this project has been going on for a few months now when time permits. this all started when my employer decided to get a different small surface grinder since this one has seen better days. by the time i ended up with it some key parts had been taken off the machine so restoring it would have cost to much and to be honest i am not a fan of swinging handles on a grinder. so after looking at it for a bit i decided to work on converting it into a small horizontal mill. i had a lot of spare parts so buying parts was not needed so much. if nothing else the 1,500lbs of machine made for a good base to build from for a small mill.

the cast iron head of the grinder was big enough to fit a BT30 spindle tapper in so that's the plan for the spindle. the original motor was only 1 HP so that is being upgraded to a 3HP 3 phase inverter duty motor running off a VFD and am planning on a power draw bar with an air cylinder. no plans for any ATC just something set up for quick manual tool changes.

if nothing else this should be interesting at the very least it gives me something to tinker with and keeps me out of trouble some pictures of the busted down machine. if the machine was not free i don't think i would do this but since it was nothing ventured nothing gained is basically how i look at it now.

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