Will my grinder work for making picks?

[Neo]

I looked at pyro1234321's video on making picks. I would have to say it's awesome,funny, and simplistic. (could use more lighting)

I don't know however if the grinder I have would work for shaping hacksaws though. I spoke to my dad about it and he said it might not work so great because of the material. However I took a nice thick screw to it the other day and it did some grinding to it.

This is the kind of grinder I have.

Brand: Collin's Tool Quality
Type: 6 in. Bench Grinder
Specifications:
3,450 RPM 115V 3A 60HZ 1PHASE
Other info: 1/4 HP Ball Bearing
Extra info:
It has two grinding wheels that both go at the same speed.
It also has a nice tiny square plastic shield so stuff hits the table and not my face.

Would this kind of grinder work for me?

[Romstar]

My grinder is a different brand, and a 5" model, but everything else is the same.

If your dad knows anything about them, get him to pick up two new wheels for the grinder. A coarse and a fine wheel. Or, you can get by with a single medium, but you will spend a bit more time with the files and the sandpaper. Now, here is the funny part.... You want a "soft" wheel. I know it sounds funny, but you want a soft wheel for hard materials, and a hard wheel for soft materials. Also get a wheel dresser. There are two types of these things, and any good shop will be able to sell you one.

If nothing else, give it a try, and see what you come up with. Just remember to buy a decent set of small hobby files, and some sand paper in 400, 600 and 1000 grits.

Oh, and get a pair of safety glasses just to be on the safe side. And maybe a good light. You can never have enough light.

Happy grinding,
Romstar

[milligan]

An alternative to super fine grit sandpaper are dollar store nail buffers. They worked great for me, and come in packs of 3 for, you guessed it, $1.

[Romstar]

For the sandpaper, I should have specified wet/dry paper.

I always use mine in a bucket of water. It can get kinda cold in the shop, and the missus is getting cranky at me for doing my sanding in the house.

Still, wet/dry paper will give a far better finish, and the water keeps it from clogging up.

Romstar

[Neo]

hmm, i wear eyeglasses, I remember in chemistry class i didn't need safety glasses because i use eyeglasses. Do the same rules apply, or should i get some safety glasses? I don't think that would be easy to see with.

[Chucklz]

Extra goggles are always good. I wear glassed and I find them adequate for most of what I do, but I still will throw on full goggles or a face shield / other shield when the situation warrants (using a grinder/angle grinder/ concentrated acid). From someone who works in a lab .... precription glasses are almost never a replacement for chemical goggles. If your teacher told you otherwise... they are wrong and certainly a bit naive and foolish.

[Romstar]

I'm with Chucklz on this one.

If you have a chemistry teacher who's that much of a bone head, they need to pour some water into a beaker of sulfuric acid. Then, lets see how long it takes for them to start handing out full face shields.

You get one set of eyes. They have to last you 80+ years. There is no warrenty on these things, and they can't be repaired in many cases.

If you think the risk is worth it, go ahead, but I can assure you that it is not.

Get some real safety glases, and you might even want to consider keeping them around for other things as well. Like, bone headed chemistry teachers.

Romstar

[Mr Ules]

I agree with romstar and chucklz on that one aswell. My chemistry teacher made us all wear goggles at all times during any expirament. I have protective goggles for everything. Grinding especially. As a matter of fact, the one day that I didn't have goggles or glasses for grinding, something flew into my eye. However I was lucky that nothing happend.

[PickPick]

I once had an accident in the lab when a collegue of mine f**ked things up and hot concentrated sulfuric acid splashed on my face. If I had worn only normal glasses at that time it would have been a whole lot more uncomfortable.

[raimundo]

years ago, when i worked for a locksmith in san francisco, I cut key copies and buffed the burrs off with a wire brush on the grinder, the wires came out of the brush and hit my glasses, and left little dings on the glass. So it is worth putting safty glasses over the regular glasses if you don't like to collect dings. Imagine what those wires would have done to my eyes. I say use the safty glasses to protect the prescription glasses, after all you won't be grinding for long anyway. Did anyone tell you about using water coolant, grinding can change the temper of metal, it can become too hard and brittle. For example, many on LP101 make picks from hacksaw blade stock, this is metal that is intended to be hardened to a very brittle type. the hack saw blade is usually flame hardend only on the side where the teeth are, and the back of the blade which is what the pickmakers are using is not hardened. You will notice that a hack saw blade fractures from the toothy side first, sometimes you will find a fracture that is only halfway through, it starts amoung the teeth, never from the back of the blade unless the whole blade got hardened. the grinder will be very handy grinding away the teeth of a hack saw blade, these are too hard for filing, and will wreck a file, but on other types of metal, such as sweeperbristle, plumbing snake, and even feeler gauge, files will cut the metal. Generally the grinder is not really necessary and should only be used for wasting the larger masses, if this is done carefully so that the temper of the metal is not changed, you can file the final shape and get a much better controlled shape than is possible with the grinder.

[milligan]

Generally the grinder is not really necessary and should only be used for wasting the larger masses, if this is done carefully so that the temper of the metal is not changed, you can file the final shape and get a much better controlled shape than is possible with the grinder.

Kind of like using the grinder to make the "pick blanks" from pyro's pickmaking video. After you get that basic shape cut out, then you could move on to more precise tools, like files.

[Peaky]

Just my 2 pence worth,

Glasses are not saftey glass this means there is a definate possability that if somthing hits them hard and fast they will shatter in to you eyes.

A face visor is great as it stops your cheaks getting hit as well, if nothing else get some goggles that fit over your glasses.

If your grinder (and it should have) has the safety screens on them USE them as well not instead.

Very regulary quench your work piece in water whislt grinding, bits have a habbit of getting very very quickly.

Adjust your fence (the bit that you would rest your tool on against the wheel) so that it is as close to the wheel without touching it, this stops bits getting stuck between the wheel and fence it should also be on a slight angle up to the wheel or level if prefered but NEVER on an angle downwards to the wheel.

When grinding use the full width of the wheel and this will stop any groves appearing, ie dont grind on one point of the wheel move the work side to side.

NEVER grind on the side of the wheel as this can explode the disc, i have seen it happen and seen it on big machines also, even a broken up 8" wheel can take your head off, seriously.

[Peaky]

Very regulary quench your work piece in water whislt grinding, bits have a habbit of getting very very quickly.

This should have read 'getting hot very quickly'

Also have the fence slightly above the centre of the wheel NEVER below the centre as this can drag work into the wheel.

Also if ever shapening things always put the bit to be sharpened upwards on the wheel, downwads will just burr the end over and after doing each side over and over you end up with a small piece, to correctally sharpen somthing it should just require a touch up on both sides.

Never press your work in to the wheel hard, let the wheel cut the material, if it takes longer then so be it.

[Peaky]

I will shut up after this i promise

I quite often use a sharpening stone for deburring and polishing, used with light machine oil you can get great reasults and never buy grit paper for a long time.

[Romstar]

I will shut up after this i promise

I quite often use a sharpening stone for deburring and polishing, used with light machine oil you can get great reasults and never buy grit paper for a long time.

Geez guys! If this keeps up, I won't have any tricks left.

Romstar