# Oddball Clausing 8512 Machine



## Ironside (Aug 4, 2018)

About a week ago, I happened to be in the right place at the right time and I came across 2 of these 8512 machines. The price was right so I bought them. They came from a now defunct optical glass manufacturer. There is really not a lot of info out there about the Clausing 8512 machines. from what I gather, some were built by Clausing and sold with Bridgeport M heads on them. Others were sold without any head on them at all. Some of them came with a single handwheel on one side of the table only instead of one on each end.

These machines look to have some type of water driven heads on them. The covers are Raytheon badged. They also come with the water supply pumps that plug into the power strips on the sides of the column, using a proprietary electrical plug. I have no idea exactly what the heads are. I'm assuming some type of water jet used in the glass cutting/polishing process. Other than the weird heads and the single handwheel, they are exactly like the 8520's. The tables and ways on these machines are pristine since there has never been any metal machining done on or around them. Below are some pictures of these things. I'm curious to know if anyone has ever seen one of these. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. I was thinking about mounting a BP M head on one for myself. But I already have an 8520 and don't really need one other than it would be cool to have one. I may end up just parting them out and make a killer profit on them. I just don't see the demand for trying to sell them intact, as they are.


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## Superburban (Aug 4, 2018)

Intriguing, will be looking forward to see what they are made for, and how they work. I assume you have used some bandwidth, putting Google to work. I tried a few searches, and came up with nothing.


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## CarlosA (Nov 21, 2018)

I`ve been watching those on ebay for what seems like years. If you decide to part any of them out i`d love to buy the table & feed screws & nuts from one of them. I`d be inclined to pay $500 shipped and you can put it on a greyhound bus to save money for all I care. lol

I have a nice tight Clausing 8520 Serial 475 but the table has been abused as a drill press and is quite annoying to work with.


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