Impulse buy followed me home. Really haven't got room for it, but...

There was an online auction of stuff from a firm that was moving some of their work to another location and having a tidy-up.

I was interested in an upgrade from my Record 23 vice to a Record 25 one. The one that was in very good condition attracted a frenzy and went for a relatively high price (20% of new with the auctioneer's markup). I bid on a slightly more tired example and got it for half that price.

So far, so good.

A few hours after the auction ended, there was an email from the auctioneers offering the unsold lots for their initial starting prices. I had a look.

Ended up with a Meteor ME14 drill grinder for £57.50 after the markup and VAT.

It was filthy when I picked it up, but essentially complete with all the standard attachments. Spent a day and a half Stripping the attachments down, cleaning them up and reassembling everything. It'll sharpen drills from 2mm to 40mm with independent adjustment of point included angle and relief angle. It'll also grind point relief and web-thinning. Needs a couple of new wheels, but the main wheel still had enough meat on it to try it out after dressing it. The web/point modifying wheel is all used up.

I really don't have room for it at the moment, but I think I'd rather sell the Myford to make room than get rid of it!

The "double ended grinder" in the auctioneer's catalogue:-


The drill grinder, with a couple of bits not reassembled:-

The results on a couple of large drills:-

Edited By Mark Rand on 14/08/2022 19:50:10

That's a beauty, I doubt it would take much to make some additional tooling to do milling cutters as well.

A great find ! This is a Youtube video showing the Meteor grinder in action, sharpening a drill. Also mentioned is an attachment for sharpening taps **LINK**

Yes that was too good to let get away. Well worth leaving a trail of crumbs for it to follow you home with. Well done!

Still got the lovely Hardinge too !.

Wow! What a beauty! Lucky you. Better buy a lottery ticket...

Hi Mark,

No need to sell your lathe, the answer is simple !

You just need a bigger workshop !

I have many things like that which just followed me home, and I dont have the heart to turn them away.

Looks like you got a useful piece of kit.

Get thee behind me Satan and push!

I wish one just like that would follow me home. On the Home Shop Machinist forum, you would qualify for a "you suck" award.

20 years ago, EBay was a good source of bargains. These days tit's a good source of repainted junk at insane prices.

It's worth registering with auction companies that specialise in industrial auctions, so you get notifications sent by email. Ok, you get a lot of items that might be useful if you were in the market for a 5 axis CNC machine or worn out office furniture, but occasionally there are good items. Often things are very poorly described. Also, the second hand machinery sellers aren't interested in stuff that needs a bit of TLC before it can be shifted for a profit. That's where the good stuff is.

An amusing update on this:-

I've sharpened a number of drills so far and got better results once I made some new stop fingers for the angular positioning of the drills. they are prone to being ground away if the operator is careless, which messes up the drill positioning.

I ordered a wheel for the drill point thinning attachment on the left hand side and have had a few experiments with it. It shows promis, but a bit of experimentation will be needed to see what results can be obtained. The instructions aren't the world's best.

I also ordered a new wheel for the main drill sharpening side. The one that's on it is worn down from 8" to 7". it's still quite usable, but not for long.

The amusing bit is what happened when I ordered a wheel modifed it to the required dimensions:-

Spot the (not deliberate) mistake.

They hadn't actually used the 200mm wheel I asked them to modify. They very quickly got the chap that does their modifications to pick it up and return it after dressing a couple of inches off it.

Hi Mark, you did very well there, but it is NOTHING like the brierley. Your right about industrial auctions being very interesting. Get or make even a basic wheel balancer ! some wheels can be a long way out of balance and cause alsorts of trouble - vibration ! Hope to see you at the show. Noel.

Paul L linked to a Utube vid of the Meteor, now I know what it is. Not being clever with computers I will direct you to another., brierley drill grinder 11 by shed made. You will see that the Brierley is a much more complicated and versatile machine. New their thousands and command high prices when used if complete.

When bringing the drill to the wheel only take VERY small cuts, it is easy to blue a drill. Dress the wheel before use as if he wheel is glazed blueing is more likely, an aerosol water spray will help to keep things cool. Good luck. Noel.