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Hand Cranked Grinder Refurbishment Continued

13 comments
13 years ago
Hand Tools     Sharpening

I posted a quick video a week ago about a few hand cranked grinders that have come into my shop. I has one of them almost ready to go back to work sharpening chisels and hand planes. It was already working quite well, but I took apart the crankcase and cleaned and oiled all the parts so now it glides smoothly along. It is much quieter too; a perfect fit in a hand tool woodworking shop.

Refurbished Hand Cranked GrinderI added a 6″ Norton 3x 60 grit wheel and had very little balancing to do before it was turning true. It still amazes me how fast I can get this little thing turning. I have the space to go to an 8″ wheel and I may do that later on, but I do find the slightly more pronounced hollow grind I get from this 6″ wheel is nice.

I got my grinding wheel from Tools For Working Wood and picked up a 1/4 stone as well to shape and use for my moulding planes.  I still have a bunch of them that need to be refurbished.  Unfortunately the nut that is holding the wheel in place on my other hand cranked grinder is frozen so I have some work to do break it loose and clean it up.  More on that as I get to it.

So now I need to mess with the sharpening platform. I have always liked a wider surface and I think I can rig something up with the existing angle bracket that came with this grinder.   A wider and deeper platform would be best because the only time I will really use this is for straight edged woodworking tools.  I’ll update here once I have something working and post another video of the grinder in action.

What do you prefer: an 8″ or 6″ wheel for the hollow grind effect?  How about the tool platform?  Do you have a fancy jig set up or a simple flat board?

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Michal

Hi. I’m on the hunt for a grinder like the one in your post. I’m having no luck finding one. Any advice on where to look?
Thanks.
M

    Shannon

    I find mine on ebay with no problem at all. It could be the demand has increased but I have 8 or 9 to choose from when I was looking.

Martin F. Pope (@cobwobbler)

I’ve picked up a Mole from my local City dump shop, It has a 10:1 turn ratio so some wicked speed can be got , but it’s nice to have some control, especialy when you are new to grinding. One thing, mine makes a funny noise but can’t work out what it is; video of it running here…http://bit.ly/oJYZ5W

David Donovan (@donovandak)

Any luck getting the wheel holding nut unfrozen? I have the same issue on my ebay find… it’s a solid user, but I have tried PB Blaster for almost a week straight but to no avail. I was thinking about either de-rusting with electrolysis (I have a car battery charger setup for doing this stuff), torching it, or maybe hitting the thing with an angle grinder…

Any thoughts?

    Shannon

    WD-40 and a big wrench worked for me. Sounds like your is a little worse off.

      Stu

      I am in the same boat, how do you keep the crank from turning when you’re trying to loosen it?

        Cameron

        I’m in the same boat trying to loosen the wheel nut. I can only figure that one has to apply resistance to the crank when trying to loosen the nut. Mine isn’t actually rusted, but it is sure stuck tight. I’m trying wd-4o and actually applied some heat to it; still no dice. Any other suggestions????

          Shannon

          Hmmm mine came off with WD40 so I didn’t have to think about it much. Try soaking it in a rust remover for a bit. Like 24 hours in Evapo Rust.

Chris

I just found a nice one of these at a yard sale. Mine has a lousy tool rest–it is curved! I’d be interested to hear what anyone else rigs up as a tool rest on these. Thanks for all the videos!

Nathaniel

Hi, I just bought one that looks a lot like yours. It was made by the American Hydraulics Company. It has two oil little oil ports. Does anyone know what you are supposed to pour in there? Can you use automotive oil (a particular weight) or is there some other lubricant that should be used. Thanks.