Yet another B&S No. 2 surface grinder.

G

Galane

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Picked this one up in Arizona. Brown & Sharpe No. 2 Surface Grinder. Serial number 9803. What's the approximate age? From reading other threads on various fora I know it's pretty far before WW2 and quite a ways after WW1.

Brown & Sharpe #2 grinder - a set on Flickr

Upon lifting the table off I was amazed at the condition of the ways, there's flaking/frosting the full length so that shouldn't need any attention beyond cleaning off the old dry oil and a bit of work with deep creep and steel wool to remove the little bit of light rust. Before it got put away who knows how many years ago it must have been drenched in oil.

Is there a site with a manual to download?
 
My serial nimber book says that 1932 is #9379, and 1935 is #10067; generally, they seem to make between 500 and 1,000 per year with a big jump during the war years. I assume these are starting numbers for the respective years. I have owned several of these, and like them; one thing I must stress is that if this is a plain bearing spindle, which it looks like, take great care to have the proper lubricator on it with the proper oil, or it will be damaged and fixing it is not easy; if it is a ball bearing spindle, no sweat.
ou can get a manual from a company that sells them online, ot keep an eye out on E Bay. I know I have at least one, and will check to see if I possibly have an extra copy; I am giving the machine I have to a friend (IF HE CAN EVER FIND A BARE SPOT ON HIS FLOOR) and now have a Micromaster, which is a nicer more accurate machine.
 
I think the manual is available from machinerymanuals.com, I have only one, and also the drive belts are available from Wm. Sopko Co. I looked more closely at your pics, and this machine appears to have the ball bearing spindle. If you can't find a manual, I could have mine copied; they cover more parts and service than operations. John York york@napanet.net
 
Congrats Galane on your new to you - B&S No.2... I'm over in Boise and acquired one last year, for which I still need to get the VFD mounted and wired. Not sure how you're set for a mag chuck but I have an extra B&S 6x18 perm mag chuck if you're interested...

Cheers!
Jeff Pfeifer
 
Can someone tell me where the s/n is on these machines? Can't seem to find one.
I picked up a #2 surface grinder with automatic table feed in x and y. It looks older than the one in the manual at vintage machinery.org with the parts breakdown dated 1936. Mine does not have a removable feed scale faceplate for front to back movement. It is part of the casting. There is a motor inside the cabinet that works the table and an external Master Electric motor mounted on a pivoting arm called a Masterdrive running 2 v belts up to the spindle. The weight of the motor keeps tension on the belts and as the spindle is raised, so is the motor. As you can also see from the picture, I am also missing the the Ratchet Wheel Pawl Friction Lever for auto feed from front to back.

Thanks



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mikemm said:
Can someone tell me where the s/n is on these machines? Can't seem to find one.
I picked up a #2 surface grinder with automatic table feed in x and y. It looks older than the one in the manual at vintage machinery.org with the parts breakdown dated 1936. Mine does not have a removable feed scale faceplate for front to back movement. It is part of the casting. There is a motor inside the cabinet that works the table and an external Master Electric motor mounted on a pivoting arm called a Masterdrive running 2 v belts up to the spindle. The weight of the motor keeps tension on the belts and as the spindle is raised, so is the motor. As you can also see from the picture, I am also missing the the Ratchet Wheel Pawl Friction Lever for auto feed from front to back.

Thanks
Click to expand...
The serial number on my B&S 2L surface grinder is 17047. I bought it from Benmychree, who is posting in this thread. It is probably from 1946, near the end of the model 2 grinder production. On my grinder, the serial number is stamped into the top of the right side of the table, where the bolt holds down the magnetic chuck. The S/N is also stamped into the top of the spindle housing, and on the left side of the lower cabinet, above the access hole but below the carriage, within the the cast writing there.

By the way, I recently found the B&S number 2 grinder in a 1903 B&S catalog. It had about a 50 year run, or perhaps more, start to finish of production.

Here are some posts about bringing my grinder back into service:
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/brown-sharpe-2l-surface-grinder-before.49082/
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/brown-and-sharpe-2l-surface-grinder-during.49658/
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/brown-sharpe-2l-surface-grinder-getting-close.49978/
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/brown-sharpe-2l-surface-grinder-sparks.50582/
 
I would be interested to see that 1903 catalog. Mine might be the one in that catalog, Serial # 634 stamped into the table. I will recheck the spindle and cabinet tomorrow. Really cool to use a 100+ year old machine that works great.
 
Bob, thanks for that link. the table looks line mine. symmetrical at both ends, not like the ones I mostly see that are machined flat on the left end for a spark catcher/deflector. From the drawing it looks like there is the flat belt counter balance wheel sticking out. I'm still scratching my head as to what kind of spindle drive setup my grinder is sporting. I'll try to grab some better pictures to post.
 
mikemm said:
Bob, thanks for that link. the table looks line mine. symmetrical at both ends, not like the ones I mostly see that are machined flat on the left end for a spark catcher/deflector. From the drawing it looks like there is the flat belt counter balance wheel sticking out. I'm still scratching my head as to what kind of spindle drive setup my grinder is sporting. I'll try to grab some better pictures to post.
Click to expand...
The one in the 1904 catalog looks like it was set up for line shaft operation, which was how most all machines were run in those days.
 
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