In Which The Author Buys A Real One From A Real One
And gets his proverbial grind on, twice
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a good workbench, must be in want of a bench grinder. Particularly when his crew chief more or less demands the installation of one in the race barn. And how hard could it possibly be to find a good one, made in the USA, at a reasonable price?
Well, it depends on your definition of “reasonable”. The fine people at Baldor are still making bench grinders in Fort Smith, Arkansas. A half-horsepower, 7-inch wheel model can be had for just south of $1700 including shipping. Truthfully, were I currently employed I’d buy one, because they’re very handsome and I believe that the continued production of basic machinery in the States is even more important than the production of clothing or electronics. If the dollar crashes or China decides to reintegrate Taiwan despite Sleepy Joe’s balloon-busting histrionics, things like electric motors and cartridge bearings will be absolutely critical to rebuilding this country.
As it is, however, I’m not making big purchases at the moment, so I needed to look in the, ahem, pre-owned market. After doing some research, I discovered that the manufacture of bench grinders in the USA has always been a fairly recherche and centralized occupation. The Doerr family was involved in the founding of Baldor in Missouri, thus the second half of the portmanteau name, but the son went off and founded Doerr Electric in Wisconsin. Together, Baldor and Doerr are responsible for the vast majority of well-built grinders in 20thC American history. Both of them did private-label work as well for companies like Dayton, Leeson, and many (many!) others. The vast majority of vintage grinders you’ll find now are from Baldor or Doerr, with Doerr responsible for the iceberg bulk of those.
Doerr, like Dayton, was acquired by WW Grainger in the late Sixties. As a division of Grainger, they made some genuinely fantastic bench grinders for Craftsman, particularly the “Craftsman Commercial” line, but by 1985, most of “their” products were made in Taiwan. It won’t surprise any of you that most grinder production was shifted from Taiwan to mainland China after Bill Clinton solidified China’s “most favored nation” status. What might surprise you is just how bad today’s bench grinders are. I watched the Project Farm video on this and was just flabbergasted: