International Revere Machining
Worn, uneven, and over-deep grooves cut back to the correct profile, on site in the machine room or in my shop.
Chicago and the surrounding area, with emergency work in other states. Passenger and freight.
Who Does The Work
I own International Revere Machining and I've been a machinist my whole life. I do the work myself, on site in the machine room, or in my shop when the sheave can come out.
Grooves worn too deep, worn uneven, or needing complete re-machining. I cut them back to the right profile so the building doesn't have to replace the whole elevator machine.
Most of my work is around Chicago, in skyscrapers, hotels, hospitals, schools and residential buildings. I take emergency jobs in other states.
I like preserving Chicago's old elevators. A lot of them are still running on their original machines, and there's usually no reason to tear one out when the grooves can be cut back instead.
The Work
When To Call
When the grooves wear unevenly the ropes end up sitting at different diameters, so they can never be tensioned equally and one rope carries more of the load than the rest. That's what wears a new set of ropes out early.
The usual signs
Sometimes regrooving is the answer. Sometimes it isn't, and I'll tell you that. If you want to look at the sheave yourself first, I've written up how to tell whether a sheave was regrooved correctly.
Why It Matters
Worn grooves get worse with every trip, so regrooving earlier usually means less metal to take off and less time with the car out of service.
Ropes sitting at different depths can't be tensioned evenly. The car gets noisy or jerky, and adjusting the ropes only hides it for a while.
Worn grooves chew through a new set of ropes well before they should be due, so you end up paying for the same rope job twice.
There's a limit to how much metal can come off a sheave. Once you're past it the sheave has to be replaced, and that's a much bigger job than cutting the grooves.
Second Opinion
Once the elevator is running again it's hard to tell whether the grooves were cut properly, and the problem doesn't usually show up until the ropes start wearing out much later.
If someone else has already cut your sheave and you want another set of eyes on it, I'll come out and measure it properly and then tell you what I found and what I would do about it. If the work was done right, I'll say so. That happens, and you're better off knowing than guessing.
Here's how a second opinion works.
Not sure what's wrong yet? Call me and describe what the sheave is doing. I'll tell you whether it needs regrooving, or whether it doesn't. If it's something I can't help with, I'll say that too.
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