Line Shaft Driven Reid Brothers Surface Grinder

I just picked up an antique surface grinder. It is pretty old and appears to be complete. I would appreciate any help determining when the machine was made.

It was built by Reid Brothers Company Beverly Mass. It appears to have mechanical table feed and was originally line shaft driven.

The serial number appears to be 446.

Pictures will follow later!

Mike

As promised here are some pictures!













The chuck is an electromagnet type and it has a 1HP motor to mount on top.

Mike

Your grinder is probably from the early 30's, perhaps late 20's. I have a Reid 2A, which dates to about 1935. While the castings and style are nearly identical to yours, there are features that date yours as older. I know little about Reid, such as when they began making grinders, but by the time your machine was built, thay had become pretty big in the very young grinder industry. Not like Norton, but well positioned and with lots of sales.

Google about Reid grinders on Practical Machinist, not just this forum, and you will find a lot of information. I ran across a number of posts about Reid some year ago or so, and if I recall correctly, they were not in the Antique Machinery forum, but elsewhere on PM.

Reid made some very nice grinders. I have a little larger, much newer Reid in the shop at school where I teach. It works well and has auto table feed in both directions. However I don't show the kids how the in and out auto feed works as it always confuses the crap out of them . I suspect my machine may be one of the earliest models built by Reid. One reason is there is no model indicated on the machine anywhere and all of the later ones have the model prominently displayed on the door casting. In audition the 3 digit serial number also suggests an early date of manufacture. My research indicates production grinders were first built in 1914. Reid Brothers Co. Inc. - History | VintageMachinery.org

I am realy hoping someone has a source for decoding that serial number and perhaps some early literature to share.

Mike

My serial number books only go back to 1936, with the first number that year being 1551 and last 1688. It appears all serial number are in a single sequence, from model #2 then 2-1, 2-2, 2A just a continuation of the single sequence. Hand feed and manual feed all in the same sequence.

I also noted that the power feed model in 1936 was #2. But the hand feed model number in 1936 was just a hyphen '-'.

I would conclude, with reasonable confidence, hand feed machine prior to 1940 were unmarked and starting in 1940 the manual feed machine was 2-3 and next year it became the 2-C.

It would also appear that in 1930's production was bit over 100 grinders per year. Assuming things got off to a slower start, then my best wild guestimate might be middle 1920ish. Which is based on almost no facts at all. My reasoning is: in 22 years, 1688 were completed. That would be 76 per year on average. On average 446 would take 6 years but figuring the initial production was lower, I think 446 is more like 10 years, or mid 1920s. And actually by 1936 it was 137 built.

I do have (or sure I had) some literature, and will look later.

Here is a pic of a machine that got scrapped out a few years ago. I was looking for tooling but nothing usable for me. Machine was for sale, no takers. Is that the same, manual feed, no model number? Reid grinders are or were very common around here. I guess more local while B&S got the big chunk of the domestic market.

Yes, that looks just like mine. Shame it got scraped. That one is an automatic feed just like mine and still no model number.

Good to know you have some serial number data on the Reids peter. Will have to check what number mine has, and see if you list it. Being a 2-A, it may be later than the mid-thirties.

Well, I can't add anything to the task of dating the machine, ... but the discussion has sure 'dated" me.

When I started putzing around tool-rooms, ... ( about 40 years ago ) ... those flat belt Reid grinders, with the weighted counterbalanced, serpentine belt tensioner in the back, were as common as they come.

Every shop had one, ... but I don't remember them being all painted up, and pretty.

They were "everyday" workhorse machines, ... and the belt drive spindles run very smooth and quiet, compared to newer, direct drive grinders


It's good to see one being so nicely preserved.



Now if somebody could just do the same to me .....




.

Well I am glad I made you smile I don't think much of the paint job but I am sure after a few hours of cleaning and painting it will look real nice with the rest of my old machines. I am just 43 and I have never run across one like it until now. and I have been looking for several years. My guess is all the ones you saw have been melted down

I recall some time ago reading posts regarding the older Reid grinders, especially the ones with plain bearings and auto table and feed, and the general tenor was that they were a machine you didn't want. People were complaining about not getting the feed and table mechanism to work right, and loose spindles.

I/we (my family and I) have had our Reid for well over 50 years, and it has always done a VERY good job. Like any plain bearing machine, you have to adjust the spindle bearings with care so as to get the slop out, yet not overheat. I did have some issues with the table drive, but that was actually a pretty straightforward repair. There is a clutch in these things that have two ramps with a clean vertical drop. The vertical surface is the one that engages the drive. Over time, they wear to an angle that permits them to slip. In operation, the table will move to the end of the set travel, then will click-click-click, and not return as the clutch slips.

On mine, I very carefully ground those vertical surfaces back true, and re-installed them. Has woked fine since. Eventually, I will remove all the clutch parts, and just make new. One of those jobs I am saving for a rainy day or retirement.

I understand exactly what you are saying. I have heard people speak ill of the Chevy Cavalier. I have owned two of these and I think they are amazing cars for the money! All they require is a little routine maintenance and you have to remember it is not a Corvette or a Cadillac

Mike

Jdleach, what limits the cross feed travel for automatic crossfeed? I've studied a few BS designs an$ they all involve trip dogs on the side of the intermediate/Crossfeed carriage. I have this exact model but the Crossfeed rack/connecting rod, and ratchet assembly are missing and what I plan to implement based on this (pictures in this post) design, will result in full travel until something breaks, or gives (intentionally) like a slip clutch which must exist in the Crossfeed hand-wheel assembly shown in this post.

Basically, I see no provisions internally, or externally, to keep the Crossfeed from damaging itself unless something exists in the Crossfeed assembly that I haven't seen or thought of.

Powell (and jdleach), would you be willing to pull your traverse and Crossfeed handwheels and take a few pictures of the layers and the components? It would be the only resource online for this model and these components and would be a huge help.

See photos:

Reid surface grinder - Google Photos

Jwil620 take the screws out of the disc that the pittman arm actuates.If I remember correctly, that disc has springs in it, along with some pins, that act as a slip clutch when the saddle gets to the end of travel.

Jdleach,

Thanks for the information, I meant to follow up with that information about my glaring oversight of what is clearly a clutch, but I wanted to post a few more details once I got my bearings with a path forward.

You're absolutely correct, and upon inspection my clutch is fairly intact, I'm assuming the clutch should either been replaced at some point or it's all very little use, this is probably due to somebody disassembling the auto feed components and using it as a manual machine, leaving the clutch in a relatively new state. I am curious however if this is intended to be a dry or a wet clutch?

Unlike the rest of the machine there was no heavy grease or sludge built up indicating a wet clutch, nor do I see the direct oil port but it may get lubrication from the gets oiler on top of the traverse wheel mounting plate assembly.

I am curious about how to cross feed actually works. The simplest implementation I can think of is one where the cross feed crank is rigidly connected to the crankshaft which is mounted on the clutch assembly, where any motion in the crankshaft moves the connecting rod and thus the rack which drives the pinion on the cross feed traverse. In this situation, only when the table changes direction does the rack slide through the crossfeed housing, driving the cross feet pinion where crossfeed motion happens throughout a large portion of the table traverse. What that would result in is traverse and crossfeed occurring in symphony translating at some shallow angle across the part. I guess what I'm getting at is I would expect in an ideal situation, the traverse would finish its cycle and the cross feed would travel before the wheel makes contact with the work as opposed to traversing some shallow angle; this is my lack of experience speaking of course, and I suppose it's not a practical concern since orientation has no real impact on the finished result unless aesthetics and the surface finish is of concern and how the grinding lines appear on the finish part.

An alternative configuration would be one where each cross feed translation occurs one sequence after a completed traverse sequence where the sliding rack on the pinion winds some kind of a tortional spring which is bi-directional, and the pinion under this spring tension is allowed to release and return to home once the traverse cycle is complete, resulting in a rapid cross feed as the table is changing direction. I don't however see any feedback connection points where the cross feed may know when the traverse is complete or when to trigger the release of the pinion/rack.

I updated photos in the links:
Reid surface grinder - Google Photos

Visually identical unit:
SIMILAR Reid surface grinder - Google Photos

More information to come, Mike. Hopefully we can get some information about our units. Also, thank you for that valuable information, JDLeach.

Also, a really pretty turquoise paint (shade or two lighter than mikes choice of paint) was applied at some point on my unit as well as an incredibly ugly gold, and a very typical battleship gray which appears to be the most likely original paint based on dissecting the layers? Mike, was this choice based on existing color found on the unit?

A part of me wants to go with the turquoise but I already had a gallon of light gray mixed to match the majority of the casting when I purchased the unit I have numerous restorations underway where that gallon wouldn't be a waste if I decided to have some of that turquoise mixed up for this unit. That turquoise with polished cast surfaces with some select chrome plating would be a pretty gorgeous combination, but possibly a little 'loud' too, I don't know. I typically default to fairly vanilla colors which represent something more or less period correct if I don't know the exact color of a machine as it came from the factory.

Any suggestions or reasoning are welcome, except for Mike, I have a feeling I may already know what color youd choose ;D

-James