Score!!

Peter Atwood

Peter Atwood

Joined
Oct 26, 2000
Messages
2,468
Well I'm psyched! Finally after about two years, I have gotten my hands on a surface grinder. I have missed what seems like dozens of them on Ebay. They are always either too far away or too much money or both. They're usually 220 three phase too.

Today I took the day off and drove down to Hartford, CT to a machinery dealer who does a lot of auctions. He had about 40 or 50 machines there and 5 of them were reasonable sized surface grinders. There were two Harigs and three Boyar Shulz to choose from ranging in price from $250-$750. I ended up taking a Boyar Shulz that probably dates from the 40's or 50's for 300 bucks. It has a 6x12 Walker chuck, original work light and dust collector. The best part was it's a quiet and smooth 3/4 horse 110 motor! No having to hook up a phase converter. :)

The machine is a little beat but not too bad. There's a bit of play in the front to back wheel but the back and forth action is perfect. Everything needs oiling of course and I'm sure it will smooth up even more. The cabinet had a good bit of surface rust on it but I scuffed the whole thing up and gave it a generous coat of oil based gray paint. It's looking sweet. Now I need to rewire the switch which should be no big deal.

One question: The Walker chuck seems to have a weak magnetic pull. Can I do something to make it better? The surface of the chuck is pretty decent but maybe I should regrind it lightly once I dress the wheel?
 
Thanks for the link Mike. :) Yeah, I'm happy. It cost me another $60 to get a local tow guy to lift it off my pickup and put it on his flat bed and haul it over to my house. We unloaded it into the garage and he helped me walk it over to where it's going to live for now. Nice guy, a neat old Yankee codger! I sharpened his Puma folder for him too which he proudly told me that he had bought back in 1964 and has carried it ever since. He looked over my knives and asked me a bunch of questions. Turns out he has a large collection of old school pocket knives and might be interested in one of mine. After all this, he showed me another knife, a slip joint with stag handles that his brother had designed for Case some years ago. Guess his brother is a maker as well. It was a cool day! :D

It gets better. While I was down at the machinery dealer I poked around for a couple of hours. They buy out tool shops, lately many that lose their business to China. :( Anyway, there were tons of racks and shelves and piles everywhere filled with crap of all description. I picked up another $360 worth of stuff including a nice Mitoyuyo dial indicator for $10, a very nice small toolmaker's vise for $20, (8) 8 inch sown buffs, (8) 6 inch buffs all for $2 each, a gorgeous brand new rotary table for $200, a flourescent magnifier light for $15, 4 heavy duty casters for free, a set of parallels for $20, and two boxes containing an incredible assortment of endmills, countersinks and combination bits, some carbide, for the grand sum of $60. I was thrilled to say the least! :) :cool:

Now you can say it Mike, DEFINITELY a filthy swine. :D
 
Peter
Lets see some pictures,This winter after my son is born I am going to have a go at a folder.Sounds like you are set,I buy all my steel already PG,but if I have a Surface grinder I could save some money.Are you going to run the stones or are you setting it up to run belts:)
 
Nathan, you're right about needing one of these for folders! Here it is:

sgrinder1.jpg

sgrinder2.jpg


And here's the booty.....

haul1.jpg

haul2.jpg


I laid out the bits and it turns out there were over 200 combination countersink/drill bits plus all sorts of specialty pieces some of which I have no idea what they are for. There were also 60 carbiode endmills, many of which still had the wax from the resharpening service on them. All for $60!! There must be a couple of thousand worth of bits here. Something tells me I won't be needing to order any of these from MSC for at least a few weeks. ;) :D

shop12.jpg
 
Peter
You dog you,Man I will say you got your moneys worth.
man,the bits are worth the price themseleves.I will have one
someday,hope I find a score like you did:D
 
Peter you gloating S_O_B! I'm coming down to Gill and gonna kick yer butt! Do you realize how long I been looking for one of those?? Now what do I have to do to get you to turn me on to that same dealer, huh? :p

They had one on eBay similar to that from a dealer (in CT, btw) for 300 bucks starting bid. It had like one day left and it did not run, it was 3phase, and had no wheels and most importantly...NO CHUCK! I called and the guy said I could have it for $475. I said WHAT? no chuck, man! A new chuck would cost me more than the machine. I told him I was thinking that if he had no other interest, that I would offer him $100 and cart it off, hoping secretly that I would find a deal on a chuck in eBay.

He said thanks anyway and to have a nice day... :grumpy:

Well, for what its worth, Micro-Mark hase a kit to convert that grinder to use 2x72 belts for $300. Looks pretty cool.

Also, on the subject of surface grinders, an old machinist buddy of mine says you should lightly grind the surface of your chuck whenever you get a new machine, new chuck, or whenever you take it off and remount it (which shouldn't be too often). He says not to worry - there is PLENTY of material there, and it's a common practice to do this.

Btw, Peter. Holler if you need help with stuff like that next time. I have a 1-ton truck and plenty of rigging experience. I'd have done it for free, bro.
 
Peter what a score! That must be good livin, nothing else makes sense. Thanks for sharing, it's almost as good as being there myself... :D

Dave
 
Yup, I'm a lucky son of a gun and I know it! :)

I ordered some new wheels for the grinder today and also a diamond wheel dresser and holder so I should be all set by next week. Meanwhile I've been screwing around with it and it works pretty well even with an undressed wheel. The chuck will get reground as soon as I have the new wheels.

Jeff, If you want to go down there sometime it's about 1 1/2 hours from me, just on the other side of Hartford. Not too bad a trip if you go during the week. He had a couple of nice Harigs sitting there and also another Boyar Shulz with auto feed for a couple hundred more....I just didn't feel like spending $650-750 and then have to pay another $60 on this end to get it unloaded. BTW, a new Walker 6x12 chuck lists for $1100, I called them up.

Chuck, what happened to your surface grinder you were getting?
 
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