I bought one on sale at HF for $119. There's not much wrong with it for
hobby uses.

The wheel mounting screws are metric shoulder screws of an odd size.
They have allen sockets, and are soft and ill formed. A good fastener
store could not match them with a better grade. I replaced them with
regular metric allen head cap screws, and made (minor lathe job) special
flanged washers to adapt the regular screws to the holes in the grinding
wheels. It's worked out well.

I did find the bolt circle in the HF grinder flanges to be NOT
concentric with the shaft by a small amount. There is enough slop in the
wheel holes that this is not a big problem. The wheels center by means
of their center holes against a shaft hub, so the off center holes do
not affect wheel centering. they DO contribute a to a minor balancing
problem described below.

My grinder had a slight vibration, no worse than an average bench
grinder. I dressed the wheels with no improvement. I traced this to
three problems. The out of center bolt circle described above. The shaft
flanges were out of balance (the back sides were not machined). I
removed these from the spindle and trued them up on my lathe, and then
balanced them. Big improvement. I also find that the steel-backed wheels
were out of balance. I bought a few spares of both Si-Carbide and white
aluminum oxide, one USA made. The new wheels were no better for balance
than the HF ones!

I checked the wheels on a balancer, and determined the light side. The
HF grinder has eight mounting holes for the wheels (two sets of four,
each of differing sizes), only four of which are used. I added screws of
appropriate weight in the holes nearest the light side of the wheel.
Washers under the screw heads can also be used. A little additional
trial and error with the washers also corrected the balance problem from
the bolt circle error. Result ... much improved balance and almost no vibration.

The minor balancing problems, while an irritation, do not seem a big
deal since I don't expect to be changing these wheels very often.

I keep a white aluminum oxide wheel on one side for HSS tools, and a
Si-Carbide wheel on the other for carbide tools.

I am pleased with mine, for what it cost. The same type grinders, even
other asian imports, are usually $230 or more, and I'm not sure they
wouldn't have the same problems. The probably better Baldor version is
around $750.

Dan Mitchell
==========

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

I have been getting by for years with a Grizzly bench grinder and a
couple of homeade tool rests. My neighbor has the Baldor bench mounted
tool grinder. I think he paid a bit under $500 for it. I go over to his
shop and use it when I need a bit that is dead on like for Acme threads
etc.

I don't usually buy machines from HF but they do have good prices on
some motors. I went in the other day to get a 1 HP TEFC motor and
forgot my blinders. On the way to the cashier I spotted a tool grinder
that looks for all the world like the Baldor for $169. Now, as Jimmy
Carter once said, "I have lust in my heart" for this thing.

You can't run machines in the Macon HF so I have a big question as to
the quality. Does the HF tool grinder run quiet and true? Will it last
in a home shop?

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com