- Joined
- Oct 15, 2020
- Messages
- 208
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.
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.
