Hot Rods Magnum Bench Grinders

Is there anyone familiar with the Magnum brand bench grinders? I'm curious about quality. Second, when it comes to bench grinders would one with a variable speed control be that much better than one without? The grinder will be used mainly for sharpening cutting tools on a lathe. Thanks.

 

Bump

 

Who sells this brand? Where is it made? Not much info.....

 

Well I can pick that's brand up here at KMS tools, not super heavy duty but waaaay better than Home Depot, Harbour Freight, Princess Auto, etc. my main question is really whether or not a speed control on a bench grinder is that important especially when it will be used primarily for sharpening.

 

You might check with a local shop to see what they have for the same job and decide how well the 'Magnum' stacks up.... You can also add a variable speed control to some of the smaller grinders.
Most of the very expensive units are variable speed due to the variety of tools that can be sharpened and the surface speed requirements for the different tools.

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Magnum is a KMS tools brand and you will find very little info on them beyond what KMS can tell you.
KMS sells a lot of Chinese tools as well as some better tools too.
I'm not sure this will make sense or not but they sell some of the better Chinese tools you will find in a tool store.
There are different levels of quality in what comes out of China.

 

KMS's picture is too blurry when blown up to make out the country of manufacture, but it looks exactly like a Chinese grinder sitting on my bench. The Chinese make them and sell them under various brand names.
If you really need variable speed, look for an old Poly arbor that's in good shape. They are made out of heavy cast aluminum and have a 3'4" arbor with sealed bearings on both ends. They come with a 3 step pulley. Just add a 1/3 to 1/2 HP motor with a step pulley turned around the opposite way, and you have a 3 speed grinder that will outlive you. They come in 6", 8" and 12" sizes. And if you need to keep your tools cool while grinding, they can be set up with a water feed.

 

Which tells me that it's probably a 'branded' version of the same or similar stuff found at HF, Northern Tool, Enco and most of the tool sellers who sell pretty much all the same Chinese-made stuff with their 'house brand' on it. The Chinese manufacturers do offer somewhat different quality levels and sometimes features on a lot of these tools, with HF usually selling the cheapest version, so you can find slight differences between resellers. None of which tells you how good the KMS version is...

FWIW, I bought a HF metal lathe years ago and other than some minor detail differences (and price) it was identical to the same size lathe being sold by Enco and Grizzly at the time.