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Can you help identify these abrasive wheels?

52 Ford

Stainless
Joined
May 20, 2021
I found a stack of abrasive wheels in storage at a saw mill. The newest they could be is about 1980. The sticker on the hub says M66645. 2500 RPM max. They have a 5/8" SQUARE hole - according to the calipers I was willing to use its right on 0.625. Same calipers say 4.589" diameter on the one I checked. I included a picture. For reference, the background is white powder coat (a little dinged up, but where there isnt obviously dirt looks bright white in person)...)

Backstory is they came from storage at a sawmill. They NEWEST they could be is about 1980s. I'm assuming these belong to some equipment from the "sharpening shed". Not sure when they transitioned to insert points and carbide on the big saws, but I know they still had to grind blades for the "small" stuff. They did a LOT of mill work - windows, doors, trim, etc. So they had plenty of blades and tooling to sharpen.
35082f38f2ff3f71087341922f4f0f29.jpg
13f713a060c8cc149cf574d556603a21.jpg


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They aren't labeled with an industry-standard code, and the square arbor hole is certainly not common. So these were probably house-branded "proprietary" wheels for some specific make and model of saw sharpening gear. Other than the arbor hole, the wheels themselves probably are not exotic. From the photos, almost certainly your basic alumina grit with a vitrified bond in a type 12 (dish) shape, and you can probably estimate the grit size by comparison with known grinding wheels. You'd have to run the wheel to judge the bond hardness.

However, unless you have the specific make and model of saw sharpening gear, the sensible thing to do is discard those wheels as too old to be safe and too oddball to use conveniently. And even if you do have the saw sharpener, they are still old enough to be of dubious strength/safety.
 
If they ring test and the blotters face your mount they are likely safe to use if your spindle is 2500 RPM or less.

*Sfriedberg is right that best to discard.

I think square holes are not very smart and used to not need a proper thread hand at the spindle end. Likely a very old machine and wheel design. Even at best I think a square hole wheel would not be very safe because one high grit could be pressured to crack the wheel.
 
Vitrified bonded wheels won’t ever degrade, they aren’t susceptible to damage from light or chemicals. If they ring test and are dry, they will pretty much be safe.

Resin wheels are a different matter.
 
A sawmill owner showed me something like this years ago and I wondered if it might be a wheel for one of them .
jockey06h_brochure.pdf - Google Drive
It looks like it could be.
Jockey Grinder (Log Saws)
Scroll down to see the available wheels
There may be other similar machines or other suppliers for the wheels but I'm not familiar with them .
Jim


I think you nailed it! 2500 RPM max would make since in that application, too. I probably have 10 of them - the discoloration is from them sitting on a filthy workbench in my shop where I do a lot of belt grinding. They all ring fine and have never gotten wet.

I'm going to keep them around. I might be able to find the old sharpener, now that I know what I'm looking for.

Thanks for the help! I seriously doubt I would've figured that out on my own.
 
I noticed on Hanchett's website that they're selling them with Milwaukee drills... Wonder if they know Milwaukee is ChiCom now.

By the way, the Jockey tool was almost certainly used to touch up the edge on Simonds Blue Tip saw teeth at this mill. I found a NOS box of them close by to the wheels. Not that it really matters - just thought I'd add some info.
 








 
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