Brown & Sharp Surface Grinder

Robo_Pi

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I found this Brown and Sharp surface grinder for sale for $218. Whadda think?

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Comes complete with a mag chuck!

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A 440 volt 3 phase motor:

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And the motor controller electronics:

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Ok, I already know this is going to suck all the nay-sayers out of the woodwork. But let's think about this in more detail.

First off, this thing weighs enough that if I took it straight to the metal scrap yard I'd probably get a full refund for what I paid for it. (worse case scenario)

But let's consider the fun we might be able to have with this thing.

To begin with the electronic motor controller relays look to be in pretty good shape considering how badly rusted the rest of the machine is. Let's pretend that the motor actually runs and doesn't sound too bad after a bit of oiling. Let's then clean up the motor and electronic controller cabinet to make them look pretty with a little bit of paint. Then put those items on Craigslist. Assuming the motor actually runs and isn't too noisy how much do you think we could recover by selling the 440 volt motor and control?

On a personal note, if the motor is completely shot, it goes to the scrap metal yard and I could use those nice big relays. Large relays like that aren't cheap! :grin:

Ok, now with the motor out of the way, what about the rest of the machine? I've been looking for a mag chuck restoration project so there's my mag chuck to play with. Again, no biggie if it turns out to be impossible to use. Scrap yard saves the day again.

Finally we're down to the actual machine. Is is possible to put this thing back into some sort of usable shape? We can't really answer that question without getting our hands dirty and giving it a shot. I'm willing to bet that this thing could be freed up enough to take it apart. Then go bananas with an angle grinder and wire brush to clean up all the ways. Clean up the rest of the outside of the machine. Paint it - reassemble everything. Put a 110 motor on it. And use it as a tool grinder. :grin:

Sounds good to me. Where are you going to get a nice tool grinder for $218 minus whatever you got for the motor and controller. Plus, there's always the wild chance that the mag chuck might actually turn out to be rebuildable. I realize it looks pretty bad, but I've seen some this bad being rebuilt before, so it's not necessarily an impossibility.

Think like a hobbyist. It wouldn't be worth the time as a business. But for a hobbyist? It sure would make a nifty tool bit grinder. :grin:

That's assuming the table can be brought back to life. I haven't seen the machine in person, so I don't know whether the table is free to move or rusted solid in place. It's impossible to tell from the photo. Sometimes things can look worse than they truly are. I'm betting the table can be freed up, even if it is frozen in place. Don't they have adjustable gibs? If so, then it should definitely be possible to free it up if frozen in place.

I wanna play with some junk! Would be nice to get it for free of course. But $218 is basically scrap metal prices. So it basically already is free from that perspective.

If nothing else it will serve as a conversation piece on a hobby forum. And I didn't even need to actually buy it to use it for this. :grin big:
 
If nothing else, you have a set of castings to machine a grinder from.


Greg
 
Looks like a project. Should be a fun one. :encourage:
 
So long as moving cost are a good deal i think you cant loose at that price even if you would end up parting it out you would end up with a profit even if its not very profitable.
 
What model is it?

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So long as moving cost are a good deal i think you cant loose at that price even if you would end up parting it out you would end up with a profit even if its not very profitable.

Well, it's 200 miles from me. But I have a pickup truck and 16' trailer. Although I could probably just pick this up with the pick up alone?

I need to put a new clutch in my truck first though. I'll bet this sweet baby will be gone by the time I replace the clutch. :D

By the way, they actually have a far nicer one for only $235. No mag chuck, but overall it appears to be in pretty good shape.

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This one is a Taft-Pierce. This would definitely by my first choice or these two. :grin:

I really just posted the Brown & Sharp for forum chat.

They also have some even better ones for slightly more money like $399. But that's starting to get to be more than I want to spend on a SG.

I'm just looking for a toy to make into a tool bit grinder. Might use it for some other stuff too. But the closer I can get to $200 or less the better. Like I say, much less and we're getting beneath the value of scraping it at a metal yard. I don't think they'll bother selling one for less than scrap metal prices. They can scrap it themselves at that point.
 
The current cast iron scrap price nation wide is about $0.16/lb. ($300/ton), delivered to the scrapper. That is for cast iron ready to melt, not assembled machines that also contain steel, motors, and other stuff that all has to be broken up and segregated.

I thought it looked like a Micromaster. It must be an earlier example of that model. They are highly regarded grinders, but that one looks like it may have been sitting around out in the weather for a long time, and so might require significant work before it returns to it's former glory.

The Taft Pierce is also a very highly regarded surface grinder. That one also will need a lot of work to get it in fine shape again.
 
When I bought my B&S SG (for $200) I couldn't see it running first. My biggest concern was the spindle condition since replacing the bearings can be quite expensive. If you can see them running, do it and check the spindle bearings. If they can't run it, turn it over by hand and see if you can feel any rough spots. I was lucky and found a diamond in the rough... well, maybe not a diamond, but good enough for my use for $200!

Another expense will be adapters for mounting the grinding wheels. Try to get some with your deal. The mag chuck is a big plus as well. It's easy to spend more money after the initial cost of the machine just to get it running and fully operational.

Ted
 
The current cast iron scrap price nation wide is about $0.16/lb. ($300/ton), delivered to the scrapper. That is for cast iron ready to melt, not assembled machines that also contain steel, motors, and other stuff that all has to be broken up and segregated.

Agreed. Taking it straight to the scrap yard without touching it would lose. At my scrap yard breaking things up to less than 3 foot lenghts basically doubles the scrap price. But yeah, buying it looking to make money scrapping it wouldn't be a good idea. It's just a way to recover some of the cost if it turns out to be totally unusable.

I thought it looked like a Micromaster. It must be an earlier example of that model. They are highly regarded grinders, but that one looks like it may have been sitting around out in the weather for a long time, and so might require significant work before it returns to it's former glory.

The Taft Pierce is also a very highly regarded surface grinder. That one also will need a lot of work to get it in fine shape again.

Again agreed. I'm looking to gain some initial experience at machine rebuilding. Obviously, (or may not so obviously) I'm not going to shoot for an immaculate restoration on my first rebuild project. The idea is to just gain some experience and have fun. I might try to get into machine restoration at some future date on a more serious level, but if I do that I'll start off with better starting projects.

Right now the goal is to gain some experience, have some fun, and maybe end up with a usable grinder for odd jobs. Not expecting to be able to grind large surfaces to within a few tenths. As a tool bit sharpener it wouldn't need to be very accurate at all. On a 1/2" tool bit we're only talking about being accurate over 1/2". That should be doable. :grin:

One of the reasons I'm thinking about this is because I just ground a 1/2" threading tool bit using a home made 30 degree sled on a bench grinder. I actually got the job done but it took forever. And it was also difficult to get it just right. I actually had to tweek it by eye freehand at the end to get it to match up with the thread I want to cut. I haven't cut the thread yet, I hope it works!

But the whole time I was cutting it I was thinking how easy and accurate this could have been if I had an old junk surface grinder. Overkill I know, but still, much easier. :grin:

So if I can get one of these low-cost starter-project surface grinders to play with, I'll not only have fun rebuilding it and learning a lot about machine restoration, but I'll end up with a lazy and accurate way to make fancy tool cutters. I know it's extreme overkill, but that's ok. It's still fun.
 
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