Surface grinders question

Do you guys really single point that many threads? Do they really need to have that much accuracy?

I use my fingers, a bench grinder, and a fish tail.

Can you tell us what these grinders are? Make, model, powerfeed, etc.?

dennis in nca

1) Coz if I used the power side feed for all the cut at once, the 9" wheel would turn into a 2"+ bits wheel in a fraction of a second. 2) Coz I'm lazy :-)

Actually I've got a framesaw frame for the shaper at the moment because the J&S 1400 grinder isn't commissioned yet, the band saw is very definitely wood (or aluminium with a sailing wind) and I haven't jet got/built a metal bandsaw or power hacksaw. What I _do_ have is a hacksaw with 14tpi blades. That was good enough for a couple of lengths of 1 1/4" square CRS tonight :-)

Mark Rand RTFM

I did not buy them for two simple reasons. I do not have the shop space and I did not have the cash to spend on them.

They are all three phase if I remember correctly so if you have a home shop you will need a converter. They are dirty but all seemed to be in good working order.

He had an Enco mill with power downfeed when I was there for $650 and they are $1500 new. If I had the cash I would have bought that for sure.

I really wanted a lathe and hoped to find one there.

According to Dave Lyon :

[ ... ]

[ ... ]

I single point a lot of threads -- though most often, I do them with carbide insert tooling. However, the inserts to cut the Acme thread which I needed required a tool holder larger than would fit my BXA sized toolpost's holders.

Since I was having to cut an internal Acme thread to replace a log splitter nut which was totally stripped out, and the matching leadscrew was not removable to bring here for test fitting, and the bronze being used to make the nut was purchased by the friend for whom I was doing the work, I wanted the side clearance angles, to be right for an internal thread,, and being able to set up the compound angle on the surface grinder assured that I got it all right. The side clearance angle was calculated from the screw pitch and the diameter.

Of course -- I first had to make a dummy leadscrew, which required a larger (1/4" shank) HSS bit for external RH threads.

This had to be ground to fit a relatively small boring bar (requiring a 3/16" HSS bit blank) which made gripping for hand grinding a bit more difficult, so the surface grinder was the best way which I could see to make the proper tool.

I use it for other things as well -- but the question had worked around to grinding threading bits, and how to do it, so I described how

*I* did it.

Enjoy, DoN.

I cant think of any reason to use power feed on a surface grinder with a cut off blade mounted.

Gunner

Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error"

Don,

I hope my question didn't come across as offensive. That wasn't my intention.

I can see where a small ID acme thread tool would need to be accurate.

Hey George,

I've hard-copied this, but a picture sure is worth a thousand words. So, if you do come across it, I'd also like a copy.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

ps to the OP... a surface grinder is one of those things that you can get along without quite nicely, until you have one, then you can't live without it. Very handy machine.

Ohh.. and I guess it does depend on where you live, but I've got maybe 50 wheels for mine, some brand-new, and I don't have anywhere near $100 tied up. Although, I think I must have paid more than that for my radius/angle dresser, the chuck, and a diamond holder. Oh, and the spindex. Garage sales in metalworking towns are your friend.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I looked at it and offered him $500. I couldn't see much use for a power downfeed - drilling I guess. I'd prefer a power table feed. I don't know if he ever sold it. Last week I found a like-new mill-drill with a nice table and a decent vise.

I have lathes to spare, but I'm kind of attached to them. I'll try to remember to give you a heads-up if I run across one. I'm always looking.

Rex B Keller

LOL from Fort Worth, I'd have to drive about 1500 miles to find a metalworking town.

Those Minds wrote in article ...

Also my precise rationalization for purchasing the little Sanford manual unit I found selling for $150.....

FWIW for pictures see

also see associated graphics files [lots of moving parts] Unka' George (George McDuffee) .............................. Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be "too clever by half." The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.

John Major (b. 1943), British Conservative politician, prime minister. Quoted in: Observer (London, 7 July 1991).

You are a hurtin' metalworker if you actually have to rationalize a steal of a deal like that!

Braggart!

:-)

Cheers Trevor Jones

According to Dave Lyon :

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Thank you. I was sort of wondering.

And since I was not accustomed to grinding them by hand, I went for the best way to assure the proper results in the minimum number of tries. (Each try would use half of a 3/16" HSS bit, and I did not have enough on hand to make many mistakes. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Hey Rex,

Yeah, well you have oil, chemicals, electronics and beef down there, so you probably get a deal on fuel, stainless and pipe, computers, and leather.

I was referring to where I live in south-western Ontario, specifically a couple of years back in Windsor, Ontario across the river from Detroit. Windsor is the mold-making capital of the world, so lots of machine shops and ancillary stuff. 90% of the injection molds made there go to the USA. Market has fallen off lately due to downturns, off-shore tool and die, and the rising value of the Canadian dollar versus the US. That works to my advantage, because that forces smaller places into bankruptcy.

Just to make you drool then, at an auction in Sarnia (across from Port Huron, MI) on Tuesday I saw a nice Harrison lathe go for 1200, a Dean-Smith-&-Grace 16" for 1600, a Churchill hydraulic 12 X 48 surface grinder with a cabinet full of wheels for 800, a TOS horizontal for

500, a Cincinnati vertical for 300, a Cinci universal cutter grinder for 500, etc. Great deals for anybody with some shop room. Unfortunately, that lets me out. But I pissed away $100 on maybe $1000 retail value little items. Big mother Variac for 5 bucks, 100 pounds of assorted V-belt pulleys in aluminum and cast-iron from 3" to 15" etc some plain keyed but some with split-taper bushings all for 5 bucks, box of 10 or more new centre drills from #0 to #4 with one drill index 1/16 to 1/2 and one full index of 1/16 to 1/2 and letter and numbers for $20 (only because another guy wanted the centre drills too), 6" three jaw, 3" drill vise, some large bearings, 10 pounds of brass and 60 pounds of rounds and flat cut-offs, and and and.. all for just under 100 plus taxes. Biggest bucks were for the smallest stuff, like 80 for a 10" horiz/vert turntable.

Take care.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hey George,

Thank you. Glad for it, as it was not quite as I had imag>>

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IF you come across a decent lathe at a decent price I would appreciate an email.

oso snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com