Harbor Freight Bauer VS Hercules 8" Bench Grinder comparison and review!

damn good vid, good coverage on both, im fixen 2 buy the hercules , was hopeing to catch em on sale but they verly ralerly ever put the hercules stuff on sale, i may have 2 pay full price but i dont want to, once again thanks 4 your help on this...

I just picked up the Bauer, 8 inch variable speed. I thought it was a rebadged Hercules because it’s identical looking to the one in your video and they came out with a new industrial Herc with no variable speed. I like the Bauer, plenty of power and runs smooth with some aftermarket flanges/washers. My only issue is it gets really hot when torquing hard on the wire wheel.

What happens when you grind that wheel/stone all the way till the end?

I wish the 2023 model had that LED ligh n the Hercules.. Looking at the ad, it doesn't

red one same as the baba for 14usd?

Now on the HF website, the Hercules is on "clearance" and only available locally (no stores near me), but there is now a Bauer from HF with exact same specs (and variable speed). Any idea what gives? Did they upgrade the Bauer and an even better Hercules is on the way?

Thank you. The grinder I have now boggs down so easily. I have been looking for another grinder for a while and this reassures me that if I get either of these from Harbor freight I will be good to go.

5 amps@120v = .8hp
4.8 amps@120v = .77hp
Unless you misspoke, the Herc is not .9hp.

I got the Hercules. One thing the motor runs hot when it's on lower speeds.

Great username! Love the movie!

Do you know if the Harbor Freight router control would work with the Bauer grinder?

I like the Bauer one better based off the video

The Hercules looks great I just wish the speed controller would slow it down a little more, it would be nice to have a grinder/slow speed polisher in one

Unfortunately, you didn’t didn’t see how much either grinder cost. It would’ve been nice to know which one was best for the money.

I like the harbor freight bench grinders that we can put a wire brush or a buffer in or something but I wonder witch grinder won hercules or bauer

thanks for sharing

The Bauer in my experience is trash. Absolutely unbalanced, loud as an air compressor, and literally shakes itself apart. I've had to secure the base of it three times.

Just purchased the Hercules grinder. It’s awesome! Smooth as glass. Works great and feels really powerful. No feel of stalling at all. So far, I am please with both Hercules power tools that I have purchased. I also purchased the sliding miter saw as and that also works excellent as well.

Thanks. I would have liked to see you intentionally try to stall each of them. Could use just some steel/rebar/whatever vs. messing up a good chisel for that.

Hercules looks actually like my lowes delta

I would stay away from the bauer...I have the 6inch and it boggs down alot...obviously this one doesn't but it has the same noise motor plus the vibration...I would go with the lue one...sounds smoother...$50 more but you pay for what you get...

Hi When are you going to build the bench top grinder stand?? I am going to purchase the Hercules 8".. Great grinder.. I recently picked up a Hercules miter saw table and that thing is Awesomely stout and light weight 149 bucks... Ps.. Do the grinder stand build thanks bud!!

Thanks, can you demonstrate how to correctly sharpen knife, chisel, gardening scissors, hue, with Bauer Thanks again

I bought the 8" Bauer this weekend. Extremely bad vibration / wheel wobble. I spent about 30 minutes dressing the wheels, but it still has unacceptable vibration. I'm taking it back.

Den of tools says these are junk a stay away from them..

I am trying to find a knife sharpening jig for these ... any ideas ?

When swapping out one of the grinding wheels for a wire wheel, which grit wheel should I leave on? ie. which grit is most useful for general home owner use? (chisels, lawnmower blades, etc.)

The Hercules looks much smoother and quieter than the Bauer. I’d like to see how these compare to say a 8” dewalt. I was looking at these and had ultimately settled on the dewalt. But the Hercules looked really nice in this video!

Why does nobody have a review on the 6in Bauer Grinders like these. Are you able to do a 6-inch Bauer grinder review ?

I like the Hercules model better can you take one of the grinding wheels off and put a polishing wheel on it? If so that will be my next grinder love that variable speed option too

I have the Bauer Bench Grinder and I have received new grinding wheels from Harbor Freight to replace the original wheels and it still shakes everything off my bench! While powering down it shakes so bad the wheels hit the spark guards! I am taking it back today. I wish mine ran as smooth as yours does! Light shakes and the eye guards shake really bad. I don't want to trash the unit too badly right now because I know every once in a while you get a lemon out of the box but I am close to it. SMH!

I bought the huskie it seems to take a long time when cold to get up to speed is this normal? I haven’t used it yet as I am not sure this is the way it should run. I did the first startup with the speed set on low and it still took well over a minute to get up to speed. I then turned it to maximum speed and it responded quickly. Should I take it back if I can or is this how they operate in cold Minnesota garages? The motor housing was hot to the touch and it smelled like an electrical type fire

I WAS entertained. Now I feel guilty.
I would like to see a comparison between the Bauer in-line with the Speed Control (Router Speed Control ~$15) - and the Herc. The plug-in has the advantage of having a switch by-pass -- which means no power loss full speed if you want it.

Just ordered the Bauer. How wide are the shrouds on the sides? I can`t find any information on this. I would like to run a wide wheel.

Ok ok.... they look pretty legit. I bet they are made in the same factory as the Delta ones sold at lowes

I wish you would have shown how the old orange one did with the test. I have that grinder and find it to be pretty wimpy. It bogs down a lot for me.

Did you have any out of balance wobble with the grinding wheels? I had bought a brand new Delta 8" variable speed bench grinder at Lowe's and the wobble on the grinding wheels was so bad and the vibration that I had to take it back. Very disappointing for a well known name in tools for it to be so bad. Plus the quality of the grinding wheels was not good either.

That was a great review! Both look nice, I was surprised at just how much more the Hercules VS model cost over the Bauer! Very interesting! Thanks!

We had one of the central machinery grinders and the only feature worth mentioning is that it would clear the workbench, whether you wanted all of that stuff shaken to the ground or not

Polishing is best accomplished at about 1700 thru 2500 rpm so you may be better off putting the polishing wheels on the Hurcules variable speed grinder .

Did you mention the price?

A light is wayyy under rated. Just the other day I was grinding a thread stick out off close to a machined surface that I didn't want to hit with the grinder, and I also didn't want to spend a ton of time sanding it flush. The light let's you see good enough to get it closer without hitting the other surface.

Well done sir! Whether reviews or how-to’s, I always learn something and I’m always surprised at how similar our tastes are at this kinda stuff! Great job as usual!

Thanks for the update on these two gringers