That's a beautiful machine. I'd let it stay in my shop just because it looks so good!
Thanks Bob
I took the CBN cup wheel and tool holder from my Cuttermaster and set them up on the surface grinder to regrind the leading edge of a corner rounding end mill. The Cuttermaster has no vertical adjustment suitable for doing this.
I have one as well. One thing I've made is grinding very thin grooving tools from HSS lathe blanks. Bench grinder roughs and then grind to the desired thickness. One can also buy/make a jig for sharpening the end flutes on endmills. I also ground the valve surfaces on my loco build.
I'm currently working on a stationary steam engine. I've ground a lot of the parts for appearance purposes. It's easier than sanding.
Thanks everyone for some feedback. Crosshead guides were the only component on my locomotive that I could think of that would make owning a surface grinder a real help. My locomotive has piston valves. I can see benefits for sharpening tools and I'm sure there will be other instances where I'll find use for one but I'm hearing that it is not an indispensible tool that one must have. I do like to see several are using the little Rockwell ToolMaker. They are compact and I see them from time to time for sale.
I think for the money and floor space, you're better off skipping it for live steam locomotive building. There are only a few jobs on a locomotive where it would be useful, in my opinion, and those jobs can be done another way. Note: I didn't say that they weren't useful, just not so much for building a Steam Engine. I've had access to one for the past 15+ years and have yet to use it on anything related to steam locomotive construction.
We have 3 of them here at work, and they do a very good job making highly precise parts. Things like sharpening cutter blades for a bagging machine, truing up rails for a throughfeed centerless, cutting a flat into a piece of Thompson shafting, and making tooling that is flat and parallel within a few ten-thousandths of an inch. Most of that is stuff that you wouldn't need in a home shop, especially where space is limited.
There is a small one that I was considering getting, which I could have picked up for about $100 a year ago. It was similar to the one in the picture above except that the motor was higher in the air and the belt to the spindle ran vertically instead of horizontally. It wasn't nearly as clean and nice looking, but it worked fine. In the end, I decided that I wouldn't use it enough to justify it taking up space in the shop.
Most of the tools I have aren't needed for locomotive construction. And in fact I could get along quite nicely without them.....but I keep them just because I LIKE them. That is the only reason I need to own anything. To the world at large we look strange as very few folks "need" a miniature steam locomotive. And yes I do have a little bench top Sanford surface grinder.
I have one mostly because I got good deal on it. It dose come in useful at times. But it is not a machine that is necessary to building live steam locomotive. You can hand lap the slide valves and cross head parts.
Add me to the Toolmaker Grinder owner list.
I use it often for sharpening tooling, punches, dies, etc.
Locomotives parts as well.
Adding a downfeed dial indicator to the head helps to achieve accuracy.
Happy Rails !
RichD
Colorado Midland Ry Ten Wheeler U/C
Kerr Stuart Wren NG 0-4-0 U/C
www.csppry.org
Imagination is your best tool.
I know of a decent standard Brown & Sharp surface grinder for sale near Philadelphia, PA if anyone is interested. Send me a PM if you would like to look at it...
