Surface Grinder purchase help

[Kevco]

One thing that doesn't get mentioned much but I'll throw this in. I did production manual surface grinding for a living. We used Reids and Parkers mainly. They were doing in house rebuilds/scraping of our machines. Company wanted cheaper so they went with Mitsui roller bearing style grinders. as the could just throw new rails and bearing straps in. Most of our grinding was out of a Harig fixture with side stops on the table so we could swing radii. In other words, one defined centerline was used on the machine, back and forth a LOT. Within a year we started having issues with humped surfaces. REAL apparent when regrinding a chuck. Working one spot constantly ended up causing valleys on the ways as the ball bearings never overlapped as you would if making longer strokes. For most shops, might not be an issue but be aware of it. The Parker and Reids we had were metal on metal style and they would last at least 10 years between rebuilds. Normally more with a conscience operator. Company was mad and then didn't want to replace bearing sets on the Mitsuis as they "cost so much" LOL We had our choice of what we ran and I had my Reid rebuilt. Some like the ease of the ball bearings but I did not. You had to lock/unlock the table to keep it from drifting when Micing or taking on and off and it was too much wasted motion for me.

 

[michiganbuck]

QT: (The Parker and Reids we had were metal on metal style and they would last at least 10 years between rebuilds.)
Pretty much an iron oiled scaped machine can be rescraped to be accurate like new. They may get a little out of tram but if straight and dead flat the skimming the of chuck takes that out back to true.

 

[Kevco]

QT: (The Parker and Reids we had were metal on metal style and they would last at least 10 years between rebuilds.)
Pretty much an iron oiled scaped machine can be rescraped to be accurate like new. They may get a little out of tram but if straight and dead flat the skimming the of chuck takes that out back to true.

We were running 3 shifts and weekends on top of that so our wear would be more than most shops. Also have to include idiots with air hoses as well. I had a guy behind me that wiped out a new set of Mitsu bearings in about a month and half. Of course he blamed it on cheap bearings and I told him it was his blowing grit into them that was the cause. When they pulled the table, it was proven. We'd get the Reids rebuilt when the tables would start diving clockwise and those wear the back slides first. Mitsus have bad protection on the front so they have the fronts wear the worst causing the table to dive towards operator. No amount of chuck grinding will correct it. Have to replace the bearings and rails
I had a maintenance guy argue with me as it "checked fine" and I said show me. He put the indicator on the spndle dead center on straight down to the chuck and ran it showing zero. I then took it and moved the arm as far out as I could on the chuck and it showed .005 out on the backrail. I said, Now you know why it won't hold consistant slot position on wider parts.