Thread: Brown & Sharpe #2 grinder restoration

Actually Bob it went very easily. That 5" Protool grinder is fantastic, and the Makita stainless steel cutting discs were plenty aggressive. After I took the photos I cut it to length, removing about 40% of the length. My required dimension allowed me to keep a rib at both ends.

I am saving the swearing for the scraping.

GQ

I've been using the Smith and Arrow cut-off disks (both 1mm and 0.8mm) smith and arrow items - Get great deals on Inox Cutting Wheels Disks, Flap Discs 100mm items on eBay Stores!
and found them the best I've ever come across. I use them for pretty well all metals. Great for steel and cast iron and they even work reasonably well with aluminium.
Cerful with the 0.8mm ones. Only cut work held in a vice or clampred properly and hold the grinder VERY steady. And keep your head out of the plane where shattered blade bits could fly . I guess full face protection is really in order. But they cut very quickly because they remove so little material. I've used them successfully - and carefully - to cut HSS lathe tools to shape before grinding.
At the price well worth a try.

Originally Posted by jhovel

I've been using the Smith and Arrow cut-off disks (both 1mm and 0.8mm) smith and arrow items - Get great deals on Inox Cutting Wheels Disks, Flap Discs 100mm items on eBay Stores!
and found them the best I've ever come across. I use them for pretty well all metals. Great for steel and cast iron and they even work reasonably well with aluminium.
Cerful with the 0.8mm ones. Only cut work held in a vice or clampred properly and hold the grinder VERY steady. And keep your head out of the plane where shattered blade bits could fly . I guess full face protection is really in order. But they cut very quickly because they remove so little material. I've used them successfully - and carefully - to cut HSS lathe tools to shape before grinding.
At the price well worth a try.

Thanks Joe! They look good. Have you ever used their fibre discs on an angle grinder? They might be useful. I bought and wore out a wire brush for the angle grinder on this project. Very rapid paint removal, but you do get the odd unwanted piercings from fugitive wires.

Greg

Originally Posted by Greg Q

Thanks Joe! They look good. Have you ever used their fibre discs on an angle grinder? They might be useful. I bought and wore out a wire brush for the angle grinder on this project. Very rapid paint removal, but you do get the odd unwanted piercings from fugitive wires.

Greg

I went through 4 wire brushes on the shaper.....After the first five minutes i put my leather apron on, and by the end it looked like an echidna!

For most work i use 1.5mm wheels, they are a bit more forgiving but still cut way faster than the old thick wheels.
The grinder looks good Greg, nothing like breathing new life into an old machine.

This morning I glanced into the guts of the grinder to find a garden snail happily ensconced therein. A snail, for cryin' out loud. I guess I need to step up the pace a bit

Greg

Originally Posted by China

Looks similar to my robot surface grinder, which from all my research aparently does not exist, looking forward to see your progress

China, did you end up getting any information on your Robot, I have one that also needs some attention.

Any further progress on the grinder Greg?
As this machine is very similar to a ROBOT, I have been watching this thread and gathering ideas for the various repairs required on my machine.

Regards, Lex.

Maybe Greg is still trying to catch up to that snail

Well, the snail actually died there.....

and with it went Greg's enthusiasm I fear.

As indicater in another thread, Greg offered it to forumites to continue the good fight - and I put my hand up quickest (just lucky).
Long story short, it now lives in my shed and has restarted metamorphosing back into a surface grinder.
I went over the spindle with the fine tooth comb that are my measuring tools and found little to correct. I removed a couple of faint proud rings on the plain bearing and nose cone of the spindle and polished the entire surface. It fitted perfectly back into the bronze mate in the housing. Greg had provided new rear AC bearings which I fitted and now the spindle turns (by hand) beautifully. I'm still undecided wether to stick with the complex, counterweighted 6-pulley flat belt drive, or attempt a mod to fit a direct drive via Lovejoy coupling. I have a suitable flange-mount 3-phase motor and it looks quite feasible...
As I go on with this project, I'll take photos and continue here.

Thanks again Greg - and Mike - for the opportunity to participate in your restoration!

Nice one Joe, I look forward to seeing the pictures.

Regards
Ray

Yes, Joe, please keep us informed and post photos.
I would like to come see when it is up and running.

-Mike

Well, I pursued the option of a direct drive spindle and found some photos and diagrams of the direct drive option offered by B&S later on in the No2 model life. As it happened, I already had a suitable 1hp 2880rpm 3-phase motor and a suitably sized Lovejoy coupling. Looking at how these could be fitted, I found a heavy cast iron pulley which could be repurposed into a motor mount. I was able to machine that on my half-finished 'new' lathe successfully.
Last Saturday, during a visit to Phil in Thomastown, he surface ground the spindle back plate (which is scraped where it mounts on the spinfle housing and slides in the vertical column, but cast finish on the back. He also made sure that my motor mount was really parallel.
During the week I bored one half of the flexible coupling to match the motor shaft. I also made a keyway shaper tool for the Douglas and cut the keyway.
The only way to fit the other half of the coupling was to replace a spacer and the preload and retaining nut at the back of the grinder spindle. To do this, something stronger than the aluminium Lovejoy coupling half I had. I decided to make a new one out of some decent tool steel I had, incorporating a tightly reamed spigot and internal thread. I roughed out the shape of the coupling and then trued it mounted on the (removed) grinder spindle in my friend Peter's (prk) Sheraton lathe. We then machined the 'drive dogs' for the coupling on his Van Norman universal mill. Lovely old machine to work on!
Finally, I drilled and tapped all the mounting holes, made the 'custom offset' right angle motor mounting lugs/studs in the 4-jaw and trial assembled the lot. Looks like a goer! So far, everything remains reversible - in case it doesn't work out.
I'll repair the spindle drip oiler next weekend (after I'm back from Perth and WA visiting Anorak Bob and co) and wire it up to try the spindle drive..... then onto the slideways....

Very nice work there Joe....

Very nice Joe.

I have only used lovejoys that were made of oil impregnated steel, oilite? I've never seen an ally one. Does the grinder have coolant? I reckon its worth it just to keep the dust down....

Cheers,
Ew