Grinding / Polishing Area setup - suggestions welcome!

[leeko]

Hi all,

I've been slowly accumulating grinders, grinding arbors and buffing wheels over the last several months, with a view to setting up a corner of my garage as a grinding/buffing/finishing/polishing area. I now have a pretty good selection, and wanted to see if this sounded like a good overall plan. Any and all suggestions are much appreciated! I'll mostly be working with steel (jigs, fixtures and small welded projects), though I'd like to do the occasional work in other mediums (aluminium and wood).

Here's my list:

- 6" older Delta 3400rpm (smooth!)
- 6" cheapie tool shop 3400rpm
- 8" ryobi 3400rpm
- 8" Dayton 3 phase variable speed - no guards
- 10" Dayton 1800rpm
- 14" 3 phase 1800rpm Queen City pedestal grinder - restoration in progress.
- I also have an older grinding arbor (driven by a separate motor) which will take 10" wheels

Here's what I'm planning:

- 6" Delta with a 36 grit grey wheel and 80 grit white AlOx wheel mounted to my welding bench for rough/finer grinding of parts
- 6" ToolShop with a wire wheel and a flap wheel
- 8" Ryobi with a steel wire wheel on side, brass on the other
- 10" Dayton - A60 grit grey AlOx wheel on one side, AA80 grit brown wheel on the other. This will be my primary grinder for lathe bits
- 10" grinding arbor - This has a 2" wide stiff buffing wheel permanently mounted on one side, and a Drill chuck on the other side. I have a variety of buffing wheels from 3" to 14" diameter with 3/8" arbors that mount into the drill chuck
- The 8" 3 phase variable speed Dayton grinder has no guards, so grinding wheels are out. I'm planning to put a 6" expander wheel on one side, with an Eastwood finishing belt mounted (item #13139). On the other side, Maybe an MDF honing wheel or a deburring wheel (suggestions most welcome!)

Lastly, the 14" QC grinder is WAY more grinder than I need... It takes 3" wide wheels! I'm planning to wire it up as an idler for a rotary phase converter, and have the option of occasional heavy grinding on it. It has a 3" wide wheel which is worn down to about 8" on one side. I'll likely keep that, as a replacement 14" x 3" wheel is >$100... On the other side, probably some stacked 14" wire wheels (3 should do it...).

Does this all sound reasonable? I'm wondering if I have a gap in the plan somewhere - If anyone has any experience with the expander wheel finishing belts, would just the medium belt be a good stepping stone from wire wheel (or machine) to buffs? Or would I really need to spring for all 3 (coarse, medium, fine)?

Also, would a deburring wheel add much to this setup, or do the Eastwood finishing belts pretty much do the same thing?

Thanks in advance. This is all pretty new to me, so I appreciate some advice from the older hands.

Best,

Lee

 

[Voi]

I'm in a similar situation but don't have as many grinders and am not as far into the paralysis by analysis part.

Two things that jumped out at me.

One was the wire wheel on the el cheapo 6" import grinder. I have not had good luck with that myself. Had one at an old job and it was very easy to stall.

Second was the variable speed Dayton. Like the idea of the expander wheel but it seems a shame to not have a variable speed sharpening choice in your line up. With the expander wheel you'd only need to find one guard, are they that hard to find? What about one of those 1" x 42" belt sander attachments for one side? I heard those are very nice to have and with easy to swap belts you can get anywhere from light polishing to rough grinding.

Lastly, would love to see some pics of your grinding arbor setup.

 

[senlow]

You really don't need three wire wheels. Put a soft (deburr) wheel on the cheapie grinder instead of a wire wheel. A soft wheel doesn't need much power, so it will be fine on the cheap grinder. In my experience, a soft wheel is safer without a guard.

 

[sberry]

What would you use all of them for?

 

[leeko]

Making metal shiny

I mostly like making jigs and fixtures for my woodworking shop, but am starting to get more heavily into metalworking projects as well. Eventually, I'd like to start doing some metal sculpture/art.

 

[ScottsGT]

Keep in mind the mess created with the polishing process. I just set up a polisher on a table in my workshop to polish my Stainless Colt Gold Cup National Match 1911A1. The byproduct was everywhere! I actually had a stack of magazines below the edge of the table and just threw them away instead of trying to clean all that **** out of the page edges.

 

[wnstwolf]

After two mustang restorations using the death polisher from hell... I actually had the buffer wheels on my radial arm saw. I still have all my fingers but realize how that could be a very different situation.. I found this Baldor on c-list. TP tools has great kits. I keep the various compounds and wheels stored in zip lock bags and try to not mix any up.

A good sturdy motor at waist high is ideal and amazed at how much safer it is!!

You set up seems like a drea s far as tools. All I can say, as mentioned, is buffing and grinding creates a mess. On the last resto projectI set up a luan board surround to have all the lint a spray hit this and not my garage walls. Some sort of hood would be great.

Dont forget safety (ok disregard how I started this post) mask, face, eyes, hands, ears, dog....

 

[-Brent-]

I'm glad this topic came up. I'm trying to set my grinders/polishers up (and the area), too. I've got 4 small machines (pictured). As well, there are two handhelds a 4.5"er and 7/9"er. Those easy to stow away, as well as the consumables.





As far as the bench-top stuff, one machine, 1/3 Cman, is just stone wheels. Another machine, 1/3hp Baldor is cotton buffing wheels. Another 1/2 HP block grinder is a knotted wire wheel on one side and a 3M Scotch-Bright disc on the other (I love those wheels). My last machine, 1/2 HP Cman is not currently set up for specific use. I'm thinking I'll likely remove the guard(s) set it up for aluminum work only or a chuck on one end and something suitable on the opposing side.

Since I have some handhelds, I've thought about removing a machine and selling it to simplify/economize but I've found myself using them for all sorts of various projects. And, not spending any time removing covers and swapping wheels has been nice. So, I'll look like a collector/hoarder.

Since two machines are on each pedestal/box I'm planning to run them perpendicular to one another and fabbing fabric/vinyl covers to keep dust/debris out of them.

I snapped this photo this morning because I've been thinking about how to lay out the arrangement. I have a drill press to bring into the area, too. The machines haven't been permanently mounted for that reason.

Tonight my goal is to figure that stuff out and get it into place.

Let's see some pics of what you're working with.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Hi there! I am not sure if this is an option for you however my plan is to convert my backyard shed into my cutting and grinding work area. I am adding a bench down the left side with a flush mounted radial chop saw, and at the back wall will be another deeper bench with two large vices, a small vice, bench grinder, and drill press.

I am setting up a "docking" station so that I can leave up to 10 of my electric tools plugged in and control them all with lighted switches. All the electric tools will have homes on the wall above the bench. Above the bench on the I am adding enclosed cabinets.

When I am not working in the shed then I will store the lawnmower, and other stuff in the shed but it will only take a minute to pull them out so I can work.

The reason I am doing all this is so that it will cut down on the mess, grinding dust, sawdust etc in my garage.