I have a 6", 3/4 hp bench grinder I bought when a tool truck came to town. It is a good size, but no power.. JUNK to me. Does HF, HD or Sears have a good grinder that can use a wire wheel with out bogging down? What size, hp and amps would I look for that will not grunt or stop on me...
I bought one from one of those tool truck sales ---- again, JUNK. It had open, exposed bearings facing the sides of the wheels and the bearings went out within a few days.... No power, either as when I open up this huge housing, there was a little tiny drill motor sized armature inside - no wonder no power. I bought a Delta next - but didn't notice on the box (in tiny print) Made in China.... same junk, different name. My thoughts are to make one with a good motor, NOT
3450 rpm (which I could never understand why a grinder has to spin out of control to operate), which will probably be driving a belt driven arbor. Gotta be better than the china junk - and it *will* be made in the USA (by ME). :-) Ken.
I saw a couple grinders that had low RPM's, I wonder if these would work better that the 3400 RPM's. I saw another one at the about 3400 RPM that said no load, would that mean it should not bog down? I did a small job biulding a tie post for a friend and I am using the money to buy a bigger grinder. I am looking at $80.00 - 100.00 if that helps finding a decent grinder
I'm sure they're not in the same class as an industrial-strength Baldor, but the Ryobi 3600 RPM 8" looks like pretty decent value for $59 US (Home Depot-- about 1/10 the $600+ street price of a new
1800RPM 3/4HP 8" Baldor such as the 8100WD). But then I don't do big stuff very often.
I have a baldor 10 inch grinder. Now that a real grinder. Still made and sold by various distributors such as J&L.
However, I use my 1 inch kalamazoo belt sander far more than my grinder. It is an amazing useful tool. It can do everything from sharpen pencils to hog off metal.
Ayup..most used abrasive in my shop are the belt sanders
Gunner
It's better to be a red person in a blue state than a blue person in a red state. As a red person, if your blue neighbors turn into a mob at least you have a gun to protect yourself. As a blue person, your only hope is to appease the red mob with herbal tea and marinated tofu.
Yes indeedy. I shape and sharpen my high speed steel tool bits on a belt sander, do most shaping and forming on a belt sander, deburr and whatnot on belt sanders.
In fact, I seldom ever turn on any of the 3 or so grinders, except the diamond wheeled Baldor for final sharpening. Probably the grinder that gets the most use has a fine wire wheel on one side and a soft wheel for deburring on the other.
Most of all, I use the big 6x48 belt sander that has a 12" disk sander on the side, followed by the usual 1x42 (I have two, next to each other, one with a course and one with a fine belt.
Belts when bought off ebay from Barbkat are cheap, last a long time and do excellent work for steel stock removal.\
They can swap out belts in a matter of seconds so changing from grit to grit is a breeze. You simply leave the guards off
The fine belted 1x42 is what I use most of all for sharpening drill bits. Its a snap to do.
I consider them to be among the handiest tools in the entire shop.
Gunner
It's better to be a red person in a blue state than a blue person in a red state. As a red person, if your blue neighbors turn into a mob at least you have a gun to protect yourself. As a blue person, your only hope is to appease the red mob with herbal tea and marinated tofu.
Definately. My 1 inch kalamazoo belt sander gets a lot of use. The flat surface makes it ideal for grinding contors. My 2 inch belt sander runs twice as fast and only gets used for hogging off stock.
Another big plus is that you can use it for all kinds of metal. Grinding aluminum is dangerous. Easy on a belt sander.
It's a lot less dangerous in general than a grinder. Worst that generally happens is the part could get caught between the table and the belt and stall the belt. I use both, but this comment about machines that make your "nuts crawl" sticks in my mind:
A wheel grinder is a belt grinder substitute, not the other way around. Still somewhat useful with a wire brush, but my 4 1/2" angle grinder gets more play using wire wheels and flap wheels. Haven't fired up the wheel grinder in ages.
I've noticed that metal doesn't seem the get anwhere near as hot on the belt sander as the bench grinder. At least for the 4 belt sander that I use the most. I haven't done a study or anything, but I think it gets a lot more air flowing past the part I'm sanding, compared to the bench grinder. The extra air flow lets me take off more metal with the part staying cooler.
This is with a coarse belt (less that 120 grit) compaired to a standard grey cutting wheel in a 6" bench grinder.
I have to agree that th belt sander is a more useful tool. If anyone is going to get one, I'd suggest you get one where you can get your part behind the platen to sand the inside of "U" shaped pieces.
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