Sizing Bench Grinders

I cannot cite any particular project at the moment but plan on outfitting my shop with a piece at a time as needed and as the budget will allow. I also don't just buy junk from any old place and then have to replace it every 6 months. So I'm not necessarly looking for recommendations on brand names but listing favorites here will help. I suppose if the sky is the limit I would go with a Baldor or similar.

With so many wheel sizes and HP ratings its sort of hard to know what is most important and flexible. I can safely say that it would be nice to have something that could just do the job and not have to be babied alone so I'm guessing on 3/4 to 1 HP with a 6" wheel. What do you all think?

Keith

But my real find was a 7" 1800 rpm Baldor Industrial. I paid $60 for it at auction. It sounds like an aircraft engine starting up. Runs smooth as silk. But I never get to use it very much, because once I start grinding, I'm done. What a jewel.

You might want to track the auctions and sales for a while and see if you can find an industrial quality grinder. Mine sure is better than ANY other grinder I have ever used at work or at home. The trick with auctions is to be able to evaluate the condition of the item, be able to figure out a value, and be able to walk away when it gets too expensive.

Good Luck!

Cliff (VA)

Years ago I worked for Norton...albeit at a Ceramics division R&D center just outside of it's hometown of Worcester.

One of the "legendary" products is a grinding wheel made special order for one customer -- I believe they where a structural steel foundery.

That it's a 48" wheel wasn't so extraordinary...

It's that when the customer uses them against whatever it is they're making, they get 2-1/2 cuts per wheel. Then chuck it in the junk pile and mount a new one.

Didn't use too many of them...but the salesmen smiled when the order came in. Niche product essentially made short-line on a production line and they paid for it.

Though I wasn't involved with the abrasives & ceramics technology (I'm computers), it was a fascinating place to see what could be done with that stuff and how far beyond "normal" thinking about ceramics you could push stuff. Some of the failures where interesting, too!

In bench grinders, you do seem to get what you pay for. A cheap 1hp grinder from Harbor Freight or the like will have much less power than a 1hp grinder from Dayton and the like.