Grinders for HSS

When I first started metal work, I bought a grzy 8" VS bench grinder. Horrible quality! I now use it with a deburring wheel with the speed slowed. I have an 8" Jet with a stock fine wheel & a very narrow, 5-6mm, profile grinder wheel on the other side. An old 1x42 belts sander, And a Shars tool & cutter grinder that I have both diamond & CBN wheels for. Mostly used for carbide sharpening or modifying. I have dust collection on all of them. I really should get another white Norton wheel as they work better for HSS than the grey AO wheels.
 
I use an "early sixties" Craftsman bench grinder and a CBN wheel to grind HSS and a "green wheel" on the other side to "touch up" carbide cutters. I have a couple other wheels in the drawer but what I have on the machine meets all of my needs.
 
2x72 belt grinder with a ceramic belt. Home built. The low speed stuff is more for carbide. But you can use a "normal" bench grinder. I would replace the wheel they come with though. Some of the included wheels are really junky.

The belt type will be faster, but if you have a little patience, you can grind with the wheels. With a good wheel, you can get close.
 
I have an old Craftsman 6" grinder I picked up at a garage sale. It came with a stand and well-balanced white and gray grinding wheels. It also has a built-in light. The tool rests are nothing special and not all that easy to adjust to the desired angle, but I made that task a little easier by cutting some sheet metal pieces with the angles I most frequently grind on my HSS cutters.

Oh, yeah -- the price was right, too :).
 
SouthernChap said:
One thing I would add to the above is make room for a scotchbrite wheel (or other brand equivalent).

I've found the one I have (on a cheap Lidl Parkside belt sander/grinding wheel combi; my Norton 60 grit and 120 grit wheels are on my Warco 6" bench grinder) very useful.

I deffo need more bench space for another cheap Parkside fella for a wire wheel. ;)
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It took me a bit to sort this out. Holy crap, you guys have a grocery store that out cheaps our Harbor Freight stores. I didn't think that could be done. Holy crap, we've got 'em too. I never knew that.
 
I started out with a makita high speed hand held grinder. It was all I had. Didn't work very good. Luckily my lathe came with a fair amount of already ground HSS tool bits in a variety of shapes. Next came a 6' grinder picked up at a garage sale for cheap.. Better but still left much to be desired. Then I happened upon a 1x42 belt grinder again for cheap in a thrift store. Wow!!!!! Suddenly I could easily grind any shape that I wanted to. Start out with a 36 to 50 grit belt. Then a 120 or so. Finish up with a 300. If I really want it to shine I finish with a leather strop belt. Rarely use the strop. The 300 leaves a really nice edge. I also have a hone for touch ups.

The moral of all of these posts is use whatever you have that works for you.
 
Jake M said:
It took me a bit to sort this out. Holy crap, you guys have a grocery store that out cheaps our Harbor Freight stores. I didn't think that could be done. Holy crap, we've got 'em too. I never knew that.
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Parkside tools (they're from 'Einhell') have a three year warranty (that apparently can be relied on too), so whilst almost certainly made in China, there must be some reasonably decent QA going on.

The 20v drill driver I have from them has the first steel chuck I've seen on a drill driver in many a year.

I got a little Parkside flux core welder for £80 (I've yet to use it; learning to weld is on my to-do list). There's one knob that controls both voltage and wire speed (it's 'synergetic' supposedly) and the reviews of it are really good (rated up.to 3mm but people seem to be getting decent penetration up to 5mm) and for £80 it's a no brainer. It should certainly do for sticking bits of 3mm 40x40 box section together.

The cheapy sander/grinder is really handy, with the Scotchbrite wheel and an aluminium oxide belt chucked on it. Don't use it for grinding HSS but it's good for deburring and tidying up.

Eh, their 20V tools can't be up to 'trade' Makita, Bosch, Milwakee range standards but in my experience they're as good, if not better, than the usual consumer/casual DIYer suspects. The hand tools are generally fine if, in some cases, a bit disposable.
 
For HSS, I use a 8 inch bench grinder with the two gray wheels that come with it. I'm not sure of the grits. But the key in my opinion is a water reservoir to cool the steel as your grinding it. I built a stand for mine with a built in water reservoir of about 16 oz. This allows me to keep the steel cool while grinding.
 
Pevehouse said:
Just wanted to drop in and ask what kind of grinders are being used by you guys. Looking at a couple different ones but not sure what to look for in a dedicated HSS grinder. Would also like input on grinding wheels. Thanks
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To answer your question, I use a Dewalt 8" 3450 RPM bench grinder that is fitted with coarse and medium aluminum oxide wheels. I suppose CBN would be a better choice, but that's outside my price range. I made tables for this grinder that allow me to use jigs rather than trying to grind free-hand, which I simply can't get right.

I use HSS as well as carbide, so I also have other grinders (which is another way of saying I have a bench grinder fetish):

1) 60's 6" B&D that's only powerful enough for polishing. It has a brass wire wheel and a fine deburring wheel
2) HFT 8" 3450 RPM that has a wire wheel and a coarse green wheel for coarse grinding carbide
3) 8" Dewalt 3450 RPM with course and medium AlOx wheels for coarse grinding HSS
4) 6" variable speed Delta that I converted to a "bit grinder" by adapting tables that allow for cup and type 50 wheels and for side wheel grinding. It uses diamond, AlOx, and green wheels. I use this to flatten hollow HSS grinds and for coarse and fine grinding brazed carbide bits and carbide inserts

I like to think they all get equal use and that I'm not just collecting ....
 
I've been using an 8" grinder, and plan to make a belt grinder (someday...)

Belt grinders seem to be preferred, but the cost has been considerably higher than wheel grinders. I did notice this has turned up at Grizzly, looks like it might be a decent option, and far more affordable than most others I looked at which were pushing $500 and still needed some modification.

I was committed to the idea of making a 2x grinder, and that is still my plan but I am tempted by this one.

Grizzly 2x42 belt sander
 
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