Old Craftsman Bench Grinder

[JoeLee]

About five years ago I started restoring an old Craftsman bench grinder just like the one in the picture. It's a model 115 6965.
I know there are web sites that have old manuals and parts lists of vintage Craftsman stuff but I haven't been able to find any info on this grinder.
I think it was made in 1948?? Any one know where to look??

JL..............

[digr]

Found pics of one 1948

[bob_s]

Try looking up the patent records, might give detailed parts breakdown.

[754]

I have one from 56, looks a bit newer than that.
Great grinder, still works well, and you can run a piece a cross the front without out hitting the motor case.

[DR]

That motor style has been around quite awhile apparently. I have one with a cast iron motor housing as opposed to my newer zinc die cast ones.

Something interesting about some of the newer ones, you can reverse the rotation by taking the grinder apart and reversing the armature end for end. At an estate sale I bought one with the 1 x 42" belt grinder attachment on one end that had been modified to run the wrong way.

[wdtom44]

Is there much more to do than make sure the bearings are greased or replaced and maybe paint it? Are you looking for parts?

[reggie_obe]

Similar but newer, 1946. http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=4472

[JoeLee]

Reggie thanks..........that looks like the one. My tag says 01 48 so I'm assuming that is the year it was made. So this model could have been around for a couple years.

JL................

[thaiguzzi]

Very art deco - love it.

[JoeLee]

Here is a picture of mine.............. It's been sitting on the back of one of my benches for about five years or more..... probably more. This was as far as I got with it.
The reason I put it aside was because I started looking for parts for it, mainly the chrome motor shroud because it's kinda pitted and looks real crappy, same as the safety glass frames. I thought maybe I would get lucky and fine one of these for parts, but till this day no such luck. That's why I started a thread on home chroming kits.
I need to finish this project up.





This was the other hold up.......... I ended up mutilating the two inner wheel flanges in my attempt to remove them. How could I have done that you might ask???
They are supposed to slide right off the shaft..... that's what I thought too. I could spin them freely but they just wouldn't slide off. I tried every method I could think of to get those die cast flanges to slide off the shaft. I couldn't get them to move. I didn't want to try and pry them and couldn't use a puller because there wasn't any where to grab them. I ended up heating them and tapping and some light wedging and prying from behind and finally one let go.
What I found behind it was the unexpected. The shaft just before the bearing has a slight groove in it, like a snap ring groove, but I think what it was cut there for was a relief in front of the slightly larger in dia. surface where the bearing presses on.
So what happened after many years of this flange slipping or spinning for what ever reason and being compressed the ID of the soft flange sort of roll formed itself into that groove and locked itself in place. I had no idea what was going on back there.
I'll probably never find any replacements so not a big deal, I have some 3" alum. rounds I can easily make a couple, only I'm going to enlarge the ID where it sits over the groove so it doesn't snag and lock in like the originals did.



Here are the rest of the parts..............

You can see how the one flange is distorted from heating and prying, the other one ain't too go either. I can make nicer ones.



PS.......... I would love to find the pedestal base for it.

JL.......................

[reggie_obe]

People do post wanted ads on that site (VintageMachinery/OWWM) looking for parts for their machines. You might have some luck.

[mikegt4]

There are a couple of long running Craftsman block grinder threads over on the Garage Journal Forum.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...d.php?t=157794
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...d.php?t=249539

[JoeLee]

Thanks for the info..... I think the last time anyone posted to any of those threads was sometime in 2014.
I wonder if I could get any attention there??

JL..............

[mikegt4]

Both threads are continuous and have been posted to in the last few days. Make sure that you get to the last page (listed @ top and bottom like this forum) or click on these links.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...57794&page=263
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...249539&page=23