Comments by "Paul Frederick" (@1pcfred) on "Is Harbor Freight's Bench Grinder the Best? Let's Find Out!" video.

  1. I can't believe bench grinders are so expensive. Most of the grinders in this test looked to be about the same to me. Come on Todd show us what's inside some of this junk. See if the windings are copper clad aluminum and whatnot. I'm not giving up my grandpa's old Craftsman bench grinder ever. It says it is only 1/4 HP but it don't stop for nothing.
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  2.  @bradley3549  whenever I bake I just follow the recipe on the back of the box. 🤣
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  3. The shafts on these cheese whiz grinders just aren't very true. There's a shoulder the retaining washer sits on and it's usually all out of wack. These are not precision machines.
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  4. One of my grinders dates back to the Civil War. It was a flat belt line shaft model that I converted over to electric. It has a 3/4" diameter arbor and it is a beast. I run a 12" wheel on it. I'm not giving up on it yet either.
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  5. Yeah all of my bench grinders come up to speed pretty much instantly. The centrifugal switch goes click. I want to know what kind of motors those variable speed grinders are. Because you can't speed control induction motors easily. I'm finding it hard to believe they have VFDs built into those grinders. But maybe?
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  6. Now you know why some things taste better from different kitchens.
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  7.  @bradley3549  measuring can be a factor. Like most things cooking is a skill that is developed through practice though.
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  8. With a lot of grinders you can run a lot of different wheels. I have quite a few grinders in my workshop. Enough that I'm not quite sure just how many I actually do have. At least 6 or 7.
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  9. A 1.5hp Baldor grinder is an over $2,000 machine. So it is in a different class compared to what's being tested here.
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  10. The best snowblower is always the one that starts up when you need to use it.
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  11. Just buy a box of borax and keep a can by the sink. A little sprinkle does ya. I guess you could mix up some powdered soap with it. But I use liquid soap with it myself.
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  12. Buy something decent used. What's available today is a joke. None of the bench grinders I own take any time to spin up at all. It's flip the switch and they're going full speed.
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  13. If you know the drive wheel diameter and the speed it turns you can calculate the feet per minute with this formula: Surface Feet Per Minute = (PI * DIA * RPM) / 12 DIA is expressed in inches, of course.
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  14. There's different methods of calculating horsepower. One way favors motors with high RPM. That's why you see vacuum cleaners with high HP ratings. They use the speed calculation method. Blenders are using that same formula.
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  15. That's a steal. You're lucky it's single phase.
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  16. How does that variable speed work? I mean how does it control the speed of the motor? Induction motors are not easily speed controlled. There's only two ways of doing it. They're either multi tap or you use a VFD. I guess you could use a phase fired chopper drive but that's kinda cheesy. It wouldn't be good for the motor at all.
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  17. One grinder I have predates electricity. It still works perfectly too. I oil the babbitt bearings in it religiously.
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  18. Yeah these modern grinders all seem to use shaded pole motors. They're crap. That's why you're not hearing a switch when they spin up or down. They're basically glorified fan motors.
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  19. Truing a grinding wheel up is left to the end user. It is called dressing the wheel. Some of these grinders did look like they were poorly machined. Sometimes it isn't as easy as toss on a wheel and go though. You may have to clock the wheel to compensate for inaccuracies.
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  20. These aren't snagging grinders. They're made for light bench grinding. A snagging grinder is what's used to remove sprues from castings. They typically have a 30" diameter wheel on them and they're around 15 HP or so. Yeah go ahead push as hard as you want.
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  21.  @mothman-jz8ug  my vintage Craftsman bench grinder says it is "1/4 HP" but if you wanted to you could push something into it pretty hard and it won't stall out.
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  22. I use high speed bench grinders and I just dip what I'm grinding into water to keep it cool. The kind of wheel you're using matters too. Those hard as hell dense wheels really heat stuff up.
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  23. I was just looking at them and Baldor has a cheap line now. It looks suspiciously like what we're seeing here in fact. Right down to the sheet metal tool rests.
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  24. If you're trying to shorten a bolt or round the corner of some heavier steel then to remove the material you're going to lean into it some.
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  25. Wire wheeling can be a heavy use. Polishing can be pretty bad too.
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  26. Which Craftsman do you have? I have a 115.5273 and a couple 115.6962 s
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  27. It's not always the wheels. These grinders are machined so poorly the shoulder that holds the retaining washers on them often has a wobble to it. Plus the washers themselves are usually just stamped steel.
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  28. Pneumatic die grinders are in a class by themselves. It's just a different kind of power than electric. Plus you can feather the throttle of a pneumatic tool to adjust the speed and torque. That's handy for control. I have a CP860 and it is a monster. Says it's 1 HP. It's taken my hand for a few rides when cut off discs get caught in kerfs. But once it stops it stalls gracefully. Electric can't do that.
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  29.  @avnut5517  I got mine out of my grandfather's cellar but I think he just picked it up somewhere. He never set it up. It took me years just to get the bolts cracked on the bearing caps. They were pretty seized up. I'd work on them a little then spray some more penetrant on them and let them sit more.
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  30. Is it really that critical? As long as there's something on the bar you should be OK.
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