First manufactured in the early 1950s the EXE miniature 12" x 6" surface grinder was still available during the late 1990s. It was available for either bench mounting or fitted to the maker's own robust (enormously heavy) cast-iron cabinet stand that included an integral dust-extraction system. Unlike many surface grinders of its era the spindle ran not in super-precision plain bearings but in a detachable housing that held pre-loaded, angular-contact ball bearings. To encouraged quick and safe wheel changes to be made to suit the job in hand the grinding wheel was retained by a quickly-detachable detachable collet. Intended for operation by hand only the table was 12 inches long, 63/8 inches wide with a longitudinal travel of 131/2 inches and a traverse of 7 inches. The bench model weighed a massive 620 lbs and the cabinet version, complete with dust-extraction equipment, 1360 lbs - and it won't fit in the batch of your hatchback, either.
To give some idea of the machine's quality in 1957 a Myford ML7 lathe cost a little over £50 - whereas the EXE grinder was priced at £447 in bench form and £598 on the stand. Although surface grinding machines are rarely found in small workshops the compact little EXE is one of the few available that would make an ideal addition to the machine-tool collection of the more enthusiastic amateur..