The Old Lawnmower Club
Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers
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Brl cyclinder grinder

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tomuk Tue, 25/04/2023

Hello. I'm new to the club and this is my first post so hopefully it will work OK.

I have recently brought a brl cyclinder grinder, the previous owner who is retiring from a long career in the mower repair business has shown me the basics and ground one while I was there. I have the machine back at my workshop now but there is a couple of items I don't know what there for. Possibly for single blade relief?

Do any of you know what they are for and if so how to set it up?

Many thanks.

Forums

wristpin Wed, 26/04/2023

Those parts are for single blade relief grinding. I have the same machine and have done it on larger diameter cylinders but avoid it on smaller ones. If you feel the need I would try to get the previous owner to go through it with you.

Have you got the fixtures for doing bottom blades ?
 

 

 

tomuk Wed, 26/04/2023

Ok thank you for the advice.

Yes I have got the bottom blade holders and he did briefly show me how to use it.

Do you know if a manual was available for it?

wristpin Wed, 26/04/2023

There may have been once, but when I got mine , factory reconditioned in around 1979 , the nearest to a manual was a couple of hand cranked duplicator pages - long gone. If you put BRL Into  this sites search box there’s a few images etc from me and others.

When spin grinding, one error that many make is to leave the machine running until it “sparks out”. The accepted rule of thumb is that you take a couple of heavy “ cuts” to finish off. It creates a bit of false relief. Another tip is that you will find a goodly number of the cylinders presented for grinding , are to one degree or other a bit tapered. Don’t just follow the taper, unless it’s grossly tapered , grind it out and return a parallel cylinder which will set up with less hassle and cut better. 
I’ve got a separate bench top BRL , permanently stet up for bottom blades up to and including 24” . Saves a lot of faffing about switching over the bigun from grinding to re- facing. Every bottom blade, new or reused gets skimmed. Some manufacturers bottom blades are better than others and some sole blocks are flatter than others !  Long gone are the days of shimming bottom blades.

tomuk Wed, 26/04/2023

Thank you for the reply that's very interesting I will try that out. I have a old cyclinder that is badly bent on the drive end but true where the bearing fit so I'm hoping to use that to practice on! Once I'm happy I have a National 68 which needs grinding so hopefully I'll get the hang of it.

I did wonder about new bottom blade whether they require facing so thanks for clearing that up.

Thank-you again for taking the time to pass your knowledge on.