Craftsman Grinder Dead at age 10

[Whit]

My beloved 2x42 Craftsman grinder finally died tonight. I started out grinding blades on it, lately I've relied on the disc a lot for squaring things up, and even tapering tangs. I noticed that the current model Craftsman has a 2/3HP motor, not the 1HP that mine did. Is that enough to do the things I used to do on my 1HP? Is there an alternate product with both a 2" belt and a disc? The price ($99) on the current Craftsman is hard to beat. What about replacing the motor? Has anyone had any luck doing that? In lieu of flowers, please send advice/ recommendations! Thanks.

 

[J. MacDonald]

I did read that someone (perhaps Dan Koster) had bought a DC motor, perhaps a surplus treadmill motor that was a direct bolt in replacement. I thought of buying one to mod my Craftsman 2x42 when I read that thread, but decided to build a variable speed 2x72 instead. I might revisit that issue at some point as the 2x72 is taking longer than I wanted to and the Craftsman would be a more useful 2nd grinder if it was varaible.

If you search for variable speed related threads you should find the post, it just might take some reading.

John

 

[Frank Eaton]

Hey Whit I have that Craftsman and mine went south about 4 months ago. I bought a Harbor Freight 2hp cheapy, it is working fine. It is my backup machine and was worth it. RLTW!!!

 

[jiminy]

I just use a stripped down 1/2 hp Ryobi 4"x36" belt sander with the belt in the vertical position. Strip all the plastic parts off of it so that they don't catch on fire from the accumulated metal/sparks. (Don't ask how I know to do that.) I think I paid about $70 for it, and when the motor burns out on it I'll 'recycle' the parts to build my own 'custom' grinder.

http://www.ryobitools.com/product/product.asp?prodid=225&prodcat=1&toolcat=2