Articles

Wickman 1-3/4": How to Change Pins and Bushings of Upper Quadrants

The following videos give step by step instructions for changing the pins and bushings of the upper quadrants of a Wickman 1-3/4" 6-spindle. The videos were shot at Graff-Pinkert's facility. Click "read more" to see the second and third videos.

Part 1: Changing Pins and Bushings on Upper Quadrants of Wickman 1-3/4"

CNC Swiss Lathes

Graff-Pinkert has sold numerous brands of CNC Swiss Lathes for many years, including Citizen, Star, Hanwa, Tsugami and Tornos.

Swiss-type lathes are often not actually made in Switzerland, such as Star, Citizen, and Tsugami which are manufactured in Japan, Hanhwa, which is produced in Korea, Manurhin which is produced in France, or Swistek which is produced in China. Tornos is the most famous of the Swiss machine producers actually from Switzerland.

How to Change Acme-Gridley Spindle Bearings, Parts, I, II, III

This video is a step by step instruction on changing spindle bearings on an Acme-Gridley screw machine. The demonstrator is is Don Anger, considered one of the top Acme service people in the world.

Part I: Removing the Spindle Bearings

Part II: Changing the Bearings

It's a Wonderful Business

Yesterday was an emotional day for me. I gave out end of the year bonus checks to the employees of my used machinery company, Graff-Pinkert, holding impromptu talks with each person after delivering each envelope. I thanked each person for their contribution, asked them how they could improve next year and how I could help them. Paternalistic, very old school.

I found myself holding back my tears during some of the sessions. I scurried to an empty shop office to pull myself together — and wept.

Changing Pins and Bushings on a 1-3/4" 6-spindle Wickman

Three part video on the process of changing the pins and bushings of the lower quadrants of a 1-3/4" 6-spindle Wickman screw machine.

Part 1: Removal Of The Lower Quadrants.

Part 2: Replacing The Pins and Bushings

Part 3: Reinstalling The Lower Quadrants

Buy a Screw Machine for 179

Matthew Lesko, That crazy guy on TV advertising "Free Money" form the Government

I normally deal in subtleties — close calls on whether to buy a machine, take a gamble, hire a new person, eat a piece of pie. But occasionally a deal comes along that is so breathtakingly clear you just shake your head and say YES!

We are in one of those odd moments. When the handwriting on the wall is so clear even a blind man can read it.

Graff-Pinkert History Lesson

The photo above is a Graff-Pinkert ad in the Serial Number Reference Book For Metalworking Machinery 7th Edition from 1979. Graff-Pinkert & Co. has undergone a lot of changes since my grandfather Leonard Graff and his cousin Aaron Pinkert started the used machine tools business back in 1941. We've been in business almost three quarters of a century, and it's mind boggling how many multispindle screw machines we've sold and then ended up buying back decades later, which we then refurbish and sell to new customers.

Machines I'm Thankful for and More

I'm thankful for our 8-32 Euroturn (ZPS). Rigid, fast, accurate. A modern beautiful, multi-spindle, almost as beautiful as the Czech women who live where it's built.

I'm thankful for traditional cutting oil. No, not the water soluble stuff which destroys beautiful machine tools.

I'm thankful to live and work in a country which still manufactures many of the best parts in the world at competitive prices.

I'm thankful for all our Wickmans, solid, high precision multi-spindle screw machines, great for quick changeover. Why buy any other machine?

Section 179 is Really Ending

Hydromat HW 25-12 for sale by Graff-Pinkert

Business owners, “the moving walkway is now ending.” The punch bowl is being pulled away. Section 179 of the United States Tax Code will essentially evaporate December 31 of this year. It is really going to end, and you are going to kick yourself if you blew big money by not taking advantage of the best goodie package the awful Feds have provided in decades.

The Davenport Screw Machine Won World War II

Apprentices filing a part at Brehm Präzisionstechnik GmbH & Co. KG

"The Davenport screw machine won World War II," Massimo Bonaldo said to me, as we ate kebabs in a rural village 40 minutes from the center of Hannover, where I was to attend the EMO Machine Tool Show the following day. Massimo is the technical manager of Tajmac-MTM S.p.A., the Italian headquarters of ZPS, one of Europe's top machine tool builders.

I had trekked throughout Germany the previous two weeks, visiting elite manufacturers and machine tools dealers. I had walked through state-of- the-art shops, packed with the latest INDEX MS machines, Hydromats and CNC machining centers. And now I found myself hanging out at midnight with three Italian ZPS technicians in middle-of-nowhere Germany, with one of the company's top engineers giving me a history lesson on the good old noisy American Davenport. The reason the Davenport won World War II for the Allies, Massimo explained, was that the Germans were using European single-spindle machines to bang out ammunition, while the Americans spit out bullets like mad with five-spindle Davenports. Times have changed since the days of American multi-spindle domination. Today Germany is the place to be to see tons of manufacturers full of the best multi-spindle screw machines on the market. That's why Graff-Pinkert sent me there to find machines.

The first shop I visited on my trip was Brehm Präzisionstechnik GmbH & Co. KG, about 100 km southeast of Stuttgart. ...

Graff-Pinkert - Screw Machines, Hydromats, CNCs