Hoffacker Machine, Biggest Surface Grinders around, and other things

In another thread, http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...or-wanted/knight-milling-machine-sale-311992/, I had made mention of a company I had some dealings with years ago, Hoffacker Machine in Cranston RI. A discussion started about the company, and specifically a very large surface grinder they had. I saw it run a couple of times, but I cant remember any details of it except that it was rumored to be "the largest in the North East" or as Scraper remembers hearing of it "the largest in North America". A great conversation grew out of that involving other companies that were in the area, including Dehoff, and others that had or have very large surface or way grinders. As all of this had nothing to do with the original thread, I figured I'd start a new one and maybe get some input from others who did not follow the original dialog. So, anybody have any info on Hoffacker, or the grinder, or where it is now, or who has the largest grinder in the US, or Dehoff or anything else to add?

I checked out the Daniluk reference that scraper had mentioned, and while the site said they had a large way grinder, there was no mention of a big surface grinder. This is of some interest to me as I've been thinking about trying to kludge up a large way grinder-like machine, so more info and pics always helps.

I'm not sure I know the difference between a way grinder and a surface grinder. The machine I remember Hoffacker having was built like a large double column planer. On the cross rail there were I believe two grinding heads, one vertical spindle, and one horizontal spindle. I know for sure there was a horizontal spindle because that was the one that was working when I saw it running. Being that they were machine tool rebuilders, the machine did a lot of way grinding I suppose, but is a way grinder configured differently?

Someone said it went here Marena Industries Full service metal working

During my mid sixties apprenticeship, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft (who maintained an in house machine rebuild facility in East Hartford) had what I thought must of been a huge way grinder - that is until I saw the Houston area Mattisons

Derek Smalls said:

I'm not sure I know the difference between a way grinder and a surface grinder. The machine I remember Hoffacker having was built like a large double column planer. On the cross rail there were I believe two grinding heads, one vertical spindle, and one horizontal spindle. I know for sure there was a horizontal spindle because that was the one that was working when I saw it running. Being that they were machine tool rebuilders, the machine did a lot of way grinding I suppose, but is a way grinder configured differently?

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What you have described IS a way grinder. The horizontal spindle does surface grinding and the vertical spindle can be set to do about any angle so you can grind V ways and things like that. Think of a lathe, and all the ground surfaces on them and you can guess about all the different adjustments you can make. The great thing about them is, if you can get the lathe or whatever you are grinding on them you can pretty much grind everything at once, which keeps everything very closley alined. You can also set them up with cup wheels or segmented wheels.
I believe dehoff had a faveratto way grinder that would go 14 or 16 feet long. I may be wrong about that. I wish someone that worked there would chime in.

Agree with scraper, that sounds like a way grinder to me.

RC99 said:

Someone said it went here Marena Industries Full service metal working

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Here's a (not great) video of their machine working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UQIIcbMeAA

Derek, does this look familiar?

Milland said:

Here's a (not great) video of their machine working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UQIIcbMeAA

Derek, does this look familiar?

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Yeah, it sure does. I had gone to their site when it was suggested that they might have it, they have a few videos of it in action. I hadn't had time to comment on it though, I wanted to closely watch the videos before I did. It sure looks a lot like what I remember, I'm not sure if some of it is "power of suggestion" or if I really remember that way, but it seems right to me. Even seems the right color, although I wouldn't have been able to tell you the color it was before I saw the video. Funny how the brain works sometimes! Thanks for the clear up between a way grinder and surface grinder, makes sense. I've always just thought of them as dual or multi headed surface grinders, but would certainly be the best bet for ways, like Scraper said. I didn't see on their website any mention as to it's make, did I miss that, or does anyone recognize the make of the machine from the video? I think Richard had sugested it may be a Favretto?
Id love for some guys from Dehoff or Hoffacker to chime in as well. If I remember correctly, there was some connection between the two companies, at least at their start. I can't remember how it all worked though. In that area was also Garvey Machine, near Dehoff, and Lundwall Machine, right next to Hoffacker, which is where I worked for a while. These were all pretty big shops, at least by RI standards. Thanks for all the input guys, this is bringing back a lot of memories.

Anyone here else ever worked with the folks over at Marena? We use them all the time at work and talk about a neat business run by a guy who is just full of energy and loves machine tools. From selling, rebuilding, general purpose machine shop work they seem to do one of the widest collections of business out there and in my opinion their marketing couldn't be any smarter. As soon as they get your name and a purchase order related to a job your company sends you the first thing they do is send you a nice wall clock with their company's name on it thanking you for your business. It has to be one of the most clever thank you gifts I have ever seen as our whole company is filled with their clocks over everyone's desk, so now any visitor who comes in is wondering "who is this Marena company?"

John O. is spot on when talking about LARGE surface grinders. In my travels, I have seen many different makes and sizes of surface grinders. Of all the machines I have seen and used, the one grinder that stands head and shoulders (literally) above all the rest, was a humongous Mattison that was installed in a shop here in southern Indiana. This firm was primarily involved in the refurbishment of transmission case dies used by GM, Ryobi, and other firms. As can be expected, these dies are massive (north of 32 tons assembled), as they cast the aluminum automatic transmission cases used in automobiles and light trucks.

Such dies required equally large machine tools to make and repair them. One of those massive machines, was the largest surface grinder I have ever seen, a Mattison. In all aspects, this machine was essentially like any other, albeit smaller, surface grinder. Hydraulically operated, the controls and general design was typical of a Reid, Brown and Sharpe, Grand Rapids, et al. It was the size that struck me. The magnetic chuck, a rectangular affair, was perhaps 24" to 32" wide, and possibly 6' long. The table top of the machine it sat on, was significantly larger. I recall that the column must have been at least 14' in height, and required an extension ladder to reach it's pinnacle.

I had the pleasure of running the machine a few times, and really appreciated the smoothness of operation, and the rapidity with which you could mow through through a skid of hardened blocks. The last time I ran it, I had a pile of steel blocks that needed ground. I could have used both of the largish Grand Rapids machines, but that would have taken me a couple days. I loaded the entire lot, with the exception of a handful left over, onto the Mattison, and did them all at once. Took every bit of all morning.

To this day, I would still like to have a Mattison for my shop, just one a teensie-weensie bit smaller.

Derek Smalls said:

Yeah, it sure does. I had gone to their site when it was suggested that they might have it, they have a few videos of it in action. I hadn't had time to comment on it though, I wanted to closely watch the videos before I did. It sure looks a lot like what I remember, I'm not sure if some of it is "power of suggestion" or if I really remember that way, but it seems right to me. Even seems the right color, although I wouldn't have been able to tell you the color it was before I saw the video. Funny how the brain works sometimes! Thanks for the clear up between a way grinder and surface grinder, makes sense. I've always just thought of them as dual or multi headed surface grinders, but would certainly be the best bet for ways, like Scraper said. I didn't see on their website any mention as to it's make, did I miss that, or does anyone recognize the make of the machine from the video? I think Richard had sugested it may be a Favretto?
Id love for some guys from Dehoff or Hoffacker to chime in as well. If I remember correctly, there was some connection between the two companies, at least at their start. I can't remember how it all worked though. In that area was also Garvey Machine, near Dehoff, and Lundwall Machine, right next to Hoffacker, which is where I worked for a while. These were all pretty big shops, at least by RI standards. Thanks for all the input guys, this is bringing back a lot of memories.

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The way I understand it HOFFacker is the HOFF in DEHOFF, DEvlieg being the DE in DEHOFF. A guy named devlieg developed a new and better way to machine and grind turbine blades, this was the start of the devlieg jigmill. As his sales people were going around to turbine builders to sell either blades or the equipment to built them they were being asked about drilling kind of long, small, but very precise holes in irregularly shaped parts. Gun drilling had been around for a number of years but it was mainly stationary tools and rotating parts done on lathes, or lathes converted for dedicated gun drilling operations, so it was very difficult or impossible to gun drill non round parts. So Mr. Devlieg teamed up with Mr. Hoffacker and developed a machine that had a stationary part and rotating tool. They knew they had a good thing but they also thought that it would be pretty limited in its application so they sold the dehoff gun drill company off so they could each get back to running their own companies that was really their bread and butter, plus they were both getting up in years. They sold it to one of their top guys whose name I think was Lou Arnold. Now that I say that I'm not sure if that is correct. But Lou had it in the early 90's when dehoff went into recievership.
I wish someone who knows for sure what happened would join this discussion.

Many of the USA rebuilding companies usethese guys to grind ways:

Dynamic Industries - Heavy, Large Metal Grinding Capabilities

Surface Grinding

Schmiede Corporation | Way Grinding

1 1/2 yrs ago I sent the bed of a Studer grinder (MN Grinding ) to Danaluk and he has a old planer mill converted to make a way grinder

Schmied is very good..

scraper said:

Schmied is very good..

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A couple of years ago, someone asked me where to take his lathe bed on one of the forums and he was 4 or 5 hour drive from Schmied. He made arrangements to take it down there and wait for it. They fit him into the way grinder and I think he spent a night in a motel and they had it and also ground the saddle top and bottom fished the next day. Seems like it was a 6' bed and the price was under $500.00. Pretty good deal. Rich

Scraper dehoff is part of another business now, i didn't know the history on it.
Kays dehoff Deep Hole Drilling Machines / Gun Drilling Machines

What happened to those inventors businesses are they still going?

Scraper, I kinda knew, or kinda remembered that Dehoff was a combination of names, and that Hoffacker was the Hoff part, but I never realized that Devlieg was the other partner. That's kinda cool, being that Devlieg was a pretty big player in the machine tool industry. I have run Devlieg jig mills, and love them, I never realized he had a RI connection.

I taught a scraping class at Kays in Marshall MO 15 or so years ago. They also built specialized machinery. I remember they were working on a machine to wrap up coils of garden hose with the paper coated thin wire (like bread tie) while I was there. I recall they told me they bought Dehoff company at auction and had me teaching their men to scrape those gun drills.

I was there for that richard. Ed Kays bought dehoff out of recievership. He ran both plants, the one in rhode island and the one in missouri, for several years, then he shut the rhode island plant down and moved all operations to missouri. We had been hand scraping for a number of years but once we closed down the rhode island plant and none of them moved to missouri i was the only one scraping and i could not keep up so we hired someone else to scrape who was completly green, i mean he wasnt even a machinist, he had no clue. We also wanted to look at power scraping which is where you came in. I spent about 3 months getting that kid somewhat familiar with what we were trying to accomplish then we brought you in. It worked pretty good to. That kid stayed another year or so got pretty good at scraping gun drills and then his marriage fell apart and so did he and he just kind of dropped off the face of the earth. I wish he would have stuck around.
Noone came from rhode island and that is why we are not real sure of the exact history or timeline of events. At onetime the nichols machine tool company was involved somehow. I dont know if they were owned by the same company or if one owned the other or just what the conection was.
as we were discussing i think hoffacker closed up and no longer exists. I think devlieg was bought by someone but may just sell parts and not new machines but i dont know for sure. Ed Kays bought eldorado in about 2003 or somewhere around there. Kays got the spare parts and new machines part of the company and drill masters got the tool part of the business.

Feel free to ask any questions or contact me about the C.O. Hoffacker machine tool rebuilding company, or the Favretto way grinders. I would be glad to help. My father was the executive vice president of the company for many years.

Daniel Bentley
[email protected]