dang did buy nothing come through for me today or what?
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i mean sure it’s some no-name generic (“worksmith” lol) but as long as it spins and doesn’t explode what the hell else do I need?
gonna figure out how it does speed control and see if i can make it variable for proper polishing too ^_^
@moira
Bench grinders are just so basic, I would think that if it turns on and spins it's just fine. Mine's a $10 (just looked, and the price sticker is still on it, LOL) rusty Delta from a Habitat Store. Works fine for my purposes.
Dang, there are still some Worksmith-branded tool accessories for sale out there. Not many, I presume old-stock? But out there.
Can't find anything about them yet tho'. Kinda wondering if they were somebody's store brand.
They were not! They were an early-2000s labeller of (no doubt imported) products, and maintained _several_ brands sold in Zellers and True Value and other hardware sellers.
This 8" grinder in particular though is a _fucking ghost_. I have found _none_ of them online. The 6" is still not incredibly uncommon but they _clearly_ did not sell half so many.
The partial label on it says 115 volts and 5A which maths out to 3/4 horsepower and I found a reference to a different dual-light model deep in archive.org's history that describes _that_ one as 3/4 HP, 8", and 3450 RPM, which seems to be pretty typical so I'm thinking this is probably that too. But it's an extrapolation.
The dual-lamp version is the 840078 which conveniently matches the number of a Kawasaki 8" bench grinder which is also 3/4HP also 3450 RPM. So that looks pretty clearly like a rebadged Kawasaki. Is this variant _also_ a rebadged Kawasaki?
UL E133220 does not exist
(or if it does I can't find it)
that’s interesting
Here's a directory of manuals from _some_ of what I _think_ are their rebranded tools, many of which are also Kawasaki, but not all:
https://www.alltradetools.com/downloads/pdf/
Found this by searching for the manual filenames on archive.org and a couple of them popped up there, so.
I also found a Worthsmith-branded 6" bench grinder which specifically refers you to alltradetools dot com (instead of the older handtoolsonline dot com which is dead).
so this kind of implies that alltradetools bought the brands of handtoolsonline and used some of them for at least a little while before retiring them
finding different numbers for the 6" variant too - 480437, 480853, the latter of which lists its speed as 3500 RPM rather than 3450. I don't know if that's rounding or slightly faster.
ANYWAY
the reason I care is I'd love to know if I can slow this thing down by reducing voltage or it
it sure looks like it but I! DON'T! KNOW! and if I can I want to add some sort of speed selector
you can buy external boxes for that for like $20 but only if it's the right kind of motor
which i suspect it is but do not know
@moira almost certainly an induction motor which won't play ball with reduced voltage. There are single phase output variable speed drives available from China though ymmv
@PatrickHerd [reads up]
huh. so...
no matter how i slow the motor down electrically to like half speed, the secondary capacitor-driven starter winding (which it has because single-phase) won't ever shut off because the centrifugal cutoff switch won't ever be triggered because the motor won't be spinning fast enough for that to happen
probably? i took the bottom off and it's got a big cap in there that makes sense if it's driving a secondary winding
so uh
dang?
i guess it's mechanical divider time for me if i want other speeds?
i don't hate that it's just more work and less compact
@PatrickHerd of course 0.8 gets me under 3000 RPM which lets me use more polishing discs and that should? still shut off the starter winding?
at least from what i'm reading?
@moira so the start switch if it has one (might be a permaanent capacitor motor) will have hysteresis, so you might be able to start fast and then slow down?
@PatrickHerd I will find out! I haven't started it yet, I wanted to take it apart and clean it (and make sure of no unfortunate surprises) before plugging it in at all.
(I mean Buy Nothing people have all been really well-intentioned and I'm sure it's fine but I do check things out first ^_^ )
@moira . . . only the duty cycle can tell you.