A Great Shop Grinder

I was out in Utah visiting a buddy when on one of our scrounging adventures I discovered a Baldor 12 inch grinder for sale. This thing is a brute, but it is also pretty beat up looking from sitting outside. I paid the man 75 Bucks for the opportunity to take a possible pile of scrap home to play with.

Well, I should have known I was chewing on a mouthful when it was decided the grinder and pallet had to be loaded into my truck with a forklift. This made Ruby squat a bit and caused me to wonder how I was going to get this thing out of the truck.

Well, I have no pictures of how rough she looked, but we got it back to my buddy's house, took it apart to get it out of the truck, then proceeded to spend the better part of a week scrounging parts, sandblasting, knocking off grinding concretion, and painting.

About 115 Dollars later and we get it working! Most of the refurbishing cost was in replacing the safety visors, but I also replaced every nut, bolt, and washer possible with stainless steel and bought two rattle cans of paint along the way.

Here it is in the background. This grinder is the largest Baldor grinder that is single phase; meaning it is also the largest grinder likely to be found in a home garage. For a total investment of $190, I now have a refurbished grinder that would cost about $1500 new. The only thing I should replace is the magnetic starter, and then only because the on/off buttons are beat up looking

There is no doubt that a grinder is a requirement in any garage. I just think there's a little Tool Time in all of us so there's nothing at all wrong with overkill.

This is what scrounging is all about. Find something cheap, refurbish it myself, have something nice for far less than it would normally cost to obtain it. Use the leftover garage budget money to find something else to play with.