Bought it, never used it.

I'me sure I am not the only one who has items of new tooling, some quite expensive, that still remain unused quite a number of years after purchase.

After a brief search of my workshop I found and opened this box, to reveal one such item still new and unused since I bought it years ago from Arceurotrade when I visited their premises.

...............I can't remember for sure how long ago I bought this C3 Mini Lathe Toolpost grinder from Arc, but at the time I was told that from them it was a discontinued item. I think Little Machine Shop in the USA still offer it, plus a slightly larger model.

..............I now have a job for it, and plan to make a short internal grinding spindle for it. The 80mm diameter grinding wheels that came with it are all 80 grit, I wonder what sort of finish they will produce.

Has anyone else used one of these little Toolpost grinders? It has a 250 Watt motor, with a grinding spindle speed of 6000 RPM. It all seems fairly well made.

Edited By Lathejack on 21/12/2018 20:32:55

Edited By Lathejack on 21/12/2018 21:01:01

Ugh! I've been looking for one of these second hand. Most tool post grinders are horrendously expensive for what they are. I'd be interested to see what results you get.

Yes, used Toolpost grinders are usually still quite expensive in the sizes we might use, especialy the Duplex brand.

The only other supplier to Model Engineers I can think of that have offered a Toolpost Grinder was Warco many years ago, I can't remember exactly what it looked like or what the price was, except it had their usual green paint job.

Lathejack, I have the same C3 TPG that I purchased about ten years ago for finish grinding hardened model engine crankshafts.

It works quite well at this task as long as one remembers that it's only a finishing tool, used to take off the last 0.0005" - 0.001" or so. I cover the ways in oily paper towels btw although there is very little residue.

The resultant finish is excellent using the 80 grit (pink) wheels.

The only problem that I have encountered was last year when the the drive belt disintegrated so a few replacements were located and ordered from LMS. As the postage from the U.S. was a little steep I took the opportunity to fill out the order with some 120, 180 and 240 grit wheels plus a pile of 6mm ball oilers to suit the mini-lathe took up some spare room in the package.

The items arrived in about ten days in good condition.

(The ball oilers cost me about $1.50 Au btw, **LINK** the local quote was $6.50 each so no wonder I shop overseas).

I have not tried the finer grit wheels in anger yet as the finish from the 80 grit wheel gives a fine enough surface for what I was doing.

* Danny M *

Thanks Danny. Glad to hear they work well, and that the 80 grit wheels do give a good finish.

The 80x10x20 grinding wheels do not appear to be a standard off the shelf size, although a company I bought some internal wheels from did say they can produce some wheel sizes to special order. However I have also been thinking of ordering some finer grit wheels and spare drive belts from Little Machine Shop.

I don't have a Mini Lathe, so the grinder will hopefully successfully be used on my larger lathe to grind to size the hardened big end eye of some BSA motorcycle roller bearing big end conrods, and the rods from some old two stroke stationary engines. A Delapena honing machine would be preferable for this job, but I don't have the room.

Edited By Lathejack on 21/12/2018 23:25:04

I bought a toolpost grinder of a similar size. It was missing the drive belt. I was planning to use an O-ring. Has anyone had success doing so?

Hoover belts?

Many years ago I went to the ME Exhibition at Picket's Lock, North London and treated myself to a 4x6 horizontal bandsaw, which was duly delivered in a crate to my address in the Midlands.

The crate was a bit bigger than I thought and was placed into a corner of my cellar workshop, next to the CH boiler, until I was able to clear a space for the machine. The years passed and every now and again I thought about opening it, but there was still not enough room.

Eventually, the 35 year old CH boiler gave up the ghost and the replacement condensing version had to be installed in the garage, which left a space for the bandsaw. A couple of years ago I got round to opening the crate and found the receipt, dated 1997 - only 19 years ago. The saw was still as-new and does sterling service.

I have a Dumore grinder of great vintage, the original flat belt disintegrated, but fortunately there is a local belt supplier fairly close to me, I took the unit in to the shop and they made me two new belts for less than a tenner.

If its any help **LINK**

Regards

I use a vacuum cleaner belt on my Quorn.

Well, I have plenty of new stuff I've still not used, but never a machine still in its crate, unopened or used after almost 20 years!

As I read that the crate was bigger than you thought it would be I thought you were going to say that when you finaly opened it that it wasn't a bandsaw in there after all, but instead you had accidentally been sent a spanking new lathe with all the bells and whistles, power cross feed, screw cutting gearbox, steadies, and chucks.......result!

Good job the bandsaw wasn't faulty or damaged in any way, warranty long gone.