My Craftsman not-a-block Grinder

[thehazmatguy]

The backstory: (You can skip this part)

I'm not what I would call a connoisseur of tools. I've gained an appreciation of vintage tools through the Garage Journal, finding the GJ through my appreciation of old hot rods via the Jalopy Journal. Anyway, I ended up deciding that my garage desperately needed a drill press. I can't think of a better looking drill press than the 50's era Craftsman and dove in head first. That project went really well and I had a lot of fun breathing new life into the drill press. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150684

After that went so well, I decided that I wanted a matching bench grinder. I looked and looked... seriously looking on Craigslist and eBay nearly each week for years. I bought several block grinders to "get by" until I found the matching grinder. Finally, my attention and efforts went into returning to college, my house, a 60's travel trailer, etc. The matching Craftsman Grinder was a forgotten must-have. Until a few weeks ago.

A few years ago I got pretty lucky with my first block grinder purchase and ended up buying a second one... then a third one. I ended up giving my Dad the second one to replace his cheesy HF grinder. At the beginning of this summer, when he took the block grinder to his summer place in Minnesota, he asked me to look for another grinder for him. As any good son would do, I said I would - and promptly forgot about his request. I forgot, until he said he was coming back home for the summer and asked if I had any luck finding a bench grinder for him. Doh! I quickly checked Craigslist and found nothing. Then, grasping at straws, I pulled up eBay. Instead of finding a nicely priced block grinder - I found my white whale.

A few fuzzy eBay pictures is all I needed. The price was $75 plus another $75 shipping. After years of looking, I had to have it!

The eBay pictures:

Once it got home, like the kid from A Christmas Story, I tore into the box to see what I had actually purchased. I'm always leery of fuzzy eBay pictures because I always imagine the worst. I was pretty pleased:

I plugged it in and it ran great. One of the light bulbs was broken and the other popped as soon as I turned on the grinder. The bearings seem really smooth but sound a bit dry. After some serious cleaning, here it is in my garage.

Again, I'm no vintage Craftsman tool expert... but I believe Craftsman used different color paints on different year tools. My Craftsman drill press is the champagne/gold color for 1958 and I would like this 1952 grinder to match. Also, the bearings sound a bit dry so I'm going to do a tear down, replace the bearings and paint it.

Next to my drill press:

and my bench, with too many grinders:

Now it's time to take it apart!

 

[classicJackets]

Awesome! The drill press turned out excellent. Can't wait to see how this one ends up, too!

 

[thehazmatguy]

I've started the overhaul. I must admit, I'm having a little bit of guilt over my plans to repaint the grinder. It's a beautiful tool. It's almost minty and still has what I think are the original grinding wheels. Someone along the way replaced the wiring on one of the lights. Otherwise, it's super clean.

I'm stuck. It seems that the "shoulder" that the grinding wheels are fastened to are pressed onto the motor shaft. I can't see a way that I can remove them to get to the bearings.

I've pried it a bit on the outside ede with a screw driver and it flexes some but won't budge. I might be able to reach down with a screw driver and pry closer to the shaft but I'm worried about breaking something that is irreplaceable. I don't see any pins or screws holding it in place. Suggestions?

 

[classicJackets]

The grinder I am taking apart had the same kind of thing. I gave mine a few light taps of the hammer, then left the wrench on the other side so the shaft couldn't turn and tried to turn the "shoulder" to break it loose. Worked for me, but the "shoulder" on mine didn't go so far back on the shaft either.
Doug

 

[CNGsaves]

Hazmat . . . .that's a sweet old C-man grinder . . . . LOVE the color !!

I'd use a 3 prong puller to get that stubborn part pulled loose.

 

[95riosnake]

I was watching that auction, lol. I almost bought it a couple times purely because the stripes were still in good shape on the tin! It definitely is a very cool piece, can't wait to see what you do with it. Power Bronze to match the DP like you mentioned would be awesome.

 

[thehazmatguy]

Hazmat . . . .that's a sweet old C-man grinder . . . . LOVE the color !!

I'd use a 3 prong puller to get that stubborn part pulled loose.

If I had one, I would have tried it. My steering wheel puller seems to be working though. It's not my most elegant work but it seems to be doing the job.

 

[thehazmatguy]

I was watching that auction, lol. I almost bought it a couple times purely because the stripes were still in good shape on the tin! It definitely is a very cool piece, can't wait to see what you do with it. Power Bronze to match the DP like you mentioned would be awesome.

First, thank you for not bidding! I'd have been super pissed to be outbid on this!

Yeah, it should be sweet once it matches my drill press.

 

[thehazmatguy]

I got it torn down and the bearings removed. After several cleanings and an overnight stay in solvent the bearings are nearly reusable. If I were willing to let the bearings soak in acetone for another few days or a week I think I could reuse them. I've decided to just get some new sealed bearings and get moving with the project.

Also, I got the original paint stripped, or more accurately, stripped enough. The original paint had years of grime that wasn't coming off enough to paint over. So, I hit all the parts with paint stripper to either remove the paint or at least remove enough of the paint to provide a fresh surface for the new paint to adhere to.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I will put at least most of the parts in primer. I've already got the primer, the gold paint and the semi-gloss clear coat.

 

[classicJackets]

If you don't mind me asking, where do you buy your bearings from?

 

[thehazmatguy]

If you don't mind me asking, where do you buy your bearings from?

I got my bearings from Bearing-Belt & Chain in Phoenix, Arizona. They may or may not be the cheapest - they seem to really know their stuff. I walked in with a couple of 60+ year old bearings and they had a replacement in stock and in my hand within 5 minutes of walking in the door. The sales guy apologized because he only had one in stock - apparently these bearings are a bit odd because of the off-set. (Picture to come) Great service there!

 

[thehazmatguy]

I ended up working a bit late tonight so I didn't get any paint prep done this evening. I thought I would throw in a couple of pictures of the bearings, just in case somebody undertakes a refurb on the same style of grinder. My bearing shop gave me these JAF bearings, model 87502 as the replacement for the original bearings. The original New Departure #8502 are on the left and the JAF replacements are on the right. They have a slight offset as seen in the picture below.

The cast iron gets surface rust really fast... and the water rinse after paint stripping is an invite for rust. It's not a big deal, I ran into the same thing with the cast iron parts of my drill press. A few passes with a stiff metal brush and the surface is ready for primer/paint.

 

[larryq]

Looking great, keep up the good work and looking forward to more pics!

 

[1982fxr]

were those made before block grinders or what?

never seen one...

 

[thehazmatguy]

were those made before block grinders or what?

never seen one...

I'm not exactly sure, but I think these are about 10 years older than block grinders.

 

[thehazmatguy]

The parts got a shot of primer tonight. I used SEM self etching primer that I think is pretty good stuff. I got it as a recommendation at a "semi-pro" paint shop called Space Age in Mesa, AZ. If you live in the Phoenix area, I highly recommend stopping in and checking the place out. Besides a truly ridiculous amount of paint supplies, they can custom mix a paint for you and put it in a aerosol can. They have odd fasteners, car weather stripping, welding supplies, a General Lee funny car body on the wall, and on display they have one or two early aerodynamic cars, a Ducati, a Norton, a tank engine, an Olympic bob sled... it's a fun place to kick around.

http://spaceagepaint.com/index.html

 

[pendragon1998]

My pre-block grinder appears younger than yours, and was built in Feb. 1958.

 

[thehazmatguy]

Pedragon1988, I read through your grinder restoration, cool! My drill press was also a '58 model and was the same light gold / champagne color. I think that's a great color, I wish I had tried harder to find that color when I refurb'd my drill press. That color would have been awesome on my grinder too.

 

[thehazmatguy]

I've made some good progress over the weekend. First, I want to talk about spliced wires. Everybody seems to do them a bit different, solder vs. crimp, etc. So, here's my take on the matter.

I don't like those cheap plastic barrel wire connectors but I do like the metal liner inside. So, I use something to push the metal liner (actually the functional part of the barrel connector) out of the barrel.

Next, I stagger cut the wires so if there is a failure then hopefully there is less of a chance to short.

I crimp the barrel connector liner with a crimper, usually some Delphi crimpers I got for my American Auto Wire wiring harness for my '55 Chevy. I have a few others that do nice crimps, I think my MAC ones are decent.

I cut some heat shrink tubing to cover the barrel connector liner, insert the wires with the heat shrink tubing and do some crimping.

Later, I'll add a second layer of heat shrink tubing over the entire splice if I'm at all worried about the connection.

I've done wires for years this way and had no issues. The Delphi crimpers I learned how to use when I did my AAW wiring harness stepped up my game quite a bit. I have great respect for the Packard style terminals that the AAW wiring harness used, so I try to mimic that when I do my other jobs.

 

[thehazmatguy]

I made some good progress and I'll probably work on the grinder a bit more tonight too. The painting when well, but I did find a thin spot or two that required a quick touch up.

I started assembling the grinder ends first. I'm pretty sure this is how it has to be reassembled because of the built in lights above each grinding wheel. The wiring for the lights has to go through the grinder motor and out of the bottom. So, I replaced the mediocre re-wire job, re-wiring as mentioned above.

I started assembling the grinder motor and quick figured out that the new bearings must be just a hair bigger than the old ones. I had to tap each bearing in with a punch, being careful not to screw up the bearings. The original bearings came out without any work at all so I wasn't expecting to do this... but no big deal. Also, you can see that I left the original paint on the inside, It looked good and I didn't see any reason to change that. And, hey - maybe in another 60 years somebody will want to restore the grinder to it's original color. These pictures also show the routing of the wires for the grinder wheel lights.

And here is how it sits right now. When I got the motor together I was pretty pleased with myself, until I tried to put it on the base. That's when I found out that I had assembled the motor with a slight twist. There's nothing that I can see that would prevent this, but it's not a big deal. I loosened the four long bolts that hold the motor together and then set the motor on the base. I just tapped around the motor casing with a dead-blow hammer until the motor casing loosened up. Then, as I turned the bolts that hold the motor to the case, I kept tapping with the dead-blow. The twist worked itself out - so I was happy I didn't have to completely disassemble the motor because of the overlooked twist.

When I took this grinder apart there was soldered and electrical taped connects. I'm pretty sure those were not the original way it was done. I plan to use wire nuts this time around. That's how the original motor was on my drill press and I'm going to do the same with this grinder. I might do some of wiring tonight.

 

[Scimonetti]

Great find on a great grinder! Waiting for one and your thread will be very helpful WHEN I find one! Its a shame you painted over the original color in great shape, but hey I would have done the exact same thing. You're doing a great job on the wiring, makes me rethink how I did the drill press motor with sloppy soldering dye to mixed gauge splices. Thanks for the tip on crimping the sleeves! Good luck and can't wait to see it together

 

[Screwtape]

I really like this splicing technique. (I really liked the original paint too)

 

[thehazmatguy]

Sometimes one step forward is truly two steps backward.

I wired up the grinder and turned it on for an instant and a got a hum but no movement. I pulled all the wiring connections and carefully rewired it again… same result. I tried it again and blew the circuit breaker for the garage. F%#$.

I pulled the grinder completely apart thinking that I had broken a wire during assembly and grounded the wire. Nope, everything looked good. I did notice that the composite plate that holds the switch for the centrifugal weights had some cracks. I carefully examined the disassembly pictures and the cracks were there before. I decided to see if maybe I bent the switch and it did look a little bowed. So, I removed it and straightened it… and one ear of the plate broke completely during reassembly. Double F%#$.

The good news is that I had another Craftsman motor to pirate a switch from… but that’s really bad news for the project that motor is slated for.

The switch is a little different but that’s ok because I can work around it. I decided to keep the old solder work that was on the switch originally for several reasons. 1) it’s way easier 2) doubts of my soldering gun getting the switch plate up to proper temperature 3) because of the wire attachment on the “new” switch, I needed a longer wire. I connected the two wires using my splice technique mentioned above, with two “coatings” of heat shrink tubing – you can see the white then black tubing in the picture below.

Here’s my fix, installed. You can see the splice and the tab I added to hold the longer wire in place.

I’m not entirely sure why… but after assembling the grinder and wiring it, the grinder seems to work fine. I suspect that I bent the switch during the initial re-assembly but I don’t know for sure. The centrifugal switch makes a ton of noise now during shut down and I’m not happy with that – but it’s certainly better than having a grinder that doesn’t run. I’m extremely reluctant to disassemble this grinder again. The new bearings seem to grip the shaft of the rotor - meaning that the bearings don't stay in the motor case. That’s an issue because there’s no way to remove the centrifugal switch without removing the rotor… so the bearing beats on the centrifugal switch as the rotor is pulled from the motor. I hope I explained that decently… I don’t have a lot of experience with electric motors and I’m not even sure I used the right nomenclature.

So… the grinder runs good and besides a bit of howling from the centrifugal switch it’s seems to run really well. Now I need to finish the assembly and hit it with some touch up paint. I’m going to try to source the new light bulbs locally and I still need to fabricate the screws for the eye guards.

 

[the spyder]

Great job on the grinder. Just a FYI, you can order non insulated crimps from Radio Shack/Amazon/Ebay.

http://www.radioshack.com/nte-76-bc...m=55048617&cid=iP:PLA:RSO:Google#.VIX5aovTaMU

 

[thehazmatguy]

Great job on the grinder. Just a FYI, you can order non insulated crimps from Radio Shack/Amazon/Ebay.

http://www.radioshack.com/nte-76-bc...m=55048617&cid=iP:PLA:RSO:Google#.VIX5aovTaMU

I think I have bought those once! Or, maybe I tried to buy them at a local Radio Shack...? Either way, it's a great tip!

 

[Scimonetti]

I accidentally broke mine during disassembly

I glued it and it seems good as new. I haven't installed it yet though, I need to figure out how to solder to it. I'll let you know if the glue works.

 

[Faisal]

wooooooooooooow Awesome! The drill press and grinder

what is the brand of The drill press??? really Awesome!


good job

 

[thehazmatguy]

I accidentally broke mine during disassembly

I glued it and it seems good as new. I haven't installed it yet though, I need to figure out how to solder to it. I'll let you know if the glue works.

Please let me know if the glue works. I've been looking around a bit online to see if I could buy a small sheet of the composite material with no luck.

 

[thehazmatguy]

wooooooooooooow Awesome! The drill press and grinder

what is the brand of The drill press??? really Awesome!


good job

It's a Craftsman drill press.

 

[thehazmatguy]

Almost there... I got new light bulbs at an appliance store. I finished the wiring, got it put together and shot some satin clear over the gold to tone the gold down a bit. It's a lot less blingy and looks pretty decent.

As done as it's going to get for a while! Here it is, running:

There's a fairly long list of things that I'd like to do or plan to do. Those things are going to have to wait until I have the tools or raw materials to get them done. On that list:

Some sort of spacer and bolt/nut combination for the safety glass. I didn't get those parts with the grinder I have not found a good replacement yet. It's supposed to have some kind of thumb wheel / screw, about an inch and a half long - they can be seen here:
http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=6129


As seen in the pictures farther above, there is no plate on the bottom. I'd like to make something, possibly plexiglass or plastic, to cover the wiring under the bottom of the grinder. Each rubber foot comes off, so this should be done pretty quickly.

The glass needs to be replaced. The glue that holds the laminated safety glass layers together has been discolored with rust and there's no way that I know of to clean it. This might also be plexiglass but I'm not sure yet.

I think it's awesome that it probably has it's original wheels... but they need to be replaced. One wheel is 36 grit and the other is 60 grit. I think 100 and 60 wheels would be better. The place I work, for safety reasons, limits the age of grinding wheels in grinders and that might not be a bad idea. Besides the safety thing... if the wheel came apart it would ruin parts of the grinder that would be unbelievably hard to replace.

Besides the missing fasteners for the safety glass, I didn't get a quench tray with the grinder. I know what it looks like thanks to the Old Wood Workers site and a post here at the Garage Journal... so I'll have to fabricate one. I've let Santa know that I'd like to get a small metal brake for Christmas, so this might happen sometime soon.

 

[hemifalcon]

That's a great looking grinder.. Much more attractive than the Block and pre-block "mailbox" grinders.. Very classy looking with that 50's Craftsman flair and "bling".. Nice job on it--but I would have been hard-pressed to remove that glue/grey/green color that was on there--(my girlfriend may have also been pissed..)

Very nice job--and nice details on the reassembly and attention to said details.

 

[thehazmatguy]

That's a great looking grinder.. Much more attractive than the Block and pre-block "mailbox" grinders.. Very classy looking with that 50's Craftsman flair and "bling".. Nice job on it--but I would have been hard-pressed to remove that glue/grey/green color that was on there--(my girlfriend may have also been pissed..)

Very nice job--and nice details on the reassembly and attention to said details.

A few people have commented on the paint and I certainly understand that. I have to say that now that it's painted and ready for work, I'm very glad I painted it. The original paint was in decent shape and the color was pretty cool... but grime accumulated over the years was difficult (if not impossible) to remove. It's hard to see in the pictures after I cleaned it but before disassembly, but the grinder was covered in black that would not come off. Some people might appreciate that kind of patina but I'm not one of those people. Also, I left the original color on the inside... who knows, maybe someday I'll return the color to the original!

Thank you for the positive comments!

 

[hemifalcon]

I didn't mean anything negative about the color--it looks great.. But I'm a big fan of the original color--that's all. By the way--what is the year of manufacture on this type of grinder?? I'd like to maybe find one of these as it'll match all of my old Craftsman and Delta woodworking tools.

 

[thehazmatguy]

I didn't mean anything negative about the color--it looks great.. But I'm a big fan of the original color--that's all. By the way--what is the year of manufacture on this type of grinder?? I'd like to maybe find one of these as it'll match all of my old Craftsman and Delta woodworking tools.

It's all good! Yeah, the original color was great.

I'm not entirely sure of the years. I've only seen two of these grinders online, one from 1952 and the other from 1953. The Vintage Machinery website has the instruction manual for this grinder and says it might be from the late 40's but I doubt this grinder went that far back. I think Vintage Machinery has old Craftsman catalogs posted online. Maybe I'll take a look and see what years this style was available.

I should warn you... it's only a mediocre grinder. It takes 7 inch grinding wheels so you've got your work cut out for you if you want a wire wheel or specialty wheels. Also, 1/3 horsepower isn't much considering it's size and weight. I should weight this one... I'd guess 35 pounds? It's a beast! Basically, a block style grinder takes up 2/3rds the bench space with more wheel choices and is easier to move with equal or more power. But, as you said in your first post, it's got a classy look to it that I had to have.

 

[rickhigginshtbr]

im so incredibly jealous, I had one slip through my fingers a year ago and haven't spotted another since. Great job on the resto!

 

[csargents1546]

Dang it. Now another project tool I need to look for. This site is very dangerous for tool addicts. On the level of putting a recovering pot addict to work in a grow shop! Awesome restoration. I can not say enough good things about this site when it comes to documentation that you cannot find else where

 

[Firstram]

Reviving an old thread.

I work in the film business and late last year I had to molest a grinder just like this (nowhere this pristine). It needed to safely grind hand cuffs off an actors wrists.

I drilled 3/8" holes in the side guards in line with the shafts, then center drilled the shafts to 1/8". Cross drilled and tapped the end of the shaft for 10-32 setscrews to hold a flexible driveshaft. It was powered with a DC Gearmotor so I could control the speed.

The gag worked really well and I got to buy a kick *** grinder for $10. The Set Dec Buyer wanted $20 but I complained about the holes and missing light bulbs!

What size bulbs do I need to buy?

 

[torqueman2002]

Reviving an old thread.

I work in the film business and late last year I had to molest a grinder just like this (nowhere this pristine). It needed to safely grind hand cuffs off an actors wrists.

I drilled 3/8" holes in the side guards in line with the shafts, then center drilled the shafts to 1/8". Cross drilled and tapped the end of the shaft for 10-32 setscrews to hold a flexible driveshaft. It was powered with a DC Gearmotor so I could control the speed.

The gag worked really well and I got to buy a kick *** grinder for $10. The Set Dec Buyer wanted $20 but I complained about the holes and missing light bulbs!

What size bulbs do I need to buy?

Thanks for reviving this thread.

I have the same model and didn't know this great resource existed.

There is an active thread on OWWM, you might want to check, if you haven't already.
Does anyone have this model of Craftsman bench grinder
http://owwm.org/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=177363

 

[Firstram]

Thanks for the link. Reading that thread made me remember the plastic water cup. Set dressing removed it for filming and it was not with the grinder when I picked it up. Now I'm disappointed.