BIG MATTISON Way Grinder and HUGE G&L Planner

[Richard King]

I am teaching a class in Mechanicsburg PA and a US Navy Depot. Today I toured the BIG machines in one of there machine shops. One is a Mattison way Grinder. It has 4 magnetic chucks and they are 5' wide and total length 14' - the travel of the table is 16'. Also a HUGE G&L Planner - I will get the size tomorrow. See pic's On the 3rd pic it has a horizontal spindle and on the other side it has a cup wheel spindle that tips to grind under hold down flat ways and dovetails in Bed ways and mill tables.

 

[Richard King]

They just pulled this G&L base off the grinder. They ground the hardened ways on the bed (base) ways.

 

[Richard King]

I took a picture of this building. It's a block long and where the machines are in. I am teaching in another building the same size kitty corner from that one. In the 2nd pic above is the Bob-Cat buggy they drive me around it. I also use a 3 wheel bike for going inside the scraping shop. To far for me to walk.

 

[eKretz]

Building looks almost the same size as the place I apprenticed in, ours was about the same width but a bit more in length I think. I checked it against the trip meter on the car once and it was more than a full 1/10 of a mile from one end to the other. I'm guessing that's a 10' planer.
We had a 4' and a 6'. And yep, that is a *big* old Mattison. Cool pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[Richard King]

I'll check the size today... That big one has to be at least 25 feet table...Machine must be 50 foot long. They have a huge gantry mill too..maybe 150 foot bed ...I'll post it tonight.

 

[FJsapper]

Glad they are keeping those skills alive!

 

[michiganbuck]

\ Thanks for this post-Richard..
And it should be noted that the G&L after the rebuild will be as good and perhaps better than any grinder one can find the world over... one might even add stepping motors and ball screws to make it CNC, and Mattison were top-quality grinders.

I would wonder how the G&l base was ground. Would one shim it to level it and grind the top side only? What bottom-side prep or considerations would be done? Any surface burning would put in stress so need to be avoided, What wheel grit, and hardness wheel was chosen?..

Grinding a very large area wheel-breakdown can be a factor to finish height how does this company address/avoid this? Cash or anyone doing really big grinding work might chime in on this question.

PS : also grinding can relieve old stresses, so watching for that can be a factor...G&L would have addressed stresses but some newer companies may not be up to par on considering stresses.

 

[eKretz]

I'll check the size today... That big one has to be at least 25 feet table...Machine must be 50 foot long. They have a huge gantry mill too..maybe 150 foot bed ...I'll post it tonight.

Planers are generally spec'd by table width. So a 10' planer would have a 10' wide table. Cool, I'd like to see that gantry mill. Do they have any vertical boring mills? Blaw-Knox had a 24' table VBM and a guy I know told me about another place that had a 40'er. I think I have a few pictures of the 24'er somewhere. It's at Production Tool in South Chicago still I think.

And Buck, that base is for a Giddings & Lewis HBM, not a Gallmeyer & Livingston grinder.

 

[Richard King]

The Grinder operator has worked here for over 30 years and is a real pro. I won't ask him. I'm in another building. I also don't know what the plans for the G&L is, I checked and the planner has a 10' x 22' table and the envelope between the column and upper limit under the rail is 12' x 12'.

 

[michiganbuck]

QT: And Buck, that base is for a Giddings & Lewis HBM, not a Gallmeyer & Livingston grinder.
Thanks, Eric. I was rushing out the door this morning to rebuild an antique door, so hardly looked at the photo.
Qt: The Grinder operator has worked here for over 30 years and is a real pro.
Likely is using a 32 or 36 grit, I think that is in the ballpark of what Cash uses.
I would like to talk to a pro in really big grinding work.

 

[Richard King]

The operator was one of my former students 20 years ago. I did ask him how acurate the machine would grind. He said he could hold .0005" in the 14'. The grinder was rebuilt by Mattison a couple of years before Mattison went belly up. Mattison used Moglice on the bottom of the table. They said that the first batch of Moglice was flawed or Mattison didn't mix it correctly and it plugged the lube system and Mattison had to chip off the first batch and had to pour a new batch and that one worked. One of my students this class is getting trained to be the operator when the old timer retires. He said he can't retire as he is paying his 1st and 2nd wife to much money...lol I'll ask my student about the wheels.

 

[Richard King]

QT: And Buck, that base is for a Giddings & Lewis HBM, not a Gallmeyer & Livingston grinder.
Thanks, Eric. I was rushing out the door this morning to rebuild an antique door, so hardly looked at the photo.
Qt: The Grinder operator has worked here for over 30 years and is a real pro.
Likely is using a 32 or 36 grit, I think that is in the ballpark of what Cash uses.
I would like to talk to a pro in really big grinding work.

I asked the operator and he said he uses 46 grit for most grinding and 60 grit for super fine.