Bench Grinder

It's one of those things you never knew you needed and then wonder how you managed without.

I use mine all the time. For cleaning and polishing, more than grinding if I'm honest. I originally bought it when I was refurbishing a classic motorbike. It was great for cleaning up rusty bolts and other parts and polishing parts with a mop wheel.

A wire wheel is also great for cleaning up rusty tools, mower blades etc. The grinder is useful too. Watch a couple of YouTube vids, teach yourself how to sharpen drill bits and save a fortune (well, a few quid). Yep, sharpening mower blades too.

Be careful, use the guard, tool rest and safety goggles. They are pretty good at snatching stuff out of you hand at high velocity and a shattered grinding wheel would liven your day. 

For the vice, keep a look out on Facebook Marketplace for an old one. You don't need to refurbish it, but they are way better quality than the new cheap steel ones. 

New cheap vices are made from the equivalent of a metallic Aero chocolate bar.

Bench grinders fill your workshop with dust & shit. Do bench grindy type stuff outside with a battery powered 4 1/2" grinder instead.

Get an industrial revolution vice and bolt it where the bench grinder would have been. 

Both of these answers are correct. The ultimate bench grinder combo is when it's bolted to a joist that's bolted to an old truck wheel filled with cement, and lives just in the garage door so it can be dragged outside easily.

The ultimate bench grinder combo is when it's bolted to a joist that's bolted to an old truck wheel filled with cement, and lives just in the garage door so it can be dragged outside easily.

I like this answer, and have just such a space next to my workbench. But this also means I'm going to have to purchase a welder to make the truck wheel stand. Which of course might not be a bad thing. 

thanks for the responses.  Sounds like I need one but not on my nice new shiny bench

I'd substitute a bench grinder with a drill press. Same workbench space, far more useful..

I have 2, one with a stone and a sanding belt, the other for wire wheels.

I use use them for sharpening, chamfering, deburring, shaping metal, wire wheel is good for cleaning rusty threads (and launching things it grabs across the workshop and high speed). You can use them for light polishing but small grinders dont have the torque, you can stall a little grinder if you push a bit of flat bar in too hard.

Depends what you are doing, I like having them, but they can sit unused for a long time, grinding sends a horrible abrasive dust over everything. I have seen some people mount them on a plate and just clamp it to the workbench/mount in vice when they need it, the rest of the time its stored under the workbench so it doesnt waste space.