Seeking a small SG with 1" spindle

How many rods are you building? A sharp plane and a simple wooden jig it is easy and fast to taper the splits. Just a dabbler but I've built a couple of nice Bamboo rods following an old book and it was my first foray into any sort of woodwork. Only had one complete stu....learning curve.
 
I belive the reason for using a surface grinder is because the op has to run the cutters at high rpm for them to cut wood and horizontal mills are usually pretty limited in that department. I imagine the cutting loads will be very small so I don't see a reason you couldn't use a smaller spindle and a bushing to adapt the cutter. High speed spindles are readily available and you can get pretty decent Chinese ones for a few hundred bucks, then you could convert pretty much any old mill or grinder to suit your needs. Tool and cutter grinders are usually pretty cheap and the small table size should not be an issue, right?

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk
 
FYI a Sanford SG-48 has a 1/2" spindle.
 
NortonDommi said:
How many rods are you building? A sharp plane and a simple wooden jig it is easy and fast to taper the splits. Just a dabbler but I've built a couple of nice Bamboo rods following an old book and it was my first foray into any sort of woodwork. Only had one complete stu....learning curve.
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I'm building about 5-7 rods a year at the pace I'm on now. I'd like to build more varied tapers and develop my own models.
 
ddickey said:
FYI a Sanford SG-48 has a 1/2" spindle.
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BenW said:
I belive the reason for using a surface grinder is because the op has to run the cutters at high rpm for them to cut wood and horizontal mills are usually pretty limited in that department. I imagine the cutting loads will be very small so I don't see a reason you couldn't use a smaller spindle and a bushing to adapt the cutter. High speed spindles are readily available and you can get pretty decent Chinese ones for a few hundred bucks, then you could convert pretty much any old mill or grinder to suit your needs. Tool and cutter grinders are usually pretty cheap and the small table size should not be an issue, right?

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
You are correct. I'm interested in the built-in spindle speed and stability, as well as the y axis capability. I know guys who have built their own mills using a shaft mounted on pillow blocks and they have to figure out how to achieve the y axis adjustment. Using an existing machine as the foundation for this is much cheaper than all the individual parts and machining to make them work together. This would NOT be the first surface grinder converted to a bamboo mill for tapering fly rod strips. I know that it's hard to wrap one's head around it and I'm glad I didn't mention that I'm also exploring the possibility of converting this thing to CNC or the pitchforks would really have come out. :)

Not a surface grinder but this is a cnc bamboo mill
 
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Yeah.... really sounds like you want a milling machine. Not a Surface grinder.
 
To me, this actually this sounds more like a router table or wood-working shaper turned sideways.... and with a nice micro-adjust fence as the new z-axis....
-brino
 
@mmcmdl too bad we can't swap. I live too far away. I'm getting rid of a 12X37 lathe and a, 8X32 BP clone with a Taiwanese BP clone head.
 
Don't get tangled up in the 1" diameter. It's easy to make a bushing to put 1" cutters on a smaller shaft.

Where are you located? I've got a Kao Ming tool cutter grinder in good condition that I restored a couple of years ago and still haven't taken the time to learn how to grind my own tools.

jack vines
 
I might be missing something here, but I've never heard of a horizontal mill the size the OP is looking for that could sustain 6,000 rpm. In fact I've never seen one that can go past about 3,450 rpm. My old US Machine Tools #1 mill is only rated for 1540 rpm, and I'm not sure I'd want to run it very long at that speed.

There are currently a couple Sanford MG surface grinders listed on eBay. They're both MG models which are 6"x 12". One says it's a 5" x 10", but that's the size of the chuck on it not the capacity of the grinder.

www.ebay.com

SANFORD SURFACE GRINDER 5” X 10” | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SANFORD SURFACE GRINDER 5” X 10” at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
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These machines are belt driven from the motor to the spindle. They are only rated for 3,450 rpm, and use 1 1/4" hubs. I would think it would be reasonable to have a custom 1" hub built for them, but you're still limited to 3,450 rpm unless you upgrade the bearings. The higher class bearings usually run between $200.00 and $300.00 each.

I have a Sanford MG and am very happy with it's performance. As an FYI there are several vendors that handle single angle milling cutters with a 1 1/4" bore.
 
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