Small grinding wheel restoration

[tombear]

Ok I forgot to do the before photo but a while back I picked up a battered and rusty hand cranked grinding wheel and yesterday I picked up a new six inch wheel for it at the carboot.

I'd stripped it down ( the insides where immaculate ) and soaked it in a strong, hot citric acid solution for a few hours which ate away all the rust and loosened all of the remains of the old paint. A extended period with the wire wheel and 5 mins with the Dremmel to get in the nooks and crannies and it was cleaned up.

i then played hunt the grease and ended up using graphite grease from a Aussie SLR cleaning kit and gave it a good dose while I put it back together.

Unfortunately the hole in the wheel is slightly too big so I will have to find a bit of tube to make it fit, or wrap a bit of tape around the spindle to centre it while the domed washer things are tightened.

Not bad for £3 and some elbow grease!

ATB

Tom

 

[Monikieman]

I knew the hot citric acid worked on brass etc (not too strong mind you) but not on rust.

Need to find something at a car boot to try it on

Looking very nice. Cheers

 

[tombear]

It works really well but you do need to polish or wire brush the new surface as it tarnishes/ goes black extremely quickly if you don't.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

A few turns of electricians tape gave a good tight fit and it works great! I'm rather chuffed with it to be honest.

atb

Tom

 

[British Red]

Very smart - really lovely job

 

[ozzy1977]

Cracking job, my neighbour had one of those but his family put it in the skip when they put him in a home, I still hope to find one at the car boot.

 

[Paulm]

Nice job

I have one too, cleaned it up and then repainted it, greased the internals and new wheel just like yours. Have to say I do prefer the bare metal look on yours though !

Having done all that it now sits in a cupboard in the workshop not getting used sadly, although it is surprisingly effective, just that I've got a few other powered grinders that I tend to go to without thinking about it !

Cheers, Paul

 

[tombear]

Cheers!

oddly enough if I'd had some decent metal painted I would have slapped it on. I must admit its a bit of a whim this one, I've a perfectly good Creusen bench grinder and when I shifted a de-ac L4A3 rather than see the cash evaporate I splashed out on a Tormek-7.

the kids love winding it madly, I should fit it to a dynamo!

atb

Tom