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Good European bench grinder brands?

Hako86

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I'm looking for a good used bench grinder. As the USA made ones are rare here in Holland I'm looking for a well build European bench grinder. It doesn't have to be a top notch heavy duty beast, but I would like one that's decent and will serve me well as a DIY'er.
What are the brands to look out for? The only brand I'm aware of is Creusen which is made right here in Holland...

Any help is appreciated :)
 
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Hako86

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Are brands like Manning, VSF and Masco any good? Saw some used ones for sale and they looked pretty well build...
 
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neophyte

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Felisatti. Made in Italy.

My understanding, is that Felisatti was sold to a Russian company, and any items that were kept in production had their production shifted to CASALS HERRAMIENTAS which Interskol also purchased. Some tools also had their production shifted to Russia and China, to facilities Interskol also owns.
 

CNGsaves

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Russian ruble fell to record lows today (16 year LOW in fact) . . . might be good day to go shopping for something Russian !! ;)

Low, low price when paid with any currency other than Russian ruble !!

Vodka on the cheap anyone ?? :D
 

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Tronyadorable

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Russian ruble fell to record lows today (16 year LOW in fact) . . . might be good day to go shopping for something Russian !! ;)

Low, low price when paid with any currency other than Russian ruble !!

Vodka on the cheap anyone ?? :D
That's called "the door to WW3". Buy microwave popcorn! (No microwave required)
 

Krokodil

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My understanding, is that Felisatti was sold to a Russian company, and any items that were kept in production had their production shifted to CASALS HERRAMIENTAS which Interskol also purchased. Some tools also had their production shifted to Russia and China, to facilities Interskol also owns.

Interesting. Most of the old stuff we find here were still made in Italy.
 
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neophyte

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Interesting. Most of the old stuff we find here were still made in Italy.

It looks like Interskol purchased Felisatti in 2009.

The USA distributor for felisatti clearanced some Felisatti items on Ebay a few years ago. A few of the items were things Felisatti had made private label for other manufacturers such as a Porter Cable planer and a Fein router. I sort of get the impression now that the items being sold on Ebay were probably US voltage items left over from the private label manufacturing that they shipped over to unload. Non of the items still seem to be current production. There still seems to be plenty of italian NOS on ebay.it and elsewhere.
 

Monte

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AEG, Greif, Elu, Femi, Nebes, Rema, Aceti, Scantool, KEF Motor, Slibette...
 
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neophyte

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And the quality of the Italian stuff?

The two or three items I've seen were very well made.

I don't know what the quality of the bench grinders would be since much of the later italian Felisatti production was portable stuff, but the company does seem to have made large industrial equipment at one point.
 

Monte

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if Felisatti made items for companies like Metabo and Fein (and Trend) they couldn´t be that bad... :) i think :)
 

Porkis

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Does anyone know who made this beauty? It's off a restoration video and was described as "ItalianItalianGrind2.PNGItalianGrind.jpg." Here are pics of the grinder and plate.
 

F-22

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Countless manufacturers all over Europe. I'd search for anything three phase from the 70's or older. That pretty much always means an industrial machine. Comparing quality between those is a moot point, it's a brushless three phase motor on two bearings... Swap the bearings and it'll last another 20-30 years of industrial use, or last forever for home use. Added photos of an Italian one I recently attached to a wall (so nice for cleaning underneath... yeah I know, not really that clean on the photo :)). And another photo of my big Italian cast iron pedestal grinder. Sadly don't have a better photo, I hope I'll remember to take one when I get home. I don't know the brand names either. I think the one on the wall is 1kW, and the self standing one does not have a badge but it must be more powerful. You generally won't stop either unless you push a really fat bar of steel into it. That cast iron pedestal is a really beautiful casting, with some nice fins and curves, very italian :)

I bought both together more than a decade ago for something like 50€. Didn't even need to swap the bearings. Dont dismiss really old stuff, a new comparable grinder would be ridiculously expensive. But three phase is way better. If you don't have the socket, it's worth it to get a VFD to run it off a single phase (and you can even regulate RPM that way, awesome for polishing...).


Edit: also attached a photo of the ~70's pedestal grinder they have in some factory workshop at work. Actually looks way more impressive in person than on the photo, but you can see how puny the bench grinder next to it looks, and that one isn't that weak either (I assume something 0.6-0.7kw). Not sure how powerful it is but it was made by Prvomajska (I think that makes it Croatian). It eats up anything you push at it :) Must be more than 3kw, perhaps Prvomajska even just modified a 6kw motor off of one of their lathes (that was their main product).

And I'm sure some casting or forging factories needed even larger grinders, especially in the past. Italians made many due to that (Italians are known for their quality alloy castings, they had many foundries), but there are certainly plenty from all countries since most of Europe used to be very industrial.
 

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lilredex

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Don't forget about British Wolf grinders.

 

F-22

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Here's the grinder I was talking about. Made by SACEM (Bologna?). 1,5hp.

EC0B9C6A-9D79-4495-97AD-BE2D2C061FEA.jpeg
947E61DD-03A1-4C9B-B2E9-4B4E28F9BA5B.jpeg

I really love the design :)

Only use it with flap wheels, one is 150 grit and one is 600 grit. Very efficient at prepping for polishing, but hard to find a >240 grit wheel (had to custom order them).
 
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