On Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:10:55 -0800, "PrecisionmachinisT"
wrote:


"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
.. .
...

I have a friend that has a 10 ft stroke surface grinder and fresh paint
don't make them cut any more accurately.

if you're selling it, paint is the most cost effective thing you can
do.

Yes you'll probably fetch at least a slightly higher price, perhaps
especially so if the buyer happens to be someone who is rarely if ever going
to actually operate it.

Otherwise, you've just added another overpriced used machine tool to the
market.

Especially a "taken apart" paint job. many folks know to shy away
from a quickie over the top painting.

--I'm in the business of USING not SELLING...as such I'd rather the original
paint simply be left intact

I've seen little pricing information in this thread, and I'm 'way out
of touch with this, but re-scraping an entire machine does indeed
approach the cost of a new machine -- or the cost when it was new.

When Turcite, and then Moglice came on the scene, the general estimate
was that a rebuild using those materials would cost roughly 1/2 as
much. I don't know if that assumed that the bed was reground, but a
ground bed was not the last word, anyway. Unless it's done by a
machine-tool expert, grinding a bed was always considered to be a
second choice. I used to watch Leblond grind their lathe beds, and
their surface grinding machine was not only big, it was also tailored
for the job, with big floods of coolant and very small bites on each
pass. That was for new machines.

A first-class job involving grinding still required final scraping-in.
You probably know there are contoversies surrounding milling and
grinding lathe beds, having to do with supposed stresses introduced by
the machining, but that was a long time ago. Lots of quality machine
tools have ground beds these days. With pressure lubricant, they don't
even go for the "frosting," which is a kind of ersatz scraping
intended to hold more oil on the ways.

Anyway, unless the machine is worth it, re-machining and fitting the
whole works, whether you do it by scraping the iron or by using the
plastics, is likely to be problematic in terms of costs.

BTW, the 1917 Taylor & Fenn knee mill that I just scrapped last summer
was re-scraped in 1968, for $900. But that old guy was doing it mostly
for a hobby at that point. It would have cost twice that, even then,
to have it done in a regular commercial rebuilding shop.

--
Ed Huntress