BIG scraping job, Mattison Grinder

I bought this machine in the fall of 2008. The riggers who had disassembled it, this was done in the mid 2000's prior to me buying the machine, made a bad mistake and where the base was bolted together they unbolted it. Normally this is not done. So when I reassembled the machine the base was never lined up correct. Well at the time production called and I just ran it. I think overall it was out a couple thou. In he fall of 2012 my table cylinders started going bad and I had leaks where the tubes bolt together. To pull the cylinders it was just easiest to pull the table. Since the table was off and I had some time I rescraped the bed and table together. There was a couple scores in the bed and table so they were somewhat removed but the bad ones not totally. The table of the grinder is 256" and the base has about 50' of way length.

When I did this job we took some video and only now have we got around to putting it together!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY_vrwbCIn8

When I bought the machine it was basically a box of parts. We put it together in a rented space where we ran it for about a year. Then once our new building was built we tore it down minimal and moved it to our facility in Greendale.

Kinetic purchases largest Mattison 400S Grinder ever manufactured | Knifemaker.com

Mattison 400S Installation | Knifemaker.com

Mattison 400S | Knifemaker.com

Your company has an impressive physical plant and machinery. What my place wants to be when (if?) it grows up...

Thank you. We are very proud of the facility and when customers come for visits they are very impressed. But for us customer visits are very seldom as they never have time to get away from their work.

I agree, very nice...plus the You-Tube movie is cool :-)
You should get your scraper hand a Biax 25-150 blade though, he would never use the inserted blade holder again. Everyone I have shown that type blade switch. Riich

So Cash how many times did you have to put the table on and off to get the scraping done?

Charles

cash said:

Thank you. We are very proud of the facility and when customers come for visits they are very impressed. But for us customer visits are very seldom as they never have time to get away from their work.

Click to expand...

I've had the pleasure of being able to stop by there several times and it really is a very nice place. Cash runs a great operation. I'm fairly familiar with this machine, and have even met some of the people in the photos. I'll let Cash tell the story properly, but if I'm not mistaken, one of those people used to scrape for Mattison. ( He looks like the person in my fuzzy memory anyway ) The machine itself is impressive in operation, to say the least. I'm willing to bet that those Matti's will be working hard for at least another 50 years.

Richard King said:

I agree, very nice...plus the You-Tube movie is cool :-)
You should get your scraper hand a Biax 25-150 blade though, he would never use the inserted blade holder again. Everyone I have shown that type blade switch. Riich

Click to expand...

Ok-so the 25-150 blade means it is 25mm wide with a 150 radius, correct?

What is so much better vs the inserted blade holder? For me this style is quick to pull out flip over and or sharpen.

I was trying to think about this when I posted. This was 2 years ago so it is a bit fuzzy, plus in-between the job I had a trip to Europe which broke it up a bit. My best guess is 10-15 times min.

Our forktruck would not push the table, it weights 20,000 lbs. So I had to have guys pull the table to get a print with a come a long.

I would get about 1 scrape on either the base or table per day.

CBlair said:

So Cash how many times did you have to put the table on and off to get the scraping done?

Charles

Click to expand...

I was trying to remember this when posting but it was 2 years ago, and I had a trip to Europe which broke it up a bit.

I had a team of guys who would pull the table to get a print with a come a long. It weighs 20,000 lbs and our towmotor would not push it.

My best guess is at minimum 10-15 times.

Thanks Cash, I was just trying to get an idea of how many times you had to flip that thing over. It really brings home the amount of work for large heavy parts.

Charles

Zahnrad Kopf said:

I've had the pleasure of being able to stop by there several times and it really is a very nice place. Cash runs a great operation. I'm fairly familiar with this machine, and have even met some of the people in the photos. I'll let Cash tell the story properly, but if I'm not mistaken, one of those people used to scrape for Mattison. ( He looks like the person in my fuzzy memory anyway ) The machine itself is impressive in operation, to say the least. I'm willing to bet that those Matti's will be working hard for at least another 50 years.

Click to expand...

As for the scraping job on this machine I was on my own. Sam Zachery was the leadman at Mattison for the 400 grinders and the big Rotaries-84" and up, even thought we worked on all of them. He did not scrape, he hated it.

When I was working on this machine he had come down ill and could not work anymore. In the pictures when we did assembly he was 70 years old and he gave all my guys a run for their money to keep up with him!!

He was the damn hardest working guy I ever got to work with.

cash said:

I was trying to think about this when I posted. This was 2 years ago so it is a bit fuzzy, plus in-between the job I had a trip to Europe which broke it up a bit. My best guess is 10-15 times min.

Our forktruck would not push the table, it weights 20,000 lbs. So I had to have guys pull the table to get a print with a come a long.

I would get about 1 scrape on either the base or table per day.

Click to expand...

Cash, how did you maintain "level" on the table, so it wouldn't pitch down to the left or right (or for that matter to the front or back) during the scraping? Had you previously established level on the base, then keep checking the table as it rested there for printing?

The blade holder he is using is very stiff. I used that same type years ago and when I started to use the 1" wide blade and 6 long is thinner and it is easier to get a smoother cut plus less strain on your arms. I can send you a blade to test. I have had several scrapers switch over once they try it. I am a Consultant, Training instructor and distributor for DAPRA the importer for the BIAX scraper that he was using. Below, It's the center blade on the bottom of the page. Rich

Power Scraper Blade Kits & Replacement Carbide Scraper Blades | DAPRA

We leveled the machine before starting to scrap. But where the base bolted together, it is about 5' off the centerline, this is where things were not lining up.

So I corrected that section first using the table as a straight edge.

The used the base as a master to scrape the table.

Once I put the chucks back on I dust grind them in so if I was off a bit from front to back it is not a terrible thing.

With that being said-when had to re scrape my other machine the guy I had helping me scrap was very specific about keeping the table flat and level as we scraped. This was something the guys from mattison never did. So I learned something for future machines.

Here is a link from when we did the other machine this summer.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...spection/wire-mic-set-up-machine-base-286681/