Grizzly 5963 Surface Grinder; Unbox; SetUp; Test Grind & Test Accuracy

Complete delivery, unboxing set up review and operation of this Grizzly 5963, 6x12 Surface Grinder and the Southbend 6x12 low profile magnetic chuck. Mine is a Grizzly model 5963 but this casting and design is used on many different brands of 6x12 Surface Grinders such as the Tormach 612 Surface Grinder, Palmgren Surface Grinder, Enco Surface Grinder, etc.
Wiring surface grinder motor for 230V
Balancing a surface grinding wheel with a Tormach wheel balancer
Dressing the wheel on a surface grinder
Basic machine operation of a surface grinder
Surface Grinding a Knife Blade
Test the accuracy of this surface grinder
All wiring should be completed by a certified electrician and I am not a certified electrician. Use of this information and any wiring you complete should be done by or supervised by a certified electrician.
Thanks for watching, I hope this helps you select the best 6x12 surface grinder for your shop application.

[@mxcollin95]

You sir have an awesomely equipped 1 car garage! 👍🍻

[@BladesIIB]

@mxcollin95 - Thanks, it took me a while to get it right but I love it. Appreciate the comment.

[@TrPrecisionMachining]

Good video BUD..thanks for your time

[@BladesIIB]

Tr Precision Machining - Thank you!

[@RustyInventions-wz6ir]

Oh wow. What a nice machine. I’m jealous

[@BladesIIB]

@RustyInventions-wz6ir - Thanks for the comment😎. Have definitely been happy with it so far.

[@tdg911]

Looking good Bud!

[@BladesIIB]

tdg911 - Thanks, good to hear from you. Hope your Tormach is running well.

[@RedBeardOps]

Pretty sweet machine!

[@BladesIIB]

Red Beard Ops - Thanks for the comment, I am happy with it for sure. Meets my compact size needs and impressed with the quality. Planning to make a dust catcher I can hook to the vacuum, see if I can keep the mess down a bit.

[@boltonky]

Great video and very informative. Really shows how lazy i am with setting up equipment properly but saying that a mix of lack of skills and not having the money to buy tools/accessories to do it right & the fact the more time i spend in the workshop the more i have noticed where the contractors that built and recently updated the place need to be shot (asked for a flat floor, they angled it and made a ramp that covers about 6ft when it was only meant to be 1ft found that out when my engine crane fell over)...enough complaining life goes on and hindsight doesn't help

[@BladesIIB]

boltonky - Thank you for the comment. Shop time is a life long learning journey for me. Always more to learn and master. Hang in there.

[@petelarsen721]

A little while ago I got the same machine I really like it. I ordered with 220 pre wired so no issues there but I did have the wheel come off a time or two, overall a good machine.

[@BladesIIB]

Pete Larsen - Nice to know they will pre wire for you. Good option. Glad to hear you have been happy with yours for a while. I hope to get years of service from mine now as well. Thanks for the comment.

[@petelarsen721]

@@BladesIIB as a side note I too don’t have that much experience with surface grinder I tend to feed too slowly I will try to use your method thanks Pete

[@BladesIIB]

@@petelarsen721 Sounds good. I hope it works well for you.

[@johnkoury1116]

Absolutely beautiful!! I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am able to purchase a small milling machine instead of having to build my own and then convert to cnc.

[@BladesIIB]

john koury- Thank you for the comment. All the best with your new Mill. I hope you get exactly what you want.

[@johnkoury1116]

@@BladesIIB Thank you so much. I am heading out for a 2 hour drive to go and pick up a 3 inch by 3 foot by 5 foot welding table top. My estimate is probably around 1500 to 3000 pounds. I had been looking for a table top of around a half inch but I was at an estate sale the other day and I could not pass up an incredible buy. $100 for that table is incredible. I can weld things to it and grind them off and not even worry about it. So cool.I absolutely need a milling machine though. Definitely a surface grinder as well.

[@BladesIIB]

@@johnkoury1116 Wow! Congrats that sound like a great buy as long as you can move it around. Makes my ¼” thick bench top table seem like nothing. 😁 Have a great day.

[@terrycannon2061]

My machine shop is an insect proof room i built inside my big shop. I have a real issue with mud daubers so had to build the room. It is 12' x 12'. I have 2 lathes 1 vertical mill 1 horizontal mill 1 shaper and 1 Walker Turner drill press 2 tool chest and 2 5' tall cabinets. Everything is on wheels except the vertical mill and the 2 cabinets. Both lathes are Clausing Vintage resurrections.

[@BladesIIB]

terry cannon - Sounds like a great set up and clearly good use of a limited space! Well done.

[@f.hababorbitz]

I got this exact same machine in 1991 sold mail order by Harbor Freight. I found out this is known as model MJ7115. I had difficulties with surface finish. The machine does not use angular contact ball bearings on the spindle, but deep groove cheap bearings, that is what I found last year when I tore into it. Improved surface finish greatly, as I found a matched set of angular contact bearing on eBay, but wheel balance was the next big issue. I was buying random wheels NOS from eBay, and my luck is they are discards from manufacturing issues from OEM vendors where the vitrified stone has major density issues, and were beyond balance methods of the built in hub weights, or drilling out material from the heavy side. I guess you have to pay for a balance-able wheel.

[@f.hababorbitz]

Now I'm working on dust collection. Seems a single vacuum cleaner funnel off the tangent of the spinning stone should capture most of it.

[@BladesIIB]

@@f.hababorbitz Thanks for the comments and feedback on the machine. I will look into angular bearings if that becomes an issue. So far I have been able to get my wheels to balance but no doubt there are some that will not. I was also thinking of making a dust collector shield that I could hook up to my vacuum. Let me know how yours turns out. I will post a video when I get around to making one for this machine.

[@f.hababorbitz]

@@BladesIIB Yours has the same one shot oiler mine does. That oil ends up flowing down the casting onto the stand then the floor. I ended up putting shop towels on the back side where the casting meets the stand (on both sides of the main casting). Some dripping off the front side directly onto the floor. I wish they had a moat around the casting with a drain hole so it could be captured in a small bucket. I have been trying to figure out how to add coolant. I typically never use it on my lathe or milling machine, as I'm not rushing the machining. But you've seen how you can burn the surface on the grinder. When I do use coolant it is an oil only type, as I don't want the corrosion from a mixed water based type coolant, works when you tear down setups everyday, and everything can be wiped down. So my thinking for coolant is to make a shallow 5 sided pan, and mount the mag chuck inside that pan. The pan would have a drain to a sump, or large enough for the sump to part of the pan, that could also hold the pump. The holes for the chuck clamp would be sealed with RTV silicone. Also for down feed control, I have a magnetic indicator stand on the top of the machine where the lifting hook is, and a 2" long digital indicator that reads in tenths. The indicator stem sits on top of the spindle slide. I want to put a digital read out on it, but that's another project. I have found that the down feed dial is pretty darn close to being accurate, at least in my era of machine. Also thinking of putting motors on it to drive it back and forth and step the lateral feed in. I also made my own pin wrenches to remove the wheel and mount new ones. I found used hubs off eBay, that share the same taper. I have a 3/4" wide stone I really like to use. That's a whole area I'm ignorant to, what stone for what hardness material, and type.

[@BladesIIB]

@@f.hababorbitz I have the same issue with oil dripping down. I have heard that even using a spray bottle with a little bit of coolant can make a big difference. I plan to try that before building a set up like you mention. The Dow feed on mine seems pretty accurate as well, but your dial set up seems like a pretty good back up. Thanks for sharing more about this machine.

[@taiwanluthiers]

I think having motorized feed is much better. No room for hesitation.

[@BladesIIB]

Tyler Fu - Yes, maybe one day I will play with mounting a stepper motor to control it. Could not find a surface grinder this size with automatic feed anymore. Tormach used to make one but not anymore.

[@melgross]

It’s nice, but also a lot more expensive. Doing it correctly is complex.

[@toadjam12000]

I could never run that with the swing on the right.

[@BladesIIB]

@toadjam12000 - Thanks for the comment. Hope you can find one that works for you.

[@forrestpanda]

Nice video. Though the video is already very clear but I would like to double confirm. So you have to manually move the head left-right and back-forth to grind? Also, there is no cooling liquid. I guess that would be an issue if I use it to grind the carbides(by diamond wheel). Thanks!

[@BladesIIB]

Thanks for the questions. You are correct, this is a full manual machine so you have to manually move X, Y and Z axis. There is also no coolant on this machine. Larger machines it is easier to find power feed and coolant. In one this small it is very hard. Tormach used to make one with stepper motors for feed in X and Y. I may try and add that at some point.

[@forrestpanda]

@@BladesIIB thanks very much for the reply. The grinder is a nice one considering its price anyway. I probably need to find one with automatic feeding as well as coolant systems.

[@BladesIIB]

@@forrestpanda Understand. I wish I had the space for one with both of those options.

[@johanneslaxell6641]

I have to make a really stupid question: did you grind the magnetic table after installing it on the machine? At work we grind our table every year or every second year depending on wear and tear. Our machine takes 0.004mm (0.00015") per cut. You do nice work with the machines and with the camera. Keep up showing us how you do it, and forgive me for makeing wierd questions from time to time...

[@BladesIIB]

Johannes Laxell - Great question, happy to answer here. In the video I do mention that that is the proper steps. To grind the table, grind the bottom of the Chuck, flip check for flat and grind the top. I had waited so long and had such bad luck already I skipped those steps to see how the machine would do. It did so well I plan to run it like this for a while but you are 100% correct in that you should grind in the Chuck and likely redo every so often. Appreciate the comment as always.

[@VincentFogarty]

Its All About You

[@BladesIIB]

Vincent Fogarty - I always appreciate feedback. I try to put out content that I think will be helpful for others to learn, complete a project or plan for their own shop. Sorry to hear that is not how this one came across for you. Hopefully some of my others come closer to the mark.

[@JHowell-kt5gx]

Thanks for the video. I’m thinking about getting the same machine. Have you found any issues 12 months on?

[@BladesIIB]

J Howell - Thanks for the question. No issues so far, it has not seen as much use as I had hoped at this point, other things taking priority but it has seem some use and not issues so far. Doing everything I need it to.

[@christopherenoch4230]

Been wanting to ask about your flooring... I need to do something in my shop... Where did you buy it? I've seen similar at Rural King (farm/tractor store).

[@BladesIIB]

Christopher Enoch - Yes it is 3/4” black rubber. Comes in 4’x6’ pieces. I get it from Tractor Supply it is sold for mobile horse stalls. I think it makes a great shop floor. Not the most cushion but better than concrete. Easy to clean up and saves parts when you drop something.

[@christopherenoch4230]

@@BladesIIB Thanks a bunch! Loved this video and how you're learning, making mistakes, and sharing with us. Where can the knives be purchased?

[@BladesIIB]

@@christopherenoch4230 Thanks glad you enjoyed it. Happy to share what really goes on in the shop, the good the bad and the ugly. I have a website where knives and my bottle openers can be purchased. Openers are in stock. I should have this batch of 5 knives finished in a couple weeks - www.BladesIIB.com or www.Blades2B.com.

[@virgilnearing9148]

You need to block it in with thin parallels.

[@BladesIIB]

@virgilnearing9148 - Yes, thanks for the comment. I am doing that now. Usually multiple at a time which holds across well. And I use a thin parallel at the end to ensure I am on the magnetic portion and secure.

[@quoc1465]

Thanks for making this video. So you'd say this surface grinder is accurate to 0.0002"?

[@BladesIIB]

Quoc - Thanks for the feedback, glad it was helpful. Yes I am consistently getting .0002”-.0003” across about 8” X for the set of parts I typically grind. And I still have not ground in the chuck so that could make it even better?

[@quoc1465]

@@BladesIIB Awesome! I’m highly considering this.

[@BladesIIB]

@@quoc1465 For the price point it is pretty tough to beat and the quality was higher than I expected. Good luck finalizing your plans. Power feed would be nice but the size of the unit just gets to large for me and the small amount of grinding I do. Maybe one day I will venture into stepper motors and try to automate it.

[@gregorynorth80]

Hello, I know this is old news, but I just got the same surface grinder I got it all dialed in and ran it making light cuts and the motor is HOT too hot to touch. Is this normal it’s just currently running off 110v I’m a little stumped. Just wanted to reach out and ask before I call Grizzly. Thank you

[@BladesIIB]

Gregory North - Congrats in the new grinder and thanks for the question. I never actually ran mine on 110 but I can tell you that after I got it set up correctly it seems to run pretty cool on 220. I have run it for a couple of hours and believe I could still hold my hand on it? Not sure at what point I checked but heat was an issue when I was shorting out the windings so I remember periodically checking the housing when I got it going and it was never that hot. May be worth a call to Grizzly. Their customer support was really good every time I called them.

[@gregorynorth80]

@@BladesIIB thank you I was going to switch it to 220v but wanted to avoid doing the extra work lol

[@BladesIIB]

@@gregorynorth80 Yes, my thought with 220 was less amps and theoretically cooler running. If you do change it, when done correctly it should only be a few minute operation. Just don’t do it my way, that clearly took a long time 😂😂. Hopefully my pain and learning will make it even easier to change yours over.

[@gregorynorth80]

@@BladesIIB thank you

[@zanechristenson3436]

Definitely wanna make sure everything is tight lol. forgive my ignorance but why are people surface grinding knives now? I can understand plane blades as you want the back to be ultra flat but knives, especially those with double bevels, not getting that. Maybe the fit with the handle? Don’t think those require a thou of clearance though lol

[@BladesIIB]

Zane Christenson - Yes, no kidding. Learned that pretty quickly on this one. Thankfully not with a part loaded. Thanks for the comment.

[@eddiekulp1241]

Is machine designed to use coolant ?

[@BladesIIB]

@eddiekulp1241 - No, this little unit is not designed for coolant. No pan to catch it or return it to a sump. Could use a spray bottle would be about the only option without some fabrication of a pan. Thanks for the question.

[@HolzMichel]

Bud: a little tip for when you begin grinding operations: lay a piece of paper on the work piece and lower the wheel down to it. when you're close, rotate the wheel by hand and when the wheel touches paper you're close enough to pull the paper out and begin grinding. that way you avoid mishaps like at 57:29 ...the simple act of pulling the work off the mag plate will change things enough to cause a problem. also, 0.001 of an inch is a really big cut for that little machine. while that sounds a little over the top, but keep in mind you don't have a heavy spindle, bearings and guides to take a big cut. don't ever place the tip of a blade against the back stop, use the butt end so it has something to run up against. a tapered work piece will always try to ride up onto the back stop and mess the whole thing up. it's better to lay the work piece onto the mag base and put some kind of spacer down so the work can't be dragged across the mag base. dry grinding will also cause the mag base to warp ever so slightly as the heat from the work transfers to the mag base and cause some interesting cut patterns as the material warps in absence of a cooling system, you can always resort to recycling an old windex bottle and filling it with coolant and spraying it onto the work piece periodically. it's a pain in the ass, but it does work well to mitigate heat buildup in the work, and also provide some minor lubrication for the grinding wheel. you can also mount a vacuum hose the catch board at the end of the table to catch the grinding dust... cuts down on the mess considerably. the dust will get into *EVERYTHING* eventually as a side note, most surface grinders have glide bearings like your machine does. my ABA Werke grinder (an FF series) has the same kind of glide bearings in the table and cross slide. these are superior to ball bearing grinders as the table glides on a film of oil. the ball bearing type machines wear out much faster and defects in the grind pattern materialize much much faster than gliders

[@BladesIIB]

HolzMichel - I appreciate the tips and will work to implement them. Was thinking of using some Kydex to make a nice scoop to attach the vacuum to because for sure the dust is bad. Thanks for the comment.

[@JSmith19858]

0.001" is nothing, even for a machine that small and flimsy. I will happily take 0.4mm/15thou off on a pass on our little Herbert Junior with a lovely surface finish on a 46 grit wheel. One issue is his stepover is too large and he's only cutting with the table moving in one direction. Lots of passes with 0.5-0.75mm stepover, cutting in both directions.

[@HolzMichel]

@@JSmith19858 so you're taking an even smaller cut on the cross feed (when calculating the cross section of the material being taken off) my ABA FF61 is a really stout machine and can handle a fairly robust cut, but i don't take that big of a cut with it. even with a coarse wheel due to heating issues of the work piece. every machine has different handling characteristics so working it out is probably the most important thing here. also, the taper you run into your wheel taking a bigger side cut won't always produce the kind of finish needed in a knife

[@BladesIIB]

@@JSmith19858 Thanks for the feedback I will try modifying the step over. Not sure I am ready to try .015”, May need coolant for that. 😁

[@JSmith19858]

@@BladesIIB That's OK. 15thou is a little excessive, that much should really be taken off before grinding, and certainly the last cuts I took that were that heavy were only really to show apprentices what can be done with a small machine. Depending on the part being machined coolant isn't always nessesary.

[@jonathanoostendorp40]

I have your grinder's great grandpa. Its called a Grenby S2. 5x10 magnet. If you look up Grenby, you will see this is what they copied.

[@BladesIIB]

Jonathan Oostendorp - Thanks for sharing, that looks like it for sure. The motor mount and pulley set up looks good on yours. May give it more balance.

[@be007]

i bet that the motor withit the wrong wiring turned the wrong way and that caused the wheel coming loose

[@BladesIIB]

ben - That could be. I think it went the right way and just kept power to the start winding and smoked it - that said, I clearly was not having a good attention to detail day and backwards May have caused it. I did have another Owner of the same machine mention he had a wheel come loose once as well so May just need to ensure it is tight enough? Thanks for the comment.

[@be007]

@@BladesIIB may i ask you how much you payed for this mill, i see prices from 995, and 1995 up till 3500, however, 995 lookes to good to be true ?

[@BladesIIB]

@@be007 You asked about mill price but I assume you mean the surface grinder? If so I purchased it from Grizzly and I think it was $3295. I see that the price has gone up now and it is $3555 for this model.

[@SoBoring136]

That was painful to watch

[@BladesIIB]

Jk ghost sweat JkmkAk - Yes, painful experience as well. Hoping my pain can save others the same. Appreciate the comment.

[@seth1702]

Oh man, so cool! This channel needs P r o m o S M!!!

[@BladesIIB]

Seth - Thanks! I hope to keep growing the channel and maybe that will happen some day. For now I am happy people are finding it helpful and I can share a little of my experience. Appreciate the comment.