New Grinder

[Bernd]

I finally purchased one of those 6" tool and carbide grinder from Harbor Freight. It was on sale from $174.99 to $134.99 plus a 15% off coupon which made the price a nice $123.92 including tax. I've been waiting for these to go on sale for a while now. Now I can sharpen those slightly used carbide tools that need more than a diamond stone to touch them up.

When I went to HF's site to get the pic of the grinder I noticed there price is $189.99. looks like I made out pretty good. Oh, and I also turned down the extended warrenty. I think I can fix anything that goes wrong with it, other than a complete motor burn out. ;D

It needs a bit of a tune up to run vibration free. Until I can make some new parts for it it'll just have to do.

Here's the pic of the grinder:

Bernd

 

[zeusrekning]

Steve has one of those and I've been eyeing them for a while. Good buy!!!
Tim

 

[Brass_Machine]

Nice! I want one!

Eric

 

[Bernd]

Nice! I want one!

Eric

Sorry Eric, I don't have another $123.92 to spend. :big:

Seriously though, if you get the HF flyer the're in there. The only problem is the cheap wheels and adapters they put on them. I'm already looking to make new ones and will post here when I get round-to-it.

Bernd

 

[SmoggyTurnip]

I've been trying to buy that since march. They keep telling me they have none in stock and they won't back order for Canadians. They said they would be in stock in april, then may, then june and now they say July 25. Maybe someday.

 

[d-m]

I have one right next to the lathe Nice tool
Bernd Let me know how you get the vibration out of it
Dave

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

I have one right next to the lathe

Ouch! better move it as far away from the lathe (or any other machine tool for that matter) to keep the abrasive dust away from the ways & leadscrews. It's like nookler waste...ya' can't get rid of it once you have it!

Soon after I got mine I noticed the fine gritty crap settling on everything, even though it's 8 ft. away from the nearest machine tool. I mounted my grinders on a rolling cabinet and try to wait 'til a pretty day when I can open the shop door and roll the whole mess outside.

It'd sure be nice to have a partition or something around the grinding equipt.

 

[zeusrekning]

I picked one of these up yesterday. ;D Very heavy. It is quiet when running and had almost no vibration.I just have it sitting on my work bench and it doesn't move when turned on. The only problem I had was putting the water catch trays under the wheels. the left pan was to tight. Either the holes in the pan were too far apart or the holes in the grinder were too close together. I'm looking foward to seeing what kind of mod's can be made to this tool. Like a drill sharpening fixture or endmills??? Any Ideas?
Tim

 

[Bernd]

Dave: It seems the wheels themselves are out of balance. I also don't care much for the adapter that holds the wheels on. I think they fit a bit to loosley on the shaft. Will get into it the next several weeks when I have some free time. I also am looking forward to changing one of the wheels to a diamond coated one. Time will tell.

Tim: You must be lucky and got one with grinding wheels that are straight. Mine wobble a bit both axialy and radialy. Perhaps they just need to get dressed a bit. I'll see as soon as I get everything back together again.

Then it's on to some fixture's to grind lathe tooling first.

Bernd

 

[Hilmar]

I got one of them. Put the spacers and the backs for the wheels on the lathe and trimmed the shoulders. That got the wobble out
The wheels that come with,( two greens) where lousy.
Went to Wholesale Tool and bought a 6X1X4 60I green cup wheel plate mounted silicon carbide $27.00
and a 6X1X4 white cup wheel plate mounted aluminum Oxide $25.00. This one is for HSS. All fits in and all runs fine.

Hilmar
PS. I think the grinder will run to fast for Diamant . Diamant you run slow at 100 - 200 RPM. I may be wrong.
P.S on 09/20/08
The new green wheel is also lousy. May be to fine for the carbide.Hilmar

 

[Bernd]

I got one of them. Put the spacers and the backs for the wheels on the lathe and trimmed the shoulders. That got the wobble out
The wheels that come with,( two greens) where lousy.
Went to Wholesale Tool and bought a 6X1X4 60I green cup wheel plate mounted silicon carbide #27.00
and a 6X1X4 white cup wheel plate mounted aluminum Oxide $25.00. This one is for HSS. All fits in and all runs fine.

Hilmar
PS. I think the grinder will run to fast for Diamant . Diamant you run slow at 100 - 200 RPM. I may be wrong.

Perhaps that's what I should do. Get some new wheels. Trouble is, I'm a bit short of green stuff according to the finance dept. :'(

I believe your right Hilmar, about the speed using diamond wheels. Gonna' have to check out those wheels you mentioned. Thanks.

Bernd

 

[Bogstandard]

Bernd,

Diamond should really only be used for very fine dressing of tungsten, not HSS, also it really needs a cooling spray to prevent burn and clogging. It also helps if you have a wobble table as well. I use diamond to relap the top surface of the tips on my profile cutters, doing it that way, I can reuse them four or five times.

John

 

[Bernd]

Bernd,

Diamond should really only be used for very fine dressing of tungsten, not HSS, also it really needs a cooling spray to prevent burn and clogging. It also helps if you have a wobble table as well. I use diamond to relap the top surface of the tips on my profile cutters, doing it that way, I can reuse them four or five times.

John

Yes John, I understand that you only need diamond for carbide and it needs a coolant and it's not for HSS.

After reading Hilmars message I think a better idea is to swtich to the wheels he sugests. I'm more of an HSS user anyway. I do have a few carbide tools that I use though.

Never heard of a wobble table. How does that work?

Bernd

 

[Bogstandard]

Bernd,
One of my famous fag packet sketches.

You can buy very expensive diamond lapping machines that have tables like this built into them.
The table only 'wobbles' side to side by a max of about 1/4". It is for preventing localised wear and clogging on the lapping face, and allows the water time to clean the face before the area is used again. Fantastic surface finishes can be obtained by using one correctly. It is just gently rocked side to side as you are lapping. The wheel is generally reversible to allow for the three facets required to be easily obtained, as you only have one lapping face.

I have a round tuit job of converting a horizontal grinder into one such as this.

John

 

[Bernd]

John,

What a novel idea. Have never seen anything like that. Ofcourse I've never gotten into lapping. Thanks for the sketch. Very informative.

Bernd

 

[Bogstandard]

Don't get me wrong Bernd.
These machines weren't for specialist use.
At one time almost every good toolroom would have one of these machines, next to the offhand grinder. They were mainly used for brazed carbide tooling, you would rough up first on the green grit grinder, then finish off on one of these lapping machines.
I will be seeing if I can extend the useful life of carbide tips.


John