Another " Oldie But Goodie"

[projectnut]

Looking through this category I've yet to see a US Machine Tools #1 horizontal mill. Here are some pictures of one in my shop. It was originally purchased by the Oscar Mayer Corporation in 1942 for use in one of their machine shops at the Madison WI. location.

It was retired in 1974 and purchased by one of the mechanical engineers for use in his violin and cello making business. He used it for another 15 or so years before health reasons forced him to give up the business. It sat another 10 years in the back of his son's machine shop getting occasional use, but essentially just gathering dust. I purchased it about 17 years ago as an addition to my shop.

The first picture is a poster "Doing Her Part" from WWII

 

[Bob Korves]

Nice machine. What does the large handle that meets the machine near the spindle do? Does it turn a pinion moving the entire overhead arm and spindle up and down on slides using a rack? Huge quantities of parts were made on those machines and others much like them. Not exciting, but it was a job...

 

[projectnut]

Nice machine. What does the large handle that meets the machine near the spindle do? Does it turn a pinion moving the entire overhead arm and spindle up and down on slides using a rack? Huge quantities of parts were made on those machines and others much like them. Not exciting, but it was a job...

Yes. It's called a rise and fall handle. It's used to quickly reposition the spindle and overhead arm. The bolts are loosened and the handle is either raised or lowered. The entire head can be repositioned in a matter of seconds. It can be accurately positioned with a set of gauge blocks or Standards:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-of-Stan...447362?hash=item2a681e5f42:g:9OcAAOSwboVXO0DA

I have a couple sets of standards from .500' to 12.00". Anything finer than that needs to be done with dial test indicator.

There's also a second wooden handle that can be used to fast traverse the table in the X direction. The woman in the poster is using it. The idea was to raise the table a short distance, make a fast pass and return, then repeat. It works fine on mild steel if you don't take too deep a cut. It doesn't work so well on stainless or other tough metals. In those cases the small crank is used to move the table.

Here's a little bit better picture as to how it works. There's a counter weight in the column to make it easier to move the head more accurately.

 

[Bob Korves]

Thanks! I was aware of using long handles for traversing the table and for cross feed, but had never seen the overarm and spindle move up and down...

 

[core-oil]

This pattern of very useful little production mills, Where the whole head stock carrying the cutter is able to rise and fall , thus determining the depth of cut desired, takes its design parameters back to the early days of the development of the American milling machines , especially in the early gun manufacturing shops, The prehistoric ancestors of the little machine being discussed were called "The Lincoln Pattern " miller

 

[Silverbullet]

An awful lot of those little mills helped win ww11 .