Baldor 8" 1800 Rpm Grinder Review.

[Dan_S]

It's the 10" 1-1/2hp 3ph but looks almost identical to the 8" Don't pelt me with tomatoes but I paid the guy $150 for it including stand.....

I haven't seen them go for that cheap, but I've seen them go for about twice that. The 1800 rpm models seem to be a lot harder to find than the 3600 rpm ones.

In my ideal shop, I'd have this dedicated to woodworking tools, and then 2 Baldor 500s for machining cutters, one for hss & the other for carbide.

 

[coolidge]

Public service announcement...my new Baldor grinder model 762 vibrated so badly it took off across the bench and tried to leap to its death. The shaft had a small shoulder sticking out so instead of the large aluminum washers butting up against the spacer like it was supposed to it butted up against this shoulder out of kilter and the wheel vibrated badly. I turned a small spacer with a relief cut for that shoulder and now its smooth as glass, but thought people should know. Cheeseking dang, that was a smoking deal for $150.

 

[joshua43214]

This thing will see a diverse range of sharpening. The wood & metal lathe tools are HSS, my chisel & hand plane blades are O-1, A-2, Some powdered metallurgy stuff, and I have some nice old high carbon (1095 or similar) blades as well. I'm anal about sharpening, I finish ,my hand tools off with Japanese waterstones.

I would respectfully suggest that you never grind carbon steel hand tools. About 20 years ago, Fine Woodworking Magazine ran a article with a bunch of micrographs of what grinding does to carbon steel edges. The edge heats instantly when it contacts the wheel causing the steel to slightly expand. When the steel cools, it leaves very fine cracks all along the edge. The heating of the edge is apparently unavoidable because the metal is so thin there, and it requires very little heat to expand the metal enough to crack on shrinkage. I find my plane irons leave a much smoother finish and stay sharp much longer now that I no longer grind nicks out of them, I just use a oil stones to remove nicks, then work up through Japanese water stones.

BTW nice finish on the plane iron. I always say it is not sharp if you can't see your reflection...

If you have been a long term subscriber to Fine Woodworking, the article was published during one of those periods when debate over sharpening methods erupted (yet again). They also ran an article about the same time comparing oil to water to diamond stones and lapping on glass plates with micrographs of each method along with some lab results for smoothness. The article was published before they decided to expand their subscription base away from master craftsmen to project oriented hobbyists if that helps finding it.

 

[Dan_S]

Tonight I finished up a mockup, of something I hope to take care of after the new year. It looks like I can just fit a 1.5 inch wide CBN wheel on the grinder , and still keep the wheel guards on.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

very nice grinder! baldor makes top shelf motors, grinders ,& buffers
great deal @150!!!

 

[mattthemuppet2]

you could stick some sand paper to the wood blank and it would make a neat little sanding wheel

 

[Dan_S]

you could stick some sand paper to the wood blank and it would make a neat little sanding wheel

To much wobble for that, lol!