Lidl is currently selling 6" bench grinders for £21. These have a 200W 2980rpm induction (I think) motor, which is a bit weak for 6" grinding wheels, but I bought one with a view to re-purposing it. I removed the motor end caps and extracted the spindle and cut off both ends. I then turned the right hand end to 12mm and cut an M8 thread to take an angle grinding adapter.
The result is shown in the photos and allows accessories such as sanding discs or the thin cut off wheels to be mounted. These latter are useful for roughing out HSS lathe tools to be used for parting or screwcutting.
I extended the tool rest by drilling a couple of 3/16 holes in the original and clamping a piece of 2" x 1 1/2" x 1/16" plate to it. I then filled the holes using a stick welder, sticking the extension plate to the original rest.
I think the motor is a gem for the money – very quiet and smooth running and enough power to drive angle grinder tooling.



