idacal
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2011
- Location
- new plymouth id
I have been thinking about a cylindrical grinder for in the shop for a while now. I have room for one more machine beings how I gave the shaper to my brother. my lathe is fairly worn out but its really nice when its time take material off but the Finish is horrible and its not very often we actually have to make a bearing fit but its annoying to say the least. Im getting getting out of round bores and shafts. bearings are several thousand dollars even on eBay and surplus sites the main bearing is a 3.1875 bore which of course isn't a common size and the ways have a I think it was .015 of drop up by the chuck. so lathe is pretty much shot. I was looking at another lathe a leblond that is local but compared to my monarch its loud I dont know if that's just the nature of them. haven't checked the gears yet on the leblond but I don't need something that has to be babied. I have tried all the tricks on the lathe i have read here to improve finish and accuracy its just tired.long post but my question I'm looking for basically for a 10x 36 or so universal cylindrical od id grinder. seems like i can pick one up for around 5 grand but not sure what route to go that or a smaller newer lathe (dont have room for both)but even those still will not make a ground type finish. I know a good machinist can make my lathe work but I want to be able to hit numbers without holding my breath just the right way.