Baldor Grinder Modification

[George Pagliarulo]

I have a Baldor grinder and the Wolverine sharpening jig. I cannot use the Wolverine’s flat plate attachment because it hits the front of the grinder guard, preventing me from moving it close enough to the wheel. I’m thinking of cutting away the front of the guard where the red line is. Anyone see any issues with this?
Worst case I could just attach the platform that came with the grinder but I’d rather not have togo back and forth.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Been there , Done that! I don't have any problem with it and that cast iron is easy to cut off.

 

[hockenbery]

I have removed some cast iron using the abrasive wheels in angle grinders and a dremel to get inside a tailstock.

You will want to soften the cut edge which can slice body parts.

You could also cut a slot in the front. Just an option not a recommendation.

 

[Paul M. Kaplowitz]

Replace your grit wheels with CNB wheels and you can remove the guards.

 

[John Ames]

Chop that sucker right off…. No problem at all

 

[Isaac Fisher]

Or add a larger plate to the top of your platform. That’s easy too.

 

[robo hippy]

I did bob the noses on one of my Baldor grinders, not sure if I did it on the other one. Yes, you can remove the outside wheel guard, but you can't remove the inside one since it is the dust shield for the inside of the grinder. It is sealed for a reason.

robo hippy

 

[Chris Hoehle]

That's exactly what they did at Arrowmont, so if it's good enough for them...

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

This is what I did with mine when I first got the wolverine jig but then I got a grinder with the CBN wheels and kept the Baldor for other purposes using the regular wheels. The The threaded holes are visible for mounting the Wolverine.

 

[Steve Worcester]

On my Baldor, if you take the wheels off, there are long bolts that go through the body. If you loosen them, don’t remove them, you can rotate the guards

 

[Daniel Warren]

I wouldn't cut it. There is a strong demand for these grinders and the more complete they are, the more they fetch.

I removed the guards entirely on my Baldor.

 

[Bob Vaughan]

"Worst case I could just attach the platform that came with the grinder but I’d rather not have togo back and forth."

You can always put on a couple of Kipp handles instead of bolts. Just loosen the handles and let the arm and platform swing down out of the way. That's what I do.
The bottom two shots illustrate the Kipp handles on an 8" grinder.
The top shows a bobbed inside guard. Because this is a 7" grinder, it wasn't really necessary.

 

[Bruce Whitaker]

I must agree with Daniel. Do not butcher that grinder. This is my Baldor 8107 WD 3/4 hp, 115 v, 8” grinder with the original Wolverine platform. This grinder lists new in the neighborhood of $1300.00.

Instead, make a new arm to replace the the original Wolverine arm. It is only 3/4” square tubing that you can get cheap at the big box store. If you cannot weld it, fabricate the angle and have a friend, club member, or pay a pro to weld it.
Here is a comparison of my homemade arm and the Wolverine arm.


You have already worked to get the Wolverine bases to the right height for your grinder. Why not put a bit more effort into a modification to the Wolverine system that will leave grinder and its guards intact?

 

[Tom Gall]

I have a Baldor grinder and the Wolverine sharpening jig. I cannot use the Wolverine’s flat plate attachment because it hits the front of the grinder guard, preventing me from moving it close enough to the wheel. I’m thinking of cutting away the front of the guard where the red line is. Anyone see any issues with this?
Worst case I could just attach the platform that came with the grinder but I’d rather not have togo back and forth.
View attachment 62834

George, hard to tell from your photo but it looks like your platform has the short side (from the pivot point) near the wheel. Just looked at my Wolverine platform - it has a short side & long side from the pivot. Perhaps, you can remove the bolt and reverse the platform so the longer side is near the wheel, which would probably give you enough to clear the Baldor casting. It might be a little off center but probably not enough to matter. Just a thought.

 

[Kevin Jesequel]

Here’s what I did:

Baldor Grinder “fix”

A few months ago I spotted a 1hp Baldor grinder on marketplace for a heck of a deal. Needless to say, I acquired it. The only issue with it was that the 1hp is sized for 10” wheels. I didn’t want to put 10” CBN wheels because with the grinder speed of 1800 RPM, the surface speed of a 10” wheel...

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