Do I need a surface grinder?

[Happy]

I have a couple of lathes, a Bridgeport, etc in my shop. I restore antique engines. I am completely self taught. I see a lot of guys have surface grinders, and I just wanted to know what they are used for. and, if I decide to get one, what should I look for.

thanks.

[j king]

Do you have room for one?If so, Yes.

[Dave Opincarne]

YES! And get me one while your at it.

If you want to make any gauges or anything with a super fine finish or need something with an accuracy of less than 2 thou you'll want one.

[moldmonkey]

Another use is precision cut-off. Using a spindex you cun cut a dowel or hardened pin in no time with quite a rooster tail of sparks. There's a million uses.

I was able to pick up a Boyar-Schultz 612 for $250 so they can be had reasonably. A electromagnetic chuck rather than lever operated is nice but not a big deal. I w would check that the table moves freely and that the spindle runs quietly. I bought mine without hearing it run and got lucky.

[aboard_epsilon]

what's a spindex...please tell.
I'm all ears.
all the best....mark

[aboard_epsilon]

do you mean a 5c collet fixture
all the best..mark

[Spin Doctor]

In a word yes. And then you will find you need a number of other items. Grinding vise, angle plate, magnetic parellels, sine plate and bar, Jo blocks. It never ends. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//eek.gif

[sch]

Grinders come in lots of variants, some
designed only to cut large flat surfaces down
to flatness in the tenths range, others to cut cylindrical or tapered shapes and have
a built in lathe to rotate the work. Automation to some degree is highly desirable, and most of the name brands will have this. Manually running the x axis back
and forth under the wheel at a tenth per cut when you need to take 20thou off redefines tedium. Some have auto travers x but manual
Y axis, not so bad. You will need lots of
coolant. Some will have auto x and y with manual z, these can be left to run by themselves for awhile, like bandsaws. If you are familiar with the Sunnen line of equipment then you should have an idea what you might use them for. The finish a grinder produces is vastly superior to what a mill can produce. Antique engine restoration would seem to require some grinding of heads and blocks or headers occasionally? Steve

[jack d]

Aboard,
A spindex is a small 5-c or r-8 holder, usually with one locking pin at the rear for tightening, with a machined surface on the bottom to allow it to be held paralell to the mag chuck. Take out the pin, and it spins freely hence the name.
Some have 2 sides, allowing it to be placed @90.
They can run anywhere from the 25 buck cheapies to thousands for a Mastergrind.
jack

[aboard_epsilon]

Yes Jack I got lost when he combined the two words spin and index .
it would be described in the uk as a spin-index fixture .
My mind was racing and I was thinking he ment some sort of cut-off disk mounted on the surface grinder ....I wonder.

btw for the uk guys jo-blocks are slip-guage's.
AL;L THE BEST...mark
all the best

[andy_b]

what do you do with the spindex? i think i got one in my $25 surface grinder deal, but i got a lot of things with it and i have no idea what some of the stuff is. i should probably put a bunch of pics up so someone can identify some of it.

andy b.

[aboard_epsilon]

well on a surface grinder with a "spindex"
you can:-
put flats on shafts .
you can have two flats 180 degrees out
you can turn round into hex or oct even.
or you can just point your shaft strait up and get a perfect finish on the end of it.
anything that can be gripped by the 5c collets can be trued up basically.
all the best...mark

[Ian B]

Has anyone seen a spindex that takes ER32 collets?

Seems a shame to buy 5C collets when I have the ER's just lying there...

Ian

[torker]

Ian...good question. Suburban tool makes one for ER-25 collets but all the others i see are 5C.
Russ

[Koloya]

I do not quite understand what is
"surface grinder".

Means a machine which load with grinding-wheel for the purpose of grind something?

[Joel]

Koloya, look here:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/items-list.cfm?key=470030&

[Koloya]

Well,I called the machine "Grinding-machine" before....Hehe...

I have not see this type often in P.R.C.,it is not the machine what do I think in my brain.

http://www.showcatsonline.com/xmas/merry-xmas.jpg

[Doc Nickel]

Y'know, he's got a sort of a point... I mean, isn't any grinder a "surface" grinder? Wouldn't it be hard to grind something other than the surface of something else? http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

... Okay, I'm gonna go back in my hole now...

Doc.

[Koloya]

???
I could not catch what you mean???

My english is so poor,sorry....5555...

[.RC.]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Koloya:

I have not see this type often in P.R.C.,it is not the machine what do I think in my brain.

</font>

Really I thought every machine tool manufacturing factory in PRC would be using one of these albiet a bit bigger.

Not sure if you realise surface grinders also come with a vertical spindle, reciprocating table and vertical spindle, rotating table.

[Koloya]

vertical spindle, reciprocating table rotating table... ALL represent the working-style or according to the different grinded.
Principles are the same.

In P.R.C.,Actually most of the products you are using can be produced,however the price will be higher than your country for we are just starting to develop our industry.
The future is brightful!

[.RC.]

Koloya I am not in the US. I am in Australia.

I don't go to engineering workshops very often but when I do I see a bit of PRC made equipment.

I own a millimg machine made in PRC. A few of my hand tools are also made there. It is a question of price. PRC equipment is cheap. Quality is improving all the time but I have noticed as quality has improved so does the price.

[Koloya]

Yes,sir.

Products in P.R.C. are improving their qualities with increasing price.However it is ordinary,the quality is pro cata to the price,isn't?

[.RC.]

Yes as quality improves so will the price. I have purchased a pair of plier made in PRC that were as good as quality as most made in western countries.

They were also priced like they were made in a western country.

[Koloya]

That is fair.
If we do not exchange,how do we live in this world?

[.RC.]

We will only go backwards if we do not trade what we have for something we need.