Alfred Herbert Surface Grinder

I was fortunate enough to acquire an Alfred Herbert surface grinder and I would like to find out more about the machine - there is no manual and a search of t'interweb gives no results.

Does anyone recognise the machine? 

Thanks in advance,

John

Edit - sorted photo out!

Edited By John Corden on 18/07/2015 09:17:40

Yes, great little grinder. Used to take 40 thou cuts on cast iron using a silicon carbide wheel. Don' t oil the slide ways, I think they get covered in grit and turn to paste.

Because of the mess grit etc is it a good idea to keep them out of the way?

Not so easy in the confines of a workshop

Hi John,

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd chime in as yours is the only thread about these machines..

I acquired a Herbert Jr. surface grinder recently, and feel fortunate also. I've posted some photos in an album. I believe the model I have is of a later vintage, although not sure what year it was manufactured, It has the larger knee and a built in lubrication system, is in very good condition overall, and the table glides back and forth effortlessly. My thoughts about getting a manually operated machine were that, wear should be minimal compared to those with a table drive.

The magnetic chuck I have, a Walker - Hagou, is larger than the 5" x 10" chuck these grinders came standard with. I'm thinking about having the chuck surface ground professionally, bottom and top, as that should give me a good indication of table accuracy after its mounted.

Have you had favourable results with your machine, and did you find it a worthwhile investment for your shop ?

Thanks, Mike

I made an offer to the works manager for one of these when it was removed from our labs and replaced with a larger surface grinder. I thought it would be a good fit for the workshop I was planning and I'd done a fair number of 'foreigners' on it The Works manegar said that he thought £75 was about right. Three months later I got an invoice from the company for £75+VAT=£88.13 for a Jones&shipman 1400 24"x8" grinder with a failed motor on the hydraulic pump unit. We'd been talking about different grinders . I re-designed the workshop to fit.

Be that as it may, the best solution would be to check the ways with a known camel back straight edge and re-scrape them flat. after that, the chuck can be ground on the grinder itself.

Where are you located? might be able to lend you the kit.

Hi Mike,

I have had very good results from the grinder, and it was definitely a worthwhile investment. One thing I have learned is that it is essential to dress the wheel regularly - I now do this before every use. Failure to do this leads to a clogged wheel and poor finish.

The grinder is fitted with a Brammer type belt and in cold weather the motor struggles to get up to speed.

I haven't stripped the machine down, although I suspect there will be some wear in the slides.

Looking at your photos your machine seems newer than mine, with the calibrated 'cross slide' hand wheel.

Mark - I wouldn't mind checking my ways if that would be possible - I am just north of York.

Best regards,

John

Edited By John C on 04/05/2017 08:26:12

Hi all, the Herbert Junior is indeed a fine machine, I used them a lot during my time working on a tooling crib ( read shop floor tool refurbishing section ), a universal swivelling vice is a major asset, enabling me to service the Sandvik block tools, a large industrial TC version of the tangential tooling favoured by model engineers, fitted with a 6 inch diameter by one eighth inch thick diamond wheel it covered all that type of work ie grind down to remove any damage then return chip breakers to original form, widely used to refurbish Herbert roller box tools with shaped green grit wheels of course & with white aluminium oxide wheels to service both flat & circular cutters for threading die heads. By manually dressing the green grit wheels it is easy to create external radius tools & one off form tools thus circumventing the the 6 mile long queue to get anything done in the toolroom. One may find oneself diverted to sharpening blades for horse clippers, you have to see how much they charge for that! & likewise blades out of garden shredders. I have only one issue with the posted pictures, as you can see original colour of the machine was a dark navy blue & has been overpainted with a yardbrush in a bilious shade of green called I believe Eau de Nil, favourite colour of the shop manager, how I hate that colour, everything that moved or stood still was that colour. Dont forget though that no matter how much you learn about tool grinding there are always doubters, only a few weeks before I retired ( yesss ) I was asked by a man who polished a chair with his backside for a living if I knew how to grind a parting off tool, I could see he was impressed by one so old having such a powerful command of industrial language!

Cheers

Hi Mark R.

Thanks for the offer on your camel back kit, I'll keep it in mind. It will be awhile before I will be able to strip down and go through the surface grinder. The grinder along with my other machinery resides in our storage unit until I can get my garage/workshop completed and three phase power set up. I am located in South Wales.

Hello John C.

Glad to hear that you are happy with your machine. Thanks for the tip on prepping wheels. The machine I have has calibrations on both the knee and the cross slide hand wheels; there is a thumbscrew on each which allows setting to zero or any value in between.

Hi Robjon,

It's nice to know that your only issue is with the colour, lol. I have a couple of cans of green sign painters paint which I have coveted closely for years. A light coat gives a very smooth and durable finish, as it magically self levels; hence most of my better accessories are painted green. Sorry. Interesting you mention about a universal swivel vice, as I have been looking for a small good quality one at a reasonable price.

Cheers Gentlemen, thanks for the replies.

Dear all,

I have also just acquired a Herbert Junior grinder. It is covered in gloopy white paint including all the operating wheels/levers (why paint that lovely chromed table lever?) and a significant quantity of grey gunge (?grinding dust and oil) but seems in passable condition. Readjusting the table jibs seems to reduce the table hight variation to 1 thou on table movement. But there is nowhere to properly mount a magnetic base for the indicator (yet), so that may or may not be true. I think I could extend the table movement beyond the standard 8 inch by extending the rack on its left hand side as the grinding wheel is still 3 inch from the end of the table when the rack runs out, whereas one inch from the right at full travel.

I am trying to find a manual: all I can find is the promotion literature on the lathes.co.uk website. The motor is wired for 440v so is going to have to come out to change to delta as my VFD only outputs 310v. I have a more powerful (3/4) hp and physically smaller single phase flange-mount motor from a forecourt petrol pump I could fit but it has ventilation holes -would that be a problem with grinding dust? My hood over the grinding wheel has an airscavenging fitting but no air pump so the dumpy Hoover may be pressed into action eventually for dust collection duties.

I would welcome any comments or advice. I live in Preston, Lancashire. Other kit in my garage includes a Heavy 10 Southbend and a Zay45 clone mill in quite good nick, squashed around a 1936 Alvis car and model steam engines.

Stephen Laurence.

Hello everyone. I have also acquired a Herbert grinder and I am wondering if anyone can tell me how to change the grinding wheels ?

Also could anyone suggest a good place to buy new grinding wheels.

Hello, Plus one to "Also acquired one" . Mine still has the original smaller cast wheel guard/shield, larger mag chuck, but whilst having the original switch gear has a single phase open/ventilated body, so obviously the dust not an issue?

I also need some wheels and was going to try Midland Abrasives? So also looking at how to change a wheel?

I also have a IDP ( Impregnated Diamond Products) bench surface grinder, which needs some restoration, but cannot find any details of these machines?

Peter

The wheels are on an arbour which is secured by a nut with a LEFT hand thread - a C spanner will undo the holding nut. I don't have arbours for each wheel, so I have to dress the wheel after each change. I have found that there are two hole diameters for wheels: 1 1/4 or 32 mm......different enough to make a difference. My arbour is 1 1/4.

John

Edited By John C on 18/09/2017 20:29:50

Hi all,

I'm clearing my dad's workshop and he has one of these machines. I'd be very grateful if any of you could give me an idea of a price I should ask for when I advertise it. I don't have any good photos yet but I think its a dark grey colour. Hope you can help.

Alison