Tools/pedgrinder

Viceroy TDS Pedestal Grinder

Introduction

Viceroy Pedestal Grinder

The pedestal grinder is suitable for use with hardened metals only! The use of softer materials on it causes the wheels to become clogged which means it grinds less effectively, is more likely to grab at work and can become unbalanced and increases the risk of a wheel shattering. It also means the wheels have to be re-dressed to restore normal performance; Re-dressing is a dirty, nasty job and doing this too often shortens the life of the wheels considerably. For softer materials such as aluminium or low-carbon steels the belt-sanders or an angle grinder with a flap-disc are probably more appropriate for surface finishing or the angle grinders with a grinding disc on them will remove more material. If you're using the wheel and you start to see it getting shiny at all that's a sign a clogging, STOP!

The Right-hand wheel is a coarse grit used for crude shaping of tools, the left-hand wheel is a finer grit that can be used for putting a finer finish onto tools. For tools to use with wood or plastic then additional honing may be needed, for tools for use on harder metals then the finish provided by the fine grit wheel is likely to be sufficient. The yellow water trough at the front of the grinder can be used for cooling tools while grinding. Water must only be applied to the work-piece, NEVER directly to the wheels.

Current Status

Date	Status	Comment
14th May 2022	Non-Functional	Wheels being replaced. Needs rewiring.

Materials that are safe for use

If you have a material that you're not sure about then you can test it with a file. Get a standard metalworking file and run it over the material with a moderate ammount of pressure, compared the results to the images below to know if the material can be safely ground on the pedestal grinder

Image	Material	Result
	Plastics	Not OK - Plastics must never be ground on these wheels, File cuts deeply into the material
	Aluminium ( any grade )	Not OK - Aluminium must never be ground on these wheels, File cuts deeply into the materials
	Brass ( any grade )	Not OK - Brass must never be ground on these wheels, File doesn't cut in too deeply but does remove material from the surface
	Low Carbon Steels	Not OK - Most standard low-carbon steels cannot be used on these wheel, File will cut in if pressed firmly
	Bronze (Regular)	Usually Not OK - Regular Bronze is too soft to be used on these wheels, some super-hard bronzes can be ground.
	High-Carbon Steels	OK - High carbon Steels can be ground safely, file lightly scratches surface but will not cut into materials significantly
	SilverSteel	OK - SilverSteel can be ground safely, file barely marks the surface
	HSS	OK - HSS Tool Steels can be ground safely, file might scratch corners slightly but mostly fails to mark the surface, feels like it's just skipping over it.
	Cobalt/Molybdenum/Tungsten Steels	OK - High-alloy tool steels can be ground safely, file completely fails to mark the surface, contact is very low-friction, just skips over it
	Tungsten (TIG Electrodes)	Mostly OK - Tungsten is very hard but can be ground with care
	Tungsten Carbide Tools	Not OK - Tungsten carbide is too hard, will damage the wheels, materials marks the file!

Planned Upgrades

We're soon going to be upgrading the grinder with brand-new grinding wheels including a green-stone wheel that can be used to sharpen brazed carbide tooling for the lathe and milling machine. The grinder is going to become an induction-required tool when that happens.

Grinder Caretakers

Inductions

The following people are able to provide inductions on the Pedestal Grinder

• Ian P

Maintainers

These are the people who look after and repair the grinder, they're the ones to contact if there's any problems with it

• Ian P
• Scott M

Recent Changes

If you make any non-trivial changes to the grinder or perform maintenance please note it here, delete records older than 1 yr

• Redressed fine wheel Stever (talk) 08:55, 22 January 2022 (UTC)
• Redressed both wheels, someone's been at the aluminium again.... Coarse wheel edge is rounded over, fine wheel is not running true, both should be replaced Stever (talk) 13:28, 27 August 2021 (BST)
• Redressed fine wheel, fine wheel needs replacing soon. Stever (talk) 14:31, 3 May 2021 (BST)
• Redressed wheels, someone's been grinding aluminium again :( - Stever (talk) 13:28, 12 September 2018 (UTC)
• Redressed the wheels, only light redressing this time Stever (talk) 09:18, 19 November 2019 (UTC)
• Redressed the wheels, aluminium on them again, coarse wheel is approaching end-of-life Stever (talk) 19:43, 29 January 2020 (UTC)
• Redressed the wheels, added warning label. Stever (talk) 16:27, 7 October 2020 (BST)