Show us your war time production machine tools

I'm pretty sure surface finish of cast parts was the major difference between machines built explicitly for the war effort and those built for the retail market. In most cases machines built for the retail market were ground as close to possible to a smooth finish. Small casting voids were filler with either lead or similar filler product, then sanded to a smooth finish and painted.

Machines built for the war effort had rough spots ground down, but rarely had the small casting voids filled, or were sanded to a smooth finish before applying paint. I have some inspection sheets in publications from Sheldon for periods before, during, and after WWII. All the technical specs appear to be the same.
 
On the Baker drill press, they were telling the user that parts delivery wasnt just controlled by them; the war production board had first call...

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Janderso said:
Aaron,
I haven't been to your shop. The Rivett is sweet!
The horizontal mill is perfect for a hobby shop!
And of course I love your Clausing.
Awesome tools man!
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I'm really looking forward to playing with the Rivett, but the motor set up it came with was kind of jury rigged, so I've been redesigning the motor mount and tensioning mechanism. It would be a lot easier if I actually knew what I was doing. ;)
 
projectnut said:
I'm pretty sure surface finish of cast parts was the major difference between machines built explicitly for the war effort and those built for the retail market. In most cases machines built for the retail market were ground as close to possible to a smooth finish. Small casting voids were filler with either lead or similar filler product, then sanded to a smooth finish and painted.

Machines built for the war effort had rough spots ground down, but rarely had the small casting voids filled, or were sanded to a smooth finish before applying paint. I have some inspection sheets in publications from Sheldon for periods before, during, and after WWII. All the technical specs appear to be the same.
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The K&T was definitely paint over casting. The other non-war machines I’ve seen tend more toward fillers than ground casting, just grinding on casting seams.
 
Here is two Gorton engravers I picked up many years ago. The first has the war finish tag, the second looks to have a less refined finish, and is close in serial numbers. The second I picked up for the accessories, and it also had a nice DC motor, and controller that I swapped to a drill press that my father got through military surplus back in the fifties, so it might even be a war baby. I do not have pics of it.

$(KGrHqMOKpwE5ZGT3bb1BOWTk(RbP!~~60_3.JPG $(KGrHqZHJDIE7Bcviu-zBO0nbW2!H!~~60_3.JPG engraver 2 001.jpg engraver 006.jpg

I have watched many documentaries on wartime production, and am amazed at how many metel and wood working machines that had to be made just before, and during WWII. Watch the movie on the Chrysler tank factory, or the Ford airplane factory that were both built during the War, and look at all the mills and lathes, and other machines. How did the machine manufacturers keep up?
 
Superburban said:
Watch the movie on the Chrysler tank factory
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I saw that one.
What was it -6-8 months? They broke ground - worked 24-7 and had heavy machinery going in in a very short time. They were pouring concrete in the winter, in the Midwest!!
Couldn't do that today. Where would the workers come form?

The engraver is awesome. Very handy to have. I want one :)
 
Janderso said:
What was it -6-8 months? They broke ground - worked 24-7 and had heavy machinery going in in a very short time. They were pouring concrete in the winter, in the Midwest!!
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It's amazing what can be accomplished when it's really necessary. During WWII, the Soviets moved, on a crash basis, thousands
of factories eastwards away from the Germans and across the Urals. They started production in tents until they could build factory
buildings, in the winter. Of course, they had slightly different incentives than our people did...
 
During WW2 in Russia they would work in the shops when bombs where falling -40 no heating and only food was one potato a day rough conditions!
 
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