Does anyone keep their grinder outside?

L

leozinho

Joined
Jan 7, 2005
Messages
143
I'd like to get a grinder, but I don't have a basement or shop. So I'd have to keep my grinder outside. Obviously not keen on leaving a $1K tool exposed (thought I'd fashion someway to keep it covered.)

Anyone else keeping their 2x72 outside? How are you protecting it?
 
I built a shop off the side door of my garage for that purpose. 8'x6' roof covering a 4'x3' workbench, and I just hang tarps on the three open sides around the workbench during the rainy months.
 
Jerry Barlow has his outside just under a roof and Ray Kirk has a pretty good shop set up with just a roof over it. A lot of old farmers had open shop buildings for whatever they had to work on. Gets cold in the winter though.
 
I once mounted my grinder on a table I could wheel around the shop. Got more light by moving it around, and quite often outside.
 
I do at least 90% of my grinding outside. I built a dolly-like frame and mounted the grinder to it. It is flat on bottom so its rock solid while in use but I can move it in and out of the shop as necessary.
 
Nothing beats natural sunlight for grinding. In my former residence, my grinder was inside a very nice building, but the lighting sucked and my blades had flaws and scratches that I just couldn't see until I got outside. I recently moved, and now my grinder is set up on my big concrete back porch. There's a heavy awning with metal poles coming out across the entire porch. The grinder is exposed to the wind on two sides, but there's an ample overhead coverage. I'd say that's about what you could get away with. I would not want my grinder fully exposed, getting rained on etc. The cold weather kind of seems to make everything on my Coote contract, and my belts are "floppier". Things are not so tight on the contact and idler wheels.
 
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