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Bed grinding

collector

Hot Rolled
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Location
Parksville BC Canada
Hi guys
I ground this 1943 South Bend 60 inch long bed it was well worn. It only took nine years to get around to it. It turned out good. I would like to come up with a way to dress the stones. Not sure how others may do this when the job is in progres meaning the wheel at 45 deg and a foot off the table.And would a CBN wheel be a good wheel to try? What would the best grit be for this kind of grinding soft beds. And when grinding hard beds.
 

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Thanks for posting, I wouldnt have any idea how to advise you though. I hope you will take some time to share more of your rebuild as you make progress. Hopefully it will take less time to get to the next step. Ha Ha.

Charles
 
You will want to use a 60 grit wheel. Depending on your spindle speed I would say between H to K harndness wheel.

Looks like so far you are on the right track.

The Kinetic Co., Inc. on Instagram: “So far on the South Bend we have all of the vee ways roughed in. Next step will be to come back and finish grind them all for size and to…”

As far as a way to dress the wheel- don't overthink it. You can get a small dresser like this to dress the wheel at an angle-

Precision Sine and Cross Feed Grinding Wheel Dresser ID 822-

Or- we have a specific wheel dressing unit which can be mounted on a sine plate. This has a hand crank which turns a screw to move the diamond-

The Kinetic Co., Inc. on Instagram: “Roughing in a 45 deg angle on our way grinder. We will dress an angle on the other side of the wheel and leave a flat on the bottom. Then…”

Since this- we have retrofitted an old lathe compound, we have it mounted to an right angle plate and it is pretty quick and easy to adjust.

For way grinding- I would not mess with CBN, often you need to tweak things with how you dress the wheel.
 
Very nice dresser Cash posted, I recommend the same..

I have a shop made box dresser with boxing in a dresser bar with slight clearance all around that I set an a sine bar and clamp to an angle plate. Some day I should post a photo of it.

Also many radius dressers have ability to dress an angle..(p\Like a Last Word)
Suburban Tool, Inc. - FILE or PAGE NOT FOUND very pricey but can buy used for $200 or so.

Also I set a bar/diamond on a sine and just hand slide it being side braced to an angle to the wheel..many may think this unsafe. Got used to that grinding form tool one-and few ups..so little time to make set-ups and still make profit.
 
Hi Cash
I was hopping you would give advice on grinding. Is that a 4 inch cup wheel that is being used to rough and finish grinding? I was using a cone type wheel which leaves the feed marks the wheel is in the picture just upside down for grinding under the way. Again thanks for the help.

Collector
 
The picture where my spindle is set at 45 deg to grind one of the ways. I am pretty sure this was a cup wheel. But I cant say for sure. Since this we have purchased several different size wheels so that when a job comes in we don't have to dress a 6" wheel down to 3 if we need to fit in a tight spot. Dovetails on small lathe compounds/slides can be snug.

Your picture appears that you are grinding the bottom or strap surface as I would refer to it- using the cup like you are is exactly how I would do it.

There is really no right or wrong way, many times you just need to do what is needed to get in tight spots. I think some of your question may be are you to sue the cup or periphery of the grind wheel? Whenever possible you want to use the periphery (OD) of the wheel when possible. Sometimes the part just does not allow this.

I am curious- are you grinding on a converted planer? Or is this a way grinder? Either way works.
 
Collector should share the story of how he saved those way grinders (2) They looked like new when I saw them 10 years ago. Collector doesn't the cross feed on the spindle swivel feed out? If it did I would think you could mount a diamond on the table block and feed the wheel over the diamond so you can use the OD of the wheel and not the side. I also think with your abilities you could design a dresser like a lathe compound with ac power feed so you can have VRS feed screw. One way or another be sure the diamond is sharp and tight in the fixture hole. I have no doubt in my mind Collector can grind the bed and scrape the ways as he is one of the best all around Rebuilder I have ever had the pleasure to share my techniques with. He has a hell of a nice maintenance shop he should share with you too.

Collector planning a Monarch saddle on his Rockford openside shaper; He has a collection of EE's and bigger Monarchs; His shop and on the left in the back is one of his way grinders; his huge granite table and one of his collection of SE's and on left you can see his way grnder corner and he is scraping on a SE using his Biax.

3127.jpg3138.jpg3135.jpg3137.jpg3129.jpg
 
Well I will go against Cash and say use a CBN wheel. Why? because you are grinding dry and CBN wheels impart less heat into the workpiece, instead they impart it into the wheel itself so it grows. I think all the images I have seen of these grinders doing beds running dry it is all CBN.

The little bit I did, upon startup I heated the wheel/spindle with a heatgun and got it around 50 degrees, otherwise you will be cutting away and wondering why all of a sudden your cut is increasing. It is the wheel expanding with heat.

I think the wheel I have is a 120 grit, but that is totally different from a 120 grit carborundum wheel. Really I thionk 120 would be as fine as I would go, more coarse would be better, but CBN wheels are $$$$ and I only have what I picked up off ebay.

I actually installed a VFD onto my spindle and mounted a face mill. Makes things go so much quicker. Mill it down to rough it, then grind to finish.

Some pics of my grinding my mill table https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...in-mill-repair-317894/index2.html#post2747390
 
The guy who did mine used a regular wheel in the side head and used a diamond on a small sine bar/table to dress it to the vee angle. He set the sine table to the vee angle on the and used a dressing diamond set into a small block, sliding the block up and down the sine table to dress the wheel by hand.

He did say it was a pain in the ass working with the side head but it got the job done.
 
Well I will go against Cash and say use a CBN wheel. Why? because you are grinding dry and CBN wheels impart less heat into the workpiece, instead they impart it into the wheel itself so it grows. I think all the images I have seen of these grinders doing beds running dry it is all CBN.

The little bit I did, upon startup I heated the wheel/spindle with a heatgun and got it around 50 degrees, otherwise you will be cutting away and wondering why all of a sudden your cut is increasing. It is the wheel expanding with heat.

I think the wheel I have is a 120 grit, but that is totally different from a 120 grit carborundum wheel. Really I thionk 120 would be as fine as I would go, more coarse would be better, but CBN wheels are $$$$ and I only have what I picked up off ebay.

I actually installed a VFD onto my spindle and mounted a face mill. Makes things go so much quicker. Mill it down to rough it, then grind to finish.

Some pics of my grinding my mill table https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...in-mill-repair-317894/index2.html#post2747390

A CBN wheel would be fine if you always have a good way to present the wheel to the way surface. With way grinding you would need several CBN wheels on hand for every application, you know you will always be missing the wheel you need when the next job comes in. This is where having conventional wheels on hand are nice and you can "dress for the occasion".

For example on the picture here- we had to dress the wheel down to fit in the space the casting allowed. If I had a CBN wheel 1" too big, it would not fit, 1" too small then you would have to traverse across the part.

The Kinetic Co., Inc. on Instagram: “Oh that finish.

#nofilter #dovetail #waygrinding #lathe #manual #crackofdawn”
 
A single cup wheel would do most nearly everything. You might need a dish wheel for tight dovetails. You have to keep in mind the Churchill grinder Collector has is extremely versatile. While the bed might be 24" wide, the cross arm travel is 42" to facilitate angling the head and still reaching the work surface.

On top of that the machines came with a horizontal spindle for doing vertical surfaces. I do not know if Collector has the horizontal attachment. Mine does have it.

I have actually wondered if a 6" CBN flywheel grinding wheel would be suitable.
 
There used to be a company called Ed Hadley Machine Rebuilding up here in MN and WI who had a converted planner and he told me he used a Borazon cup wheels and used a Mister for coolant. Ed said he could only hake off a few tenths (.0001's") or he burned the ways. I never liked the circular marks on the bed, but it worked OK accept for that. I sold him a Horizonal grinder spindle I had from a Abrasive 1 1/2 grinder he made and attachment, but I never followed up on how it worked. He retired and sold his shop. Edspecialize in Bridgeport rebuilding. Another company called Checker Machine who used to grind my Bridgeport tabled had an Elb horz. Surface Grinder and he had one wheel he dressed the 50 deg. angle on and would set the table on its side and side wheel the flats and ground the doves with the face.

To help folks who read this in the future can you experts explain if there is a one size fits all wheel that can grind soft beds like a South Bend Lathe and Flame Hardened lathe beds like a Monarch?
 








 
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