World famous machine rebuilder holding classes this week in Springfield

A five day Machine Rebuilding Seminar began this week inside "The Gear Works Company" at the end of Pearl Street. Richard King from Minnesota has been teaching classes for over 40 years around the world to new machine builders in Germany, USA, Taiwan, Norway, Sweden, UK.

King teaches students the craft of “scraping,” a machine trade skill that can only be done by hand.

Richard King, 68, a master scraper, journeyman, instructor and machinery builder, traveled from Minnesota to give the class at Gear Works.

King is the president of King-Way Scraping Consultants, and has been precision machine scraping, machine building and rebuilding since he was 12 years old. He learned the craft of scraping from his father, he said on Friday, Sept. 30.

“It’s a lost art,” he said. “People all over the world are interested in taking classes.”

Machine scraping is the term for an artistic skill thought by some to be more difficult than wood carving. Those who have the skill can become tool builders or rebuilders for machines that are worn out, he said.

Machine scraping, also known as hand-scraping, eliminates relying on the accuracy of other machine tools, and eliminates distortions caused by clamping forces and by the generation of heat, according to a manual in King’s classroom. Machines have to be aligned within one millionth of an inch, and hand scraping is the only process for that kind of precision, King said.

King has taught classes in locations including Germany, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Vancouver, Canada; and several locations in the continental United States, including at MIT in Boston. Once, in North Carolina, master blacksmith Peter Ross of Public Broadcasting System (PBS) fame took part, he said. He estimate he has over 30,000 students all over the world.

The entire program for a journeyman is 2-4 years, but most companies can’t find employees with this skill, he said.

“Right now, you can’t find anyone who’s a really good scraper … most are retired people,” King said.

Participants paid $1,600 to attend the Springfield seminar which winds up Sunday.