Vintage Thornton surface grinder

Frank Hunter

Frank Hunter

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty pleased with the latest piece of equipment. It's a Thornton surface grinder, complete with chuck and 2 x 72" belt conversion and ready to go - got it for a song and the previous owner who was very competent with it is up for showing me the ropes. Anything I need to know about these? I'm not going to do anything more than clean the ways as we likely got all the surfaces gritty moving it disassembled, then put it back together in it's new location until I get some instruction. I'll have more photos up later - getting ready for my first show and it's turning out to be quite the weekend already.

0803131216.jpg
 
Awesome score Frank.

Pretty easy to use.

It's a good idea to block your parts in with some thin scrap bits.

A sharp 50 grit will take a .010 pass. I usually will do .005 each pass unless I'm really wanting to thin the stock.

I transverse .050 on the crossfeed which is half a turn on my Boyar Shultz.

With a 220 belt I'll go .002 per pass.

That's as high as I ever go but know others go to much higher grits.

You'll be loving this thing in no time flat !

-Josh
 
I'm jealous! I've been searching for one so far but really haven't found any deals.

And Josh, way to be subtle!
 
It has a serrated wheel and apparently 5" x 10" of table travel. About how high in the grits are the guys going? If I could get to a good level 400 grit surface I can directly go to hand sanding and knock a lot of time off mirroring my flats, that's for sure.
 
You can go as high as you want Frank. I just typically don't have much in the way of belts beyond 220

I've heard some folks going up to 1200x on theirs

-Josh
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top