Old Wilton vs. New Wilton

Peter Atwood

Peter Atwood

Joined
Oct 26, 2000
Messages
2,468
After visiting Ton Anderson's shop over the weekend I'm looking more seriously at the Wilton grinder. One reason is because of the fast setup times when changing from contact wheel to platen. Also, the platen has two different size rubber coated idler wheels which can be used for small radius grinding. And by upgrading to the 1 1/2 horse DC variable speed kit you get an extra 1 horse AC motor out of the deal.

My question is, I remember hearing some rumblings about how the new Wiltons are not as good as the old machines. Why is that?
 
Peter,
I have a 16 year old one that I converted years ago to DC. I couldn't do without it. No experience with the newer ones.
I'll try to find CJ. He bought one at the Blade Show a couple years ago. We can see what he says.
 
As Kit said ,I have one with v-speed and wouldn`t do with out .I have used all the rest but,like it best. Robert Washburn ABS Journeyman Smith
 
Hmmm, doesn't sound like there is much of anything different about the new machines after all. At least you'd think someone would have chimed in about it if there was. Maybe they aren't made in the USA anymore???

I thought that the Wilton was fairly noisy and someone at the workshop who had a Hardcore said that their machine was much quieter, but I'm not sure that justifies the enormous price tag. Also, it sounds like the Hardcore takes longer to change out setups.
 
Peter, You may have misunderstode what I was saying in Tom's shop. The Wilton was not that much louder than the Hard Core. The Quick change handles Tom added to his Wilton made the change overs a little faster than on the Hard Core. I was very impressed with the way the Wilton perfomed.
 
Hi All!
It was me who spoke about the differences of the new versus the old model square wheel grinders. I'm over in German right now, and just haven't had access to a computer, or I would have responded sooner. From what I have seen, the newer model wiltons use a lighter gauge of metal for the frame, and the drive and idler pulleys are of a lighter duty than the old models. Over the past year or so, several people have spoken with me about the drive pulley on their new machine not being crowned, which is not good news. I would suspect that if you do purchase one, and find it not up to your standards, the company that sold it to you would take it back. (Something I would certainly check on before ordering)
I'm with Kit............It's a great machine, easy to change over, durable, and much, much eaisier to work with than the two wheeled type grinders. The longer I work at bladesmithing, the more I'm convinced that the KISS principle is the best one to follow, and the wilton machine is the leader in KISS as far as grinders go.
 
I first got to use Kit's square wheel when I first started making knives (Thanks Kit). I purchassed a new one from Mick Koval at the Blade show a few years back. My idler wheel is crowned an tracks fine. The unit is well built and without having one unit side by side can't see that the old one would be much more beefier than then new one. I converted over to vaviable speed right away (don't think twice about this) and do have the extra motor still in stock. I made a few changes, I epoxied the allen key into the tracking control(Thanks Kit) and put a knob on the end so I'm not fumbling around for the key. I also purchased a bigger work rest and epoxied a 4 X 12 piece of stainless on it to make a larger work table (Thanks Darrel). I also drilled thru the platten and tapped 4 screws from the back and put a piece of hardened steel on the front so you don't wear your platten out. It's real easy to change over tools. IMO the Square wheel is a great tool and worth the money. I use mine for everything, even the blade grinding. Imagination is the only limiting factor. :)
 
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