Grizzly Pneumatic Belt Grinder Quality

[gtermini]

Hello all:

I was recently going through the Grizzly Industrial Catalog and saw their air powered belt grinder that appears to be a shameless rip-off of the Dynabrade Dynafile III. I have used the Dynafile at work and really liked it. I was considering the $500+ purchase of the Dynabrade model, but now I see the Grizzly for less than $70 shipped to my door.

Grizzly link: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Air-Belt-Sander/H8253?gcsct=0ChMI-KvCj5iOugIVCiBECh3xJgAAEAA

Dynabrade Specs: http://www.dynabrade.com/pdf/lit/D99.22.pdf

Has anyone on here used the Grizzly? If so, could you describe the quality?

Thanks, Greyson

 

[Monkey Milk]

Even though I don't have either one of those I do have a lot of dynabrade stuff and that looks totally like a DB product. The one thing I would be worried about it's going to be underpowered but for that price I would give it a go.

 

[gtermini]

Thanks for the reply.

I was also wondering about the power of the cheap one. The Dynabrade grinder is like 3/4hp, which takes tight tolerances to pull off. I guess I will just take the gamble and buy the cheap one, who knows, maybe I'll get lucky!

Greyson

 

[454ragtop]

On a related note, Grizzly shows alum. oxide and silicon carbide belts for these, pros and cons or apps for each? I stumbled across a Dynabrade a while back, and have been looking for a source for reasonably priced belts.
TIA, Jim

 

[pepi]

Thanks for the reply.

I was also wondering about the power of the cheap one. The Dynabrade grinder is like 3/4hp, which takes tight tolerances to pull off. I guess I will just take the gamble and buy the cheap one, who knows, maybe I'll get lucky!

Greyson

I'd be a skeptic also, the fact that you have used one. I 'd try it you will know right away if it fits the bill. If it is underpowered just send it back and say it will not do the job, cause it is not the tool you were expecting power wise. That is a legit reason, make sure it still looks new. One thing I could think of for the 500 + price would be getting additional contact arm assemblies. Could be a question to ask grizzly

 

[gtermini]

One thing I could think of for the 500 + price would be getting additional contact arm assemblies. Could be a question to ask grizzly

I know you have to buy other arms for the Dynabrade seperate, and they are not cheap (~$100 each), but they do make the machine very versitile. I don't know if they would fit on the Grizzly.

As far as abrasive belts: I generally just order 3M or Norton AO or Zirconia from Enco or MSC. If I remember to think about it, I watch on Ebay. I have amassed a large collection of high quality abrasives off of Ebay for pennies on the dollar.

Greyson

 

[gtermini]

Well I'll revive my old thread.

I ordered the Grizzly grinder and some belts about 2 weeks ago when they had a 10% off offer. Finally got it today after waiting a week for it to ship, then UPS routed it wrong, adding another four days to the shipping. No big deal on any of that.

Open the box, ketch a wiff of that chinese oil you all long for. Pull the grinder out, begin the downword trend. It is a shameless rip-off of the Dynabrade Dynafile III, except the secret ingredient, quality! It looked scratched up like it had tumbled across the ocean floor on its way here. The motor has rough spots when you turn it. The motor body looks like it was formed in a plaster mold made from the Dynabrade, but they didn't fill out the numbers on the model/serial tag.

As per standard chinese ****, assembly was required. The handle and belt arm had to be attached. The ****** socket head cap screws included were too short by about 2 threads and rounded out when I try to get them tight. Whatever, I own plenty of taps. I drilled out the threaded holes that were M4 and tapped them 1/4 NC for new SHCS.

OK, it's all together, put an air plug in it and let's make sparks. NOT! The belt won't track for ****. A close examination shows the tracking mechanism isn't quite all thought out. I whipped up a small peice in the lathe and found a better spring. Got that part of the tracking mostly figured out, but the belt still won't track for beans. The drive roll is crowned, but not the contact wheel. I could see why you woud want the contact wheel square on the face, but it's not going to work on this one. So I slightly crowned the contact wheel by running it against my big belt grinder with a wooden block on the wheel as a brake. I let it spin at about half the speed it would have just running on the big grinder. It crowned pretty easily. This helped the tracking a bunch, but it's still far from perfect and wanders under load. I am going to mess with the belt tension spring to see if I can get some more tension, as the belt flops about wildly.

The Grizzly brand abrasives are pretty standard chinese junk too, just play sand and Elmer's Glue.

I'll try to get some picutres up in the near future.

So I had to invest a little over an hour before it even made sparks. The fit and finish *****. I guess I should have known better blowing money on china's finest...


TL;DR: Save your money, buy the real deal.


Greyson

 

[bareass172]

Thanks for the update... It's a darn shame.

 

[digdug18]

I've used the grizzly industrial table sized tools, and they're damned nice copies of more expensive tools. Some are even better, such as grizzly's table saws and metal lathes. Much better quality then you would expect.

Although I don't think I'd buy a hand tool from them, the price is cheap, but having held the tools at the factory store in williamsport, they're not worth the effort.

The one plus side though is that they will have parts for all their tools for long after their useful life. I have a stand up drill press that I got used on CL, that has their name on it. And I can still buy parts for it even though it's 15 years old.

Andrew