Lets talk bench grinders...

[Toyota_Jim]

Ive got a pile of shit dewalt grinder. Im lookin to buy 2 good new ones.


I want somethin with maybe a 8-10 inch wheel. and a 6" wheel one for a wire wheel and a fine sharpening stone on it.



whats good? Baldor? expensive i know that..

[Krash80]

kinda O/T, but bench grinders should come with 3 wheels.....a coarse wheel, a fine wheel, and a wire wheel. What a pain having to have 2 bench grinders just so you can get that 3rd wheel. Anyone know if there are any 3 wheel grinders out there or do i have to make one?

[zags]

Buy a belt grinder. You will never use your bench grinder again.

[kwrangln]

My bench grinder hardly ever gets used, cept for the wire wheel on some small parts.

You need one of these, you'll wonder how you ever did without it.

[d.d.machine]

my votes for a belt sander to ,,,, just get one that the motor is separate, so when you burn it up you can just swap motors. Kalamazoo makes a 2"X72" thats GREAT,, there about $750 but it well be the last one you ever have to buy.

We had one in a shop that I worked for and it ran two shifts a day for the 2 years I was there and all they did was swap belts.

If you get a 6"X48" make shure it has bearings in the wheels ,,, I had to make new wheels for mine after 3 months,,, Its a CRAPSman.

[AthlonAJ]

My vote definitely goes towards a belt grinder but if you can't afford the cost of a dedicated unit, there's a much cheaper solution. You can purchase a kit for around $200 that will convert one side of a bench grinder to a 2"x36" belt grinder. I'm using a Wilton 8" bench grinder from Menards with this conversion kit and it works great! Just don't get cheap belts.

[Toyota_Jim]

Well send me in the derection for a good belt grinder.

[lt1yj]

I agree with the belt grinder.

I bought a HUGE mother off Ebay. I switch it back and forth for wood and steel (different belts)

10x70" 7 Hp 3 phase. $400 delivered

My pedestal grinder is only used for the wire wheel and sharpening now. Well worth the investment.

Good quality grinding belts are expensive though. Although with the way I'm going the ones I have will last the rest of my life.

[GPERX4]

You guy's using special belts for metal or are they the same belys for wood????

[stomper4x4]

I have a 10in bench grinder from harbor fraight,,, worked awsome for 2 years, but now it needs new wheels and am haveing a hard time finding replacments....

[kwrangln]

Originally posted by GPERX4
You guy's using special belts for metal or are they the same belys for wood????

I'm just using standard belts, if I remember right, the belt is about 100 grit, and 80 for the disc. They last longer than you'd think, I use em till they the first time it happens to ya you'll about shit yourself, after that its all good. Nothing is better for squaring cuts or rounding off the corners on brackets. Its the difference between something looking professional and hack.

[pavelow]

Originally posted by kwrangln
My bench grinder hardly ever gets used, cept for the wire wheel on some small parts.

You need one of these, you'll wonder how you ever did without it.

Can you open one end of that one to do touch up on notched tubing?

[kwrangln]

You can take the top cover off, but the roller is at least 4" in diameter. Dont think it would work for fish mouthing tube. Maybe one of the smaller models would work if you could find one with a roller diameter in the right range. If so, it would work killer, never thought of it. Probably go pretty quick too, and easy to get the right angle with the fence and guide. Gots me thinkin here.

[76Cruiser]

I want this.

[kwrangln]

Looks pretty cool, but probably 80% of the time I use the belt sander to square cuts. Scribe a line, hack it close with whatever (plaz, torch, portaband), then belt sand to line. Always perfectly square or whatever angle I set the guide to. I can see the belt in that one for cleaning, smoothing corners of parts, but not the way I usually use it. Guess ya could use the disc, but I dont care for it as much which is why I put the heavier grit on it and use it for material removal then use the belt for fine tuning.

[76Cruiser]

Originally posted by kwrangln
Looks pretty cool, but probably 80% of the time I use the belt sander to square cuts. Scribe a line, hack it close with whatever (plaz, torch, portaband), then belt sand to line. Always perfectly square or whatever angle I set the guide to. I can see the belt in that one for cleaning, smoothing corners of parts, but not the way I usually use it. Guess ya could use the disc, but I dont care for it as much which is why I put the heavier grit on it and use it for material removal then use the belt for fine tuning.

I want one of the other ones too now. I do quite a bit of torch cutting larger parts, and have been looking for a way to quickly grind the boogers off. What is a decent 'cheap' one I could get. I mainly want that one for shaping brackets and tabs and stuff like that.

[kwrangln]

Unfortunatly (fortunate for me) I dont know where or how much. I have the one in the pic, but I'm military so you and me both paid for it without seeing the price. But I get to use it so its all good. I'd check ebay to see whats out there, there has to be bargains. Seriously, next to the portaband, grinder,and welder that is the most used tool in my shop. Once you get used to it, every time you see someones pic of square cut shackles you'll laugh and think HACK.

[AthlonAJ]

Originally posted by 76Cruiser
I want this.

That's exactly the kit I was talking about. I use mine daily for my business for just about everything. Works excellent for rounding off corners, shaping, especially when I have a whole stack of mounting brackets, light tabs....all that jazz and I do use it for fine tuning a fishmouth on tubing. With the Wilton grinder I bought it didn't need an adapter or anything, bolted right up and ready to use in a matter of minutes.

Bought mine from HERE but
I know VanSant also sells them. The cheap belts didn't last that long with heavy use. But my abrasives supplier makes a real quality belt that is just slightly higher but lasts twice as long.

[urjb]

try http://www.burrking.com/

IMO they're the best, but you can buy a D60 for less. figure about $1500 for a 2x60 if I remember correctly.

Eric

[Krash80]

Originally posted by kwrangln
You need one of these, you'll wonder how you ever did without it.

I have one of those, but i hardly ever use it....seems i always go through the belts/disks on it too quickly and then i'm just melting glue against metal.

What brand belts/disks do you recommend that last (mainly for metal working...probably 100 grit)?

[AIRZUKI]

get one of these mothers



it's a Gallant Rotobelt

you'll be done buying bench grinders for LIFE!

[odee]

are there any plans on the net to build a belt sander? I had a copy of a street rodder mag from the eighties that had some plans for different homemade tools and lost it in the last move.

[brimy311]

here is one from MSC Direct


6x48 sander

$229 in stock

[jelbehai]

Here's a perhaps stupid/newb question:

What's the difference between a "belt grinder" and a disc/belt sander?

How good are the belt/disc units for metal, and repeating K80's question, what belts/discs are you guys using for metal?

I just wanna make sure a normal belt/disk sander will work on metal, so I won't be pissed if it doesn't...

[lt1yj]

I'm using aluminum oxide belts for metal because that's all I can find for mine because of the size.

I use a different belt with stearate for wood to minimize the clogging.

If I could find a carborundum (sp) I would switch. I had one belt that came with my grinder that was awesome.

Also looking for advice on what material to use.

I use 60 grit for heavy material removal, 100 for light cleanup and better surface finish.

For wood I use 120 and 150 grit.