Peterson Surface Grinder

malync2 · Nov 6, 2021

Peterson Surface Grinder. Good shape. Has cover to protect the table when not in use. Includes stone dresser. 115/230v single phase. Located in central Illinois. $1000

I can get very good shipping rates using Fastenal if you want to have it shipped.

marklynch.ak at gmail.com

gbent · Nov 6, 2021

That is a surfacing grinder for reconditioning cylinder heads. I think you have an extra digit in the price. I would have guessed it to predate WW2, but the postal district in the address is after 1943.

The name is interesting, however. In the 1980's through the 2000's, there was a Peterson that was the importer for Berco engine rebuilding equipment, located about 100 miles from Kansas City. I wonder if that is where they got their start?

malync2 · Nov 6, 2021

The machine is from the 1950s and they are still in common use. One just sold at auction in California for $1300, so I do not have an extra zero. But thank you for your misinformed insight.

TGTool · Nov 6, 2021

malync2 said:
The machine is from the 1950s and they are still in common use. One just sold at auction in California for $1300, so I do not have an extra zero. But thank you for your misinformed insight.

Good luck with the sale and the attitude. You're new here with (at this writing) exactly 2 posts and you're already getting huffy and insulting forum members with long experience. We can tell you're not an experienced machinist because "surface grinder' in the trade refers to a rather different machine with a good deal more flexibility and capability. And using an auction price as a good reference is like medical advice because that happened to a friend of a friend. Someone has offered you some educational information in a friendly way. Listen and learn something from it.

michiganbuck · Nov 7, 2021

Cool machine, but I don't see it being very useful for V engines, for straight engines perhaps but still not as good as a conventional surface grinder.

likely could be good for grinding down welds to flush on a straight part or C-clamped to an angle plate for a right angle part.

likely there is a way to feed the wheel face up to and above table height.

It looks like a very solid table so for a machine-base it would be very good.

Easily worth $1000, but a hard sell trying to find the guy who needs it. *likely a weldment shop would want it.

BGL · Nov 7, 2021

I first saw one of these in 1974 in an automotive machine shop. I was 14. It struck me as a really bad idea then. Fast forward to today and more than fourty years of a wide varity of machining experiance, yes, no doubt in my mind its a bad idea. A quaint historical artifact at best.

malync2 · Nov 7, 2021

I've ran a machine shop for the past 45 years. We used this machine, and others like it, for heads, manifolds, flywheels, etc. With a little practice a person can produce a very good finish with one of these. Thanks.

malync2 · Nov 7, 2021

First of all you were the one who came on MY post and started giving false information. Nothing you said was offered in a helpful or friendly way. Maybe you need some work on your attitude. Second, I've ran a machine shop for 45 years, so I really don't need to learn a lot from some smart alec. Just because you've sat behind a computer screen on a forum for a long time means nothing to me. I am just starting to sell off equipment that I have in my machine shop for many years, so I joined some forums to help with that. And concerning you "surface grinder" comment, please look at the name on the machine. You're trying to "educate" me on something you obviously know nothing about, and you don't even bother to look at what I'm selling. This machine is a vertical shaft surface grinder. I also had several horizontal shaft surface grinders, which is what I assume you must mean in your snide comment. You can continue to make all the comments you like. I have no more time for this. I am trying to get retired.

michiganbuck · Nov 7, 2021

malync2 said:
I've ran a machine shop for the past 45 years. We used this machine, and others like it, for heads, manifolds, flywheels, etc. With a little practice a person can produce a very good finish with one of these. Thanks.

I think it would take a very high-skill person to make .002 flatness with such a machine. Im not saying it could not be done, but with checking time likely would be costly.

Darren McCarley · Nov 7, 2021

malync2 said:
First of all you were the one who came on MY post and started giving false information. Nothing you said was offered in a helpful or friendly way.

Keep in mind, YOUR post was made in OUR community, owned by OTHER people. You may not be aware of the rules and expectations. A friendly bit of advise, read the rules, get to know the community expectations, add value to the community. After 45 years, you must have something to contribute. For example... "I've beaten the odds and used this grinder for much more than it was designed. Here's how...... (Sounds like a great thread topic to me.)
Good luck with the sale. Looks like an interesting piece of kit that I'd actually like to know more about. But, thats for another thread. Maybe in the Antique section?

Tim in Indiana · Nov 7, 2021

I don't have dog in this fight but for some damn reason I think I need to add my comments. In the 70's I worked in an automotive machine shop and used the same type of equipment to surface heads, manifolds and flywheels. The machine did a good job putting a flat surface on the heads which we always checked on a large cast iron surface plate using feeler gages.

Where I think it really shined was on flywheels. We would work the flywheel in a looping, flower petal type pattern rotating the flywheel eight times to produce a nice cross hatch pattern. It would take a few minutes to remove the glaze and leave a good surface.

We always kept the table waxed so the item was easy to slide over the wheel.

FYI, to adjust the abrasive wheel up and down you used a large ship type wheel located at the bottom of the table near the floor. You used your foot to rotate it. If I remember correctly it was a fine adjustment one revolution moved the wheel very little.

Not sure what this machine is worth but I have wished I had one over the years. The latest need was to resurface a cast iron table saw top. It didn't need much removed, maybe .005-.010" and this would have made it quick and easy. But at $1,000 I'm not interested.

Conrad Hoffman · Nov 7, 2021

Well, I'm happy it was posted just because I've never seen or heard of such a thing. Interesting tool for a specific type of job.

Dan from Oakland · Nov 13, 2021

Yea, they seem crude, but they actually will do a very accurate job if you dress the wheel correctly and understand how to use one. Suppose the old "don't knock it if ya haven't tried it" is applicable here. Lemmco and Van Norman made very similar machines. Certainly not for rebuilding Nascar or Indy heads, but...…..I would venture to say they are a definite step up from the belt sander surfacing machines by far.
Good luck with your sale!

eKretz · Nov 14, 2021

I could see it working just fine if the wheel was just barely set above the table surface for finishing - and so long as the table surface was flat. Have you checked that? That information might certainly add to the value of your item in terms of sale price. You might sell that to an automotive shop, not likely to any regular machine shop I think. And you absolutely can not accurately judge your item's value from a single auction sale.

I always wondered why they didn't make these with an infeed and outfeed table like a wood jointer. Seems like that would be the way to go for getting nice and flat quick, simple and easy.

trevj · Nov 15, 2021

Put a hardwood top on it and clean up the paint job, maybe gold leaf the lettering on the cast logo, and it's likely worth at least whats asked, to them what think old industrial stuff makes great furniture (aka: how to make your moving crew hate your guts!).

Unless that lot has dumped all their Industrial Chic stuff in favor of live edge slabs and epoxy pours...

Doesn't seem a great tool to pay out a bunch for, given the availability of far more accurate machinery that is around.

PWP · Nov 16, 2021

Here is one the sold for lesss than 1300.00 on ebay, 1000.00 may be the going rate, also one on local crigslist for 1300.00

Peterson 50F Multi-Purpose Horizontal Surface Grinder Grinding Machine | eBay

JHOLLAND1 · Nov 17, 2021

so i purchased one of this genera head surfacing machine 30 yrs ago--it is on loan to
local shop $60.00 auction bid LEMPCO builder

a few thoughts
100 year old design
if the engine head you are surfacing has taper at start of grind--it will manifest taper at completion of grind
camelback truing arch is hands on and hazardous
if the wheel is elevated above cast iron bed more than a few thousandths--the wheel can grab
workpiece and launch into operator midsection or whatever else is in way

they remain in use because they are expediant--proper head surfacing should incorporate head fixed and leveled
with precision control of abrasive wheel feed

malync2 · Nov 23, 2021

This machine was sold to a man who understands how to use it, and it's value, for full asking price. He drove 200 miles to get it.

eKretz · Nov 23, 2021

Wow, good for him! And you! :skep:

texasgeartrain · Nov 23, 2021

Never saw one in a regular machine shop, but would see them in an engine, or truck shop from time to time. For badly warped exhaust manifolds it could do fairly well, not sure I'd do the deck of a cylinder head though.

I'm thinking I saw two for sale in the past few years, in the $500 to $800 range, And not cleaned up as well as the first post in this thread.

Peterson Surface Grinder

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