The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Bench grinder advice

Needing a bench grinder - more for wire wheel work, and will remove the grinding stones. Can’t decide between an 8” or 10” bench grinder. I restore old hand planes and, it’s handy for removing surface rust from small truck parts.

What are your recommendations? Is bigger any better?

I have a 6" and an 8" bench grinder. The wire wheel is on the 6" one. As the wheel diameter increases, so does the surface speed of the working area. I'd be spooked about using a wire buffer on even an 8" machine, since the brush will yank stuff out of your hands unless you're holding it with vise grips or something similar. For detail work on small parts, I use a 3" diameter buffing brush in a hand drill motor, with the drill clamped into a vise. I also use extremely fine wire brushes with .002" diameter wires for "carding" rust blued gun parts. Some of them are tiny, like screw heads and trigger assembly parts. In my decidedly biased opinion, based on only 60+ years in shops of all types, "Smaller is better!"
Jerry

this is helpful, Jerry. Thanks. In the past up until recently, I would lap the hand plane soles and sides on plate glass and wet/dry paper - working up if needed from 220 to 1000 grit. Its labor intensive and elbow grease heavy - (but therapeutic restoring old things)- but the sole and sides are flat, as well as the plane irons...and they look great. Using a fine and medum wire wheel will help speed this along now. Think I I'll go to the 8"; no sense grinding with a 10" when an 8" will do just fine.

Recommend a good source for Medium and FIne wire wheels? - 5/8" arbor 8" wheel - does anyone have preferred source?

(in time - I may purchase a 6" grinder for the reasons you specified)

This guy was given to me last week in a solid state of brown rust, spattered paint, and light pitting and sitting in a bucket with dirt and debris. It's a 1940's No. 5 1/4. They were made for small hands - as a small jack plane - probably for school sytem wood working classes back in the dark ages when classes were offered and kids would actually be able to lift a tool and learn how to make a wood box. Not rare, but unsual. Funny, I can relate - being...rare and mostly unusal. My oldest plane dates to 1858. I collect the earliest Type 1(1858-1867 ) and Type 3 only produced in 1872 early 1873 - for one year before casting and adjustment controls were changed. My 1946 truck will have a Stanley logo on it - or my Grandfather's long tme family business meat packing plant in downtown Cleveland - 'Haberman Meats" that went out of business when supermarkets came into fashion after the war.

(Editorial - my comment about the dark ages is about the loss of trade skills and industrial arts classes in the area schools here, and being replaced with other curriculum and classes. Comment is not about kids).

There are plenty of wire wheels available on Ebay, but if you want a little better quality, professional grade wheel, try the Victor Machinery Company website. ( www.VICTORNET.COM ) They have good quality machine shop tooling and accessories, and I do a fair amount of business with them, but lately their shipping charges have gotten a little out or hand. At least they are still a good source for comparison shopping.

Try gluing a layer of heavy wool felt with spray-on contact cement to a piece of thick plate glass and infusing it with grease-based automotive valve grinding compound for your initial lapping operations, and use a figure 8 motion. It will probably speed up the "roughing in" of the flat spots like the base and sides of the tools.
Jerry

We have a dedicated wire brush double end grinder that runs many hours every day. The motor fields are removed and the armature shaft is pressed out of the windings. A belt slot is milled in the back of the motor housing and a pulley is on the middle of the armature shaft so a belt can be run to a Baldor polishing motor which is designed for all day use. Quick change small to large pulleys are used on the motor. A very course twisted wire brush is used most for quick rust/gasket/paint removal followed by a fine brush to remove course brush marks. Course to fine sand paper for finish. The old grinder unit is mounted on a stand alone pole so work can be turned at all angles without interference. Have not revealed this before because such a continuous duty unit is required by very few. A tip you probably know is sand blasting with sugar sand or glass beads speeds up the prep of a rust pitted surface by a quantum leap and get all rust from bottom of pits. Your hobby sounds interesting.

tom moore Have a craftsman 6 inch grinder ,I have used for over 65 years,still good. Bought an 8 inch DeWalt that is an overseas piece of crap slow coming up depends on a not big enough motor. Best grinders have been ball bearing used ones made in the 70's I think. 2 of those came along in the junk store,now they come right on up like the old craftsman.

Those old Craftsman motors are popular, worth hanging onto, and have a small following.