It’s back to school for you machinists as today’s post starts off with a quiz ….
1.) What feature of the K.O. Lee High Precision Surface Grinder dates back to the caveman and the Stone Age?
A.) A cave man used a scraper as an early tool to help him in his daily life; for example, like scraping meat from a bone much like today’s hand scraped ways on a K.O. Lee surface grinder make life easier for the modern machinist by ensuring accuracy and consistency in his work on the shop floor.
B.) The caveman could relate to the “grind” in “surface grinder” as he toiled mightily every day to preserve the existence of himself and his family by avoiding dangerous predators and hunting endlessly to provide food.
C.) The caveman could relate to K.O. Lee starting out as a family business. Much like Knute Oscar “K.O.” Lee expanded the early machine tool business with his son Clifford Carl “C.C.” Lee in the early 20th Century, the caveman passed on his hunting tools and best animal skin clothing to his offspring to ensure survivability of the early human gene pool in the tough, early days of the Stone Age.
D.) Fred Flintstone, an early Stone Age celebrity, was reported to have used a K.O. Lee surface grinder to grind the stone wheel of his prehistoric car.
Now for the answer … if you picked A.), you are correct!
Hand Scraping is Prehistoric
Hand scraping goes all the way back to the Stone Age where early caveman used scrapers as “stone age pocket knives” to help them prepare food and shape early implements like bone and wood.
In today’s modern machine tools, the ways of a K.O. Lee high precision surface grinder, like the slideways both longitudinal and cross slide ways, are precisely hand scraped by blacksmiths to introduce textures to the sliding surfaces that promote accuracy. The hand scraped metal of the K.O. Lee surface grinder ways allow the surfaces to retain oil to ensure smooth travel of the sliding machine parts.
Hand Scraped Ways Are a Pivotal Feature of K.O. Lee Surface Grinders
Today, we discussed the legacy of hand scraping and tie it back to our early human progenitors. In a future post, we will detail exactly why hand scraping is such a pivotal feature of your K.O. Lee high precision surface grinder and how it ensures accuracy and reliability.
Don’t miss LeBlond’s promotion until May 31st where you receive a free two-axis Newall DP700 digital readout with the purchase of a K.O. Lee Surface Grinder. Check out the offer here. If you’re interested in new LeBlond manual lathes, K.O. Lee grinders or need original OEM parts for LeBlond, K.O. Lee, Standard Modern, Johnson Press, Deka Drill and W.F. & John Barnes equipment, fill out a contact form here.