Crankshaft grinding - video

[Frank S]

When you are in a "make do with what you got" situation, the goals and tolerances are different. This is especially true for an engine that is going to spend its life seldom running more that 1500-1600 RPM

I expect someone with a dedicated crankshaft grinding machine to do much better than "close is good enough".

Or at least not say it out loud for everyone to hear. It would have been the last one he would do for me. the old engines my dad did would last for 10 to 20 years seeing some pretty rough service even with the portable equipment he had there was no such thing as close enough unless the damage was to the extent that it could only be a temporary fix until it could be brought to him for a good tear down, which he would always tell the guy what really needed to be done. sometimes they listened and my dad would send the cranks and blocks out to a real engine machine shop to have all bores and journals matched correctly then build up the engines for them, other times it might be a couple years before they would have him pull an engine, transmission or rear end and replace with new parts. I never heard of one of his repairs even the ones he told the guy were only patch jobs to be the reason for causing a failure. After I got older learned how to weld and eventually bought my first lathe and welding machine his health had started going downhill so he had gotten rid of most of his equipment. When I finally brought the lathe home from the Blacksmith shop, he told me one day if he would have had one of those things back in the day, plus the portable equipment, he had sold he and I could have really done some things.