"Our Drake grinds to tolerances tighter than we can measure in-house."

Representative Haylo grinding:

a-Jar cap mold for packaging industry.

b-Pure carbon electrode used to burn threads into steel.

c-Diesel truck engine worm.

d-Worm for medical equipment.

e-Dissolvable ceramic insert used in bone reconstruction.

That quote is Jack Haymond's description of the finish grind that his company put on API tool joint masters with their first CNC Drake thread grinder. The tolerances are so close on lead and taper that the parts have to go to the Bureau of Standards for final check.

Thread Specialists
About ninety percent of Haylo's sales are in thread grinding. That was the goal, back in 1962, when three master mechanics formed their specialized shop. Today, the company employs twenty, and provides precision grinding for a broad range of industries from plastics to aircraft, gear companies to nuclear power. Working in mild, tool and stainless steels, Haylo is an acknowledged leader in such complex grinding as molds and worms. They use vitrified aluminum oxide on the bulk of their work.

Their First Drake
Haylo ordered their Drake in 1992 when they decided that a 12 X 45 J&L needed to be totally re-engineered to Drake's state-of-the-art CNC. And it has been a mutually rewarding arrangement. Haylo wound up with a menu-driven grinder that's much more productive and much more accurate than any other in their shop. In fact, when they used it to prototype a part for some new business they were after, the end user said he had "Never seen that part look that good." And for Drake, when they were customizing the programming for Haylo's very demanding tapers and special thread forms, Drake discovered even greater capability and advanced performance within their system.

Four More Drakes
Drake is very proud of the fact that these masters of thread grinding technology were so pleased with the price and performance of both the hardware and software that they have installed a total of five Drake machines--four GE:TE external thread grinders and one GS:TI internal thread grinder.