denbigh grinder

Hi Guys,


Here is a picture of my latest project. It is marked as The Denbigh and the only other marks on it are LK3881 3S1 on the shaft - no idea what that means! It was described as a grinder with no other information supplied. I have not been able to find out anything about it eg its age but possibly 1920/30s? On the 'hood' there is a threaded pipe which I assume was to connect a water supply?. The greasers have the number 3 on them - 1 has it in the centre and the other has it on the edge. I would add that it is cast iron and very heavy!

The belt changer was seized but that was an easy fix, however the loose pulley of the fast and loose combination is seized ie not loose at all! Any idea on how to free it? There is no way to get a puller on it so I am giving it a lot of freeing agent to see if that will loosen it.
i had thought that I could belt it up to a Lister D and rally it but it looks like it was for use with a line shaft with the belt coming from above ( because of the position of the belt shifter) , I will now have to see if the belt shifter forks can be extended so that it can be used on the level.

If anyone could supply any information on this machine ,or the ways forward  it would be much appreciated.
All the best,
Kev.

Nice bit of kit! I would agree about the water supply, which I guess then drained out of the 2 holes in the trough?

It would be more work, but could you set up a shaft above it driven by another belt from the engine to show how it would have been driven?

Nice! Does look heavy but solid just what you want in a grinder.
Could you extend the shifter arms with bent tube (for example) so they then point down and either side of the belt possibly secured to the existing with grub screws.

Alan

Locknut,
May I suggest its a wet stone grinder, you wouldnt have the type of wheel thats now in it.

Maryalice

Hi Guys,
Thanks for your replies.
I think that you are right in that it was a wet stone grinder, but the wheel that is on it now has, by the look of it, been on it for a long time. I still haven't found any pictures of one on the internet anywhere so have nothing to compare it to.
The water would exit through the slot under the wheel. The 2 holes - there are actually a total of 4 equally spaced holes which I think were used to bolt it down to a bench.
i will be looking to extend the forks and like the idea of using hollow tubes with grub screws  which means that if a future owner wants they can convert it back to its original state.
I am still having trouble with the loose pulley in that there is no hint of movement in it at all. It does have a yellow metal ( brass?) bearing which I wouldn't have thought should give a problem. I may well end up sticking it in a bucket of diesel for a week or so to see if that helps.
Kev.

Manufacturers of wet and dry tool grinders.

More info on the company here: http://www.lathes.co.uk/denbigh/index.html

Thanks for that information, much appreciated. It certainly gives me more of an idea of what the company did.
Kev,

Hi Guys,



Here is a picture of the grinder without its shaft and pullies. The long slot in the centre is for the grinding wheel, what the other shorter slot is for I have no idea. The 4 equally spaced  holes are, I think, for bolting the unit to a bench.
I have the part of the shaft with the pullies soaking in a bucket of diesel in the hopes that this will free off the loose pulley ( which is far from loose at the moment!).
Kev.

I don/t think it/s a grinder it/s more like a whetstone sharpening stone for a fine edge

Hi Guys,
I have left the shaft with the pullies on soaking in a bucket of diesel for 10 weeks now. Today a friend called so I got him to lift the shaft out and see if the 'loose' pulley was now loose  - it wasn't! I think that now I am going to have to use heat on the shaft to try and free the pulley, my only doubt is that the bearing is yellow metal which I think is brass. My question is - by heating the shaft will this distort the brass bearing? Probably a silly question but I have not applied heat near to brass before! Any ideas? Thanks.
Kev.

I may get some abuse but here goes
If you upend the shaft in a bucket of water to keep it cool with the pulleys above water and apply heat to the pulleys would that not cause the pulleys to expand without overheating the bearings?

Brass and steel will expand at varying rates so you may find it jammed still when hot.

Maryalice

maryalice wrote:Brass and steel will expand at varying rates so you may find it jammed still when hot.

Maryalice

Thermal Expansion Coefficients (approx)

Brass 19
Steel 13

So brass expanding faster than steel will still be stuck as its inside the pulley.

Maryalice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA-WJyq19H8  

Admittedly in Kev's case we have dissimilar metals but, regardless, I think repeated heat cycling might help - especially with some penetrating fluid.

Hi Guys,
Thanks for all your thoughts and advice - much appreciated.
I think that I will go down the line of repeated heating - not to red heat - and using plenty of penetrating fluid. I will let you know the results in due course.
Kev,

One other thought, do you have a large freezer, I've done this before with my lathe tail stock shaft and a tangless morse taper. Put the shaft and pulleys in the freezer and leave in there for several days, get your gas torch ready and remove the pulleys from the freezer and heat the pulleys up without heating the shaft directly then with gloves on hold the pulley and bump the shaft on a wooden block.

Maryalice

Hi. Thanks for that idea, I would never have thought of that! I can see the reasoning but am unable to give it a go in this case as the shaft is 26" long and wont fit into my freezer.
I will however file that idea away for use on smaller items in the future. Thank you.
Kev.

Success!
I applied heat to the shaft followed by penetrating fluid - still no movement. There is a small gap between the pullies, as shown in the first post, I was able to get part of a builders bolster in to it and tapped it - the gap slowly increased, by using various wedges I was able to get the 'loose' pulley off - success at last!
The shaft was rusted and covered in crud, this was cleaned off. Shaft greased, pulley back on and it now spins freely.
Now to make a trolley to mount it on.
Kev.

Great news! Propane, Plus Gas and Patience.