the.com/bench grinder
A motor with two stone fists for sharpening things and occasionally your fingertips.
means A workbench-mounted power tool with two rotating abrasive wheels, used to sharpen, shape, deburr, or polish metal tools and parts.
from Straightforward compound: 'bench,' from Old French 'banc' (a long seat or worktable, the root also behind 'bank'), plus 'grinder,' from Old English 'grindan' (to rub down, crush, sharpen by friction) — the same ancient verb that gives us grist and grain. Put together, the name just describes the thing itself: a grinding tool fixed to a bench, no mystery required. Its rise tracks the spread of electric motors into small workshops in the early-to-mid 20th century, when a job once done by foot-pedaled stone wheels got bolted down and plugged in.
- two wheels
- usually coarse and fine grit, different jobs
- sparks warning
- bright sparks mean metal, not success
- eye shields
- built-in shields exist because regret is permanent
- rest gap rule
- tool rest should sit within an eighth inch