Holzmann grinders/polishing machine

Has anybody had any dealings with a Holzmann grinders/polishing machine​, I'm looking for a good polishing machine and Holzmann do two one at .75 h.p. at £130 or one with 1.2 h.p. for £215 or can you recomend one I do a couple of hours polishing at a time maybe twice a week.

Thanks

Martin

Obviously not that popular then, how about an Allwin from ARC ??

Hello Martin,

Perhaps the name is unfamiliar which may explain the silence, it is not one I have heard off and I would want to research it before commenting. I can't think it will have any special properties over others, why not be a pioneer?

Regards

Brian

Looking at the Holzmann website they appear to be yet another "house colours and sticker" brand supplying Far Easter made machinery. Cynical Clive reckons that the extra handling costs of Far East-Austria-UK Distributor-Customer supply chain compared to Far East-UK Distributor-Customer chain means that for equivalent prices you could well be getting an inferior machine. But who knows what sort of deal Holzmann are able to get from their supplier as prices seem to be very fluid on the Far East factory side. So it may well be possible that their supply deal is good enough to offset the extra supply chain costs.

I imagine this sort of thing is Ketans Mastermind specialist subject!

Leaving aside "obviously too cheap to be good but you might be lucky" machines my big worry would be that price comparability in spite of the longer supply chain has been got by using a supplier with wider production tolerances or more lax quality control. So you'd be rolling the dice on the odds of getting a good one, an ordinary one or a bad one. Squintillions of "My X is rubbish - No my X is wonderful" arguments on t'web attest to that. Although I do wonder if the manner in which X has been used by the protagonists may be so different that the whole argument is veers towards comparing apples to millionaires bites.

My personal preference (and prejudice) is always towards industrial quality machinery built to last, forever at home shop utilisation really. Objectively Martins maybe 4 hours a week comes out around 2,000 hours per decade. Having bought something at reasonably modest cost lasting that long most ordinary folk would consider they have had their moneys worth. Conversely 2,000 hours barely covers a years single shift with overtime factory work. Bloated slave driving plutocrat boss is likely to be on the warpath after whoever decided it was cost effective to re-equip with cheap machines.

Generally, all other things being more or less equal, its better to deal locally when buying anything that might go wrong. Makes life easier if its your turn to be Mr Unlucky. Also sensible to choose a vendor, like Ketan, who is known to go the extra mile just in case its more than "someone had to get the one that slipped though QC". Big box store "have another one" approach when its broke and still under warranty is fine when you are the guy who got the bad one. Not so good if it turns out they are all like that or if you have chosen unwisely and are asking too much of the machine.

Clive.

It can really depend on what, exactly, you are polishing. There are such machines with a long spindle both sides so that you get better access to nooks and crannies. On the other hand, you need to match the size with the size of component. No point in a 1KW motor for polishing wedding rings - but a small (ordinary size) bench grinder is going to stall too easily if you are into making copper saucepans.

There are also different sizes of mop - 6 inch dia for a modest machine, 8 if you are into bigger stuff. And of course, a small motor will not drive a big mop well - while a big motor might not be quick enough for a small one.

Cheers, Tim

I have dealt with Ian at ARC and I am more than happy with the service and quality of goods from them including the mill I bought off them, but I thought the Holzmann was made in Austria the company selling them is http://www.surtech.co.uk/index.html​ and by the look of it ought to know what they are selling, as it has quite rightly said I am finding it hard to justify the cost as compared to the Screwfix one I am using a 400W 8" for £40 that does the job but gets very warm after a while, that is why I asked the great and the good if they had heard of them.

Many thanks

Martin

P.S. I asked Warco and they said none of their polishers could run for a couple of hours

You could try fitting proper bearings to your current machine? Likely negate the cost of a better machine initially, mind.

What is the duty cycle of these options? A 400W motor with a 200mm mop might well be a tad over-worked, compared to the larger motors of the alternatives?

Other options might be to do one-hour sessions four times a week or to run two machines (swapping over to allow one to cool off)? The advantage of two machines is that if one becomes unserviceable, you are not completely stuck....

Martin

Can't be sure where the grinder / polishing machines are made but if you look at the Holzmann web site **LINK** there is an awful lot of very familiar looking machinery. Albeit in brighter colours than we usually see in the UK.

Clive

Thanks Clive, you are correct they do look very familiar think I will just stick with my screwfix one and just keep buying them at £40 and "no not done yet" it doesn't labour at all runs quite happy as I only do smallish bits of Ali. I will just have to do a bit then give it a rest.

Thanks everybody

Depends what you are polishing. M/C, car parts etc, i would want at least 2hp. You can pick up good S/H Brit brand name 3 hp, 3 phase polishers ready to work for 150-200 quid.

No motor will ‘labour’ until overloaded, so should not overheat unless so cheaply built that it has a duty cycle of less than 100%

There are several reasons why a motor with a service factor of unity, or greater, overheats

1) overloaded.

2) poor ventilation, or heat dissipation and

3) carp bearings or lack of lubrication.

4) too many start cycles in a given period.

There might be others.

Checking full load current and local temperature rise (to find where the heat is being generated) might be a good place to start. Even checking to see if the machine is actually overheating might be informative.

The only problem with that is 3 phase I would need a converter and "not done yet" that all sounds far to technical for me I just know it gets bl**dy hot, but I will just keep running it and buy another one this one has given me nearly 7 months service and it's still running ok.