Hold every shaft to its journal sizes, runout readings and hardening record.

Shaft makers cut bar into stepped, keyed and splined parts for motors, pumps, gearboxes and machine tools. Straightness is the constant worry. Heat and cutting stress move a long shaft, so a part that left the lathe true can arrive at the grinder bent and cost a full day of grinding time. It happens often.

Production control for shaft shops follows the bar lot, the centre holes, the hardening cycle and every runout reading against one part number. The order keeps the drawing revision, journal tolerance and surface finish call. Send one shaft drawing and we can map its route.

A motor or pump builder sends a drawing with journal diameters, shoulders, keyways, threads and a surface finish call. You quote from bar cost, turning time, milling, hardening and cylindrical grinding. Margins are thin. Bar arrives as rounds with a mill certificate and is cut to length, faced and centred, after which rough turning leaves grinding stock on each journal of the part. Stock matters.

Keyways are milled and splines are cut or rolled on a hobbing or rolling machine, with width and fit checked by plug gauge before the part moves on. Many shafts go for induction hardening or through hardening, then a straightening press brings them back within runout. Final grinding finishes journals and seal seats, and a runout and diameter check closes the job. Hard chrome or other coatings are often an outside process. Packing keeps the shaft from bending in transit. Crates are made to length.