# A New Member of the Family



## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

Gentlemen (and ladies),

     I looked with longing at the Precision Matthews 612 Surface Grinder (yes, they sell it, just not list it on their site). I have that weird quirk where I want things in a set - I got the 1030V lathe and the 727V mill, it is only natural that I have the third most necessary tool to complete the set yes?

     Recently I took a job... it isn't really one that I want, but that's normal in my world  . Anyways, to salve my bruised ego on having taken this position (it does pay well enough to forestall reasonable complaints) I decided to seriously consider completing the machine tool set - a Surface Grinder with the associated goodies (tangent-radius dresser, sine vise, V-blocks, etc...).
     I wrote to PM to ask for a complete-with-delivery price for their grinder. It is like the other PM tools, a more precisey version of rather commonly produced specimens of Chineseium-freight-boxium.
     They, in their accustomed manner, wrote back with speed and friendliness to say....

What I most feared. 

     As it stands right now, those of us in the middle-third of North-America are effectively and efficiently now forbidden from purchases of most things that require ocean transport. Freight and kerfuffle have reached that point that illustrates the inherent and obvious weaknesses of off-shoring and out-sourcing.

     As of my latest information, imports are for all intents and purposes, shut off.

Yes, I know not all of them, but enough that it's getting concerning. 

     Anyways, I wrote back to PM about my dismay, and my hope that they will be able to weather this... whatever this is...

But, I was still without a Surface Grinder! 

In a huff, I went to Google to whine over the other suitable (meaning single phase - 110VAC, 60Hz machines) imports that I cannot get. I happened across a "Universal Tool and Cutter Grinder" from India (also not an option now) - but this one was different than the T&C Grinders that I've seen... it looked like a surface grinder with weird appendages...

What is this? A new tool-type? 

So, on a whim, I went to Ebay. There it was... only 800 miles from me... very close in budget...

Messages with the seller, measurements taken, negotiations, hopes, dashed-hopes, renewed hopes...

Thursday afternoon I go to Sweetie and say "Baby, wanna go to Arizona?" 
     Yup.

12 hours later (almost to the minute) we pull up to some apartment in Phoenix, disassemble, load, and drive off to find a sleeping spot.

We get to that big jagged hole in the ground north of Phoenix - you might be familiar with it as it is rather Grand. I show the little one a Wonder of the Natural World and watch as she cowers from the 1 mile precipice, later to warm up to it enough to dance on the edge.

     One cannot go within 100 miles of that particular hole in the ground without stopping!!!

Anyways, I sleep for about 3 hours and we arrive back at home almost 36hrs exactly after we left.

     When I was a young man, such a drive wouldn't have hurt so bad... it was fun, but oh... the consequences... 

In any case, I sleep for 12 hrs straight then unload and set-er-up.

     Not one spot of wear in the ways. Came with EVERY factory accessory. Even came with 5 rocks, a diamond dresser - and a Diamond cup wheel!

      Factory plastic coating still on the degree-scales. You know, like that stuff that's on the new smart-phone when you get it? Yeah... That stuff still on it.

The ways-oil had solidified, and the gibs were a bit tight, but I adjusted and lubed, wiped the dust off of it...

I accidentally got what appears to be, for all intents and purposes, a BRAND NEW UNIVERSAL TOOL AND CUTTER GRINDER!!!!!!



     By orders of magnitude, the BEST Ebay find EVER!!! Seriously - THIS is why Ebay was invented!!!
I guess the story is that the previous owner was the only one ever, was a rather... aged... engineer/hobbyist who appears to have... departed... before he used it much. (Incidentally, it is both endearing and sad - someday that might be my tools on some sale site).

I ordered a 5x10 Mag chuck (fits so well, it seems made for it), an MT3 keyless-chuck and MT3-ER32 Collet Chuck, a Sine Vise and Spacer-block set. I'm on the lookout for a Radius-Tangent Dresser and some more diamond nibs to round it out, maybe that finger thing that goes in the tool-rest so as to cause end-mills to spin for sharpening the flutes (anyone know what that's called? A flute finger?). Maybe I can find and adapt a set of indexing plates to go with the headstock, and a small variable-speed motor to make it spin all on its own (for OD grinding).

     Funny thing, it came with an aftermarket work-lamp that had documentation. In that documentation I saw 1992. It so happens that I lived in Mesa (30 min. east of Phoenix) at around that time... Drove through Mesa on the trip, saw my boyhood home and school... unrecognizable.
     I lived within a few miles of a machine that would one day be mine. Life is weird.

Finally, as it so happens, I began the job and have completed my first week. It appears that my first paycheck will be near enough to completely pay-off the balance on my Amex that I racked up on this lunatic adventure - cost of the machine, the trip, admission to the Grand Canyon, even the accessories... all of it.
 

     I am still in disbelief.

I just put it up on some cinder-blocks (all machine tools are too short for me, so up they go!) connected it up, and watched her spin for a minute before I took some photos and decided to share them with you.

     The Mill is named Milly, Lathe is Lizzy, and for the Jet JCG-450-1 I am thinking "Grendel"... what do you think?

Thanks for reading the story - here's the pics!








I am not supposed to be living this well.

Many and much gratitudes.


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## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

Almost forgot, proof of canyon:



Incidentally, a member here sent me a scan of the manual - THANK YOU!!!!


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## Dhal22 (May 24, 2021)

Sometimes life works out.   Congrats.


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## hman (May 24, 2021)

Wowsers!  Congratulations and a suckage award are both yours.  
"The Mill is named Milly, Lathe is Lizzy, and for the Jet JCG-450-1 I am thinking "Grendel"... what do you think?"
Howzabout Jane (George Jetson's wife).


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## Just for fun (May 24, 2021)

Congratulations!  That's really cool.


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## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

hman said:


> Wowsers!  Congratulations and a suckage award are both yours.
> "The Mill is named Milly, Lathe is Lizzy, and for the Jet JCG-450-1 I am thinking "Grendel"... what do you think?"
> Howzabout Jane (George Jetson's wife).


I used to know the Jetsons - never liked Jane; had sticky fingers while George slaved away  Spacely's Sprockets.

    Huh, you think George was a machinist? Maybe an accountant... though he does come across as an engineer...

Anyways, it's got to be a 'G' name. On the trip I told the little one about Beowulf and Grendel, so it was in my mind. Sweetie suggested Grechen or Grunhilde...

    Georgette?

Of course, Jane is a g-ish sound...

     if only she hadn't taken all his money to go shopping while he went off to work for a wanker...


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## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

Just for fun said:


> Congratulations!  That's really cool.


Thanks!

 Like I said, it's pretty hard to believe. I go look at it, rock the table, think of when I used to run a Micromaster... who knew I'd get one with SO MANY features!


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## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

I forgot to mention - it came with an MT3 dead center and an MT3 cutter-arbor - in what appears to be the original plastic bag with the freaking cosmoline still all over it.

Good lord!

Not trying to brag, but this was a FIND!


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## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

hman said:


> Wowsers!  Congratulations and a suckage award are both yours.
> "The Mill is named Milly, Lathe is Lizzy, and for the Jet JCG-450-1 I am thinking "Grendel"... what do you think?"
> Howzabout Jane (George Jetson's wife).


HAH!

    I totally just got it - Jet... Jane Jetson....

BAH!HAHAHAHA!!!!


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## brino (May 24, 2021)

Congratulations on the new machine.
It looks spectacular!

I guess sometimes the stars do align.

May I suggest some good dust covers for Milly and Lilly, just tell them that you bought them new fancy dresses (so they don't get jealous).

-brino


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## LucknowKen (May 24, 2021)

Awesome machine. Congrats!









						T&C grinder research ???-450? Mine is a Kao Ming
					

Been doing some research trying to find manuals and what not for my Kao Ming 450A Tool and cutter grinder. Turns out to be a fairly common base and has been sold under many different makers including Kao Ming, Enco, Jet, Mazak, standard and many others. Currently it seems a company in Vietnam is...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


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## FOMOGO (May 24, 2021)

Great looking machine. Should be very versatile, and useful. Cheers, Mike


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## Jake P (May 24, 2021)

MERLIncMan said:


> What I most feared.
> 
> As it stands right now, those of us in the middle-third of North-America are effectively and efficiently now forbidden from purchases of most things that require ocean transport. Freight and kerfuffle have reached that point that illustrates the inherent and obvious weaknesses of off-shoring and out-sourcing.
> 
> As of my latest information, imports are for all intents and purposes, shut off.


I'm curious as to what you were told that would make you say that " imports are for all intents and purposes, shut off".

There are surely long waits, but I've not heard anything to the effect of any shut down.

P.S.  My vote is Grendel!  Suffix, 6.5


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## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

brino said:


> Congratulations on the new machine.
> It looks spectacular!
> 
> I guess sometimes the stars do align.
> ...


Dresses.... HAH!

Not a bad idea though. I set up the grinder so it throws swarf to one side, near Lizzy's headstock (rather than towards the CNC or Laserbeam) and I was beginning to consider a plexiglass shroud with a vacuum port - perhaps suspended from the ceiling over the Grinder.

The biggest issue is that my electrical supply does not want to run too much at a time - Grinder, lights, and a vacuum? Might be over budget on the amps.

Haven't been able to get a meatier wire run yet.

I think the dresses for Milly and Lizzy might be the best decision at the moment - wouldn't want them getting rock-dust on their gams!


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## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

Jake P said:


> I'm curious as to what you were told that would make you say that " imports are for all intents and purposes, shut off".
> 
> There are surely long waits, but I've not heard anything to the effect of any shut down.
> 
> P.S.  My vote is Grendel!  Suffix, 6.5


I'm leaning towards Grendel too!

     It isn't that the tap has been shut off, but that freight has gotten insanely expensive, combined with extreme wait times and MASSIVE backlog that, in PM's case, it isn't worth it to even try at the moment (at the moment... they will try someday).

As I said, imports are still happening, but the freight situation has jacked them up so bad.

Containers normally cost $2-3k to cross the Pacific, with 30-60 days lead. From what I've read, it's now getting passed $7000.00 (and even closer to $14,000 in some cases) - and that's only if someone has the space within the next year - YEAR - or so. I did read some importer saying that he simply cannot find anyone, at ANY price, to ship his containers.

I can't really believe what I read, so I don't, but PM telling me flat-out that they would not sell me a grinder because they simply can't get them... they WOULD sell me something with a 6 month lead time, but that is not what they said. They said (they are very friendly and I like them a lot) - they said simply "No."

Walmart is probably still getting things through (assuredly) but I believe that, for now at least, small to medium sized importers are effectively priced and volumed out of the business.

My information may be outdated - even as I write this, there may be 120,000,000 TEU happily bobbing in Los Angeles and New Jersey - but at the end of the day, importing has become so unreliable from my end that I've stopped looking for anything coming over an ocean.


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## Papa Charlie (May 24, 2021)

@MERLIncMan 

Very nice find. Shipping costs are getting ridiculous. But I think you may have come way out ahead here.

As for the name, she is a Surface Grinder, so you could name her Shirley or Grendel, either would work. Not up on my Lord of the Ring but no doubt there is probably a cool name that starts with an S as well as G.


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## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

Papa Charlie said:


> @MERLIncMan
> 
> Very nice find. Shipping costs are getting ridiculous. But I think you may have come way out ahead here.
> 
> As for the name, she is a Surface Grinder, so you could name her Shirley or Grendel, either would work. Not up on my Lord of the Ring but no doubt there is probably a cool name that starts with an S as well as G.


Smaug?
Golem?


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## extropic (May 24, 2021)

Ooops.


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## MERLIncMan (May 24, 2021)

LucknowKen said:


> Awesome machine. Congrats!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That thread is actually what I found while searching for the manual 

Resulted in me getting a manual...

Can't ask for better than that!


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## vtcnc (May 25, 2021)

Gracie!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## 7milesup (May 25, 2021)

My Aunt is Geraldine.  My dog is Gretta.  How about Ginny to go with Lilly and Milly 
Goddess.  Gertrude.  Gitty.  Gloria; you know from 



 or one of my favs...  




Everytime you fire her up, you will be singin'!!


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## MERLIncMan (May 26, 2021)

vtcnc said:


> Gracie!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Gracie?

You've got two votes in favor... I'll have to keep an eye on this one


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## MERLIncMan (May 26, 2021)

7milesup said:


> My Aunt is Geraldine.  My dog is Gretta.  How about Ginny to go with Lilly and Milly
> Goddess.  Gertrude.  Gitty.  Gloria; you know from
> 
> 
> ...


WOAH!


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## Tinkershed (Jun 5, 2021)

I'll bet every barometer for a mile around is stuck on its lowest point from all the suckage at your house.  Great find !


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## MERLIncMan (Jun 5, 2021)

Tinkershed said:


> I'll bet every barometer for a mile around is stuck on its lowest point from all the suckage at your house.  Great find !


Heheh...
 Yes sir!

I also just got my Radius-Tangent Dresser and a diamond wheel today. It's been a crazy month as I begin to recognize that my machines are nearly complete....

Not that I'll have every tool I ever wanted mind you, but the next big-ticket is a heat treat oven, and by the time the list get's to such a point... one can only smile!


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