Bench Grinder (200mm/8")

The size is 200mm, an eight-inch machine, and it takes wheels measured 200 x 20 x 16mm. Write those three numbers down, because they are the ones you need when you buy replacement wheels: 200mm outside diameter, 20mm wide, 16mm centre bore. The bore is the one people get wrong. A wheel with the right diameter and the wrong bore will not go on the shaft, and a wheel forced onto a shaft it does not fit is a wheel that will come apart.

The motor is 350W and the spindle turns at 2950rpm. That combination is deliberate for bench work. An eight-inch wheel at 2950rpm gives a generous surface speed for sharpening and dressing, and the wide 20mm face means you are not trying to grind a chisel edge on a narrow ridge. Two wheels, one at each end, is the standard arrangement and the practical one — most workshops run a coarse wheel on one side for reshaping and taking metal off fast, and a finer wheel on the other for finishing an edge, so both operations happen without stopping to change anything.

What it actually does all day: putting an edge back on cold chisels, wood chisels, scrapers and plane irons; re-pointing drill bits; cleaning up the burr on a cut end before it goes into a fitting; dressing a weld; shaping small brackets and tags; taking rust and paint off a part before it is welded. It is the machine that keeps every other tool in the shop working, which is why it usually gets bought once and then runs for years.

The eye shields and tool rest components come in the box and both must be fitted before it is switched on. The tool rest is not a convenience — the gap between the rest and the wheel needs to be small and it needs to be checked as the wheel wears down, because a workpiece dragged into a wide gap gets snatched and jammed. Set the rest close, and reset it every time you change or dress a wheel. The eye shields sit in front of the wheel and stop the constant spray of hot particles, though they do not replace safety glasses.

The buyers are engineering and fabrication workshops, vehicle garages, carpentry and joinery shops keeping chisels and irons sharp, and maintenance departments. Hardware dealers sell it to small workshops setting up for the first time.

Bolt it to a solid bench — a grinder that walks under load is dangerous — and grind in short touches with a can of water beside you, because an edge that turns blue has lost its hardness. Ask us on WhatsApp for a price with a pair of wheels to suit your work.