Learning about surface grinders?

[BadDog]

I just brought home a 6x12 Boyar Shultz surface grinder. Needs some cleanup and a bit of work, but should be running in a few days with a little luck. Scratch that, with my luck, make that 6 months...

But in any case, what are the best sources for learning to utilize a surface grinders capabilities? Of course I'll be reading old threads here and at PM. And google is ever a friend for stuff like this. But are there any particular sites or books that you guys can recommend? Or maybe links to specific threads that you might have saved?

I also need to learn much more about stones and their uses, particularly so I can start watching at auctions for useful additions, it only came with one rather sad stone attached.

And finally, what are the most useful accessories. It's got a permanent magnet chuck. And I've got a small B&S tail stock and indexing head as well as some small vises. I also know about making a few fencing blocks to help the mag chuck hold odd shaped and small footprint items, as well as using paper to protect the chuck form mill scale/rough finish, and about grinding the chuck (after checking of course) to make sure the surface is parallel to the ways (good enough for me I suspect). I also want to get a set of 5C collet blocks, and a dual angle 5C end mill holder/sharpener block. And of course a single point dresser plus basic holder, and I have a radius dresser that came to me in a box lot from an auction a while back. I’ll also finally have a use for those magnetic 123, V, and angle blocks I picked up at the same auction. Anything else?

Much of this stuff I'll undoubtedly dig out with search, but if you feel like taking time to offer your thoughts, it'll be much appreciated. I'm sure there are lots of uses beyond the obvious "making things flat" and putting a nice finish on stuff.

[Tin Falcon]

Bad dog :
Army Training circular TC 9-524 fundementals of machine tools and NAVEDTRA 12204-A Navy Repairmans Manual. Both something you should have in your Library. IIRC both are availble on line in electronic format free download. They have sections on grinding machines as well as grinding wheels.
Tin

[mochinist]

If you get any of the big catalogs like J&L, or MSC, they have pages on which wheels are good for what and explain their numbering system, it is probably also on their web pages if you look around a litlle.

Making things flat and putting a good finish on items can be a challenge for the unexperienced. Does your grinder have coolant? some of he smaller ones don't. If not it is no biggie, you just need to make sure and let the part cool before doing the finish grind otherwise the part will be shaped like an arch. The heat flows towards the ends and the metal will grow more out towards the end. The vortec air coolers work real nice for these types of grinders, but that is another expense in itself, and your air compressor will be running alot with it on.

Surface finish depends on alot of things like material, material hardness, wheel type, dressing of the wheel, and whether or not your coolant (if you are using coolant) is contaminated with lots of swarf, and finally length of time spent on sparking out..

One of the things you can do when dressing the wheeel is if you are doing your rough grinding, you run the diamond dresser really fast across the surface of the wheel, this leaves a rougher finish on wheel for good cutting action and you can take bigger cuts. For the finish do the opposite and go slow across the wheel and you will get a nicer finish.

For safety always make sure to "ring test" your wheel, basically suspend it from a metal bar or something handy and lightly thump it with a piece of metal. It should make a ringing sound and not a dull thud, if it thuds throw it away or find some other use for it besides spinning at a couple 1000rpms right by your face.

I have a mattison grinder at work similiar to this one but slightly larger, I let it run for an hour to get all the surfaces warmed up, after that it does a beautiful job.

[moldmonkey]

I have the same grinder and I believe you will be real happy with it. i enjoy manual surface grinding it's almost a Zen exercise. Like Mochinist mentions without coolant, you will want to be aware of your part heating up. If it warms up and grows into the wheel, it isn't a good thing. Take frequuent breaks, to rest your arm and let the part cool down.

Besides the obvious tasks, I like using it to do precise cut-ff work using these or similar:

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT...er=871%50mode=

You will want these safety flanges for them ;

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMAKA=05940911

A 5C Spin-dex is real handy for grinding down diameters on hard stuff.

A precsion vise is nice to have. A sine vise would be even better. Do yourself a favor and don't use it on the mill That's considered very bad form where I come from .

Make yourself a fixture for grinding lathe tools.

You will find lots of uses now that you have one.

Congrats on the find,

Jon

[gmm22]

Can you set a piece of plate steel on a workpiece that is getting warm (during break cycles) in order to draw off some heat, thus speeding up the overall process? I would imagine that large parts would radiate heat very slowly, so there might be some advantage to conducting it away faster.

[BadDog]

Thanks to all!

Tin:
I'll look for that. I think I may already have downloaded one of those back when I first got my lathe, but didn't realize there was any grinding related stuff (not interested at the time).

mochinist:
I'll take a look for the wheel info. I've got both of those around here somewhere. Also figured Norton probably publishes a web site somewhere with that info. Good info on the cooler too as this one does not have coolant. Probably have to keep a spray bottle handy at the least. Thanks also for the dressing info. One question (to all), how big a diamond does a person realistically need for a small machine like mine? Anything to look for when buying one? Oh, and nice Mattison too. My whole grinder would fit on that chuck!

moldmonkey:
Good to know someone else with the same grinder and happy. This thing seems perfect for my needs, which based on historical patterns just means that 3 months from now I'll feel it's just too small. I'll be looking into those cut-off wheels, and a Spindex is already on the watch for list. Lathe tools is also a another reason for wanting this thing, but I wonder what fixtures are best for it's use in this regard? Got any part numbers or pics of home made fixtures that work well?

gmm22:
I'm thinking a spray bottle should work rather well for this. Maybe with some water based R&O inhibited coolant mixed in small amounts?

[BadDog]

FYI:

Army Training circular TC 9-524
Full version PDF
Much easier HTML version online.

Only place I could find the Navy manual was in the drop box.

[BadDog]

Another point just occurred to me.

I've been told these things (surface grinders in general) sorta float the table on a film of oil that is constantly oozing out. For that reason, the stock cabinets have a slope/drain to collect and control the oil accumulation. My one complaint is that sometime in this machine’s past, the base/cabinet was lost. If I can't find a suitable replacement (unlikely), I will need to build something.

Any comments on the oil leakage and control? If I build one, it will have numerous mounts for stones and related tooling, but anyone got any suggestions (pics or otherwise) for a stand that maximizes utility for this application?

[gmm22]

I must admit I am well out of my experience range regarding grinding, but speaking more from a scientific point, I think it would depend on the size of the work piece and the volume of spray coolant applied.

If the work piece was very large, then a light spray of liquid would achieve thermodynamic equilibrium very quickly, and thus the total heat needed to be removed may well remain nearly the same. A spray would be equivalent to a steel plate only if it had the same heat capacity. In other words, you would have to apply a lot of liquid (likely in the form of a flush to remove heat) to have any real effect. If you lay a forty-pound cold plate on a work piece, this will have roughly eighty times the heat absorbing capacity of spraying even half a pound of fluid from a spray bottle. It also would offer the advantage of not introducing fluids to the operation.

[BadDog]

Capacity, yes. But the spray fluid, if applied early and replenished, should carry away a lot more heat rapidly due to state transition, therefore keeping the material from saturating and expanding to start with. That's my theory anyway. I know I can cool down a fresh weldment or heavily ground part with spray far faster than I can do so by transfer to another body. Again, no expert and speaking on anecdotal evidence combined with what I barely remember of physics from years ago, but that's my understanding. Flood would be better, but I don't want the mess in my shop. Failing mist/spray being sufficient, it could always be combined with the heat sink approach you mentioned, but being used as a thermal conductive transfer medium.