Grinding and Honing for Over 30 Years
Bay State Machine has specialized in grinding and honing for over 30 years now. And while 30 years seems like a lot, there’s still a youthful excitement that runs rampart at Bay State Machine – in many ways, they’re just getting started and treat every job like an opportunity to move their piece of the industry forward.
Robert Stafford founded Bay State Machine in 1989 after working for a machine shop in Coventry, RI for 15 years. He had a desire to start his own business and shape the way it worked, so, he took the first step and bought out a dormant tool and cutter grinding shop just to get a couple grinders and some assorted equipment under his guise. He started with no customer base and has built the business into a solid small operation that is a trusted partner with an extremely loyal following.
Industries Served:
- Aerospace
- Machine builders
- Military
- Technology
- Anyone with a grinding need!
Bay State Machine takes great pride in the “family” environment they’ve built amongst their internal workforce which boasts an exceptionally high retention rate. Their full-time pool of 8 employees have an average of 12 years of service to the company, while the longest tenured operator has been there since the company’s inception back in ‘89. With a shop full of state-of-the-art equipment, and restless attention to training detail, they provide high precision accuracy on parts and hold tolerances as close as .0002”. They can provide tight concentricity, shoulder requirements, and superb surface finishes on a single part or 5,000 pieces.
Equipment List Includes:
- Cylindrical grinders
- ID grinders
- Tool grinders
- Surface grinders
- Honing machines
- Inspection tools and technology
Robert handles the quoting on new prospective jobs and works with the customer to achieve the most efficient grinding process. When a job arrives from a customer, a quality inspection is performed to make certain the part is to print specifications. If it agrees with the print in hand, a detailed list of each step is set up on a job traveler that each employee uses with the print to carry out the detailed operative steps.
Following the inspection phase, a job then reaches the operator which controls the quality of the output, with a final inspection being held prior to shipping, which ensures that the job is met to the high standard Bay State works tirelessly to achieve. If an operator sees a deviation from the print tolerances, they immediately know they need to stop and resolve any discrepancy before moving forward. They have a very well equipped quality control room to further help them inspect size.
Their capabilities include the operation of 9 cylindrical grinders handling up to 14” OD up to 80” long, 5 ID grinders, 5 surface grinders, 2 honing, and 1 power stroke honing machine(s). They have several OD CNC equipped grinders, and their latest acquisition is a Studer S-33 automatic grinder with the capability of handling up to 26” on center.
Bay State Machine does offer pickup and delivery with a 75-mile radius, but will go beyond that for special needs. By-and-large, they’re in the business of making thing easy for their pool of customers and will go above and beyond to ensure the satisfaction of every client they’re working for – from the quoting phase on up through production and delivery.
The company does grinding work for a multitude of customers that may not have the capacity or bandwidth to handle the job themselves.
This customer pool includes:
- Manufacturers
- Machine shops
- Tool and die shops
- Mold shops
- Production facilities
- And many more…
Bay State Machine desires to work closely with their customers to produce nothing but Grade A, top-quality parts at a competitive price, delivered on time with a smile. This direct line of communication ensures that nothing about a job gets “lost in translation.”
The reason for their success is in the notion that Bay State understands the cost associated with customer parts, and their employees are very well trained on the latest and greatest industry best practices. Their team treats each job and each customer with a top priority degree of respect. They are all business and ready to handle the next project with care while delivering “peace-of-mind” to the customer in process and performance. They recognize they are likely performing the very last step of a part and that the particular part in their shop is likely needed in a hurry to meet a stringent production schedule. Thus, they understand how to produce effectively and efficiently to make sure nothing gets held up and put to chance.
Words to Work By (Bay State Machine’s Mission):
- Quality
- Experience
- Efficiency
- Precision
- Quick Turn Around
- Dependability
In short, Bay State Machine acts as a direct business partner to their customer and care relentlessly about the parts entrusted into their hands and want to ensure that the final product – whatever it may be and wherever it comes to culmination – is accomplished with no compromise whatsoever from any possible vantagepoint.
You could take a look and make the claim that the work Bay State Machine is doing is a grind, and you’d be right – it is! But boy do they love what they do… And if you’re in the market, you’ll love the work they produce (for you!) as well.
