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Import D-Bit Grinder - What did you buy?

molyknow

molyknow

Alex
Premium Member
Hi All,

Im looking to buy a D Bit grinder. Some of the ones from Aliexpress and eBay cost about the same as the Shars/Grizzly options when you factor in shipping. Looking to get the opinions of other members who have already purchased one.

TIA

Alex
 
Do a search on this forum. I've written some posts on this exact issue but unfortunately they are rather scattered about as the subject comes up. That's because I'm essentially rebuilding substantial portions of my Accusize R8 collet D-bit grinder because - lets just say 'not so great quality' issues to put it mildly. So I have pictures of various issues & fixes along the way but I'm not quite done, therefore holding off a dedicated post. Bottom line IMO: unless you want a casting kit project, save your money for something else. In all fairness I have not seen a very recent offering so things may have changed since I got mine. And some of the important bits like wheel hubs don't seem to ever be available.

I can take an educated guess that the machines you are presently seeing on AliExpress & Ebay are the older style & high probability of lower quality. There is a myth that they all come from the same factory but I very much doubt that. Or if so, they must be separating them by various degrees of bad, really bad, super bad but painted yellow... etc. A better unit is the one offered by Shars. Unfortunately USA based & all that entails (FX, shipping & who knows maybe new tariffs). Shars is physically larger than the aforementioned. 5C collet only AFAIK. But more importantly it is just plain made better. I believe it is still made in China but obviously there is a level of QC present there which is not present with the others. I can state than because I have both parts like work heads & they are night & day different. And unfortunately, not interchangeable. You can use the Shars as-is but even so people make some improvements (Rob Renzetti). And Shars offers matching wheel hubs of excellent quality whereas other sellers seem to be unaware of what they even are.

It gets a bit complicated because you will also see older styles that are not as bad, but that's because whoever was distributing them had some better QC. The one Stefan.G shows his improvements I suspect falls in that class. Some of these older styles may have the original Deckel collet. It is slimmer than R8. It used to be a headache to find & very expensive but now they are available from Asian supplier. But, not as many sizes. You also may also encounter very similar machines but at 2-3X the price which are produced typically from Taiwan which are of better quality. That's my high level overview. Its a bit of a minefield.
 
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You mentioned Grizzly. I heard they discontinued distributing their D-bit grinder a few years back. I checked again & unless I missed, don't see one.

www.grizzly.com

Search - Grizzly Industrial, Inc.

Grizzly Industrial, Inc. is a national retail and internet company providing a wide variety of high-quality woodworking and metalworking machinery, power tools, hand tools and accessories. By selling directly to end users we provide the best quality products at the best price to professionals...
www.grizzly.com www.grizzly.com
 
PeterT said:
Do a search on this forum. I've written some posts on this exact issue but unfortunately they are rather scattered about as the subject comes up. That's because I'm essentially rebuilding substantial portions of my Accusize R8 collet D-bit grinder because - lets just say 'not so great quality' issues to put it mildly. So I have pictures of various issues & fixes along the way but I'm not quite done, therefore holding off a dedicated post. Bottom line IMO: unless you want a casting kit project, save your money for something else. In all fairness I have not seen a very recent offering so things may have changed since I got mine. And some of the important bits like wheel hubs don't seem to ever be available.

I can take an educated guess that the machines you are presently seeing on AliExpress & Ebay are the older style & high probability of lower quality. There is a myth that they all come from the same factory but I very much doubt that. Or if so, they must be separating them by various degrees of bad, really bad, super bad but painted yellow... etc. A better unit is the one offered by Shars. Unfortunately USA based & all that entails (FX, shipping & who knows maybe new tariffs). Shars is physically larger than the aforementioned. 5C collet only AFAIK. But more importantly it is just plain made better. I believe it is still made in China but obviously there is a level of QC present there which is not present with the others. I can state than because I have both parts like work heads & they are night & day different. And unfortunately, not interchangeable. You can use the Shars as-is but even so people make some improvements (Rob Renzetti).

It gets a bit complicated because you will also see older styles that are not as bad, but that's because whoever was distributing them had some better QC. The one Stefan.G shows his improvements I suspect falls in that class. Some of these older styles may have the original Deckel collet. It is slimmer than R8. It used to be a headache to find & very expensive but now they are available from Asian supplier. But, not as many sizes. You also may also encounter very similar machines but at 2-3X the price which are produced typically from Taiwan which are of better quality. That's my high level overview. Its a bit of a minefield.
Click to expand...
This was exactly what i was looking for and validated the decision to get a shars, deckel or high quality clone. I would like to get one of the 5c collet ones just because of the amount of work holding options available. Thanks!
 
Not sure of quality from Ali Express? I have an old Optima drill grinder. Works excellent for small drills, especially if you want a split point. I can grind a drill by hand but I struggle seeing to grind drills under 1/4”. With the optical grinder it makes it easy to get them perfect every time. It will grind up to 1” but I don’t have all the collets and they are expensive. I made a collet for taper shank drills up to 1” with a Morse taper up to a #3.
Martin 20250318_151903.jpeg
 
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