Adam Dau of S.K. Grimes; Tintype Photograph ©2023
Over 25 Years of Quality
S. K. Grimes Inc. provides specific solutions for photographers: Accessories, Repairs, Custom machining, and Modifications. These skills are useful to anyone needing inventive attention to unique problems. We enjoy a challenge! We follow through, applying simplicity and ingenuity to technical problems, and finding the most effective and practical solutions. Our experience usually allows a good result at a practical price, even in cases where others have failed. Today, the idea of a unique custom solution is frequently "impossible". In fact, unique problems have unique solutions.
Simplicity & Ingenuity
to technical problems
S.K. Grimes
philosophy
Long-standing reputation for providing high-quality service that is unrivaled in the industry. The simplest most cost-effective way to solve a problem between unique camera parts with the highest quality is through generations of expertise.
Milestones
The Beginning
Steve Grimes, a man who loved gears and moving parts, also possessed a creativity that was in play from childhood. One day his parents received a visit from representatives of the U.S. Air Force, requesting that Steven cease and desist using his invention of a bike/kite hybrid machine to fly his kite. The kite was reaching an altitude where it was interfering with the national radar system.
Despite this early interaction with the U.S. Military, Steve went on to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard in Vietnam and then earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. But it was a chance encounter with a matchbook that gave instructions on how to repair cameras that started him on the journey to become the “photographer’s machinist.”
Steve founded S.K. Grimes Camera Repair in Boston, MA, which he later sold to E.P. Levine while continuing to work for the company. He eventually left that position to begin S.K. Grimes Photographers’ Machinist in the basement of his Wrentham, MA home. While he developed this business through networking with local inventors and photographers, he also repaired medical equipment and studied optometry. With the building of his own website in the late 1990s and a growing business, Steve was able to grant his wife’s wish that he stop tracking aluminum chips throughout the house when he moved to an old industrial mill building in Woonsocket, RI in 1998. In addition to more space, he now had three employees and began using CNC machining equipment. This was the beginning of S.K. Grimes as we know it today.
The Protégé
Adam Dau attended College of the Atlantic with a degree in Human Ecology, focusing in stop motion animation and armature machining. When his attempts to find employment in this shrinking field didn’t work out, he took a position at Borders Books, a serendipitous decision. One afternoon Adam was asked by a customer to locate a copy of The Machinist Handbook. Although the book was not available, the conversation led to an invitation by the customer to visit his new employer, S.K. Grimes. Adam took him up on the invitation and two weeks later, he was hired by Steve Grimes.
The new job had a steep, but exhilarating, learning curve and six months later Steve confidently left Adam in charge of the shop while he took a month-long well-deserved vacation. He returned to a still functioning shop and a notebook full of questions from Adam.
Death of
an Icon
Only six weeks after Steve’s return from vacation he passed away very unexpectedly. He will be remembered as a sometimes eccentric, but always creative, man whose perpetual curiosity created a company that has served thousands of photographers and inventors. He was a teacher and mentor to anyone with an aptitude and genuine interest.
Steve’s passing left the company’s future uncertain. Initially his wife Marge asked Adam to “just keep it running”, but after a few short months she proposed the sale of the company to Adam.
Not only was this a way to carry on Steve’s legacy but the sale also afforded Adam the opportunity of a lifetime. S.K. Grimes was officially sold to Adam on 8/1/2003.
New Shop,
New Times
After Steve’s passing all of the employees he had assembled eventually moved on to other employment, except Adam. In hiring replacements, the average age of employees dropped from 50 to 23. This resulted in a vast loss of collective experience and integration, yet the S.K. Grimes website, along with sample parts and discarded jugs of mechanical treasures, contained a wealth of information to be researched and harvested by the new enthusiastic employees to expand upon Steve’s vision for the company.
At a trade show, a vendor who had known Steve said to Adam, “You have some pretty big shoes to fill.” Ironically, although Adam knew this man was referring to Steve’s shoes, Adam was only worried about filling the metaphorical shoes of his own personal expectations.
After some growing pains, S.K. Grimes found its footing and “remodeled” itself with expansion of new CNC machinery and fabrication and a relocation to its current address.
Painting by R Stevenson Art (@rstevensonart)
Celebrating
25 Years!
S.K. Grimes recently celebrated its 25th year anniversary, which coincided with Adam’s 20th year at the company. Currently, S.K. Grimes is actively pursuing education to further expand and modernize its offerings, and is employing the next generation of designers and fabricators, while continuing to assist photographers and inventors around the world. Our clients and our equipment can be found far and wide. They range from photographic hobbyists to professionals and collectors. Our creations can be found in homes, as well as in institutions such as The Getty, the U.S. Marine Corps, NASA, Harvard University, Meta and The Library of Congress.
Just like young Steve and his kite, our customers are the people who don’t stick to the well traveled road, but instead decide to break past the expectation point. We are the puzzle-piece makers.
The Beginning
Steve Grimes, a man who loved gears and moving parts, also possessed a creativity that was in play from childhood. One day his parents received a visit from representatives of the U.S. Air Force, requesting that Steven cease and desist using his invention of a bike/kite hybrid machine to fly his kite. The kite was reaching an altitude where it was interfering with the national radar system.
Despite this early interaction with the U.S. Military, Steve went on to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard in Vietnam and then earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. But it was a chance encounter with a matchbook that gave instructions on how to repair cameras that started him on the journey to become the “photographer’s machinist.”
Steve founded S.K. Grimes Camera Repair in Boston, MA, which he later sold to E.P. Levine while continuing to work for the company. He eventually left that position to begin S.K. Grimes Photographers’ Machinist in the basement of his Wrentham, MA home. While he developed this business through networking with local inventors and photographers, he also repaired medical equipment and studied optometry. With the building of his own website in the late 1990s and a growing business, Steve was able to grant his wife’s wish that he stop tracking aluminum chips throughout the house when he moved to an old industrial mill building in Woonsocket, RI in 1998. In addition to more space, he now had three employees and began using CNC machining equipment. This was the beginning of S.K. Grimes as we know it today.
The Protégé
Adam Dau attended College of the Atlantic with a degree in Human Ecology, focusing in stop motion animation and armature machining. When his attempts to find employment in this shrinking field didn’t work out, he took a position at Borders Books, a serendipitous decision. One afternoon Adam was asked by a customer to locate a copy of The Machinist Handbook. Although the book was not available, the conversation led to an invitation by the customer to visit his new employer, S.K. Grimes. Adam took him up on the invitation and two weeks later, he was hired by Steve Grimes.
The new job had a steep, but exhilarating, learning curve and six months later Steve confidently left Adam in charge of the shop while he took a month-long well-deserved vacation. He returned to a still functioning shop and a notebook full of questions from Adam.
Death of an Icon
Only six weeks after Steve’s return from vacation he passed away very unexpectedly. He will be remembered as a sometimes eccentric, but always creative, man whose perpetual curiosity created a company that has served thousands of photographers and inventors. He was a teacher and mentor to anyone with an aptitude and genuine interest.
Steve’s passing left the company’s future uncertain. Initially his wife Marge asked Adam to “just keep it running”, but after a few short months she proposed the sale of the company to Adam.
Not only was this a way to carry on Steve’s legacy but the sale also afforded Adam the opportunity of a lifetime. S.K. Grimes was officially sold to Adam on 8/1/2000.
New Shop, New Times
After Steve’s passing all of the employees he had assembled eventually moved on to other employment, except Adam. In hiring replacements, the average age of employees dropped from 50 to 23. This resulted in a vast loss of collective experience and integration, yet the S.K. Grimes website, along with sample parts and discarded jugs of mechanical treasures, contained a wealth of information to be researched and harvested by the new enthusiastic employees to expand upon Steve’s vision for the company.
At a trade show, a vendor who had known Steve said to Adam, “You have some pretty big shoes to fill.” Ironically, although Adam knew this man was referring to Steve’s shoes, Adam was only worried about filling the metaphorical shoes of his own personal expectations.
After some growing pains, S.K. Grimes found its footing and “remodeled” itself with expansion of new CNC machinery and fabrication and a relocation to its current address.
Celebrating 25 Years!
S.K. Grimes recently celebrated its 25th year anniversary, which coincided with Adam’s 20th year at the company. Currently, S.K. Grimes is actively pursuing education to further expand and modernize its offerings, and is employing the next generation of designers and fabricators, while continuing to assist photographers and inventors around the world. Our clients and our equipment can be found far and wide. They range from photographic hobbyists to professionals and collectors. Our creations can be found in homes, as well as in institutions such as The Getty, the U.S. Marine Corps, NASA, Harvard University, Meta and The Library of Congress.
Just like young Steve and his kite, our customers are the people who don’t stick to the well traveled road, but instead decide to break past the expectation point. We are the puzzle-piece maker.
What Our Clients Say
Long-standing reputation for providing high-quality service that is unrivaled in the industry.SK has been a God send to the LF world for a LONG time and we are all fortunate that he passed his knowledge and expertise to the apprentices who have learned well and taken over almost seamlessly.
regarded as the world’s preeminent large format repair and customization specialist… everything about SK Grimes and their work is reminiscent of a refined and old world master craftsman whose unsurpassed work products are the ultimate testimonials.
What you’re paying somebody like SK Grimes versus somebody else is they’ll know what you need and will do it right.
The simplest most cost-effective way to solve a problem between unique
camera parts with the highest quality Is through generations of expertise.
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