E

E. D. Eliot

Well Known Member
I want to purchase a new bench grinder for construction of my RV-12, I am requesting to know from the group, which bench grinder do you recommend that I buy? My budget is around $250 but can be stretched a little. I can't afford either Harbor Freight or Palmgren. Sears is good enough for me in the past but I am unimpressed by the newer Sears grinders that I looked at in the store. Used 'quality old' would be great and I will travel to pick up a good tool but I don't want to rebuild any more tools for awhile - remodeling my house is more than enough right now.

So, what do you all recommend? I would 'like' an 8" grinder. Need to run a grinding wheel on one end and a deburring wheel on the other. Brand name and model number would be good if possible. Thanks very much for your thoughts and answers. Ed:cool:
 
Search the forums.

This was brought up not too long ago, try searching-----some good info was presented.
 
i bought the 6 inch ryobi at home depot $45 bucks. I'm not sure any bench grinder is worth much more than this as it relates to the RV need.

Model BGH6110

Had an 8 inch, but mandrel didn't fit the 6 inch 3M deburring wheel, so rather than cobble together an adapter, just bought the 6 inch.

minimal use of the grinder side.

It's still going strong after an embarassingly slow build -10 project - now at 6 years, but finally getting close...

Phil
Salt Lake City
 
Harbor freight

Sells an inexpensive one. I own it and no issues.
Have a scotch wheel on one side. Can not imagine
Building without one
 
consider used

The more I've used inexpensive made-in-China consumer grade power tools, the more I've come to appreciate some of my old made-in-USA stuff. There are lots of grinders, drill presses, band saws, etc on ebay at any given time. There are also used tool vendors out there with their own sites. I just had a look at ebay. There are several used bench grinders on there that look attractive, for much less than your budget.
 
Do you want a bench grinder or a bench grinder?

All bench grinders are not really bench grinders. Some are polishers like the previous post mentioned. Some are tool cutters.

Here is the standard orange 8" HF bench grinder I bought years ago. I made the stand from heavy pipe and a truck rim. (I would design it differently now.)

hfgrinder.jpg


Like a lot of stuff from HF their bench grinder is a work in progress but it actually is a decent tool for the money. The HF grinder has marginal wheels and the rests are just flimsy stamped metal. Once you put on good wheels and make better rests you have a fairly decent grinder for a lot of metalworking and machining tasks. Even without spending the extra bucks it will still work.

A decent grinder is a welcome addition to any shop but it is not the ideal tool for the Scotchbrite polisher and other things related to building an RV, IMO.

You can get an old 110 volt motor that runs at 1750 rpm and it will work better. Any one of the cheaper 4"x21" belt sanders will work great for trimming aluminum. My 2c anyway.

Dave A.
6A build
 
Just check Craigslist, in So Cal you can probably find a bunch of older high quality ones for very cheap. Use your savings to buy the scotchbright wheel and a bunch of other stuff
 
This has been my workhorse with fabrication and smoothing cuts.

608290755_4gVus-M.jpg


Scotchbrite on the right, regular grinding stone on the left. I use both. I left the guards and shields on and haven't needed to work around them yet. Having the attached light is great. I got this, along with a bunch of other tools, from another builder.
 
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