Best Universal Cylindrical Grinder?

I'm looking for a universal od/id grinder in the 36" to 60" range.I don't have much experience with any brands other than a few crankshaft grinders. I hope to here from someone with time on multiple makes in that range.I want to buy one grinder to do a multitude of tasks, so it has to be most versitile.Basically just looking for the best in all atributes including ridgity, capacity in angles, features,speeds/feeds,durability,principles in design, overall quality,etc. etc. Considering one of the domestics like Cincinnati,Landis, Browne&Sharpe ,WarnerSwasey,etc. but what is the overall Best? Everyone always talks about their mills and lathes but neglect to boast about their grinders.So this should make for a decent topic.

I like my #4 B&S. Did not cost much, has 14 X 60 capacity, is tooled and does what I want. It is also non hydraulic, which fact I like.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v337/johnoder/BS 4 Grinder/

John Oder

How much do you want to spend? If this isn't a factor then Studer or Kellenberger.

The one I spent the most time running is one hard to find, but wow, was it nice.

It was 1987-1991 and I was working on a brand new Okuma GP44/n with OSP5000-G control. It had a flip-down I.D. head, and was so easy to program and use all of it's canned cycle options for grinding and wheel dressing.

The granite based Studer we had was great, if there was a mistake, you made it, not the Studer.

for the price of a studer or kellenburger you can have a couple different norton or landis grinders, but if you want to grind complex shapes you'll have to do them the hard way.... cnc is great but $$$$$ for simple stuff. If you just want to grind simple tapers, bearing journals, etc....you don't need cnc... if you need to register taper gauge lines to straights closer than 0.002 the cnc might be easier...but you need a good way to measure it too.

All the brands you mentions are/were good machines. As others mentioned here it really depends what you are looking for CNC/manual.

And as with buying any used machine tool, if this is what you are looking for it all depends on how the previous owner/owners treated it.

Most of the old USA machines were the best you could buy when they left the factory. But now many that may be coming upon half a century old may just be flat worn out and in need of a rebuild or retrofit.

I know for a fact int he case of landis machines their hydraulic systems are a nightmare. They were all designed pre variable drive and proportion valve eras so when you have a breakdown they are very difficult to repair unless you know the working of the systems. I can only assume other brands are the same case.

I actually think some of the older machines, WWII era and before may be a bit easier to work on as much of there components were mechanical and when there is a problem you can visually see it when repairing.

If you are in need of a CNC machine they will obviously be newer so most likely more user friendly.

Stay away from some of the companies that had their own controls. For example we have a Landis 4R witht he microtronic control. For years when a board went bad we would have a guy from out east come and repair it or just swap out the board. The last time we had issues withe the machine we called and he had died. Now we just pray that the machine keeps running until we can find a good replacement.