Brown & Sharp #13 vs #2 grinder

I have a brown & sharp 2B (automatic) surface grinder and a small KO Lee tool and cutter grinder. Neither are currently in service but they were available locally and i paid little money for each. My plan was to get them into service and use them. I now have an opportunity to pick up a functioning #13 Brown & Sharpe Universal grinder. My question is will the #13 also serve as a surface grinder? At over 3000 lbs it's twice the weight of the #2. My thinking is i could replace the #2 and the KO Lee with the #13.

Opinions & advice?

It doubled as a Universal (I.D. and O.D.) and Tool and Cutter Grinding machine. May have had optional facilities to use mag chuck when a little surface grinding needed to be done

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/2185/20033.pdf

marka12161 said:

I have a brown & sharp 2B (automatic) surface grinder ...Opinions & advice?

Click to expand...

The No. 2 has auto feeds and the 2B is manual only. I have a 1929 No. 2 that I rebuilt in 1979.

Larry

I have both the 2 and the 13. For surface grinding I would keep the 2B or look for a 2 if surface grinding is you intent. 13 will work work but it's better suited for tool and cutter grinding and light ID/OD grinding. The 13 is good to have around for those jobs that come in once in a blue moon especially if it's the older version that is cheap. It's well built, heavy and will take-up about double the floor space as the 2. I have to clean of all the items on my 13 when I need to use it simply because it's a temporary shelf most of the time.

I have a Brown & Sharpe #13 as well as different brands of other surface grinders. Just to let you know, for use as a surface grinder, the #13 has an accessory spindle extension that allows the wheel to stick out a little farther. I actually have one. It fits to the spindle taper, and has an oiled bushing to give support. The other end has the male taper again, to mount your Sopko type wheel hub. I would say the extension accessory is kind of a jinky piece actually. It relies on all surfaces to be aligned perfectly, or else the bushing will bind. And to tighten the draw-in nut is a kind of crude affair as well. All this is kind of irrelevant, but I mention it in passing.
So yes you need the spindle extension, but I can assure you that using a #13 as a surface grinder is kind of a work-around.
The set-up effort and your time is way better spent with using a real surface grinder. I have a baby Boyar-Shultz 612 I am using until I get my Okamoto 8x20 running. The only time I would ever use my #13 for surface grinding would be for a very special job where I could not set up my other grinders any other way. I have yet to come across that job.

--Doozer

Thanks all. On edit, my surface grinder is a #2, not 2B. Sounds like the best solution for me is to stick with the set up i have.

QT: [My thinking is i could replace the #2 and the KO Lee with the #13. You could but not without problems.

The 13 will make a decent surface grinder, but check to see how much cross travel you will have over the chuck/part. The 13 spindle extensions are not that/very good so don't expect surface grinder surface finish quality using spindle extensions.
So I am thinking the 13 would/might become a 6 x 22" surface grinder
To remove a magnetic chuck and replace it on the 13 each time you need SG parts will be troublesome.
TC grinding should have a work head, centers and a locating device like a fingers bar to be useful. So a fully tooled 13 would make a decent TC grinder, but often not as quick and handy as a Ko Lee or a Cincinnati #2 (or the like)that has those devices