So small machines did do real work. WW2 mobile machine shop

[C-Bag]

It's only shortcoming was the 7" work envelope. If the work fit inside that, it could do it, and you didn't have to baby it.

One man’s shortcomings is another’s just right. My projects run on the true hobby scale even though I’m not doing models so it’s perfect for me. Mine was 2/3 buried in boxes of tools and stuff in the mother of all garage sales. Mine was also rode hard and put up wet. Was probably in a school or something. It didn’t have any add on tooling but had everything except the motor belt cover. Had the stuff that can often be missing like the special multi angle cutter holder, the original vise, the universal adjuster handle and all the other covers were intact. The whole place was a madhouse with probably 20-30 guys crawling up 10’ high stacks of boxes and trying to get the family members of the x-owner to give them a price. I steeled myself for disappointment and asked the brother how much and he shrugged at it like it was worthless and said “$125?”. Could have knocked me down with a feather. The only things it needed was a new start cap for the motor and I found an original 7a cast iron belt cover on eBay for $125 so I’ve got $250 total into it. The original stand was I think a modded military teletype stand so it’s slated to get a new stand when I get around to it.

 

[Pevehouse]

Mine was stashed amongst tones of other machines in a mobile home. Got it from a widow of a machinist. We had no clue what it was so I offered here $250 because I could tell it was an old machine of some sort. Turns out to be an atlas 7B complete with vise and belt guards. Working on the restoration right now. The wiring and all was rotten. Got to rewire it once the paint work is done. Looking forward to having this little machine running

 

[projectnut]

Apparently the original belt guards weren’t enough for the military in an ammunition factory. They required solid sheet metal guards over the original cast iron ones.

I removed the sheet metal ones to expose the vented originals.

 

[extropic]

<snip
Tailstock is a ball joint, that can be loosened to allow for float when the truck was moving. snip>

I've not heard of this before and it sounds interesting. Please provide additional info and specific pictures.

Thinking more about it, do you mean that the mounting support for tailstock end of the bed incorporates a ball joint? or ???

 

[D.sebens]

I've not heard of this before and it sounds interesting. Please provide additional info and specific pictures.

Thinking more about it, do you mean that the mounting support for tailstock end of the bed incorporates a ball joint? or ???

I know hardinge did the same with theirs. It allowed bed to be supported without twist

 

[tobnpr]

I've not heard of this before and it sounds interesting. Please provide additional info and specific pictures.

Thinking more about it, do you mean that the mounting support for tailstock end of the bed incorporates a ball joint? or ???

While this ball/socket joint is useful, it's not the panacea I dreamed it would be for "leveling" (removing twist) from the bed. The legs have flat bar stock drilled to bolt to the floor of the truck, I used leveling feet instead)
After all, you really can't manually "twist" a huge steel lathe bed easily, but I could gain a tiny bit on the Starrett level with a long bar. But, I suppose it worked as intended for transport purposes.

 

[extropic]

I know hardinge did the same with theirs. It allowed bed to be supported without twist

Thanks for the input. Do you think that was a special feature for Hardinge lathes intended for use on "flexible" platforms (like a truck) or did they use it also for general production machines?