Tormach Personal Surface Grinder! PSG 612 - Just Arrived! First cuts...

New Equipment! The Tormach Personal Surface Grinder - a.k.a PSG 612 - just arrived! Still need to "get to know" the machine well, but wanted to do a quick introduction video and a test cut on a piece of 4140. You'll notice the machine is wobbling some; it isn't nearly as obvious in person (the camera emphasizes it) but, regardless, absolutely need to get it level and steady.
Looking forward to learning this machine (I have NO surface grinding experience) and nailing down some precision parts! Should be very useful for the jacket drawing dies too. 5 Reasons to Use a Fixture Plate on Your CNC Machine: bit.ly/3sNA4uH

[@Buckrun11]

Love that grinder. I have an old Rockwell surface grinder. I got it when I bought a shop. I really don't know much about it. It also has a magnetic table. I am looking forward to more of your videos so I can learn how to use mine. I want to see how you dress the chuck. I am going to look to see if I can add a indicator to mine. Thanks looking forward to more videos.

[@russtuff]

Congrats John! This is on my LONG list of stuff to get when I grow up ;)

[@gbowne1]

Glad I can help. He solved my problems. Which were feedrate, coolant and wheel selection related.

[@austin3538]

nice grinder great addition to any machine shop

[@badWithComputer]

I hope Tormach gave you a discount for all the promotion you'll be giving them. I hadn't heard of tormach until i subbed to you and the grimsmo bros.

[@nickmann5822]

How?

[@rjmars1]

Good video. Thank you for turning off the wheel before putting your hands around it. I got thirty five years as a machinist and I've seen a lot of fingers that got ground away by not following safety rule number one.

[@cumulo25]

NYC CNC If your table has enough travel, you can move the chuck all the way to the right so you can do what you need to do without having your hand near the rotating wheel. Also when you put work on the chuck, be sure it's impeccably clean, one speck of grinding dust can screw up a part's dimensions, parallelism, etc. Surface grinders are a big pain in the ass too.

[@mc2racing7emh]

Good video! Thanks for sharing.

[@Cheezzyizill]

Hey when you use the grinder to touch off, just get the wheel close to part by eye( i would suggest getting a lamp for the machine to help with touching off and other things you may encounter) and manually move the table back and along the X-axis While SLOWLY moving the wheel down. Something to note is when your close to touching off you'll hear the wheel coming off the edges of the part that's when your at the point of touching the part. This is so you can touch off with the wheel on and it's way quicker to do.

[@JohnGrimsmo]

Awesome!

[@alexandermcgilton9204]

Been looking forward to seeing this video for a while now. The tormach is one of few if any electric feed surface grinders, offering alot to hobby consumer market. The only complaint I see with the tormarch is lack of dust extraction. Only toolroom grinders will be without coolant or a vacuum, and to be used with only occasional use. The kind of production grinding outlined in the Design Analysis absolutely need dust extraction, Otherwise the auto feed is a gimmick if it cant run continuously.

[@tylercunningham3275]

I don't know if this is right or wrong but I was taught that you don't turn the wheel off after you have dressed it.

[@adisharr]

Looks like another nice unit from Tormach :) I know next to nothing about grinding but it seems like the guys I work with running the surface grinder are always dressing that wheel. They use a diamond tipped tool mounted in a block that gets clamped in the vice. Theirs is a very old machine though - all manually operated.

[@alexandermcgilton9204]

Some notes on safety and operation. Before grinding the wheel needs to dressed to ensure a smooth uninterrupted cut, this is to be done with a diamond tool at the correct position Page15 of the g5963 manual. Touching of the wheel to the work should be done with the motor running, and a slow approach to the far right corner of the work with an eights inch of wheel width. Should you crash down wards there will be only a little skip.

[@gbowne1]

I guess theres a Tormach lathe out too. Looked cool.

[@outsidescrewball]

Nice unit, I have an old manual Browne &Sharpe, going to see if I can add a dial indicator setup like you have, that would be nice

[@alexandermcgilton9204]

Say your grinding a large piece of steel with a 0.001 depth of cut and 0.1 feed for every pass of the X. At first all cutting is made by the first 0.1 of the wheels width, the rest is the spark out region that only rubs and polishes the surface. With further use the spark out regain is reduced and the cutting section increases. When the spark out region is shorter then the Y feed, you then no longer have any over lap.

[@alexandermcgilton9204]

I have used all the best brands of surface grinders churchill, chevalier, boyar schultz, rockford, sharp, and my own harig. And not one had a column lock. You are in stead expected to have the Z ways tight. The Y and occasional X lock are vary use full though.

[@meocats]

it becomes one with nature

[@ipadize]

first you got to grind the magnetic table then put the piece on it with extra parts behind it so it will not get thrown off the magnetic table... if you have finished the first side just flip it over and put it on the magnetic table again so both sides are perfectly parallel :)

[@gbowne1]

Phil is good. I like his content. I had a lot of luck with my grinding after consulting The Grinding Doc. The price of Phil's subscribe its not cheap but he does have good content. I think you'll have luck with grinding.

[@gbowne1]

workpiece burning (almost heat hardening), poor finish, extreme wheel wear and needed lots of dressing. Jeff fixed my problems, as I followed his recommendations to the letter. Everything else I tried to remedy it, didn't work.

[@gbowne1]

I'm considering doing a workshop series in my shop locally on grinding. The instruction I got from The Grinding Doc, I now use to train the operators of my grinding equipment in my shop.

[@gbowne1]

yes, Seattle, WA

[@missinglinkblades7480]

Never stop and start the wheel with out redressing it with a diamond touch the part with wheel running and never make more than a .001 cut and always check wheel for any damage so it won't explode have fun with it

[@snaggs63]

I want one!!

[@AndyX]

4th most usefull tool in the shop

[@AndyX]

mill lathe saw

[@alexandermcgilton9204]

You may have heard that said in an educational environment as a rule of thumb to convince you to dress often, but by no means is that correct. Provided the bearings are in good condition and the wheel is secure, turning off the motor will not compromise the precision or surface finish. Ideally the wheel should be dressed just before the sparkout section becomes less then the Y feed. Between passes often the work is removed to messier, at this time it's necessary to stop the motor for safety.

[@carter102]

Can you attach a spindle to it? Make it a surface grinder and cylindrical grinder? Any sort of tight tolerance shafts, a cylindrical grinder is vital.

[@GeofDumas]

so you'll be wanting me to send over some blade steel to get accustomed to 400 series? haha if you insist... As for information, the only thing I really know is that, for parts with questionable rigidity on the chuck, you'll want to use that comb-shaped feed pattern. That way, if it moves a bit, it'll just kick out a bit, rather than over-feeding and getting pinched under the wheel and subsequently shot into the spark-catcher-thingy

[@ipadize]

the grinding wheel should ALWAYS get dressed before an operation with a diamond tip and it should be also ALWAYS turned on because if you turn it on and off the wheel slips a little on the shaft and is no more cylindrical...

[@bettner12]

Keep that spindle on!! Anytime the spindle is shut off, the wheel should be redressed.

[@meocats]

chatter ripple was due to Z not locked or base not mounted and the flimsy machine flexing, or another solution the electronics should provide a smooth acceleration/deceleration

[@nickmann5822]

Unlike a mill you have the machine on to touch off.

[@BkbladzZz]

how much did that cost cant find anything on it

[@GeofDumas]

haha, nope. Not that I know of at least. I just have a handful of the stuff I'll eventually need to send out to be ground to .125

[@gbowne1]

Theres tons of different chucks for grinding. A lot of its experimental.

[@ibrich42222]

Would it be rude to ask what you paid for the grinder. So I can not find a price on the internet. Thanks, Rude Rich

[@lepompier132]

Did you dress the wheel ?

[@gbowne1]

You can always ask "The Grinding Doc" Dr. Jeffrey A. Badger. He has a really great site. Google it. It's "thegrindingdoc". I find his advice spot on.

[@davewood406]

If you haven't already,it is probably worth checking out thetoolanddieguy(dot)com. It isn't free but he does cover surface grinding along with other machinist stuff.

[@meocats]

why?

[@HHall1729]

check out Suburban tools Don Bailey he is Sharp and free surface grinding HHall

[@meocats]

its not free

[@MrEdfinn]

If I ever seen a guy in my shop stop a wheel to touch off on the work id never let him hear the end of it. Not only are you wasting a bunch of time but why even dress a wheel if you are just going to stop it. Pointless.

[@MrEdfinn]

opps didn't realize you were so new to surface grinding. Try just dressing your wheel, bring it close by eye over the piece. Either by hand or using your power feed just drop it a half to a full .001 from side to side until you dust it man.

[@larrykent196]

Painful to watch.