Toolpost Grinder uses

danleereed

danleereed

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I was wondering what you guys use your tool post grinders for on your lathe. I am looking at one for grinding my chuck jaws. I am sure there has to be more that it is useful for. I would feel better about the investment if I knew what all I could do with it. Thanks for the look, I hope to see a lot of good ideas.

Dan Reed
 
I have a Themac, Dumore and a Dremel for metal lathe use. Each one has a specific capability. And each on has been used in my shop through the years. The Themac and Dumore are expensive even used and maybe not justifiable in the home shop. But if you need to grind something that can’t be tooled, well then it’s decision time and maybe no telling the wifey poo. I don’t like to grind stuff in my metal lathe because of the nasty swarf it generates but then I do not have a dedicated grinder for the tasks so I just carefully cover up the lathe before I grind. I made a lathe holder for the Dremel and for the piece of junk that it is, it does a surprisingly decedent job. Maybe the finish isn’t a mirror finish but good enough for a lot of projects…Good Luck.
 
I think the biggest advantage of one is cutting hard material, just not much of it. They won't turn your lathe into a cylindrical grinder, your still dealing with the precision of your spindle but they will get you to a tenth of a thou.
And they give a beautiful finish. Here I'm resurfacing the neglected tapper of a collet chuck for a Colchester lathe. I mounted the stock in the three jaw, machined it to 1 inch then grabbed the stub with a collet.
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Came out with 2 tenths of a thou runout.

Greg

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I bought a air pencil die grinder from HF that I wanted to use for grinding the jaws on some micro chucks. http://www.harborfreight.com/18-air-micro-die-grinder-69745.html I also thought about using this one too. http://www.harborfreight.com/electric-die-grinder-with-long-shaft-44141.html

Figured it would be fine for what I wanted to do. I tried using a dremel to grind something else but it didn't do a very good job. Just as I was about to start making the tool post mount for that pencil grinder I scored a Dumore tool post grinder locally for $150 just last week. It's their smallest model #14 but I'm so glad I got it.
 
chips&more said:
I have a Themac, Dumore and a Dremel for metal lathe use. Each one has a specific capability. And each on has been used in my shop through the years. The Themac and Dumore are expensive even used and maybe not justifiable in the home shop. But if you need to grind something that can’t be tooled, well then it’s decision time and maybe no telling the wifey poo. I don’t like to grind stuff in my metal lathe because of the nasty swarf it generates but then I do not have a dedicated grinder for the tasks so I just carefully cover up the lathe before I grind. I made a lathe holder for the Dremel and for the piece of junk that it is, it does a surprisingly decedent job. Maybe the finish isn’t a mirror finish but good enough for a lot of projects…Good Luck.
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I found a nice one, off brand on ebay. Bidding on it tomorrow. Has a 10 inch ID bar and standard bar. If I don't get it, I'll keep looking for a good deal on a nice one.

GarageGuy said:
They're good for dressing worn or damaged dead centers. Here is Tubalcain's YouTube video on how to do it:

http://youtu.be/IHNLSnFSKrM

GG
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I have been watching a lot of his videos. Great stuff and thanks for the link.

darkzero said:
I bought a air pencil die grinder from HF that I wanted to use for grinding the jaws on some micro chucks. http://www.harborfreight.com/18-air-micro-die-grinder-69745.html I also thought about using this one too. http://www.harborfreight.com/electric-die-grinder-with-long-shaft-44141.html

Figured it would be fine for what I wanted to do. I tried using a dremel to grind something else but it didn't do a very good job. Just as I was about to start making the tool post mount for that pencil grinder I scored a Dumore tool post grinder locally for $150 just last week. It's their smallest model #14 but I'm so glad I got it.
Click to expand...

I was considering the second links option earlier today. It would probably do good with a nice mount. I don't really know what I would grind other than my chuck jaws. I have .005" run out at the chuck,.015 to .020 @ 10" Its brand new Shars 10" 3 jaw. Cheap though. Maybe I'm being to picky.

Earlier today I was trying to face and center drill some shafts about 2' long x 2.5"diameter. I had the steady rest about 5" from the end because of an already existing keyway. To get the shaft on center it was very hard to turn the pin adjustments on the rest. I was afraid I would get to much pressure against the rest pins and do some damage at 400 rpm. I don't have any experience with the steady rest to make a good judgment. Now that I think about it, I'm going to check that shaft for straightness. I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier. But what do you guys think about .005" at the chuck? I have ran a lathe or 2 before but they were all cherries, everything must have been perfect on them. Plus, I am using an old used machine that was in poor shape when I received it. Been fixing and tuning since I got it. I may have missed something. I have been researching tailstock alignment, and test bars.
 
.005" would drive me crazy. .002"-.003" is typical for an import 3 jaw but there are ways to possibly get it lower without grinding. Is a direct mount chuck or mounted on a back plate? Spindle mount type? If there is a backplate was it purchased or self made & did you true it up to your spindle?
 
I used a 'toolpost grinder' setup to fix the starter gear teeth on the generator of my Yamaha Virago 750.
The teeth were worn so much that the starter would engage about 1 out of 20 times.
The bearing in the grinder (Chinese junk!), was so bad that I had to use what I would call a statistical approach -
feed 2 thou and then wait for about 5 minutes till there were very few sparks.
It took a lot of time but it saved me about $1200. Still works, 3 years later!
Sometime I will buy a real grinder.

Kai

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