Company History

( click on images to enlarge )

1939 Cleo H. Davidson moves to Detroit, Michigan, from Kentucky to seek work during the Depression.  
1944 After working for Briggs and Hudson Motor Car, Cleo Davidson founds Precision Cutter Grinding Company. He starts the company with $1400.00 (borrowed from self) and one overhead grinder on a dirt floor in the back of his garage at 2919 Beals Street in Detroit.  
1949 Company moves to rented 1500 square-foot building on 8417 Mack Avenue in Detroit. During this time Cleo and wife Aline live in apartment over top of shop.
 
1950
-1951

Brothers Louie & Ray join company along with sons Marvin & Vernon. Also, Mary Thompson is named Secretary/Office Manager after starting in 1944. She would retire in 1998, after 54 years. The years immediately following this period is when the company's solid foundation of quality work and timely service is built.

 
1958 Company moves into purchased 2000 square-foot building at 20869 Mound Road, Warren, Michigan.
 
1962 Representative from Boeing Aircraft visits our modest facility to discuss servicing and manufacturing special carbide-tipped form cutters. During this time, Cleo begins to perfect a way to helically bend carbide strips to use in cutting tools.
 
1966 Company moves into newly constructed 7000 square-foot building at 25245 Mound Road in Warren, Michigan. Completely climate controlled with 6000 square-feet of hardwood flooring, this building (with some additions) has served us until present, a testimony to the foresight of Cleo Davidson.
 
1968 Avco Aerostructures contracts Precision Cutter to build one of the largest brazed-construction helical slab mills ever. 10" diameter by 32" long with two helically twisted 31" long carbide flutes, this cutter would weigh over 700 pounds. When in use, this tool would rotate at 3600 RPM's, and send aluminum chips flying over 40 feet. This one of a kind cutter would remain in use for an unheard of 18 years, until 1986, when Precision Cutter was contracted to build a second one. The publication Cutting Tool Engineering published a feature article on the slab mill, as Precision Cutter once again demonstrates its ingenuity in producing such a mammoth cutter.
 
1970's Precision Cutter's customer base grew to over 200 active clients. Never employing a salesperson, the company's growth was generated through word-of-mouth and modest Yellow Page ads.
 
1980's The first CNC grinders were introduced into our company. Although considered an exciting improvement, the machines were pretty much one-dimensional, and better suited to manufacturing than service.
 
1990 The advances in machine tooling and innovations in the pattern and mold industry puts a demand on carbide tooling; ballnose and radius tools are commonplace and demand is high.
 
1992 Precision Cutter mourns the death of Cleo H. Davidson, at the age of 84 and 50 years on ownership.
Grandson Mark C. Davidson, with 21 years of service, is named president.
 
1996 Company purchases first Anca 7-axis cutter grinder, providing the technology to completely grind or regrind a multitude of cutting tools in one chucking. Precision Cutter readies itself for the new millennium with 2 additional Ancas before 1999.
 
2002 A fourth Anca 7-axis cutter grinder is added, which includes a forty-tool loader for unattended operation.
 
2003 Precision Cutter introduces its own line of Solid Carbide Square & Ball-nose End-mills.
 

Copyright © 2003 Precision Cutter Grinding Company.
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