1. Home
  2. ⏣ General Metalworking
  3. Minituare surface grinder

Minituare surface grinder

Was wondering if there is product on the market that would have a 2" grinding weel, may be 6x12" grinding area and .0002" or better downfeed control ? I need to be able to grind 1/4 strips of blue steel (~50RC) down from .007" to .003-002.5", with .0005" accuracy.

The actual grinding areas are really small - may be .0040 wide and 3/8 long

I saw plans for home-grown one @

formatting link
Just might have to build something like this. I reckon there is very little reqs for X-Y travel, outside of it not interfering with downfeed's accuracy.

I have built a simple jig for Dremmel and it almost works, but the spindle is very loose, plus the grind wheels have 0 accuracy to them: not concentric, not accurate axially etc, trueing up won't even help .

Reply to
rashid111
Loading thread data ...

Why not build a simple "spot grinder" like Guy Lautard laid out in one of the TMBRs?

It's cheap and easy to build, and doesn't require anything like the precision (except for the spindle) you'd need for a full-up surface grinder.

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Sanborn surface grinder. Not in business anymore but used ones are around.

Reply to
Chuck Sherwood

Or a lapping plate. Mill down to within 0.001 of final size and finish by lapping.

Reply to
Robert Swinney

The problem is that the strips have fairly complex profile (these are accordion reeds)- so I need to be able to have a fairly precise down feed method, removing may be 0.0005 in a pass and having predictability to it - as in knowing when to stop w/o having to mike the strips after every pass.

The grinding area can literally be 1"x1".

The dremmel thing would almost work, if only the spindle was a bit better, better grind wheels were available and I had a downfeed control method

Reply to
rashid111

That would be the Sanford grinder, but I think it has a wheel closer to 4" otr 5" and a 4x6" work envelope or so.

Maybe DoN Nichols will respond - I'm pretty sure he's got one.

Reply to
Mike Henry

The max wheel diameter is 4", based on the shatter shield.

It might work with a wheel down to 2", but the spindle speed would be wrong for that size.

Downfeed is calibrated in 0.0005" increments.

The 4x6" work envelope is correct.

Yep. I'm there above.

Another consideration is coolant. The Sanford came with either an electromagnetic chuck (with the power supply in the base), or a permanent magnet chuck.

The manual *strongly* warns against using the EM chuck with coolant, and having examined the wiring design in the base, I have to agree. It would be better with a separate power supply, with proper isolation between the AC line and the power to the chuck.

Of course, the PM chuck offers no such hazards with coolant, if you rip out the power supply in the base, or at least seal off the hole in which the chuck power connector is mounted.

And I think that you will want to use coolant when grinding accordion reeds, to avoid drawing the temper. The mag chuck helps a lot as a heatsink, but coolant is better under the circumstances.

Good Luck, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.