Thread: Any info about the TWO Kent grinder companies?

I sold my Chevalier 618 to my brother, as it was pretty long in the tooth, and bought a new Kent 616. The color of the machine was white and blue, and all I'd ever seen before was white and red. Well, turns out there are two companies with the same name, but one is called Kent Taiwan. Now, I know the other Kent sells Taiwanese (And Chinese) grinders, but wondered if there is, or was, any relationship between the two companies?

I was looking for an overhead parallel dresser for it in another post and eventually robbed the OPD from the Chevalier with my brother's permission, son of a gun, it fits perfectly! I suspect these grinders are all copies of American and Japanese machines going way back, so it's not too weird I guess.

Does anyone know if there was ever just one Kent company? Was there a split? Is there still a relationship? Thanks,
parts

I guess no one knows, in this huge forum.

I didn't ever hear of two different companies until you mentioned it.

I have a 1981 Kent KGS-200 6x14 surface grinder, made in Taiwan and it's off-white with red. When I needed some simple parts to get it running (electrical stuff), I called the only Kent machine company I could find, in California, and they sold me what I needed for the 30 year old machine. I've seen a lot of various year models of Kent, Acer and Chevalier machines, and as far as the surface grinders go they all appear to be using at least the same iron and many other parts.

When I got the machine a little over two years ago, I noticed that the control had a switch, relay contacts and connector sockets for the electrical connections of a flood coolant system and/or dust collector, even though the table had not a single piece of sheet metal guarding on it. I had found an Ebay seller, "supramachine", who was selling the kind of unit I was looking for. They're the same one I referred to in your other thread for the top-mounted wheel dresser. No way I could afford their asking price, but I did notice that said they'd ship from Anaheim CA or Piscataway NJ so I Googled the company and found the NJ company. I bought a unit from them directly for a great price.

I did have to change the plug on the end of the cord to match my older machine, and bought it from Kent USA in California. This one:
Kent USA Industrial Machinery - EDMs, Surface Grinders, Lathes, Mills, CNC Horizontal Turning Center (CNC HTC), CNC Vertical Machining Centers (CNC VMC), CNC Horizontal Machining Centers (CNC HMC), Oil Country Lathes, and More

They seemed to have records of the machine and the parts.

I agree that there now seems to be TWO Kent machine companies doing business here in the US and they seem to be slightly different machines. Mine looks more like the "618" offered by Kent Industrial rather than the "616" offered by Kent USA.

Here's the Kent Industrial (USA) that you seem to have bought from:

KENT INTERNATIONAL USA, INC. -Surface Grinder/Bridge Mill-

Weird.

Very weird because the logo is identical. When I called the Kent USA (White & red) they said I had to order parts from the other company (White and blue).