Herless (rebranded Ta Fu Yuan) TFY-618 Surface Grinder

[SteveG]

After a heads-up from Pete O, this 8x16 surface grinder followed me home yesterday:

   

I won't repeat what my wife said, but apparently my "don't smoke, gamble or play with other women" justification is wearing thin....

Its had a pnuematic crossfeed conversion in the past, but looks like it was previously chain driven.

   

   

Steve

[Mayhem]

I stopped telling my wife about my new toys years ago. I wait until she is out before bringing things home or I do it under to cover of darkness!

[SteveG]

Similar story here usually.
A while back I was given a large 3Ph 12" pedestal grinder from work. It came out of a building the company owners had bought and it was either I took it or the scrappy would.
I told my wife I'd been given a grinder but didn't go into details, so only got the usual "what do you need another xxx for!!" to which I gave the standard "it was cheap/free" answer. Under cover of darkness that evening it arrived home and was put in a reasonably prominent position at the back of the carport among other junk, and covered with an old bedspread. Later that evening I got asked about the grinder so replied that I'd already picked it up and was in the shed.
Roll forward about 3 months, and the grinder (still unused and covered) happened to be a bit more more exposed and we were both out there.
"WTH is this this - you're hiding stuff from me!!!"
Its a grinder, I told you I'd been given it from work and no I haven't - its been in full view in front of where you park your car for months!!
"Its huge - I thought you meant a small one"

Some things just can't be let slide, so I replied with:
Darling - I believe that's the first time you've ever said that to me ....

I've been married long enough to know that you should just enjoy the moment as you can't accumulate enough points to win!!!

Back to the grinder tech though, are there "standard" mounting tapers/flanges etc for the wheels, or are they just whatever the manufacturer cares to use?

Steve

[Pete O]

I'd love to be able to answer your question about the spindle taper Steve but I have experience with a grand total of one surface grinder. If you can measure the taper angle of your spindle I'll let you know if it's the same as mine. I take it from your question that you weren't fortunate enough to pick up the balancing tools with the machine. Shouldn't be difficult to make a set of rails- I could fabricate something and grind the tops to get you by (as long as you don't mind waiting a bit, I have time pressures at present), you'll need a precision level to set up the rails, a tool to pull the hub off the spindle is easy to make, but you need the right balancing arbor or tis all in vain. I happen to have one that I picked up with a pile of stuff at a sale a couple of years ago- didn't know exactly what it was at the time- but I think it's for a much larger machine. Certainly much larger than mine anyway.
I also have a diamond dresser you can have, I bought a tangental dresser from the UK last year and I can use that for straight dressing too so you're welcome to the one that came with my grinder, not much diamond left on it though.

[Vinny]

Dunno if this will help, but there's one for sale at a college on your side of the planet. The listing says it includes the original manual. You may be able to get some info from the guy that's handling the sale. Here's the sale post:

https://edulists.com.au/pipermail/destec...02081.html

[Vinny]

Just noticed that was from 2013, so you may not get any info there.

[SteveG]

Thanks Vinny. I'd seen that ad in my searching, but noticed the date so didn't read any further. Won't cost me anything to send an email to the guy on the offchance he might still have some info.

PeteO - thanks for the offer of the dresser. I've got a couple of cheap mounted dressing diamonds from China courtesy of ebay so really just need a holder.
From what I can work out its just a case of getting a block of steel and drilling a hole in it to put the diamond bit into, with a grub screw or similar to secure it into the holder. I think the hole should be at a few degrees from vertical (5deg??)so that you can rotate the diamond to get new edges rather than just grinding the top off it.
If that's the case its probably easier for me to knock one up than for you to send yours over!

I've been looking online at balancing fixtures, and looks like using a couple of bits of ground rod as the rolling surface is a simple option. Think I've got some I pulled from an old printer so can likely fab up a quick stand, and mill vee's in the top of the edges to sit a couple of pieces of rod in. I'd think as long as I did the milling in one setup it should be good enough.

Once I get the wheel off I'll check the taper and see if its common with something readily available, but I'm pretty much resigned to having to make one...

I'm still a bit confused about the original traversemechanism. The decal on the wheel cover mentions needing to adjust the cable after long periods of use, but its definitely a sprocket on the shaft. Now wondering if it was originally cable, converted to chain, and now pneumatic.

Also looks like its got a Turcite type of material in the bottom of the X veeway. Won't know until I get it apart whether that's a good or bad indicator of current condition...

Steve

[Pete O]

I would have said at a guess that the diamond-on-a-stick in my dressing gizmo leans about 10 degrees. I'll eyeball it against a protractor and let you know. A pair of ground rods sounds like a good balancing track; mine is a channel arrangement where the top of the uprights have been milled to a taper and then ground on top.

[SteveG]

Thanks Pete. I think those knife edge stands were pretty standard accessories for a lot of grinders.
Confirmation of the angle on the dresser would be great. If you could post a photo of it would be useful too.

Steve

[Vinny]

This page has a lot of useful info on surface grinders, and grinders/grinding in general.  Unfortunately all it says about the dresser is "slight angle".  As I recall, when I made mine, somewhere I found the number 5 degrees so that's what I went with.

http://www.americanmachinetools.com/how_...rinder.htm