The Craftmans Shop > New from Old

Who's afraid...

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one_rod:

...of the little bad Wolf?

My brother in law was clearing out his garden shed.
"Want an old grinder?" he said. "Found it under the bench"

Not really. I've got enough grinders, and I'm not into collecting things I don't have a use for. Besides I was expecting it to be some cacky piece of far-eastern tat, that had been in a damp shed for years and would probably blow the electrics in my shop first time it was plugged in.

"Yeah, sure. I'll have a look at it" I said. Because I'm daft.

Anyway, it turned out to be this...

Those of us old enough to remember the days when Made In England really meant something, will know that these were very solid, properly built little machines.

It obviously had one or two "issues". Missing guards, damaged mains cable, the on/off switch seemed to have an agenda of it's own regarding stopping and starting the motor, and when it was running, the bearings were very noisy.
Still, it ran. That meant the stator windings were intact, and everything else on a machine of this era would be repairable. And indeed, worth repairing. Because by then, I'd actually thought of a use for it.


So the strip-down begins. Base plate off first, and a quick blast of compressed air to shift about half a pound of wood dust, and the inevitable arachnid colony.



End bells off, and drift the bearings out.



Ditch the mains cable and that dodgy switch. Everything else, electrical-wise, seems fine.



The paint on those end bells had seen better days and was flaking off in places, but solidly stuck in others. It's hammer finish enamel and seemed to be impervious to paint stripper.



No choice but to spend a couple hours with a wire brush and some elbow grease.
Who am I kidding. Took them into work and put them through an Aqua-blast machine. Five minutes each, job done.


And a quick coat of clear laquer.



Shiny, shiny new bearings.



And a bit of contrast colour on the stator housing.



Nice new switch and cable, and fit her all back together, along with a couple of Proops' finest cheap-and-cheerful pigtails.



The soap guards were a bit of an experiment, and will need some alteration. But for now, quite happy that I didn't just tell him to bin the thing before I'd seen it.

Pete.:
That's a nice re-appropriation. I like it!

hermetic:
A little gem, and a good restore!

sparky961:
Very nice.  The contrasting colours make it really stand out!

jcs0001:
Great job.  That will be a handy tool for a long time to come.

John.

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