Ryobi BGH616 6" Bench Grinder

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  

  • Ryobi BGH616 6" Bench Grinder

    I've been eyeballing the Ryobi BGH616 for a while as my old Ace Hardware 6" grinder has been making some funny noises, and the shop built tool rests on it were simply not doing the job...

    I needed a grinder for various sharpening, and metals dressing tasks in the shop, and had been reading the professional comparions between bench grinders from bigger name brands such as Delta, Grizzly, Jet, DeWalt and others. And feature for feature, the field was reduced to 2 candidates, the Delta GR275, and the Ryobi BGH616. I specifically wanted a 6" grinder, in all honesty because I have a mess of grinder wheels left over from the old Ace Hardware grinder...

    The Ryobi was chosen as the hands down winner due to its much lower cost.

    The good.
    #1. Low profile motor housing, grinding at a right angle to the motor, say sharpening a mower blade, is not only possible, but simple with this setup. (Yeah, I checked with an old blade.)
    #2. Individual work lights over each wheel that pour light right onto the area you are working. The amount of light and aim of these thing so far has shown to be great. Very happy with this feature!
    #3. Easily adjustable tool rests.
    #4. Rubber isolation mounts to at least reduce the vibration transferred to the work bench.
    #5. Magnifier lens / eye shield over the left tool rest. This really helps in getting a close up view of what you are working on!
    #6. Soft start to the motor. The old Ace Hardware grinder kind of banged it's way up to almost instant speed, and took forever to stop once turned off. This grinder spins up smoothly and spins down quickly.

    The Bad.
    #1. 2.1 amp motor. Not exactly a power house. However there is plenty of power on tap for any grinding tasks I have thrown at it so far.
    #2. I bought mine on a Black Friday door buster sale, and it appears that Ryobi rushed a bunch of these through production at the last minute, the paint on the base wasn't even completely dry. I am hoping that this is the only quality control issue that I have with this.

    Overall, I am happy with the purchase, time will tell how happy...
    Tags: Power Tools
      • rollo
        #2
        rollo commented
        03-26-2010, 10:52 AM
        Editing a comment
        I bought the ryobi 8" for my brother a few years ago for xmas. He uses it quite a bit and its held up like a champ. Ramps up to speed quickly and runs smooth after years of frequent use. The only thing I'd watch out for is if you use your grinder for putting hollow grinds on your chisels/plane blades, etc. I likthe 6" grind better, as it produces a deeper hollow that lasts longer thru several sharpenings. The 8" diameter gives a less-hollow grind that may have you re-grinding your tools more often, or resulting in longer sharpening sessions. For lawnmower blades, etc, the 8" is the way to go tho.
        • LCHIEN
          #3
          LCHIEN commented
          03-26-2010, 11:26 AM
          Editing a comment
          looks a lot like the BGH625 grinder i have, the main difference is the gooseneck light on mine vs the two individual lights on this one. I don't use it a lot but it seems to work fine when i need a grinder to clean up some cut-off screws, rods, metal pieces etc.
          • dbhost
            #4

            dbhost             commented
            03-26-2010, 11:39 AM
            Editing a comment
            NOTE. Upgraded to the BGH-827

            FWIW, I have sold off the BGH-616, and upgraded to a BGH-827. As happy with that as the 616, but with a much bigger stone. It ran smooth as butter until I swapped in some Norton white oxide stones. I need to true these up, but funds are a little tight. I will be adding a Geiger's Dressing tool to my arsenal, the crazy dressing tool costs almost twice what the grinder cost! I sure wish that Norton would have shipped the wheels true and round!
            Posting comments is disabled.

          Latest Articles

          Collapse
          • A review of the Kreg Precision Trak & Stop Kit
            by twistsol

            Summary
            I built my miter station last summer and used the Kreg Precision Trak & Stop Kit. The kit was just the starting point. 8 feet of track and a single flip stop didn’t meet my needs since I was building a miter station the width of my shop, nearly 24 feet. I added four 48” pieces of top track and three additional swing stops so I could have two left and two right. Finally, I added metric rules to the top. Total cost breakdown is as follows
            ...
            03-23-2022, 02:59 PM
          • Review of VIX-type Self Centering drill bits
            by LCHIEN
            I have always had trouble mounting small hardware on small wood boxes, with the hasps and hinges always looking slightly off perfectly square - particularly a problem with flat head screws and countersunk hardware which aligns the hardware to the hole location and centers on the hole.

            I'm talking small wood screws. I place and mark the hardware carefully and mark the center of the hole with a sharp awl.
            The problem comes about with small bits like 1/16 and 5/64 and 3/32"...
            08-30-2021, 12:18 AM
          • Grizzly Overarm Blade Guard review.
            by twistsol
            Since my new shop is in the basement, dust collection is a bit more important than when I had my own building and could do as I pleased in the shop. With that in mind, I upgraded the dust collection on my table saw. I purchased the Grizzly Overarm Blade Guard to use with the saw.

            First impressions were that this is an extremely solid and well built unit. It's made mostly of steel and connects to a 4" DC hose. There were a number of issues getting it set up and installed, and a...
            07-26-2021, 03:47 PM
          • Kreg KMA 3220 5mm Shelf Pin Jig
            by twistsol



            I decided to look for the rock bottom cheapest 32mm drilling system available that would let let me create real 5mm holes spaced 32mm apart, that was easy to use, and didn’t require a bunch of setup time. I’m really surprised at how much I like this little Keg jig especially when you consider the price of $34.99, and it has everything included. There were a couple of jigs cheaper but you needed to buy a self-centering 5mm bit to go along with them so they would...
            03-19-2021, 05:57 PM
          • Knife marking pencil Accutrax
            by LCHIEN
            Here's a tool I found useful for marking. Accutrax pencil blade marking knife.



            I have one I've been using on and off for a while. Its a fine pencil lead in the shape of a utility blade that can be installed in any utility knife handle and used with a straight edge, combination square, saddle square etc. to mark easily seen, fine lines on wood..

            Here's mine. I have not broken it, it seems to be quite sturdy. The sharp edge lasts a long time. I'm still on the...
            01-14-2021, 03:25 AM
          • Saddle squares
            by LCHIEN
            Hey, I'm sharing one of my favorite tools. A Veritas Saddle Square. Actually I have two in different sizes. This is the large size for marking 2x4 and 4x4 (shown on 4x4 here). One of those tools that makes woodworking a pleasure.



            They're great for continuing lines from side to side. And even side to opposite side.
            Works really well when the board has a rounded edge or some wane where the edge is not really sharp and square but the two adjacent faces are square to...
            01-13-2021, 02:20 AM
          View All

          The SawdustZone Statistics

          Collapse
          Topics: 61,301   Posts: 558,646   Members: 20,641   Active Members: 68
          Welcome to our newest member, Poolwaterpro.

          What's Going On

          Collapse

          There are currently 3692 users online. 2 members and 3690 guests.

          Most users ever online was 15,771 at 02:28 PM on 04-26-2024.

          Footer Ad

          Collapse
          Working...

          We process personal data about users of our site, through the use of cookies and other technologies, to deliver our services, personalize advertising, and to analyze site activity. We may share certain information about our users with our advertising and analytics partners. For additional details, refer to our Privacy Policy.

          By clicking "I AGREE" below, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our personal data processing and cookie practices as described therein. You also acknowledge that this forum may be hosted outside your country and you consent to the collection, storage, and processing of your data in the country where this forum is hosted.

          I Agree