling), but can I get acceptable results (for a home shop) using end mills and/or fly cutters?

Building accurate tools is fiendishly difficult. Surface grinders are high precision machines for doing close tolerance work on already hardened parts.

Unless you have a furnace and need to produce such hardened and accurate parts I think a surface grinder would just be taking up space in your shop.

I just picked up a furnace and will soon be trying my hand at hardening steel but a surface grinder is still far into the future.

As with any tool purchase the first thing to ask is what projects will I do with it.

John

 

[extropic]

Heres a questiin thats probably been answer a at least a dozen times:

Do I really need a surface grinder if I have a vertical mill?

Obviously, no hardened metals on the mill (I only have hss tooling), but can I get acceptable results (for a home shop) using end mills and/or fly cutters?

The answer to your question depends on your (emphasis on YOUR) definition of "acceptable results".

 

[Dabbler]

Do I really need a surface grinder if I have a vertical mill?

No. Yes. well, maybe. It depends.

If you want to learn new cool skills, go for it.

But if what you need to do is done very well with your VM, then no. Definitely not. Just like the mill, as SG, requires a lot of tooling to do a wide range of tasks. Tooling costs money. More than the acquisition price in many cases. I just bought 200$ worth of hubs for my SG, because I could get them at 1/10 of retail. My Suburban magnetic sin plate can cost 5000$ new, but I got mine for *very cheap*. The list goes on.

 

[Old&Hammered]

"Aghast"?
I LOVE it when people repurpose, or upcycle, any kind of machine. It's where the true ingenuity resides.
Surface grinder.... let's see.....
Goes to and fro? Check
Stays true to flat/plumb/level? Check
Spins the wheel? Check
What's not to like?
Every grinder has feed limitations. I just had some grind work done (hired out) and he wouldn't take more than a full thou cut and a half-thou finish. That was his max on a 6" wide wheel that was over 2 feet in diameter! On an 8 foot bed grinder!
You'll do great.

I know this thread is nearly two years old, but I found it in a search for something else. I have to comment because your attitude is fantastic. It's very inspiring to get such a motivating response from a peer when your fixing to jump into the unknown with both feet. I build nearly all of my bench tools, or re-purpose, or modify, or whatever I need at the moment, so I appreciate the original poster and his 'hesitation'. Thanks for being cool.