Easy ways to make money with an "automatic surface grinder"

For one thing you can grind perfect repeatable square stock lathe/shaper tools [not Wentworth because of root/crest radius] including Acme.

[can be improved by a vertical slot to grind tip flat. Also I think welding to base may introduce distortion. 2 SHCS should be adequate.]

the following may be helpful

Let the group know what you decide.

-------------------------- Quark the Ferengi sometimes quoted one of the laws of acquisition [generally after losing his taw] "Easy money is the hardest kind."

Quark - the ideal neo-con

George, I may be a little jaded because I go to so many liquidation auctions. What I see is shops full of expensive precision equipment, in debt because of buying that equipment, go bankrupt because it turns out that owning that equipment does not give them a good return on capital due to competition from similar shops.

I am not looking to get in that sort of thing.

I find that in industrial space, doing low tech, easy stuff, gives me better returns and less headaches, I am not burdened by expensive machines and bank payments. Make 300 here, 1000 there etc, is less risk and gives decent reward.

if I can find some good use for this kikinda, I will keep it, if not it goes to be sold for some realistic amount.

i

Ignoramus24233 fired this volley in news:GtednTEAFcNPyODOnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

That's a nice grinder. It's a little large for some shops, but with a lot of nice features, and it's unlikely to be badly worn at its age.

Lloyd

Hence my comment in AMC about seeing numbers of innovative, experienced, and technically competent machine shops go out of business because they indeed made money in the shop, but lost it all (and more) in the ledger [amortization, interest, and depreciation]. Thread is about JobBoss ERM software if anyone is interested.

Don't know anything about that machine size-wise, but about the most common use for our surface grinder back when we rebuilt one and two stage vane-style vacuum pumps was to surface the end plates so the new vanes would seal on the ends. These are plates about 1" thick and 4-6" square. Does anyone in your area rebuild scientific or HVAC vacuum pumps? Maybe you could do their grinding.

----- Regards, Carl Ijames

At an auction, I just bought a "Kikinda 1000A automatic surface grinder". This one, I think, goes in automatic repeated movements until it grinds to a certain depth. The price was right.

I kin of like it. An I wonder if, perhaps, there is some easy way to make money using this grinder. Not sure what it could be, but I am looking for a business justification of keeping it.

i

This is a nice idea.

I was more thinking of getting junk steel stock and scrap cutoffs, grinding it and selling as "precision ground" stuff on ebay. For example "precision ground round disc" or some such. Whereas all it amounts to is throwing it on the grinder and making a few passes automatically then getting $3 per lb.

i

Well, a good business makes money, and a bad business does not, if under reasonable accounting there is no profit after depreciation and interest, then there is no profit.

A good business is wildly profitable and even a tax cheat cannot hide those profits because there is so much.

i

I spent 5 minutes with it, the only thing that I could figure out was how to run the spindle. It does look nice and moves smoothly by hand.

His talents lie solely in destruction, not in creation.

I've used my surface grinder to reface scored hydraulic gear pump end plates and remove warpage from an old Kellogg air compressor cylinder head. These repairs were labor-intensive in setup and inspection.

jsw

I agree with you 100%. I am looking for one.

i

Ignoramus5418 fired this volley in news:3rednbo_mKo4tBzOnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

You could make a good living with a disc grinder, too, well-applied.

Blanchards are nice and fast, but the method isn't well-suited to long rectangular work or grids of multiple pieces in a rectangular array.

Although slower, disc grinders can handle longer shapes, and multiple rectangular shapes on the same setup.

As I understand it, in the long run, the media is cheaper than Blanchard cups/wheels. I don't own a Blanchard style machine, so I can't say personally, and the replacable segment insert types might be cost- effective even for routine grinding.

Lloyd

Get one like the 300" one I saw at Commerce Grinding when I had my mill table ground.

Top row, far right.

Pete Keillor

Pete Keillor fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yeah... THAT would fit right in my shop!

Heh! I'm not even sure my slab would take it. It's only 6" thick!

LLoyd

Yep, it is just what I need.

It needs a pit

That's a nice, little, shirt-pocket model.

ISBN: 0671529366 Rules of Acquisition