Pic cover top
&&&&&&&&& 88888888888888888888888888888 208 13 page top
******new******
******new******
old machines
old machines
picture from top 13 page title text width="843" height="784" alt="">
old machines
old machines
old machines
Below. Women have proved themselves able to handle all types of machine operations; the only differentiation so far has been made on a basis of physical effort -:<•••• •
old machines
old machines
1224Old Machines Rebuilt for War Work
t
C. D. Binding, who heads the rehabilitation work, fingers the table of Milwaukee milling machine
that of a '10 x 36-in. Norton internal grinding machine, which was built in 1918 and had been in use for the 24 years since then. This machine, except for the frame, was completely rebuilt. The ways, the table, the wheel-head and the wheel-head slide were re-machined and hand scraped ; the spindle bearings were renewed ; and by means of new gearing, bushing, shafts and clutches the machine had its "intestinal fortitude" restored. For replacement of some of the parts, such as pulleys and pump, patterns were made and sent out for the securing of castings. When a double-end Sunstrand centering machine, built in 1929, was received it was completely worn out. In reconditioning it, all the finished surfaces were machined, new spindles and spindle bearings were put in place, the turret was rebored, rebushed, and re-faced, and trued up in line with the spindle. As a result, this machine was in the line of those ready for shipment to one of the plants having an urgent need for it.
OCTOBER 29, 1942
An American Tool engine lathe, purchased in 1905, came to the shop out of the scrap yard at one of the plants. This 37-year old machine is now back in war production. To bring that about called for various lines of recondition-ing. One was supplying it with a new headstock. Another was metallizing the spindle bearings. Another was cutting teeth in gears, by means of the shop milling machines.
Cooperation from Builders
In the rehabilitation work at the Har-vester machine shop the management of the shop is getting liberal coopera-tion from the machine tool manufac-tures, with their catalogs, advice from their sales engineers, and sometimes with replacement parts. But as is well known in the industry, the machine tool manufacturers often cannot stop to ship out parts for old machines. Not-withstanding their remarkable increases in production, they are pushed to the limit on rush orders for complete new machine tools for war industries. Like other manufacturers converting largely to war production, Harvester often found that either it could not ob-tain needed new machine tools at all or else would have well-nigh hopeless de-lays in obtaining them. From the out-set of the defense production period the company had followed the policy of not selling obsolete or worn-out or adaptable machines except for war pro-duction. Moreover, this company had succeeded in offsetting delays about getting small cutting tools by setting up a centralized tool salvage department at its Milwaukee Works and gathering
The 16-year old, rusty run-down Norton grinder at the left is ready for a reconditioning such as the 24-year old grinder at the right has just received
page 1225
into that department worn cutting tools from all its plants and providing for their rehabilitation. Furthermore, in getting started on the manufacture of 75-mm. shells at one of its plants, J. E. Harris, now superintendent of another Harvester plant making 20-mm. auto-matic airplane cannon, had found that by adding skilled machinists to the tool-makers in the plant's machine shop old abandoned machines would be rehabili-tated with such success as to advance production advantageously. So when the company took on the manufacture of the T-7 light tank for the Ordnance Department, it pointed out that production could be pushed to advantage, with savings of thousands of hours at the plants and thousands of dollars for the taxpayers, if it set up a centralized machine shop primarily for rehabilitating and adapting old ma-chine tools of most of the kinds re-quired.
Selecting the Plant
Told to go ahead, the company found a plant where the equipment included fifteen engine lathes, seven planers, two vertical boring mills, two shapers, two radial drills, three milling ma-chines, one internal grinding machine, one external grinding machine, facili-ties for arc welding and acetylene weld-ing, wood pattern making equipment, and 30 bench vises. Another feature of the plant was that the Ostrander-Seymour Company, which had operated it, had a force of 35 skilled bench mechanics, who had been in that company's work on the average for fifteen years and who were available to carry on as a Harvester shop force, or at least as the foundation of such a force. So were their machine foreman and their bench foreman, the latter ha.ving been on the job since 1902. At first only four of these machinists were put on harvester work. Then each week more were transferred to it. By March 15 the Ostrander-Seymour work had been cleaned up, and all were en-gaged on Harvester rehabilitation of machines for war production. Since then the force has been built up to 60, and it is planned to increase it to 150. In the recruiting, one of the seasoned machinists added to the force is a former gunsmith, aged 64, who had retired, but, being in good health, was desirous of doing his bit in war work at his trade, and so applied for a job at this shop. Several others had been in automobile repair shops. Two such had owned their own businesses, but had been closed out by the war limitations. They have advanced rap-idly toward the status of mechanics. Each veteran machinist is given one or
1226
A group of machinists are rebuilding several 4-in. Lo-swing lathes. The men in the foreground are using a large straight edge for marking the ways
more inexperienced men to help him and be trained by him. Among the latter are white collar men who never before had been in a machine shop. One of these, for example, was for-merly a salesman, not of industrial equipment, but of insurance. He had been attending a machine-shop practice school for a week when he was taken on. His case is cited as an example of
how an alert man with no previous me-chanical experience can advance in promising fashion in these days when it is necessary to produce quickly not only machine-tools but also machinists and machinists' helpers. No formal classes are held, and of course it is found that some of the veteran machin-ists are more skillful than others in teaching their helpers.
Industrial Truck Care Pays Dividends (Not part of this article)
Because of the ruggedness of industrial trucks, maintenance is neglected in many plants according to A. E. Dorod, assistant chief engineer, Baker Indus-trial Truck Division of The Baker-Raulang Company. Trucks are forced, by going from low to high speed with heavy loads ; they are plugged in re-verse to stop ; they are rammed and skidded around corners. To care properly for industrial trucks, good floor conditions should be provided and the trucks should not be overloaded. The truck should be inspected weekly by a competent me-chanic, and lubricated regularly accord-ing to the manufacturer's recommen-dations. A log should be kept covering the inspection findings, lubrications, adjustments, and repairs. In this way any part calling for excessive care can be spotted and the cause corrected be-fore serious damage occurs. It is well to blow the dust off the truck daily before oiling. The battery should be checked at the same time. It is advis-able to make a complete overhaul every six months.
AMERICAN MACHINIST
C. D. Binding, who heads the rehabilitation work, fingers the table of Milwaukee milling machine
that of a '10 x 36-in. Norton internal grinding machine, which was built in 1918 and had been in use for the 24 years since then. This machine, except for the frame, was completely rebuilt. The ways, the table, the wheel-head and the wheel-head slide were re-machined and hand scraped ; the spin-dle bearings were renewed ; and by means of new gearing, bushing, shafts and clutches the machine had its "intestinal fortitude" restored. For replacement of some of the parts, such as pul-leys and pump, patterns were made and sent out for the securing of castings. When a double-end Sunstrand cen-tering machine, built in 1929, was received it was completely worn out. In reconditioning it, all the finished sur-faces were machined, new spindles and spindle bearings were put in place, the turret was rebored, rebushed, and re-faced, and trued up in line with the spindle. As a result, this machine was in the line of those ready for shipment to one of the plants having an urgent need for it.
OCTOBER 29, 1942
a rebuilt
An American Tool engine lathe, purchased in 1905, came to the shop out of the scrap yard at one of the plants.
This 37-year old machine is now back in war production. To bring that about called for various lines of recondition-ing. One was supplying it with a new headstock. Another was metallizing the spindle bearings. Another was cutting teeth in gears, by means of the shop milling machines. Cooperation from Builders In the rehabilitation work at the Har-vester machine shop the management of the shop is getting liberal coopera-tion from the machine tool manufactures, with their catalogs, advice from their sales engineers, and sometimes with replacement parts. But as is well known in the industry, the machine tool manufacturers often cannot stop to ship out parts for old machines. Not-withstanding their remarkable increases in production, they are pushed to the limit on rush orders for complete new machine tools for war industries. Like other manufacturers converting largely to war production, Harvester often found that either it could not ob-tain needed new machine tools at all or else would have well-nigh hopeless de-lays in obtaining them. From the out-set of the defense production period the company had followed the policy of not selling obsolete or worn-out or adaptable machines except for war pro-duction. Moreover, this company had succeeded in offsetting delays about getting small cutting tools by setting up a centralized tool salvage department at its Milwaukee Works and gathering
The I 6-year old, rusty run-down Norton grinder at the left is ready for a reconditioning such as the 24-year old grinder at the right has just received <