What Type Of Production Lathe Could This Be?

[Bill C.]

My cousin sent this photo to me on FaceBook the other day. Her grandfather was my uncle Cleo Cassidy working in Los Angeles, California back in the 1960's to 1980's. I think it is a screw machine but from the angle I am not sure. It is an old photo that I cleaned up so it would be easier to see. I appreciate your comments.



Thanks everyone, Bill

 

[Lucky 13]

Looks like a New Britain screw machine.

 

[Wreck™Wreck]

May be a multi-spindle screw machine, either way it took extensive skills/experience and countless hours to set up a machine like that, he has his hand on the "Oh Sheet Lever". I suspect that shop had cutting oil EVERYWHERE.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

that picture was taken when we still manufactured stuff, other than entitlement.

 

[Bill C.]

Thank you all for your comments. He told me years later it was not uncommon to hold a millionth tolerance using a shave tools. I thought he was pulling my leg since the turret I had used was good for a thousandth. I did some research a millionth is normal for grinding roller and ball bearings manufacturing.

Thanks again

 

[65BAJA]

Isn't that what Doc Brown used to make the Flux Capacitor?

 

[Bill C.]

May be a multi-spindle screw machine, either way it took extensive skills/experience and countless hours to set up a machine like that, he has his hand on the "Oh Sheet Lever". I suspect that shop had cutting oil EVERYWHERE.

My uncle got his training after WWII and worked at General Motors, Indianapolis, IN according to one of his daughters before moving to the West Coast.

If you watch Youtube videos of CNC and other machines running production they are using little to no cutting fluids. I realize that is so we can see what is going on but not doing the tooling much good. We would use cutting oil in the turret lathes.

When I worked at GE there was one building the produced room air conditioners. There was one section that was their production grinding area. That was one of the slickest floors I ever walked on due to cutting fluid on the floor.

 

[kd4gij]

Yep it is a small 8 spindle screw machine.

 

[NightWing]

That is an Acme-Gridley.

 

[jererp]

I was a tooling engineer on bar stock machines and chuckers in the late 1970's at a GM manufacturing plant. These machines were very time-consuming to set up. Brazed tooling, many form tools. They were mainly used for roughing out blanks. Each spindle position would do a different portion of the blank. These machines would really hog off a large volume of material, but no way were they very accurate. Part tolerances were always in the +/- 0.010" One part off every 20 seconds or so.
From the picture, it is hard for me to tell what make or model it is.