Dividing Head Id

Rick_B

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Not sure this belongs here - If not I can move

My life seems to be a series of train rides - what do I mean by that? Well if you have ever been on a train they start slowly allowing you to jump off with minimal damage. However as you are thinking about it, the train speeds up and before you know it you are at the end of the line. How does this relate to OWWM/OMWM? Well it only takes one CL ad for me to step on the train - out of curiousity I tell myself. I can always get off! Then, before I know it, I am speeding along chasing something that I now HAVE to have - not because I need it - but because the train is going so fast I can no longer get off.

Earlier this week I saw an ad for an LW Chuck dividing head in very nice condition with 2 extra plates and a tail stock. I have no experience with dividing heads but do know there have been a few times it would have been handy to have one and, I expect, the future will present more useful situations to me. Well - the guy wanted more than I was willing to pay - I just wanted something that I could play around with - more of an entry level. He was not having any negotiation and everything I offered in trade was refused so I walked away. I decided that since everything I wanted to trade was now sitting on the bench - let's take a few pictures and see if I could sell it and gather up the funds he was looking for. I was getting close when his ad disappeared - he had sold it for exactly what I was going to offer.

Well you can see that the train is moving at a faster pace - so off to Ebay I go. Unfortunately everything there was either priced too high or was tagged for high shipping. That was the first thing I learned - dividing heads are heavy. Then I stumbled onto a listing that was fairly close by (1-1/2 hours) and reasonable priced ($200). I could tell by the pictures it was old and the ad indicated no manufacturers name. I figured what the heck - go look and get it out of my system. Before I went I did some cursory googling to see what a dividing head should have. What I found was a dividing head with one plate, missing handle, no idea from the current owner how it worked. It did have a small skinner 3 jaw chuck but no tail stock. The owner and I gabbed a bit about his other equipment while I tried to pull the train's emergency brake. He says - what do you think? I say missing handle, no manual, some issues with rotation , $200 seems like a lot. He says - make me an offer. I say I don't want to insult you but how about $100? he says $125 and I'll load it. The rest of the story should be clear by now.

When I got it home the only marking I could find was a patent number - 432621. I googled that and found it was issued in 1890 to Cincinnati Machine and the inventor was Frederick Holtz (not sure if he is the same Holtz as Holtz-Herr or not).

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There is a fellow I found on the web that has a page about this exact dividing head where he indicates it is a Cincinnati product. I sent him an email to see if he had a manual.

As usual this is coming complete apart for cleaning/painting but right now I am looking for confirmation that this is a Cincinatti product and a source for a manual/operating instructions. Time will tell if I got a great deal or a boat anchor :)

Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions you may have

Rick

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Russ - I think you are right - the little bit i could find seemed to indicate it could be driven by table movement. I think I am missing dome of those parts. Right now I'm mostly interested in direct indexing and finding a manual/exploded parts diagram.

Rick
 
Thanks for the links Mike - I appreciate it

Rick
 
You may find some useful information in a book published by Cincinnati titled
A TREATISE ON MILLING
AND MILLING MACHINES
I downloaded a free copy from Google Books, and a quick search turned up this link.

https://archive.org/details/treatiseonmillin00cincrich

VintageMachinery.org is a great resource; here is the index for Cincinnati Milling products including dividing heads

http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgIndex/detail.aspx?id=2097&tab=3

Great find

Mike

just wanted to thank you again Mike - I downloaded the book and printed off the dividing head section - looks like a great resource. It doesn't have the level of detail in terms of parts schematic that I was looking for but it will certainly provide me with a very good introduction to dividing heads.

Rick
 
I was doing some playing around today (actually dis assembly) but now I'm stuck. I was able to get the rotating part of the head to rotate but I can't get it out of the main body (trunion?) There is a locking bolt on the side that comes through from the rotating head and the trunion - that bolt needs to come out but it can't without taking the entire spindle out. Do you think that spindle is pressed in? here's a picture of the bolt - its got a head bigger than the hole it goes through so it needs to come out by pushing it in.

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Thanks for any thoughts you may have

Rick

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