20 Best Knife Grinder For Beginners (2023 Updated)

First off I had issues with the shipping procedure. First one was that it said my grinder was going to be delivered to an address in Maryland. I live in northern CA. Then I had a hard time getting anyone from buck tool to answer my questions.

I finally got answers! The tool its self is fairly good. The grinding wheel had a bad wobble to it which caused a severe vibration. Having the 40 years of experience working with bench grinders and belt Sanders I used a trick I learned,if you loosen the bolt holding the wheel on the shaft and turn it a little at a time,tighten it back down and turn it back on,if it still wobbles do it again until the wobble goes away or minimizes the wobble.

Some of the reviews had said that the shaft was bent on the first one they received but was fine on the second one they got,it may not be bent it may be the wheel. there is more plastic on it than I would like but for the price point it’s pretty good.

I like that the platen is movable allowing for some flex of the belt. The tracking works well and belt changes are very quick and easy. For an entry level belt sander it is well worth the money. I want to let you know that I have for most of 40 years worked with a $3,000 dollar belt sander so it is difficult to compare the new belt sander to one of the buck tools.

Honestly it’s pretty good for the money! I worked for 40+ years as a saw, tool and knife sharpener. This works pretty well on sharpening knives and I know what I am talking about!!!.

As I had hoped, it was all I expected it to be when I unpacked the contents finding it nicely made and finished. It came with extra belts, a nice brass wire wheel and tools for assembly and adjustment.

Motor ran smoothly and fairly quietly, exhibiting a good amount of power and performance. The belts tracked easily and were a pleasure to change out, which is a really great feature. While I am not a knife maker, I mainly use it to sharpen knives and tools with a more than satisfactory degree of professional like sharpness! I ordered a varied selection of belts for it and am honing my skills with practice and sharpening knives from my family and friends.

Amazing unit for the money! Not upset at all with this purchase! I use it mostly for blade finishing and it makes easy work out of it. The power on it is more then adequate for ruff grinding and shaping.

Assembley is simple and belts are easy to change and they line up well. All the plastic guards were a concern at first, but they are durable and servisable, no problems at all. You can make your own custom modifications easily on this unit as well.

Overall, for the money. I don’t know how you could go wrong.

I had purchased the Wen 6” bench grinder, found that the motor was too weak as returned it. I spent a little more and bought this DeWalt. Wow. What an improvement! Having just had two units to compare days apart I can assure you that is a _much_ better value and much higher quality machine.

As you can see from my pictures, it isn’t perfect. At the top of the wheel housing you attach the spark shield. On the left side I have a polishing wheel attached and have on the outer housing cover.

When this is attached the bracket for the spark shield can’t sit flush against the housing. In the other photo I have a DeWalt wire wheel mounted. Even though the 1/2” wheel technically fits, it was rubbing on the outer housing cover.

I didn’t want to scrape off the paint and have a problem with rust down the road so I left the outer cover off. With the cover off you can see that the spark shield’s bracket mounts flush. But these are minor quibbles.

The tool rests, stamping thickness, on/off switch quality are far better than the Wen. And the motor power is night and day (that is actually an _understatement_. ) Highly recommended!!!.

Quality built grinder and comes with two different grit stones. I was happy to find this at a Tractor Supply store. The on/off switch seems robust and it was easy to put together. After using for a few weeks I am satisfied with it’s performance with one caveat.

No light. A work light would really be a plus for a grinder as you are always looking at what you’re grinding to see how effective it is.

This item was manufactured by a company with a stellar reputation for their highest quality and value of the tools they sell. However, this product is not what I would consider to be one of their better efforts! It does seem to be very durable, but the quality control is not what I have come to expect from DeWalt! My old bench grinder came up to full speed within 1.

5 seconds, and this one takes about 3 times longer. It also vibrates and shakes badly for the price I paid. If I had this to do over again, I would not purchase a DeWalt bench grinder!.

I would rate Jet at about 3 or 4 Stars: they have a very impressive product, but some of the details and quality control aspects need attention. Also, even though Jet’s Customer Service was easy to reach and provided me with all the replacement parts I needed without question, they should have simply replaced the whole unit to ensure it was properly repaired and safe to operate.

I personally was okay handling the repair myself, but many others may not. Here are the details. I purchased a Jet IBG-8VS, Variable Speed, 8″ Bench Grinder from Zoro on January 18, 2022, and it arrived the following day.

It comes preassembled, except for the tool rests, spark guards and eye shields. Immediately after unboxing it, I plugged it into a 115 VAC outlet and turned it on. There was a noticeable vibration at 900 RPM which worsened at 1800 RPM.

I removed both wheels and all mounting hardware, and the vibration completely disappeared at 900 RPM, 1800 RPM, and even 3600 RPM. So, I decided to balance the wheels. I reinstalled the 80 Grit wheel, and it seemed to be okay.

no vibration at 900 RPM, and none at 1800 RPM; but when I ran it up to 3600 RPM, the wheel exploded. Large chucks of the wheel were wedged in between the arbor and cast-iron wheel guard, which locked-up the motor and literally caused the whole cast-iron wheel guard to rotate forward about 15°.

The wheel guard is attached to the motor’s cast-aluminum end housing with three screws. So, when the wheel guard rotated, the end-housing rotated with it, stretching and bending the four long screws that secure the two end-housings to the main motor and damaging the threaded bosses on the end-housing.

The cast-iron wheel guard also cracked in two places, and the spark guard was bent. I contacted Jet Customer Service and they sent me replacement parts. The grinder has been repaired and is now operating smoothly with CBN wheels: I’m reluctant to use the original wheels, and probably will not.

ever. I should note that this grinder is prewired with a standard 115 VAC power cord and plug, but it can easily be adapted for 230 VAC (single phase) operation by simply swapping the power plug. It incorporates an inverter, variable frequency 3-phase motor, and digital display, so the user can precisely control the speed in 100 RPM increments.

I rated Zoro with 5-stars for their incredible service which to me includes price, after-purchase updates, and fast delivery by a creditable carrier (UPS). I would rate Jet a bit lower: they have a very impressive product, but some of the details and quality control needs attention.

Also, even though Jet’s Customer Service was easy to reach and provided me with all the replacement parts I needed without question, they should have replaced the whole unit to ensure it was properly repaired and safe operate.

Here are the details. I purchased this Jet IBG-8VS, Variable Speed, 8″ Bench Grinder from Zoro on January 18, 2022, and it arrived the next day. It comes preassembled, except for the tool rests, spark guards and eye shields.

It is prewired with a standard 115 VAC power cord and plug, which can easily be swapped out for 230 VAC single phase if necessary. I plugged it into a 115 VAC outlet and ran it up to 900 RPMs, and there was a noticeable vibration which worsened at 1800 RPM.

I removed both wheels, and it operated smoothly at 900, 1800 and 3600 RPMs. I reinstalled the 80 Grit wheel, and was planning on balancing, but it was okay. no vibration at 900 RPMs, and none at 1800 RPMs; so I ran it up to 3600 RPMs, and the wheel exploded.

Large chucks of wheel were wedged in between the arbor and cast-iron wheel guard, which locked-up the motor and literally caused the whole cast-iron wheel guard to rotate forward about 15°. The wheel guard is attached to the cast-aluminum end housing with three screws.

So, when the wheel guard rotated, the end-housing rotated with it, stretching and bending four long screws that secure the two end-housings to the main motor and damaging the threaded bosses on the end-housing.

The cast-iron wheel guard also cracked in two places, and the spark guard was bent. The grinder has been repaired and is now operating smoothly with CBN wheels. This grinder incorporates a variable frequency, 3-phase motor, with digital display.

it’s awesome!.

This was an open box item but I saved several hundred dollars because of that. It was new and works perfectly. The bolts that hold one of the inner wheel covers had been removed and only one of those three bolts was in place, though loosely.

I found a second bolt in the packing and retrieved a third in my shop as they are standard size. So within a few minutes of opening the box it was up and running. It’s my first variable speed grinder.

It has three fixed speed buttons and a digital control to vary the speed. It is quiet and runs smoothly with nearly no vibration. I am quite happy with how quickly it arrived and how well it works.

This turned out to be a great upgrade bench grinder for me. When my 6 inch Dewalt started bogging down while cleaning rusty metal garden utensils with the wire wheel. it was time for a chsnge. However it is a virtual jungle out there of types and brands of bench grinders.

Also prices go from $$ to $$$$$$. I did some homework on many youTube video sites and narrowed it down to 3 models and prices. This won out. and I am glad. very reasonably priced and all I had to do was to replace 1 of the grinding wheels out with an 8 inch Dewalt product and voila.

It works great and is powerful enough for my crafy and household uses.

Just bought this grinder. It looks well made and the rests and wheel guards are heavier metal than many in this price range. The LED lights are OK at best. It would have been better to have a single goose neck light that comes on with the motor instead of these weak battery powered lights.

The biggest problem happened when I turned it on and it had a severe vibration in one of the grinding wheels. Everything was tight and there was no apparent wobble, but the wheel is out of balance to the point the grinder rattles itself across the workbench.

I am hoping WEN sends a replacement wheel, otherwise I’ll have to return this grinder. These out of balance wheels seems to be a pretty common problem with Chinese grinders too. I don’t regret buying it, but the quality is not quite what I had hoped for either.

Survived shipping. Easy to setup and quiet. Has a vibration when running. Suggest standing to one side as wheel comes up to speed. Wheels are not out of round based on grinding pattern but may be out of balance.

Grinds smooth. Hoping the vibration goes away over time. Forget precision grinding but works for rough stuff like hand tools, lawn mower blades, shovels and pick axes. For the price not expecting better.

Good power and speed for a grinder this side, wheels were pretty well balanced, a quick touch up with a wheel dresser to square the edges and it does a fine job. If your planning on adding a wire wheel, i removed the rougher wheel to put on a wire wheel, you will need a washer or spacer for most hardware store and brand name wire wheels, otherwise it sits too close to the motor on the inboard side and will rub, or you can remove all the guards on the wire wheel side but i prefer to have the guards to catch all the flung wires.

A fender washer to hold the stock washer out a bit further did the trick. Also, one annoying thing, the lamp has a switch on it, but the lamp will only turn on after the motor switch is on, meaning the light switch is only useful for turning the lamp off when the grinder is already on and running.

Quick fix, remove the bottom cover, find the lamp wire combined with the two black wires, one from the output side of the switch and the other goes to the motor. Cut off the crimped connector remove the lamp wire and connect the other two back together, then connect the lamp wire to the black wire going to the input side of the switch with the power cord, then you can turn the lamp on and off independent of the motor power switch.

Quick and easy mod if you want to. I find it useful to have the lamp on and flip the motor off and on between jobs when working on a bunch of parts.

I was going to buy a black and decker because I dont need a bench grinder very often but when I saw this wen grinder for only a few dollars more I decided to buy it. The quality is like night and day compared to the black and decker.

Metal construction, not plastic. The performance is outstanding. I recommend it to everyone.

I bought this machine out of curiosity. I wanted to try and see if I could sharpen my lawn mower blade. I had taken my blade to the local Lowe’s store close to me for sharpening and was told they don’t have any such service.

This bench grinder has done great job since then as I had also been using it to sharpen kitchen knives, machete, screw drivers, etc It runs very smoothly with minimal noise. Only problem is that it shifts around if you place it on wooden smooth surface.

Heavy duty, nicely built, runs quiet, belt tracks great. It came with some great accessories, from the large wheel to the other smaller wheels that work great for shaping knife handles.

Very good compromise between price and quality for your hobbies. Simple modification needed to use 2×72” belts

Im quite happy with the belt grinder it works well pity it wasnt variable speed but it still a good machine

I needed a good grinder after I knowing better tried a 3/4 HP Harbor freight cheap grinder. You’d barely even touch the grinding wheel and the speed would drop off and the thing would stop. Not with this grinder.

It gets up to speed quickly. And it’s extremely quiet. Really surprised how quiet it is. And mine has zero wobble or vibration. So far so good. So I grabbed a horse shoe for some testing. This thing is amazing.

I put a ton of pressure on the grinding wheel and it just chewed through the steel horse shoe. I’m sure it had to have slowed a little but honestly I didn’t notice a RPM change. Or it speeding up when I removed pressure.

No longer do I need to grind a little and then wait for the grinder to speed back up. This thing powered through even when I really applied some pressure to it. It was between this and a Baldor and I’m super happy I saved all that money and went with the Jet 1 HP 8″.

You wont find a better grinder and I’d be willing to bet it’ll beat some of the extremely expensive grinders out there. I could not be happy with this thing.

I bought this grinder (IBG-8) in August and have used it, total grinding time, less than 45 minutes. Using it to thin down a small open-end wrench yesterday, the grinder make a loud pop and spewed out foul-smelling smoke (not the common electrical smell).

I turned the grinder on for a few seconds a while later–it ran without smoke, but I didn’t grind with it to check its power. I will investigate further today to see if I can learn more. At this point, I couldn’t recommend this grinder.

And I don’t know what the remedy will be. On the positive side, it’s getting more difficult to find grinders of reasonable price that have ball bearings, as this one does. And the quality otherwise seems to be good.

I hope this problem will have a solution.

Right out of the box I fired it up before assembly of the spark shields and tool rest. I wanted to make sure it ran smooth and was a good buy. I love this tank. Definitely a well-built grinder. Mine runs smooth, starts very fast, and has plenty of power.

Nothing I will do can slow it down. I love it. I highly recommend this for any home hobbies or home welder shop.

A honest 11 amp at 115 volt or 5. 5 amp at 230 volt 1 HP motor (super strong). Cast iron wheel hubs (truer running wheels). Cast iron wheel guards and tool rests. Single hookup to dust collection at center rear of grinder.

I was debating between this grinder or Jet’s 577102, I’m glad I chose this one (578008), it’s well worth the little extra cost. The 577102 only has an 8 amp motor 115 volt only , (that equates to a little less than a honest 3/4 HP regardless of claimed HP).

The 577102 also has stamped steel wheel washers. Any faults or weaknesses? If I had to nit-pick I would would point to the OSHA approved switch, it feels like a weak link in a otherwise bullet-proof grinder, it feels flimsy softer plastic.

That said if any problems develop it would be easy enough to change. On a side note one of the capacitors in the base was out of it’s retaining strap and loose, slid it back in with a piece of plastic to take up the slack for a firm grip.

I used Baldor 10″ and 12″ 3 phase grinders/buffers in a railroad air brake shop for years, this grinder by JET blurs the lines in quality and power.

This grinder arrived in perfect condition. At start-up it ran surprisingly smoothly, with minimal run-out, considering the wheels had not yet been balanced. The only drawback are the tool rests. They are sturdy cast iron, but, need to be machined flat as they are rough cast.

Also, the tool rest can only be adjusted in and out with no ability for angle or height adjustment. Overall an excellent grinder with tool rests that need replacement.

I researched a lot of grinders and settled on this one because it has both a start capacitor and a run capacitor. The start capacitor makes the motor start strong and get to full speed very quickly. At a certain RPM an internal centrifugal swich kicks in and switches the motor over to the run capacitor.

in my opinion this will make the motor last much longer as it puts less strain on it. This is a quite and smooth running grinder that has the power needed for most shops. It cost more than the “box store” grinders but it’s truly industrial quality and cant be compared to the cheaper ones.

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This sharpener is excellent. It pairs especially well with the entire set of mercer millennia knives we purchased. The sharpener is extremely easy to use and leaves a razor sharp edge on the blades. The only downside is the small magnet it uses for catching the metal shards needs to be cleaned often.

What a truly great knife sharpener. Easy to use and does a wonderful job. Save money by sharpening your own knives. Your chef will thank you!

I have used this unit for over a year now and this sharpener works great. I sharpen my knives every two weeks (or more if the help roughs them up) and it keeps a good edge on even my cheap knives. Much safer than dull knives and injured employees.

I am pleased with the grinder so far. I do like the quiet-smooth operation. I use it to professionally-sharpen heavy gauge zero-turn lawnmower blades as well as the thinner walk behind mower blades. I use a common sense operator-friendly bench “blade jig” that I perceived then fabricated.

Overall this has been a good product at a good price. My only complaint is the tool rests. They are a little small and because of the gear-type locking, they can’t be adjusted to any position. I need exact positioning – could have been designed better.

That said, I would still purchase again.

Great quality and value for the price. Ser it up with a One-way Wolverine sharpening system to exclusively sharpen lathe chisel. Professional quaity results. Highly recomnebded.

Mine is WAY under powered, has no brake at all. Compared to Milwaukee it’s just a toy. Shame on you dewalt. It’s a good idea, but a real POS. And an Allen wrench to tighten the wheel. ??? With no place to dock it.

?? Don’t buy.

Owned this grinder for several months, it still impresses me every time I use it. If your looking for a grinder, buy this one. Convenience of cordless way more powerful than other cordless grinders I have used, if you are thinking the.

5” paddle Flex Volt over 4 1/2 20v get the Flex Volt you won’t regret extra power!.

2months owning this tool & have No complaints. I run this sucker 15mins straight and w/6. 0aph battery I get No less than an hour of Non-stop use cutting copper pipe, brass, aluminum & iron. Auto-brake kept me with all fingers on my hand the one time grinder got away.

Love it.

Following an accident with a hand held sharpener, I purchased this product for its inherent safety. Sure enough this product attaches to the kitchen work surface very securely. obviously this needs to be smooth or you will need to locate any other secured smooth surface.

What I did not expect was the fact that the products ability to sharpen is infinitely better than my old one. With virtually no effort I now have a set of razor sharp knives. With my old product I was always wary of sharpening right to the tip as this required sharpening strokes that left the blade tip with the obvious dangers this caused, but with this product, your hands are positioned on the knife handle with no possibility of injury and the sharpening process goes along the entire blade length.

Add to this the very low cost (a cost so low that I doubted the quality of the product before purchase) and you have a winning quality product.

It works very well and sharpens knifes to a good finish with a sharp edge. Does what it states very well, good sucsion base which stays secure with a good air tight seal. A knife sharpener that realy works with very little effort when sharpening knifes.

Excelent value for money a must have for any home. Small in size it can be put away in any draw. Always clean small metal traces from knife and sharpener when sharpening is completed.

Sticks very reassuringly solidly to a clean polished worktop. Sharpens quality knife in 2-3 quick strokes. Sharpening V is tiny (2mm?) but highly abrasive (dont overdo it) and seems perfectly aligned for good performance.

Non-adjustable, but that is probably better for ham-fisted operator (me) who just needs a sharp set of kitchen knives. Great example of good, compact design. Longer-term performance currently unknown but looking forward to finding out, already convinced it will eventually be replaced with same product.

I’m a tiler, I use this tool daily and have 2 them. It’s my go to grinder, hence I have 2 of them. Variable speed is a must in my line of work. It’s a super reliable tool. Guard is a snap on easy to attach or remove.

It’s a light tool as well which helps when you use it all day for miter cuts. Incredibly versatile and simple to use. Grip is fantastic and well balanced. I could go on and on as I have done pretty much everything with this tool and it’s yet to disappoint me.

Highly recommend it.

A good choice for a heavy duty 4 1/2” corded grinder/cut off tool. I use it to grind welds and cut out metal structures that need replacing. It’s just the rite balance of weight and power.

We use 4 1/2 grinders for concrete prep. Lots and lots of different brands over 30 years. This gets a 3 because the on-off switch is hard to operate & the grinder burned up in 20 minutes use. CPO is A#1 in responce to replace it.

Variable spped worked great. Ergonomics is comfortable and power was satisfactory. If the next one last it is a 4. Fix the switch and it is 5.

It’s great to receive a product and right off the bat during unpacking you know it was made with high quality in mind. There are a few things that I felt could have been better but for the most part I am happy with my purchase.

I added a variable jig along with this purchase so a lot of the accessories that came with this grinder were unnecessary for me. And to be fair except for the foot pads I don’t see the use for most of the other stuff that came with it.

The wheels aren’t very good either as they are the typical oxide variety that seems to be on all of these grinders on Bucktool. So I went ahead and bought a hurricane grinding wheel to go along with it and besides some difficulty getting it mounted (the tolerance on the hurricane grinding wheel is extremely small so make sure you lube up the spindle and clear it of any kind of debris) it spins perfectly.

There is no wobble that I can detect. it has sufficient power and it never seemed to slow down during any kind of grinding that I threw at it. The light on it is kind of pointless though but it does its job well enough.

Honestly I kind of wish that they just got rid of all the accessories, the light, and the wheels and just sold it as a base grinder at a cheaper price and it would have been an awesome buy then. I know that doesn’t make sense probably for some people but considering I didn’t put on most of the accessories because of the variable grinder accessories I purchased and the new wheels I bought I now have a bunch of pieces just lying around.

I think you would be fine buying this and will not have any issues installing different wheels on it if you choose to do so. It’s a great grinder, well built, heavy duty, and I feel it will last me a long time.

Purchased the 8 inch bench grinder with low speed and am very pleased with it. It certainly seems heavy duty and rugged just by the weight of it. Grinding wheels are very good quality and balanced well.

Tool rests are aluminum and true to the wheels. Adjustments are very good and precise. The magnifying glasses even work well. The led light works well. Finally it runs smooth and quiet. Happy with the purchase.

This grinder is good quality at a low price. Bucktool did their homework in finding a quality Chinese manufacturer who will support their product. One of the knobs had a bad thread, and the manufacturer mailed me a replacement in an acceptable time frame.

All features were as advertised. I would enjoy seeing Bucktool offer replacement and modification parts like Grizzly and Little Machine Shop; however, I understand that this would be a daunting addition for a small vendor.

The type 1/41 cutting wheel guard can be bought on Amazon under the Black & Decker brand. $24. For the “One-touch” guard system. Hope this helps. DeWalt should get their act together better when organizing accessories for their products.

They have this problem with other products and models, they seem to indicate accessories can’t be available but they really are available under a different name or part number. Besides that, this product is awesome.

5 stars.

I have had Dewalt electric grinders, palm sanders as well as drills for over thirty years and never had any problems with them. I started using their battery drills and even the battery powered chainsaw for pruning and camping.

They are all great products and now I have also just bought a new angle grinder. It is very powerful at 18 volt as are the others. I use them on my old wooden boat when needed as I have no power there.

Also out on the farm and anywhere needed when we are away. Just the best battery gear. Top equipment from dewalt!.

Bought this to use type 1 this cutting wheels for work, but it only comes with a type 27 (open-side) guard. Called DeWalt to get a type 1 guard. They gave me part #643772-00. Got this guard but it cannot be used on this tool because the guard uses a clamp-on fastener and the tool has a ratcheting release lever fastener.

Called DeWalt again to see how to install this type 1 guard and was told to read the user’s manual. Called a factory service center. The guy there researched the part and the tool and said there is no type 1 guard made for this tool.

I returned the tool and now I am looking for a tool that will do what I need to do.

I have to admit, as there was NO amp rating on this when I bought it, I was skeptical of this grinder and fully prepared to return it turned out to be one of the very weak CLAIMED 1/2hp Made-In-China ones of only about 2 amps that are showing up in many places.

Happily, THAT was not necessary. I am amazed at how long the motor takes to stop turning (3 minutes!) I’d give it 4. 5 stars if that was possible. PROS: this 6″ grinder has VERY GOOD overall quality, especially for its price range enough USABLE power to handle any reasonable loading-for its rated hp both grinding wheels are decent quality-they don’t quickly degrade from light use both grinding wheels are well-balanced and run true when mounted/tightened properly bearings and motor must also be decent-machine takes a VERY long time to spin down fit and finish are good it has heft-its not a featherweight 2 ADJUSTABLE clear spark shields 2 under wheel spark guards 2 adjustable position gooseneck lights drill bit sharpening groove in one tool rest good length cord its runs more quietly than most in its price range it has a good length warranty CONS: tool rests are of thin gauge metal clear spark shields are not heat OR impact resistant light bulbs are incandescent.

Great price, fast shipping. I bought it for a Christmas present and will not know how it performs until after christmas.

I picked this up for sharpening lawnmower blades. Works great for that! Easy job with the grinder. I would have gave it a 5 star, but the right left bulb was extremely loose. I tried getting it to tighten, but during operation bulb fell out and broke.

Nothing major though.

I chose the Rikon 8” slow speed grinder as a replacement for a 6” Baldor grinder with a coarse wheel, and a hand cranked grinder with a fine wheel. I am pairing it with the One Way Wolverine system. Through no fault of Rockler, the grinder arrived in unusable condition.

The factory packed with only one of the two foam clamshells. The grinder wheels were badly chipped and the guards were bent. Rocker’s customer service sent me a replacement after I shared photo documentation of the damage.

You tube videos have mentioned that the wheels wobble and cause vibration due to the stamped wheel flange. To reduce the wobble you rotate the flange in relation to the grinding wheel until the wobble is eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels.

This is a “guess and check” process that can take as little as ten minutes, or as long as two hours, depending on how picky you are. Turns out I’m picky. Machined flanges are available through various dealers and I might consider the investment.

This is an excellent value. I got this low speed grinder for tool sharpening. Overall, excellent except: the stones wobble. Although the work face can be trimmed, the wobbling makes the machine vibrate.

I believe the problem is in the stamped steel washers on each side of each stone. For stones at 8″ diameter, it would be be better if these were machined/ground to a precision flatness and parallelism.

The motor shafts are perfect. All other aspects are really nice.

First, it vibrates because the left grinding wheel is out of balance. You can see it wiggle when you turn it on. So, I took the guard off to see is I can find out why. When I turn the mounting nut it spins on the right side! So, I take of the right guard and try to hold the other nut with another wrench.

But both threads are cut in the same direction! It’s impossible to tighten it or loosen it! I had to get a pair of vise grips to clamp on one end of the threaded spindle thus smashing the threads. Now, the nuts will probably never come off if it becomes necessary.

I wouldn’t buy this one again.

The grinder looks and feels very solid. Its shere weight keeps it steady on the table while in use, which is very good, since there is no need to bolt it to the table. Bolting it down would not have been practical, since you need to operate the two stones from different sides of the grinder.

As far as I can tell, the grinder operates at a steady speed and the quality of the stones is satisfactory. It may be that my grinder has a defect that results in this, but: – The wet stone moves from horisontaly when in use.

Actually the entire axle seems to have quite a bit of right-to-left play, which makes it move when being used. It seems to me that this should be easy to avoid. I have opened the gear casing and I cannot find anything bend og broken in there.

The gears are plastic by the way. – The motor gets pretty hot when running. After 15 minutes of use, I can still put my hand on the metal housing, but it is too hot for my taste. I would guess between 40 and 50 degrees celsius.

– There is no way to regulate the speed of the grinding stones. – When using the wet stone, one tends to rest the object being sharpened on the edge of the plastic water basin. I would have liked a more steady, metal frame for support.

So, all in all a pretty good bench grinder, but for a top quality German brand, I miss a few features and some finesse.

The product looked ok until switched on. There was significant vibration which got steadily worse whilst the machine was slowing down. On further investigation the wheel wobble was very significant, seemed greater than 1 mm.

A quick search on the internet followed by painstaking adjustments improved the situation. Sadly this was not what I expected from a so called premium product.

Great – nice and compact & Good Quality. Wheels easy to change. Came with a extra cable to convert two pin plug to three pin – did not expect this and did not want this extra cable so simply cut the two pin plug off the grinder lead and replaced it with a standard three pin, if not for this I would have given it five stars.

Did not come with ‘metabo’ label on it for some reason but that is no issue.

Finally a bench grinder that is powerful enough to handle my needs. Chose the Jet JBG-8B Grinder with no regrets. Grinder was double boxed with excellent packing. Fast and easy to put together. Tools Plus had the grinder at a great price with fast free shipping and made the purchase smooth and effortless.

The left side grindstone was mounted too close to the side of the cover, thus the screws for mounting the work platform contacted the grindstone. I just ran the grinder as I slowly tightened the screws till they were ground down and now it works fine.

With that exception, the grinder seems well made and a quality tool. Only a little vibration as it gets up to speed, and once at speed it is fine. It sits on the workbench without moving and without being attached to the bench.

(does not need to be mounted to the workbench). The first time I used it, I sharpened 9 garden tools and 6 chisels. Using a local sharpening service for that would have cost me $72 and I only paid $90 for the bench grinder.

The motor got pretty hot from that much work but I doubt if I would ever use it that much at one time again. Pretty happy with it.

I’ve given it three tries with different tasks. Takes forever to sharpen my tools and lawnmower blades, it’ll eventually get there but continuously boggs to a near stop. Tried polishing with it on aluminum today and couldn’t get 30seconds into it without it stopping.

Fitting anything outside of the grinding wheel that come with it is a task. I had to make adapters to use a wire wheel, or buffing pads because the shank is long and the cups that come with it don’t give you much room to close that gap.

I personally wouldn’t recommend it. Maybe their larger model will work better for common shop use.

I always wanted it’s bigger brother, the 8 inch Bauer grinder, but apparently so does everyone else because every time we went to HarborFreight they were out of it, so I ended up just grabbing this one with a 20 percent off coupon.

After getting it home and setting it up I realized this was still plenty for my needs. It dwarfs to the 8 inch side by side, but once I installed it on my bench I realized this will do everything I need plus more.

It’s easy to get sucked up into the good better best nonsense, and if your like me, always wanting the biggest and best. The work lights take 3 aaa batteries per side, which I don’t really care for, I think they could have utilized built in leds that share its power from the main source, but that’s about the only drawback I can find.

I’ve never had a bench grinder with built in lights in all my 55 years anyway, so this feature is probably moot. The upsides is this is really powerful, and even at 6 inches, the wheels offer plenty of work area.

Wife was really pleased when the first thing I did was sharpen all her dull kitchen knives!.