Dabbler
ersatz engineer
Last year I met a guy from Minnesota on HobbyMachinist.com who had an 'extra' tool and cutter grinder. After quite a bit of negotiation, haggling and arm wrestling by email (both ways), we settled on a price. It turns out that his wife wanted to see Banff again, the last time was in her childhood. So we settled on a price that included its delivery to my garage door(!!) and then five months later, in July, it arrived!
It is a 'Keller' cutter grinder, which was sold to sharpen cutters for an enormous 3D pantograph mill called a 'Keller machine' - 30 feet high, operated by 4-6 men, commonly used to create the huge dies that made auto body panel dies.
This one is a 1931 model, and will take about a year to restore. It was found outside a tool and die shop, and he bought it at scrap price - it was being picked up that week by a metal recycler to be melted down! It was a great save on his part, but he already had the next bigger model.
The collets you see in the coolant tray are unique to these machines, are hard to find, and very expensive if you find any at all - it is a wonder he had two sets, and was able to give me one! The size goes from 1 1/4 to 3/8 by 1/16s missing 3 collets.
It is a 'Keller' cutter grinder, which was sold to sharpen cutters for an enormous 3D pantograph mill called a 'Keller machine' - 30 feet high, operated by 4-6 men, commonly used to create the huge dies that made auto body panel dies.
This one is a 1931 model, and will take about a year to restore. It was found outside a tool and die shop, and he bought it at scrap price - it was being picked up that week by a metal recycler to be melted down! It was a great save on his part, but he already had the next bigger model.
The collets you see in the coolant tray are unique to these machines, are hard to find, and very expensive if you find any at all - it is a wonder he had two sets, and was able to give me one! The size goes from 1 1/4 to 3/8 by 1/16s missing 3 collets.
