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The following tool is for sale at the Harbor. Item No. 46727 (Sorry but I am failing at pasting a workable hyperlink to the item. When I try to click my own pasted hyperlink, it comes back "item not found". Advice appreciated).

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This is for sale at my local store for $ 134.99 and we pay no taxes in Oregon!!

Anyway, anybody have any scoop on this item? Mainly, will I be able to replace one or both wheels with a diamond wheel? Do diamond wheels come in a 'bolt-on' configuration with a 1-1/4 inch hole?

BTW, while I own a serious 3hp 3phase pedestal grinder, I have purchased (years ago) an inexpensive ($29) bench grinder from harbor freight and dedicated it (obviate contamination) to sharpening my tungsten tig welding tips. Very happy with this machine. No perceivable run-out. I can shut the grinder off, go take a 3 minute crap, and when I come back it still hasn't finished spinning. I'm sure quality varies sample to sample.

Any advice on the above would be appreciated. There are budget considerations, and, so far I haven't needed one of these tool grinders. Maybe I don't need one now, but tools ownership is fun!!

Thanks,

Ivan Vegvary

Reply to
Ivan Vegvary
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I bought one 3 years ago, it's very OK for the money, and yes you can replace the green wheels with diamond wheels. And it has forward and reverse, the Enco version of this was one direction only. For the money (I also have the Baldor version of this) I don't think you can go wrong. There was a thread about this a few months ago, I believe the poster was disappointed with the quality of the unit on display.

ignator

Reply to
sk

Link works for me. Just a guess, but is your news program changing the "?" between .taf and itemnumber to something else? Have seen non alpha-numeric characters changed to something weird. Though usually it is broken for everyone...

Reply to
William Bagwell

I use the Enco diamond wheel on this with excellent results grinding carbide tools.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

Yup. You will likely have to fix up the flange adaptors since the one I saw at harborfreight had excessive runout. Enco had an email sale not too long ago for a 150g 75% 1/16 d wheel for under 60 bucks. Likely with enco lighting will strike again.

Have them get you a box and have a look at it under power before purchasing it. That was suggested to me earlier in another thread. I passed on buying one but just about everyone said that it is worth buying if you check it out before purchase and are willing to do a bit of work getting it right.

Wes

Reply to
Wes

What Wes said. It's important that the face of a diamond wheel run true, otherwise it will wear unevenly, cutting short its useful life, and giving you no end of grief when grinding. Simply remove the flanges and machine them so they run true, or add a series of two sets of three set screws set @ 120 degrees. They will allow you to adjust the fit of the adapter on the shaft of the motor to achieve perfect alignment.

You can't begin to build a grinder with tables for that kind of money. Add a small coolant pump to replace the drip system if you want to guild the lily.

Harold

Reply to
Harold and Susan Vordos

I bought one of these six months ago or so, the advice of other posters is the same as my experience. Decent machine, tables needed a bit of fiddling to tune them up, so to speak. Reversible (unlike the Enco equivalent), which is a handy feature. Mine had one backing plate (the part the wheel bolts to) with a terrible amount of runout, before I screwed around boring it out and sleeving it I talked to the Harbor Freight warranty department and they sent one to me free of charge in less than a week. The replacement ran under .0015" tir in both planes, good enough for me, that was about what the other side measured also.

What I'd like to find is a reasonably priced aluminum oxide wheel for it. I remember running across one in a catalog somewhere but it was more money than a decent diamond wheel! I'd like to mount the AlO2 on one side for HSS. I'll be getting a diamond for carbide, the original silicon carbide wheels get by but could be better.

Regards Paul

Reply to
Paul

I just bought the Enco one within the last two months, and it does have both directions, although I hear that previous versions did not. When I took it out of the package, I said "What am I going to use this for", but I find that I switch directions pretty frequently when grinding on both sides of a tool bit, for example.

Reply to
woodworker88

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