I bought a "railroad" grinder off of ebay to grind my chisels and plane
irons. Its super heavy and very well made. I opened it up to check the
gears and grease them. I was not prepared for the weight of the outer casing
when I pulled it off and dropped it on the concrete floor - you guessed it.
It broke off the most critical part of the casting - the part where the
shaft for the grinding wheel goes through. Its only one half. The other half
is intact.

I was wondering if there is some form of epoxy that could be used to repair
the casting. I don't think I'll have much luck chasing down a welding shop
for this small job. Since its hand held and there is not much heat
generated, I don't think it will take a lot of strength to hold it together.

Bob

This company claims to repair this type of item

http://www.jbweld.net/products.html

The products are readily avaiable at hardware stores.

This site claims to have low heat rod for repairing most types of castings.
http://www.muggyweld.com/

Dave Paine

"Bob" wrote in message
k.net...
I bought a "railroad" grinder off of ebay to grind my chisels and plane
irons. Its super heavy and very well made. I opened it up to check the
gears and grease them. I was not prepared for the weight of the outer
casing
when I pulled it off and dropped it on the concrete floor - you guessed
it.
It broke off the most critical part of the casting - the part where the
shaft for the grinding wheel goes through. Its only one half. The other
half
is intact.

I was wondering if there is some form of epoxy that could be used to
repair
the casting. I don't think I'll have much luck chasing down a welding
shop
for this small job. Since its hand held and there is not much heat
generated, I don't think it will take a lot of strength to hold it
together.

Bob

Why do you think that you cannot get someone to weld it? I have taken
stuff to shops to get fixed. Car doors, aluminum lawn mower decks,
aluminum heads and other stuff. I certainly would not trust someting
spinning at 4000 rpms to some glue when it was not manufactured that
way. Heat is not the issue. Vibration shaking the glue is. On the
other hand airplanes are assembled with glue. Remember the glued on
tail section that fell off the airplane in the past 10 years. Plane
crashed with no tail section. Of course there were hundreds of the
same model flying successfully, just one bad glue job.

"Bob" wrote:

I bought a "railroad" grinder off of ebay to grind my chisels and plane
irons. Its super heavy and very well made. I opened it up to check the
gears and grease them. I was not prepared for the weight of the outer casing
when I pulled it off and dropped it on the concrete floor - you guessed it.
It broke off the most critical part of the casting - the part where the
shaft for the grinding wheel goes through. Its only one half. The other half
is intact.

I was wondering if there is some form of epoxy that could be used to repair
the casting. I don't think I'll have much luck chasing down a welding shop
for this small job. Since its hand held and there is not much heat
generated, I don't think it will take a lot of strength to hold it together.

Bob

"Jim Behning" wrote in message
...
Why do you think that you cannot get someone to weld it? I have taken
stuff to shops to get fixed. Car doors, aluminum lawn mower decks,
aluminum heads and other stuff. I certainly would not trust someting
spinning at 4000 rpms to some glue when it was not manufactured that
way.

Jim, thanks for the prodding. I live in a city that is blanketed with large
industrial shops servicing the chemical and petroleum industry. They won't
even look at $15 job. I'll look through the yellow pages to see what I an
find.

I would never consider epoxy for a motor driven grinder. I think I was not
clear. This is a hand cranked grinder. Its the heaviest hand grinder made
and turns the fastest. But I doubt the grinding wheel ever goes above 200
RPM.

Bob

Sat, Oct 23, 2004, 5:26pm (EDT+4) (Bob) says in
wonder:
snip I think I was not clear. This is a hand cranked grinder. snip

Nah, we were confused, not you. After all, your subject line does
read:
"repair of handheld grinder",
and your original post has the line: "Since its hand held...".



JOAT
Eagles can soar ... but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

"J T" wrote in message
...

"repair of handheld grinder",
and your original post has the line: "Since its hand held...".

Now where in the world did I get hand HELD??? I was out in space. I do have
a motor powered hand held grinder. Its the weekend and no welding shop is
open so I decided to give the JB-Weld epoxy a go. It turns out the piece
that broke is not load bearing - that's in the other half of the grinder
case. This just keeps the shaft from coming loose (cotter pin in the end).
Even though this is a simple hand cranked tool, it reminds me of the peek of
American craftsmanship. The casting is smooth and even. The gears are
extraordinarily beefy. The shafts are precision machined and the
flywheel-main gear looks like it came out of an automobile transmission
instead of a manual tool. I hope the repair works. I will enjoy using this
tool.

Bob

Sat, Oct 23, 2004, 11:51pm (EDT+4) (Bob) says:
snip I decided to give the JB-Weld epoxy a go. snip I hope the
repair works. I will enjoy using this tool.

I patched a hole in a power steering pump with it. Check their
website for repairs people have made using it. Awesome stuff. Almost
as useful as duct tape - which I used to fix my truck horn today.



JOAT
Eagles can soar ... but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.