1941 Lucas Boring Mill

My first experience with a horizontal boring mill was a #42 Lucas of about the same vintage as the one shown, it was pretty much worn out, but it was possible to do acceptable work with it. Most folks considered it a left handed machine compared to most other boring mills on which everything is reversed, such as the Giddings & Lewis and Universal where most of the control levers were operated by your right hand; I especially did not like the interlocking control levers for feed motions on the Lucas, so that only one feed could be used at any one time and had to be reversed with another lever; when you engaged a feed motion, you never really knew what direction it was going to move, as the plates were badly worn off and unreadable. By contrast, the G&L you could use more than one feed at a time and the levers were set in the direction that you wanted them to go.
The only good feature of the Lucas was the ability to hike the boring bar (and spindle) out in increments for long continous bores.
 
John you have a good point out the controls being on the other side... I too ran multiple G&L floor and table mills and the controls were on the opposite side. But, I can understand why Lucas might have done this since when I ran #2 and #3 Cincinnati horizontal mills with dual controls, the back controls were on the same side as the Lucas'.

I also ran this large CNC Lucas which has the controls on the same side. Didn't bother me a bit... I ran this for a short time after a machinist quit and they hadn't filled his position yet at a locomotive rebuild facility. Those old Lucas machines are built like a battleship!

Ted

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The shop I worked in had the #42 Lucas and also two G&L 350Ts with long tables and outriggers for table support and a Ingersoll floor mill with a 44 ft travel and 13 ft of up and down travel, the column swiveled on the saddle and the spindle swiveled on its saddle, it was a beast, I think I only ran it once, after I left they bought another one with only 24 ft of horizontal travel and another G&L 350T, they were a pleasure to run.
 
is the machine barfing? is that why the can is at the opening? too much alcohol last night , or during the cleaning? :grin:

Good luck with that machine.. nice.
 
Oh my! That’s great. Been looking for a smaller one like that. I’m very envious. Congratulations.
Cheers
Martin
 
Nice size. Did it come with the out rigger? I have been on the look out for an HBM for awhile now. Nothing to buy around me.
 
I got to to run the Unions and Lucas HBMs down at my first place of employment . Nice machines but my favorites were the DeVliegs . Later on at Ward Machine , I ran a pair of CNC G and Ls horizontals with dual rotary tables and tombstones and a large center pallet . Very nice machines but I never got used to running anyone else's programs being sent out to me and my tool offsets being set by someone in a tool department . One night while proving out a program on the thrust reversers on the subs , my boss came out and asked why I wasn't running 100 % on the pot . I told him I was proving out the program . He grabbed the router sheet , looked it over for a second or two and said crank it up . ( the machine was wired as to if not running at 100% , a red light would be flashing ) . Reluctantly I cranked it up to 100% . It did not turn out well . Somewhere along the lines a revision was made and nobody was aware of it . A 2" diameter spotting drill was pulled out of the tool carosel instead of a short center drill . The spindle came out and the swingarm grabbed the spotting drill and tried to index it to the spindle . It DID NOT MAKE IT ! :big grin: Talk about some flashing lights going off and some very loud crashes . I called him over and told him here's your 100% results , fix it . A couple weeks later , my co-worker was running the other machine that was right in front of mine . He hit a GOO instead of a GO1 code and threw the reverser off the machine inches in front of me . Broke the set-up bolts and sheared the hold down chains . I walked out that night and never returned . The plant is now owned by Barry Weymiller and still in production supporting their box and paper machines . I know people still there and they still run this way to this day . I only work a half mile away and pass it everyday so it brings back memories . All bad . :)

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NCjeeper said:
Nice size. Did it come with the out rigger? I have been on the look out for an HBM for awhile now. Nothing to buy around me.
Click to expand...
No this model does not have the table size or x axis travel to warrant an outrigger.
 
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