Looking at the used market comes to mind. There are some machines out
there that may be close to your price range, if you can deal with some TLC.

I guess you need to think about size and application first.
Many knife makers that I know are happy with 6 x 12's. There are a
lot of 6 X 18's available on the used market.

Accuracy? Do you need to take off a tenth or less on a regular basis?

Are you going to grind little things or big things? Head height
becomes important as well as the max weight that you can put on the table.
A lot or a little use? Manual drive is okay for occasional use, but
if you are making a lot of long passes with a lot of transverse feed,
your arm can get tired.

I would plan to get one that is easy to add coolant to. You DON'T want
to grind dry if you are removing much material. It takes forever to
clean up the shop afterwards. At least have a real good air suction
device in mind.

I wanted one for grinding the surfaces of blacksmith anvils. So, I
found a used 8 X 20, powered table G&L for $750. It weighs 3500
pounds. It is 3 phase, has a 3 hp spindle and 1 1/2hp in the
hydraulics, so I had to make a converter for it.

Where I shop, in the Mpls/St. Paul area, there is a HUGE used machinery
place in Hopkins (a suburb). At any given time, there are at least a
half dozen used grinders in there that could be candidates. There must
be other such placee around.

I note that we see them on E-bay all the time, too. And sometimes,
pretty cheap. "Cheap", however is not cheap if you need to replace
spindle bearings, etc., so shop with caution. I can't imagine how you
could get anything that would work well for less than $5K to $10, new.

Some of the guys I know have gotten older used surface grinder and
converted them to belt grinders with good results.

Pete Stanaitis
-----------------

Louis Ohland wrote:

Well, I had to put some money into a 5x6 Jet HVBS-56M Bandsaw. Now
the next issue is finding a good money / performance surface grinder.

I see a few $1k-$2k models, but it appears they have one V guide and a
flat.

115v ac
Get it down the steps into the basement.