Broken grinding wheel; useful or landfill?

[metlmunchr]

Job in High School was working as driver in a place that made die sets. When I wasn't driving, I got to run a blanchard grinder. Had a wheel crack, guy that was "supervising" me just wrapped it with a bunch of fiber packing tape and said I was good to go. Being a dumb *** kid, I believed him and went back to grinding. Actually stayed together for a few minutes, till it didn't. Grinding stone went everywhere, luckily the guard worked. Have very vivid memories of that exploding in all directions...

Fortunately, most shops with Blanchards have moved away from those ring type wheels and replaced them with a wheelhead using segments that clamp in place on the head. I've got an Abrasive Associates head on my 42 inch Blanchard, and there are a few other brands out there as well. In later years, I think Blanchard and other manufacturers of vertical spindle rotary grinders switched to segmented wheelheads and away from the one piece stones as original equipment.

With the segments, if something happens, like a part coming loose on the chuck, one or more segments may crack and some gravel size pieces may be thrown off, but the same situation with a ring type wheel often resulted in multiple pieces half the size of a brick being thrown about the enclosure. As Bad Habit found, that'll rate about a 12 on the 1 to 10 scale for **** puckering.

 

[05snopro440]

Folks.

Please.

Quit telling me to pitch it. I just want ideas of alternative uses for it.

If I can't find something else to do with it THEN I'll decide to throw it away.

I think the point here is that most of us have tools in our shop that can perform most of the "alternative uses" described in this thread. Keeping junk around for a rainy day has become a lot less fashionable for those of us that realize the mental and physical expenses of said clutter. If I need a grinding wheel for something quick, I'll use one of my spare new ones, not a piece of something broken.

 

[c39er]

Throw this thread away....

 

[rancherbill]

If I can't find something else to do with it THEN I'll decide to throw it away.

We've been there, done that, have the Tee shirt and are just helping you speed up the process by saying throw it out.

 

[atch]

Ok; ok; ok.

Several alternative uses have been suggested. I appreciate that. Unfortunately for me; none of those uses really help me. Well; a couple might, but only once every ten years or so.

SO I'LL PITCH IT.

Or I might break it up and throw it into someplace needing a bit of fill dirt.

Thank you one and all for reading and responding. I really do appreciate the knowledge and wisdom found on GJ.

 

[rburke65]

I’d vote land fill

 

[c39er]

Wait a minute.....one last idea
Got a Mortar and pestle...?
Grind that wheel up and use it for sand blast media!

 

[atch]

Well; I threw it away and then yesterday sweetie was using some hand pruners in a flower bed and complained they were dull. Now I sure wish I still had those grinder wheel pieces to dress the blade. I used a small file but the wheel might have worked better.

Oh, well.

Thanx to everyone who submitted ideas.

 

[nadogail]

My best ideas often come after the problem has been solved, just like Monday Morning Quarterbacks.

 

[RonnieC]

Dang, would’ve made a great Secret Santa gift to someone you don’t like.

 

[joel63]

Well; I threw it away and then yesterday sweetie was using some hand pruners in a flower bed and complained they were dull. Now I sure wish I still had those grinder wheel pieces to dress the blade. I used a small file but the wheel might have worked better.

Oh, well.

Thanx to everyone who submitted ideas.

Never fails, does it. Next time you'll know what to do.
Waste not, want not. Or something like that.

 

[NORTON'S SHOP]

Well; I threw it away and then yesterday sweetie was using some hand pruners in a flower bed and complained they were dull. Now I sure wish I still had those grinder wheel pieces to dress the blade. I used a small file but the wheel might have worked better.

Oh, well.

Thanx to everyone who submitted ideas.

Try this experiment. Take the wheel off your bench grinder and try to sharpen your sweeties hand pruners by hand with the wheel. I'm assuming that your broken wheel was probably a 60 grit wheel. You'll soon realize why you threw away the broken wheel.

 

[knotdust]

Job in High School was working as driver in a place that made die sets. When I wasn't driving, I got to run a blanchard grinder. Had a wheel crack, guy that was "supervising" me just wrapped it with a bunch of fiber packing tape and said I was good to go. Being a dumb *** kid, I believed him and went back to grinding. Actually stayed together for a few minutes, till it didn't. Grinding stone went everywhere, luckily the guard worked. Have very vivid memories of that exploding in all directions...

I can't imagine anyone even suggesting that. Machine shop I worked at had that happen to a guy running their blanchard. Had shields and everything. He pulled back the shield slightly to bring the stones down to the piece and something left go. Hit him in the head and killed him. Boss said that was the toughest day in his life to go tell the guys wife what had happened. Company and OSHA took the machine away and dis-assembled it and could not determine any reason for machine failure. It was just one of those things that happen.

Bad Habit you are a very, very fortunate person that day.

 

[Bad Habit]

Yep, think about that event often

 

[Lassen Forge]

Wow, I sure came late to this party!
My original thought was use your trusty 8# sledge to see how many little pieces you could turn it into.

If it's broken - throw it away. I don;t know about you, but I don't have a lot of space to store broken stuff,

Thats my 2¢... and sure, you can use the best piece for hand work maybe (although unless it's something like an axe, I'd be concerned about marring the work suface) but I feel that a grinding wheel is a consumable anyway, so even if it wasn't cheap, it's less expensive than a bionic eyeball. Maybe I'm a weenie, but yeah. Replace it. Get a new one and move on. Grainger or the big book can overnight you a new one.

But it's already done, sorry about the cutter idea.

 

[atch]

Thanx all. This grinder was a restoration project and was never meant to be used for grinding again. It's now on display with several other grinders on the shop wall.

Here it is in its temporary display. It's the top one and I haven't yet cut the excess shaft off and threaded the shaft. Maybe this winter I'll do that and build a separate shelf for each of these grinders. Or maybe one long horizontal shelf for all of them. This temporary display is just to get them out of my way so I'll have room to do actual work in my shop.

I've got four bench grinders (8 wheels total) so I really will never need these for actual grinding. Three of the bench grinders are in use and the other (currently siting on a shelf) needs restoration, although it works as-is.

 

[TomC750]

I use a broken piece of a coarse wheel to dress a good running wheel. I also hate to throw away stuff.

 

[ching0n]

knock weld spatter off your weld table. works best when intact so you can hang off a hook. Dress an anvil face.

 

[PCustoms]

knock weld spatter off your weld table. works best when intact so you can hang off a hook

I wonder if OP has been holding on to the broken wheel for the past 1.5yrs...

 

[ching0n]

I wonder if OP has been holding on to the broken wheel for the past 1.5yrs...

necrobumps are always good for posterity

 

[Firstram]

I wonder if OP has been holding on to the broken wheel for the past 1.5yrs...

I would have! They’re perfect for freshening up the cutting edge of a diamond saw blade.

 

[Ohio Andy]

I'm pretty sure that we all got the humor/sarcasm here.

I assumed he was kidding and someone said they had done that Many times.

I figured it's kind of dangerous but...

 

[driftpin]

You got many compliments on your metallic blue, cleared-over.

Almost 60 years ago, my friend had a pleated seat for his Bultaco street-trail bike. The naugahyde was very-close to that color. I have an old Kodacolor picture stored-away of that bike, and its seat. Thanks for getting that thought out of the cobwebbed recesses of my old synapses.

I'd use a piece of the wheel like others said, for manually-dressing burred edges of some cut metal.

 

[isb cornbinder]

I'm pretty sure that we all got the humor/sarcasm here.

There were over 150 tradespersons where I worked, I might trust 100 0f them to do the right thing.

 

[knotdust]

Wow, I sure came late to this party!
My original thought was use your trusty 8# sledge to see how many little pieces you could turn it into.

If it's broken - throw it away. I don;t know about you, but I don't have a lot of space to store broken stuff,

Thats my 2¢... and sure, you can use the best piece for hand work maybe (although unless it's something like an axe, I'd be concerned about marring the work suface) but I feel that a grinding wheel is a consumable anyway, so even if it wasn't cheap, it's less expensive than a bionic eyeball. Maybe I'm a weenie, but yeah. Replace it. Get a new one and move on. Grainger or the big book can overnight you a new one.

But it's already done, sorry about the cutter idea.

I always have a spare one and when one gets too small I pitch it and put the new one one. It's just not worth the risk. Even a 4" angle grinder can do a lot of damage if it flies apart.

 

[atch]

People, people, people.

Please quit saying don't spin this thing. That was the premise from the git go. This thread is about what to do with those broken pieces.

 

[DG930]

Redirect

Did you use an actual hammer finish paint or was there some technique to get that look? I need a green finish like that and nobody sells green hammer finish anymore.

 

[atch]

Redirect

Did you use an actual hammer finish paint or was there some technique to get that look? I need a green finish like that and nobody sells green hammer finish anymore.

I'm guessing you're referring to the grinder finish shown in response #22 in this thread.






The paint is rattle can; both the blue and the clear. Neither is "hammer tone" pant; they both are just run-of-the-mill paints. I wish I had a "before" pic that I could look at and show, but I don't. I did sand blast the piece before I painted it. The texture that you're seeing is in the metal itself. I don't know if it had that texture before sand blasting or not.

Here's the blue paint; I don't know if this had any texture in it or not.:



Sorry this isn't much help.

 

[DG930]

Looks great. Thanks

 

[atch]

Here's the Rust-Oleum color chart for their metallic paint. It looks like perhaps the texture was in the blue paint.

 

[atch]

After comparing the paint chips to the grinder pic I don't think that what you're looking for was in the paint.