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Brown & Sharpe No. 1 Universal Grinder needs a home

Timothy Jones

Plastic
Joined
May 11, 2007
Location
Central Massachusetts
This grinder is serial no. 2624, so I'm guessing 1910 - 1920ish vintage. It was a line shaft machine that somebody did a very credible job of converting to motor drive. The motor mount fabrications are flame cut, but very well done, with beveled edges and rounded corners. The welding is also very neat. There are 3 motors - one each for the wheel, the workhead, and the table. The workhead motor is variable speed DC. The pump is intact but not driven.

The machine came from an optical factory in North Brookfield, MA that did important and unique work - especially during world war 2 (think 36 inch diameter optical flats, custom lenses and mirrors of all sizes).

I have two of these machines and only want one. So my plan was to scrap this one. To that end, I began to take it apart to save a few things. Once I got into it, however, I began to feel that the machine was halfway decent and maybe it was a shame to just throw it out. So instead, I cleaned it, fixed a few things (it still has a few minor issues) and put it back together. The end result is that it is still cluttering up my shop. Mission failure!

If anyone would like it, it is located in central Massachusetts and its free.

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Condition

Lightly use it might be in great shape. Even if not perfect it is easy to scrape.

My impression was that the ways on this were pretty good. The scraping surface is obviously worn, but very evenly along the entire bed length. The scraping is still visible everywhere. You can see this in one of the photos. The table top and surfaces associated with the wheel head are in less good shape. 100 years of tiny dings, stagnant coolant, and swiveling around take a toll. Both spindles are score free and probably okay. The machine has been used a lot, but also it was well maintained. The two big problems I noted are two broken teeth on the table rack and a worn out table reverse trip lever. The machine works regardless, and both of these problems would be easy to fix - the one by fitting new teeth, the other by bushing the hole in the trip lever.
 
QT: [two broken teeth on the table rack] I have welded up rack teeth and reground on a surface grinder back to good, a very easy task. yes, also one can mill or grind a notch out and fill the notch ...another easy task.

With a wheel mount on the spindle end and perhaps a cup wheel it makes a top-quality TC grinder.

The OD wheel can circle grind step tools, counterbores, OD reamers, do end mill ODs, the cup wheel can do ends, steps, drills..so a very handy machine.

Download the free Cincinnati TC grinder manual for many sharpening methods.
 
The grinder left today to a new home. Thanks to all who expressed interest, and thanks Greg for coming and getting it so quickly. May it go for another 100 years. Bye grinder.
 

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