Carbide grinding implements???

[Glenn Brooks]

Chipper, sweet looking machine you have there. Did you ever find out a manufacturing date? It looks like pre WW II, or high end early 1950's, judging by the nice cast bronze builders plates in the photos. master Motor company is still around and might be able to tell what era the motor came from. I called them a few months ago out of the blue and their sales guy did a terrific job researching my old motor on my Burke #4 horizontal mill.

Thanks for you input on carbide grinders. I want a legitimate carbide wheel - tired of the general purpose silica wheels over heating, nearly melting, the tooling I touch up every few days.

Glenn

 

[Eremius]

I'm going to respectfully disagree with that statement. Green wheels or diamond is desired, but not ''needed''.

I can drive my lawn mower back and forth from work but that doesn't mean it's the right tool for the job.

It is good to know as an option for when you are in a pinch though.

Because another solution came along: http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/carboloy-excello-tool-grinder.37715/

I got a 10" diamond wheel (it is a belt drive machine, runs at about 2000 rpm), designed for grinding on the side, with quite a wide face (I thought I got the grinder at the good price, the wheel cost a crazy amount of $$). It is fantastic, you can grind fast, the tool stays much cooler and it leaves a nice finish on the tool edge.

I'm not saying you should try to look for or duplicate a purpose build industrial carbide pedestal grinder. All I am saying is that a good grinder set up is very nice and I find that a diamond wheel is much better than the SilCar.

Let us know how you make out. Regards, David

Yes, a tool grinder is the ideal option and it looks like you have a really nice one!

 

[Chipper5783]

I'll share the rest of the story. I had long been wanting to get a better way of grinding small tools. I have 4 regular bench grinders (they just seem to keep multiplying - 2 were my dad's, 2 came as projects) - so I intended to make up a nice rest for one of them. Then this opportunity came up at an auction (don't we all shop there?). The grinder was still in use, sounded fine running (3 phase of course - another plug to folks to get 3 phase power sorted out, it really opens up some great machine options). Anyway, I ended up paying $400 for it (kind'a got carried away). The next item to sell was a Cincinnati T&C grinder - also still connected and running. It also went for $400 (way more machine, but not for me) - I have since picked up a Cinci#2, but that is another story. http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/cincy-2-tool-and-cutter-grinder.46750/

The insulation was crumbling off the wiring to the motor (and it was operating on 440V). I got it fixed up and used for a bit, however the wheels were in poor condition. So I did some research for the "ideal" wheel, based on my application. What the heck, throw caution out the window - I paid 2x the cost of the grinder for just the one wheel. Now I have $1200 into the machine. I spent a bunch of time making a pretty little table miter guide (per normal auction procedure, small components are separated/ gone from the machine). Sure it is great for touching up or major grinding of brazed carbide - but for that kind of $$ I could buy a lot of tooling options. Pretty sure I'll never get my investment back, but it works sooo nice (which for me makes it worth it).

There is a lot of talk on this web site about wanting to get a good machine for very cheap. What can I say, I try to get equipment as cheap as I can. One is forever hearing about the guy that got a fantastic old machine, lots of tooling for practically nothing. That's great when it works out and I'm glad to hear folks stories of when it does. I have picked up some equipment/tools at what I think were pretty smoking deals myself - but I encourage folks not to focus on the price. When you find a good piece of kit, don't be afraid to pay for it (eventually that purchase price, and the associated pain will fade).