"Steve W." writes:

The ancient one on it was a B&D industrial, 1" face, crimped with .018
wire. Filled as close to solid as I've ever seen on a wire wheel.
But like everything else "They don't make those any longer"...

I used to get durable (but thinner) wire wheels from Canadian
Tire. But they were so out of balance that I'd end up welding 1" of
3/8" dia. steel to the hub to static-balance it.

The grinder itself is one of the OLD 6" B&D Heavy duty ones. The plant
my father worked at had to get it out of the place as it doesn't meet
OSHA standards. All cast iron. Built back when "close enough" wasn't
good enough.

I still use a B&D grinder for wire wheels and abrasive mesh
wheels. It's cast aluminum from about 1925. (I have a 1925 catalog
showing a B&D 1/2" drill of the same style -- and I have one those
1/2" drills, still in use, too.)

In the late 70's, a brush holder on the grinder broke. Drove 75 miles
to Halifax to the B&D repair shop, grinder & part in hand. Before
computers, y'know. The guy started at the left hand end of the
bookshelf with the microfiche albums, moved his finger along to the
fat, shiny, hard-bound catalogs, then to the older paper catalogs,
then to the thin, grubby, stapled catalogs. Finally, at the far
right-hand end of the shelf, he pulled out the very last item, a
grimy, tattered thing of about 10 or 20 pages, found my grinder there,
read off the part number. He had three on the shelf so I bought two.
Damn thing is still going, haven't needed the 2nd holder yet.

Not like that any more. Around 2004 I phoned whatever it is that has
replaced the guy with the catalogs about a bearing for a B&D 4-1/2" angle
grinder bought new in the late 70s. Young feller says, "Jeeeez, that's
an *old* one!" It was listed on their computer but no bearing
available, had to go to a generic seal & bearing place to get one.

I love using old tools so I'm still grumpy about my Atlas-Copco
compressor -- early 50s or older. I finally found a guy who knew a
guy who had access to the global Atlas-Copco product database. He
reported that there was no record anywhere of a compressor of that
model made under their marque. Huh. Big ol' cast iron crankcase
cover with "Atlas-Copco" cast in, too.

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada