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F.E. Wells & Son Grinder

What you have is a very old tool and cutter grinder. It was originally line-shaft driven, modified to be driven by an electric motor. The last person to use it mounted a vise on the table, and may have either been using it as a surface grinder, or possibly with a fixture to sharpen the cutting lips on end mills.

A tool and cutter grinder is pretty much worthless without the various tooling or fixtures to enable the grinding or sharpening of cutting tools (reamers, milling cutters, slitting saws, etc).

As old as this particular grinder is, it may well have plain (probably bronze) spindle bearings. The condition of those bearings and the spindle journals is another critical item as are the conditions of the sliding surfaces and feed screws/nuts.

Not sure of value or interest in buying. Value would likely be somewhere around 50-100 dollars for the grinder as pictured. If tooling is on hand for it (such as fixtures to allow sharpening of milling cutters, reamers, etc), value would be a bit more. Interest in buying may be rather low, as this grinder is kind of at the far end of the spectrum for tool and cutter grinders. T & C grinders are normally very precise machine tools, capable of holding tolerances in tenths of thousandths. This oldtimer has been "through the mill" a few times over from its appearance. It would take someone wanting an antique T & C grinder and willing to come up with the tooling for whatever types of cutters they wanted to sharpen or grind.
 








 
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