What can I do with a surface grinder?

[ScrapMetal]

Yeah, but you guys left out one thing that John can do with this kind of grinder - make other machinist types drool! (It's a "Pavlov's Dogs" kind of thing.) :biggrin: :lmao:

-Ron

 

[jgedde]

I picked it up this afternoon for PLUS a bunch of other goodies for $670 total... Check it out here:
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/show...r-tool-gloat-My-new-surface-grinder-and-stuff

The phase converter is mine too, but I left it for him so he could demo a massive Cinncinati Cylindrical Grinder he has. He wants $600 for that beast - nope I'm not missing a zero. It is in terrific shape and works. Too bad it's bigger than I can move...

John

 

[Rbeckett]

A 6-18 Hydraulic Boyar-Shultz, a magnetic chuck, wheels, rotary phase converter and stuff for $600. It sounds too good to be true.

John

John, I never would have left it there. I would have offered him 500.00 on the spot and loaded her up even if I had to pay the whole 600. But thats just me and I am a 100% dyed in the wool tool junky. My wife figured out that the three steps onto the tool trucks cost me about 150 bucks a step, wasn't allowed to get on only one for a long time after I got Snap-on, Matco, Mac, and Cornwell all paid off. Hope you have fun and the RPC, and tools/accy is a killer deal maker too.
Bob

 

[george wilson]

It looks like a nice machine. I need to get one myself. My K.O.Lee is too small for much surface grinding.

 

[jgedde]

John, I never would have left it there. I would have offered him 500.00 on the spot and loaded her up even if I had to pay the whole 600. But thats just me and I am a 100% dyed in the wool tool junky. My wife figured out that the three steps onto the tool trucks cost me about 150 bucks a step, wasn't allowed to get on only one for a long time after I got Snap-on, Matco, Mac, and Cornwell all paid off. Hope you have fun and the RPC, and tools/accy is a killer deal maker too.
Bob

Bob, It was all I could manage to get the surface grinder on my trailer with my engine hoist. The Cinncinati is easily three times bigger - it's massive! I'd need to hire a rigger to get it out of there. But, it's a beautiful machine...

Plus my wife would kill me and I've no place to put it...


John

 

[Ray C]

I get a lot of mileage out of the surface grinder! Milling operations are very good but when you really need to nail something, a follow-up in the SG makes all the difference in the world. Take a piece of metal, surface finish it in the mill then follow-up with the SG and you'll find-out that what you thought was perfectly flat is far from it. It's the only piece of equipment in my shop that can predictably put consistent finishes with ten-thousandth inch accuracy. I've made a few cutting tools (tapered reamers) on the lathe and mill then, put the rotary table on the SG and honed the edges sharp with extreme precision. Great tool to have in the shop but like everything else, it has a learning curve. Sadly, I'm not able to find much information on how to use them to their fullest extent so, in my case, it's been 2 years of trial and error.

I've got one more tapered reamer to make pretty soon. Maybe I'll start a thread here and show it from start to finish.

Ray

 

[jgedde]

We'd love to see the process of making a tapered reamer!

Since I got the grinder last year, I've become adept at using it. I sharpen end mills, planer blades, chipper blades. I made a set of parallels, a sine bar, a universal positioning and holding fixture, etc. I even used it to regrind a way on my mill/drill!

It's coincedental that this thread became active again. My SG never really gave the surface finish I thought it should be capable of - that is until yesterday. I noticed what appeared to be backlash in the spindle. So, I popped the motor off the back and found the spider in the Lovejoy coupling was trashed. I picked up a new spider from Grainger for $3.62, installed it and the surface finish is MUCH better. I think it would be perfect if I balanced the wheel.

About 6 months ago, I found that the ways needed some work. A bit of scraping got things straightened out (literally). I now see about 0.0001-0.0002 of thickness variation over the full width of the chuck (18").

I also found that to get a truly flat surface, you need to take very light passes. No more than 0.0002 to 0.0003, preferably 0.0001. Because the machine is not infinitely rigid, if the wheel starts making aggressive cuts, it tends to draw itself into the workpiece by a few tenths ruining the accuracy. While that's fine for roughing (whatever that means in SG context), it doesn't yield the precision the machine is capable of.

I lucked out with the X and Y hydraulic feeds. I did need to replace a couple of seals, but I can't imagine using one of these without a power feed. Talk about tedium and tired arms from cranking back and forth. So, I only use the cranks for small things, like end mill sharpening. It's great being able to set up the DOC, pull a lever and have the entire surface ground while I do little more than watch.

John

 

[pdentrem]

The control block on your Boyer appears different than the one that came with ours. We had leaks on ours and we were never able to completely stop them. We had two complete blocks to work with but we gave up on it. The other Boyer was manual and without the cylinders in place you can grind faster than the hydro version. I may still have some pieces, I will look tomorrow in the junk area of the shop but no guarantees, if you want.
Pierre

 

[jgedde]

Thanks Pierre. Thankfully, right now the unit is leak free. Some seals and a few new O-rings fixed her up.

To make the table move easier, there is a quick release under the table that allows the cylinder to be disengaged from the table for manual grinding.

John

 

[Ray C]

A well balanced wheel makes all the difference in the world! That's why I make those balancing grinder hubs. They work great!

It was those grinder hubs that forced my hand at making a reaming tool. I measured the taper on the grinder spindle (about a million times), calculated the angle and made a mating shaft. Then I cut 4 slits in the tapered shaft on the mill, followed by heat treating. After that, I setup the part on the grinder, gave it some relief angles and sharpened the edges. It was just an experiment and the piece was made of 1045 (not the right stuff). Anyhow, I used it once to clean-up a lathe cut taper on the inside bore of one of my hubs and it worked very well but understandably, it didn't hold a good edge up against the hub which was hardened to about 35 RC.

I ordered some O1 tool steel and will re-do the project with that because I have 4 more hub mechanisms to finish off. Am hoping the O1 holds an edge a little better. Actually, I'd be pretty happy to find a commercial B&S taper reamer but I searched high and low and couldn't find one -even called several places and nobody heard of that angle on any recent taper reamer. Actually, there are a couple out there but they have diameters tapering from 1" up to nearly 2.5" and that's way too big of a diameter for the bore needed on the hub. -So I make my own...

Ray

We'd love to see the process of making a tapered reamer!

Since I got the grinder last year, I've become adept at using it. I sharpen end mills, planer blades, chipper blades. I made a set of parallels, a sine bar, a universal positioning and holding fixture, etc. I even used it to regrind a way on my mill/drill!

It's coincedental that this thread became active again. My SG never really gave the surface finish I thought it should be capable of - that is until yesterday. I noticed what appeared to be backlash in the spindle. So, I popped the motor off the back and found the spider in the Lovejoy coupling was trashed. I picked up a new spider from Grainger for $3.62, installed it and the surface finish is MUCH better. I think it would be perfect if I balanced the wheel.

About 6 months ago, I found that the ways needed some work. A bit of scraping got things straightened out (literally). I now see about 0.0001-0.0002 of thickness variation over the full width of the chuck (18").

I also found that to get a truly flat surface, you need to take very light passes. No more than 0.0002 to 0.0003, preferably 0.0001. Because the machine is not infinitely rigid, if the wheel starts making aggressive cuts, it tends to draw itself into the workpiece by a few tenths ruining the accuracy. While that's fine for roughing (whatever that means in SG context), it doesn't yield the precision the machine is capable of.

I lucked out with the X and Y hydraulic feeds. I did need to replace a couple of seals, but I can't imagine using one of these without a power feed. Talk about tedium and tired arms from cranking back and forth. So, I only use the cranks for small things, like end mill sharpening. It's great being able to set up the DOC, pull a lever and have the entire surface ground while I do little more than watch.

John