8" Slow Speed Grinder?

Re: 8" Slow Speed Grinder?

John K Jordan

Tony,

I have two. One is the no-name 3/4 hp I bought years ago from Woodcraft. It is great, plenty of power. I have no idea if it is still available. I run it with one CBN wheel and one Norton.

Last week I decided I wanted another slow-speed grinder for some different grits so I bought a Rikon on sale. It is 1/2 hp. It seems woefully underpowered to me. It is not as well made either. I can understand why some people say it won't easily spin up CBN wheels, especially those made from steel. I personally would look elsewhere.

JKJ

Re: 8" Slow Speed Grinder?

john lucas

Woodcraft is selling the new Rikon 8". It's been getting good reviews.

Re: 8" Slow Speed Grinder?

Rum

The rikon "professional" model is 1HP.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/rikon-professional-low-speed-grinder.aspx

No personal experience but some reports say it seems to work fairly well.

Rikon 1/2 horse

John K Jordan

Ah, that looks better. I'm not happy with the new 1/2 horse. I may order the bigger one and give the 1/2 horse to a needy person.

Or maybe save the small one to lend out with the mini lathes. I took it with wolverine attached this morning to a three week woodturning class we are doing for some kids that need some extra attention in their lives. You should have seen the smiles mixed with the shavings!!

Ha, while one kid was turning on my Jet mini I smelled something very distinctive. When he turned the lathe off then back on he said he was having trouble. No wonder, the lathe was running backwards. Oops, fried start capacitor! Now to find one. Fortunately I have a spare mini I can take tomorrow, or at least take the capacitor.

JKJ

Re: 8" Slow Speed Grinder?

Dennis in Southern Oregon

Contrary to the experience of some, I am quite happy with my 1/2 HP 8-inch Rikon slow speed grinder for it's intended purpose--sharpening turning tools. Personally, I do not think that slow speed is particularly valuable to an experienced sharpener, but when the Rikon went on sale for $100 several months ago, I bought one as back up for my huskier Delta 3600 RPM grinder. It now spins two D-Way CBN wheels, an 80-grit and a 180-grit. This combination has given me the smoothest-running system that I have been able to achieve in my several years of turning. Power is entirely adequate for tool sharpening. Yes, the large mass of the CBN wheels slows start-up a bit, but the wind up time for my setup is 9 seconds--far less than the time required to adjust a tool rest or chuck a gouge into a sharpening jig. If you find that you need more torque than the 1/2 HP motor provides, then I expect you are abusing the D-Way wheels and the tool.

Negative issues: First, the power may not be adequate for sharpening axes and mower blades and such, but you would not do these things with CBN wheels anyway. Second, the shafts of the Rikon are a bit short, so you need to use thin washers to mount the wheels and perhaps end up a thread short of a full make up of the nut. Third, I had to trim about an inch off of the bottom of the shields to get full access with the OneWay Wolverine V-arm.

In short, yes I would do it again. BTW, I use the Delta and it's stone wheels for heavy work.

1 HP Rikon is good

Jorge

I got it from Highland and it was less than from Woodcraft, runs well and I am happy with it. Next money I am getting a CBN...

Why I'm not impressed with the Rikon 1/2 hp

John K Jordan

My 1/2 horse Rikon is slow to start even with the stock wheels. The power is seems fine for lathe tool sharpening after it gets up to speed. If I have heavy grinding to do I use the Metabo in my welding shop - man, what a grinder!

It does stop fairly quickly when switched off.

The base casting on this one is warped so it will not sit flat but rocks when I take the rubber feet off to fasten it to a board to mount the OneWay wolverine bases. Also, the grinder sits lower on one side than the other.

It is nosier then expected, making a bearing noise.

I have not yet been able to dress the wheels to run true so I can sharpen without the tool bouncing. If I keep it I'll add a Oneway balancer and good Norton wheels which worked wonders on another grinder.

I am glad others are satisfied. Overall I am not highly impressed, although as I mentioned perhaps I got a bit of a lemon. Tomorrow I'm going to try to compare it to another one that was just pulled out of the box this morning. Funny thing, mine even looks different from that one, with a different label. Perhaps the moral of the story is not all Rikon 1/2 hp grinders are created equal.

JKJ

Re: 8" Slow Speed Grinder?

robo hippy

I did a review of the new Rikon 1 hp slow speed 8 inch grinder here about a month or so ago. Some one may be able to dig it up. Short version: 1/2 hp is just too wimpy for me to want to put 2 CBN wheels that are 1 1/2 inches wide on, and I won't use any other grinding wheels. The old blue no name grinder I got from Woodcraft many years ago might have had a bit more power then the small Rikon, but still not suited to production work, though it might survive in a less hostile environment. The 1 hp Rikon is a great deal for the money, and has plenty of power for 2 wide CBN wheels. 2 issues with it. One, I take the rubber feet off so it sits firm on the bench top, either bolted or screwed down. I had to grind 1/8 inch off of one foot for it to sit flat. Other issue, the wheel shroud on one side, when sliding my robo rest up to it, needed the crimped part of the sheet metal ground off for a perfect fit and fixed stop point. The other side, it is 1/2 inch away from where I need the rest to be. I have yet to go back and see if I can wiggle it around to get a better fit rather than grinding that much off. Oh, the wheels that come standard on the grinder, I wouldn't even consider using them on any grinder, yes, they are that bad. Maybe break them up and use them to clean the CBN wheels. It isn't nearly as good as my Baldor grinders, but for the money, a good deal. I did have to put the Wolverine platforms up on 3/4 inch plywood to get them to proper height.

robo hippy

Re: 8" Slow Speed Grinder?

john lucas

Instead of grinding the bottom off the grinder why not just carve a hole in the wooden platform. I noticed John K said the same thing. When I got my Woodcraft grinder many years ago it did not sit flat either when the rubber feet were removed. I just carved a slot in the wood where the tall leg dented it. Took about a minute.

Re: 8" Slow Speed Grinder?

robo hippy

I never thought of that one. I do take grinders when I do shows, and they fit into boxes, and I bolt them to the top of the boxes when demonstrating. I had just gotten a 1 1/2 hp Jet disc/belt sander, so with 60 grit, it took maybe 5 minutes. If I sell it some day, it will be flat for whoever buys it.

robo hippy

Thanks!

Tony - Memphis

This is for my "Dear Santa" list!

Tony