Thread: Did US make any slideway grinders?

Have never seen a US made slideway grinder and was wondering if any were made in the US.. Seen plenty of planers even some fitted with univeral grinding heads but they looked to be retrofits..

I know elsewhere in the world you had the likes of Churchill or Snow or maybe even Stirk making dedicated slideway grinders and Europe made their's where the machine being ground remained stationary and the grinding head moved (german Billeter and WMW for example) Billeter grinder -->> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvG6_...ature=youtu.be

But did the likes of Mattison or Thompson or Norton make dedicated slideway grinders?

Bridgeport had a dovetail grinder in the plant when they went to auction. Either mattison or thompson. But dont remember which.

One showed up years ago on fleabay disassembled and 2 went to auction in california a few years back. Believe they where scraped

Thompson made a variety of way grinders including dovetail grinders and multi-spindle traveling head grinders.

Originally Posted by Mebfab

Bridgeport had a dovetail grinder in the plant when they went to auction. Either mattison or thompson. But dont remember which.

One showed up years ago on fleabay disassembled and 2 went to auction in california a few years back. Believe they where scraped

I wonder if those grinders were scraped before they were scrapped?

Stuart

Does anyone have a brochure from thompson they could post about slideway grinders? I know most of the machines have been scrappped

Pratt & Whitney Aircraft had one in the sixties in their Machine Tool Repair area. You can be sure it was USA. It would grind about 20 feet and had two grinding spindles, one a universal you could put at any handy angle. Could have been a Mattison, was not a retro fitted planer.

From 1948 catalog:

All the BP way grinder machines I saw in the plant were German Schneiders. They had about a 1/2 dozen with multiple spindles set up for different parts. As far as the grinders used for the Hardinge lathes, they were all 3 Italian Favrettos.

There was an 18 x 62 Thompson, a Mattison vertical spindle 6 x 32, and a Mattison 18 x 48 horizontal spindle sold.

BTW. Most of the Schneiders didn't bring what one spindle was worth at the auction, seem to remember most went around ~$90o ea. The one on this ebay auction went for $800.

SCHNEIDER VERTICAL SURFACE GRINDER DOVETAIL 20 X80JOH2 | eBay

smt

Thank you for putting that brochure up.


Bought for $800 selling for $16K. Not bad if he can get it. I figured the cost for him to move it was a small fortune but the ad says he does his own rigging. One sold 5-6? years ago in south carolina on ebay. Smaller then the one above. Brought a few hundred.

Surprising there are no more..... With the US being such a giant powerhouse of machine tool manufacturing and no doubt had an equally strong rebuilding sector that the main tool used in slideway manufacture/rebuilding were from overseas manufacturers..

Mattison 3 column way and surface grinder - YouTube

Hill Acme was a builder of way grinding machines, but they were more known for their large vertical spindle surface grinding machines. Thompson and Mattison both made way grinding machines. Most of the way grinding machines in the U.S. today are probably Favretto from Italy and Waldrich Siegen from Germany.

Originally Posted by Mebfab

Mattison 3 column way and surface grinder - YouTube

Looks identical to the one at Tapco Enpro Division Curtiss Wright on W. Little York in Houston.

Here is a thompson like in the photo ad. I have never seen one like this.

Harris Machine Tools - Equipment Details: USED 36" X 240" THOMPSON SURFACE GRINDER MFD. 1964

Here is a another....

MATTISON GRINDING JOB - YouTube

...........

Hello. I worked for Warner Swasey, previousley Norton's, in Shrewsbury England
. We had a SNOW slideway grinder that ground the beds of all the grinders, Surface and Cylindrical, it had two grinding wheels one on each end of a single spindle, that could rotate 90 either way. When the factory closed in December 1976, they shipped the machine over to the US, where to, I do not know. Jumpy

We had many SNOW grinders at our works in Sheffield. Microblade Ltd.

I understand some of the guys from SNOW started a rebuild company. MONS. They just too the SNOW grinder logo and flipped it upside down!!

I have 1 SNOW end grinder in our shop we use to grind the lengths on parts. Great piece of kit.