Wondering about a t&c grinder

[Pete O]

Haven't posted in a while as I have barely set foot in the workshop since December, I've spent summer doing things I had to do rather than things I wanted to do. Hope to get more active in the coming weeks.
An engineering works near me is closing down, they are having a clearing sale tomorrow and I went to the inspection day today. There was a surface grinder in the online catalogue that I was a bit interested in but they have sold it prior to the auction. Heaps of BT40 tooling which particularly sucked as the vertical and horizontal spindles on my mill are 30 and 50 respectively. There is however a shaper vice that I will be hoping to get for a reasonable price and a few other sundries that should make for a fun day out. I do love a clearing sale.
Anyhow, I got chatting with another bloke browsing who is a retired machinist, he was looking to sell some gear himself and asked me if I might be interested in a few items; spark eroder? (nope), 14" cold saw? (nope), universal tool & cutter grinder? Hmmm...
So I'm wondering just how useful a tool this might be. Could I expect to be able to sharpen horizontal mill cutters, reamers, end mills? Can such a machine serve small surface grinder duty such as for parallels and vice jaws? Are they too complicated for a novice to mess with??

[TomG]

It's definitely a useful machine for sharpening or making milling cutters, but not very useful for much else. With the price of end mills, I would love to have one. It doesn't take much to restore a worn out end mill to its original glory, with a T&C grinder at your disposal.

Tom

[Hawkeye]

I have a Clarckson t&c grinder. I don't use it very often, but I do have a lot of horizontal cutters and endmills. I have enjoyed getting a good edge on the ones I've sharpened. If you can get it for a good price, I say go for it.

[Pete O]

Well I certainly didn't blow the budget today so I'll see if the bloke with the t&c grinder sends me some photos as we discussed.
The shaper vice I was interested in (which was of course mounted on a mill) was absolutely knackered, had a zillion holes drilled in the middle of it, one side of the mounting base was broken off and the jaws were chewed all to blazes. I decided to go to ten or twenty bucks for it to get me by until I could find a good one. It went to about $130 I did pick up a 4mt reversible tapping chuck and a couple of pairs of small V-blocks.
If the fellow sends me photos of the tool & cutter grinder I'll put them up here for opinions.

[Dr Stan]

I'd go for the T&C grinder as it can be used as both a surface grinder by using a magnetic chuck and can do some (operative word is some) cylindrical grinding with the use of a power head attachment. 

I ended up going with a surface grinder and an end mill sharpening attachment.  I also have a tool post grinder that I can use on both my lathe and planner.

[Mayhem]

Pete - you know how scarce stuff is here, so I would get it if the price is OK as you can always sell it on if you decide you don't want to keep it.

[Vinny]

(02-28-2017, 12:39 AM)Dr Stan Wrote: I ended up going with a surface grinder and an end mill sharpening attachment.

Thanks DOC! Last thing I needed to do was spend more money. Just found one on ebay, new, from Travers for $67. Supposed to be here later in the week.

[Dr Stan]

(02-28-2017, 12:37 PM)Vinny Wrote:

(02-28-2017, 12:39 AM)Dr Stan Wrote: I ended up going with a surface grinder and an end mill sharpening attachment.

Thanks DOC!  Last thing I needed to do was spend more money.  Just found one on ebay, new, from Travers for $67.  Supposed to be here later in the week.

Any time.  I always enjoy helping anyone spend their money.  

[Pete O]

It's been a week since this fellow got my email address and was going to send me photos of his t&c grinder so I don't think it's going to happen.

[Dr Stan]

(03-06-2017, 10:19 PM)Pete O Wrote: It's been a week since this fellow got my email address and was going to send me photos of his t&c grinder so I don't think it's going to happen.

Give him another call/e-mail.  He could have flat out forgotten, got tied up with other things, lost your contact info, etc.  In any case I wouldn't just walk away from it.