Surface grinder in Oz?

Anyone know of any businesses that have one? I need to get a slightly warped Triumph chaincase cover trued up. Not really keen on messing about with grinding paste and sheets of glass .

Whilst it's certainly possible to grind al. alloy, most people with a surface grinder keep their machines set up to grind steel, the grinding wheels are different, and the magnetic chucks don't work too well. I would think that a suitable manual mill, like a Bridgeport, would do the trick, using a fly cutter, setting it up would be a challenge and would be where most of your money would go. It doesn't require anything glamourous, just competent.
Getting a piece of plate glass, and lapping it would be the easiest, and cheapest, and being a cheapskate would be what I would do.
cheers
wakeup

I'll second the plate glass method. Any large enough piece of glass will do, glass is inherently flat, just put it on a piece of MDF for stability with a suitably big piece of fine emery cloth /wet or dry, it will take no more than 20 minutes to do. The chain case mating surfaces always looked rough from new so there is no need for lapping in with grinding paste.
Slightly off topic I went to a machinery and manufacturing expo in Birmingham (UK) last week, and on one of the stands was a new Triumph Tiger engine case, the mating surfaces looked like a mirror finish, no tooling marks at all, no wonder they don't leak oil!

CB

+1 on Wakeup's post.

Slick

Thanks for the tips. Just where does one get emery paper that big though? :cry:

You could try fine grade sanding belts from wood working machines. If you can't get one wide enough maybe try cutting two or three smaller ones and sticking them on the glass with spray adhesive, then rub the casing in a figure of eight movement to get an even flatness.

It's worth a go, there's always more than one way to achieve the end result!

Good luck
CB

A piece of glass and fine valve grind paste, cheap.