I bought my very first one a couple of months ago and just set it up a few weeks back: Ryobi 8 in. Bench Grinder - BGH827. here are some reviews from Amazon on reconditioned units here.
This being my first one, I had to do some serious research. And I am quite weary about buying anything brand new these days. I started looking at what was available locally on Craigslist, but didn't really find anything I liked or that stood out as a good deal, so I moved onto the new stuff. I was originally looking at the usual Harbor Freight stuff, but didn't feel too confident. And like you, I didn't wana buy this particular tool online, sight unseen. So I checked the reviews on Home Depot, which seem fairly positive, and the price was right in my budget.
Aside from testing it out and playing around with it, I haven't done any serious grinding yet. However, I can say it was easy to put together, does have a few plastic parts (the little flip-up covers over the wheels and the coolant tray), is heavy, and not very loud.
You sort of get what you pay for in bench grinders.....I know,duh.
But posted to to give you a suggestion.Whatever you get,it can be turned into a dedicated wire brush/wheel setup later.So,snag what the budget will allow for now,then keep an eye out for an old US made workhorse.I've seen really nice,medium to big grinders with stands go for less than 200......don't show up everyday,but you'll be in the position to wait.Best of luck,BW
PS....we just(finally)hooked some 3" snaptight,HVAC duct to our main grinder.It got run over and down,each wheel has its own duct......to a 5 g metal can,1/2 filled with sand.Its a cheapo,but functions very well.If you get on flea-bay,start looking at grinders.....look at some of the nicer ones....they have water traps.It's such an easy 20 minute or so job that makes a big difference in keeping particles from flyin around shop.
We have two DeWalt's in our shops. Mine is set up with two grinding wheels and my son has a wire brush and a coarse buffing wheel on his. He has a third unit set up as a finish buffer. The dirty work takes place in the metal working part of the garage and the finish work takes place on his side where there is not near as much grit around. The DeWalts are very good tools for the money.
Both DeWalts were purchased on line and even with shipping, were cheaper than either Lowes or Home Depot in our area.
I looked at some Harbor Fright 6 and 8 inch bench grinders a couple days ago and they did look fairly hefty compared to some of their normal junk on motor driven tools. Will they last - who knows, but the prices were right and for a casual user, probably fine. I'm still using a 1/2Hp, 1952 vintage(the age of my first house), furnace blower motor with a $5 buck stone arbor and a home made tool rest - I do 'aspire' to something better though - my new Grizzly catalog arrived yesterday .
What I notice about many of the bench grinders on the market today is that the od of the motor housing is as large or larger than the wheels and the shaft length from the motor to the wheel is quite short. Another thing s forget the hp rating and look at the amps. More amps at the same voltage generally equals more power.
Both of those things will limit what you can grind.
If all you wish to do is sharpen drill bits and chisels there are better grinders for that than a bench grinder anyway.
I do not know of the quality of the grinder in the picture, it just happened to show up on a google search. It does show a bench grinder that has larger wheels than the motor housing and the shaft length is adequate imho.
I think the grinder in the first pic is listed at $239 .
Yeah, that's what I thought when I bought the 8" (on sale, of course) -- most of that "heft" is empty space!! I discovered that when it fell over and shoved the shaft out one side (the bearing retainer is pretty light gage metal, so it just ripped out.)
Surprisingly low torque. The rotating mass helps via flywheel effect if I shove the work in too hard, but it's slow to recover. In fact, from a dead stop, it takes more than 15 seconds to reach full speed.
I use it primarily for light grinding on HSS, so the slower RPM is more important to me than the power.
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