Thread: Abbott & Ashby Australian Production

Originally Posted by Gary H

I would appreciate if anyone can let me know when, or about when, Abbott & Ashby bench grinders ceased being made in Australia. General concensus is that the Australian made grinders were almost indestructable, and that appeals to me .

There are a few brief histories of A&A floating around on the web but none I've seen refer to moving manufacturing to china.

I have an 8" A&A grinder that is at least 15 years old. Even if it is a chinese grinder it still is a fantastic machine, Super smooth and loads of grunt compared to other chinese made grinders I've owned.

The label on mine says J.W Ross and Sons, Sydney (presumably the distributor) on the front/bottom but no date. I think they may have stopped putting the dates on the chinese made grinders
Other distributors now have their addresses on the grinder labels, the latest seems to be White International.

Here is a pic 1993 grinder label with the 5 Jindalee Place Riverwood address on it, which was A&As address for a while so presumably this one is Aussie made.
AbbottandAshby.jpg
You could hunt around on the web to see if you can find younger grinder labels with these markings but I wouldn't hold my breath.

If you want a really tough Aussie made grinder then GMFs that say "made in Australia" are the go.
I have two of them - mine are 3P but I run them off a VFD on 240V.
These are also super smooth. I've removed the green wheel (D) off the Gold coloured grinder and replaced it with the Multitool Linisher (F)
The Green Grinder now has two SBN wheels and smaller dimond side wheels.
C is a home made thin kerf abrasive cutting wheel.
Combo1.jpg

BTW Your question has also been asked over in the MW forums - no response but you could try again.

Hi Bob, where did you buy that diamond side wheel, and did it already have the correct bore size for your grinder?
Thanks

Originally Posted by mannetje

Hi Bob, where did you buy that diamond side wheel, and did it already have the correct bore size for your grinder?
Thanks

The diamond Wheel (150G?)is part of a set (80G to 1200G) of diamond lapping wheels I bought for SWMBO's jewellery activities.
We got it form www.thk.hk and have bought a heap of diamond stuff from them over the last decade. Pastes, Burrs, drums, hole saws etc.
I snaffled the 150G wheel from SWMBO as she wasn't using it.
From memory it was only about $10.

The arbor is 1/2" so I had to bore it out which was easy for me as I have a MW lathe and the actual plate material is just steel.

There are heaps of diamond grinding lapping wheels on ebay.
On the other side of that GMF grinder I have 100mm diamond grinding cup like this (~$25)
I use this only to sharoen TCT cutters for my MW lathe
Screen Shot 2022-02-25 at 6.31.26 pm.png
It has a 20 mm bore so I turned a (5/8" to 20mm) steel sleeve up for it.

My A&A 200mm is stamped 1991, made in China. Only problem it's lost a coil in the windings and doesn't start sometimes so move it around 20° and it starts like it should.
Rgds,
Crocy.