Was wondering if there is product on the market that
would have a 2" grinding weel, may be 6x12" grinding
area and .0002" or better downfeed control ? I need to
be able to grind 1/4 strips of blue steel (~50RC) down
from .007" to .003-002.5", with .0005" accuracy.

The actual grinding areas are really small - may be
..0040 wide and 3/8 long

I saw plans for home-grown one @ http://www.dm.net/~lughaid/vest.htm

Just might have to build something like this. I reckon there is
very little reqs for X-Y travel, outside of it not interfering
with downfeed's accuracy.

I have built a simple jig for Dremmel and it almost works, but
the spindle is very loose, plus the grind wheels have 0 accuracy
to them: not concentric, not accurate axially etc, trueing up won't
even help .

Was wondering if there is product on the market that
would have a 2" grinding weel, may be 6x12" grinding

Sanborn surface grinder. Not in business anymore
but used ones are around.

Or a lapping plate. Mill down to within 0.001 of final size and finish by
lapping.

Bob Swinney
"Chuck Sherwood" wrote in message
...
Was wondering if there is product on the market that
would have a 2" grinding weel, may be 6x12" grinding

Sanborn surface grinder. Not in business anymore
but used ones are around.

The problem is that the strips have fairly complex profile (these are
accordion reeds)- so I need to be able to have a fairly precise down
feed method, removing may be 0.0005 in a pass and having predictability
to it - as in knowing when to stop w/o having to mike the strips
after every pass.


The grinding area can literally be 1"x1".


The dremmel thing would almost work, if only the spindle was a bit
better, better grind wheels were available and I had a downfeed control
method

That would be the Sanford grinder, but I think it has a wheel closer to 4"
otr 5" and a 4x6" work envelope or so.

Maybe DoN Nichols will respond - I'm pretty sure he's got one.

"Chuck Sherwood" wrote in message
...
Was wondering if there is product on the market that
would have a 2" grinding weel, may be 6x12" grinding

Sanborn surface grinder. Not in business anymore
but used ones are around.

In article ,
Mike Henry wrote:
"Chuck Sherwood" wrote in message
...
Was wondering if there is product on the market that
would have a 2" grinding weel, may be 6x12" grinding

Sanborn surface grinder. Not in business anymore
but used ones are around.

That would be the Sanford grinder, but I think it has a wheel closer to 4"
otr 5" and a 4x6" work envelope or so.

The max wheel diameter is 4", based on the shatter shield.

It might work with a wheel down to 2", but the spindle speed
would be wrong for that size.

Downfeed is calibrated in 0.0005" increments.

The 4x6" work envelope is correct.

Maybe DoN Nichols will respond - I'm pretty sure he's got one.

Yep. I'm there above.

Another consideration is coolant. The Sanford came with either
an electromagnetic chuck (with the power supply in the base), or a
permanent magnet chuck.

The manual *strongly* warns against using the EM chuck with
coolant, and having examined the wiring design in the base, I have to
agree. It would be better with a separate power supply, with proper
isolation between the AC line and the power to the chuck.

Of course, the PM chuck offers no such hazards with coolant, if
you rip out the power supply in the base, or at least seal off the hole
in which the chuck power connector is mounted.

And I think that you will want to use coolant when grinding
accordion reeds, to avoid drawing the temper. The mag chuck helps a lot
as a heatsink, but coolant is better under the circumstances.

Good Luck,
DoN.
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