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The Engineering and Machinery Exhibition.

3rd October 1907, Page 20
3rd October 1907
Page 20
Page 21
Page 20, 3rd October 1907 — The Engineering and Machinery Exhibition.
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Second Notice.

Cunliffe and Cream, Ltd., Manchester.

(Stands 201 and 209.)

No tool-maker's exhibit would be complete without a milling machine of some description, and Cunliffe and Croom's stand is not an exception in that respect. Two sizes are shown, namely, the A and B models. The working surface of the table on the former is icth inches by 8f, inches, and that of the latter size is 29 inches by tc)-. inches. Our illustration on this page shows this type of machine. The table is self-acting in its traverse motion, and it has an automatic trip. As may be seen from the illustration, the knee slide is " square jibbed " to the body and looks a very stiff job. All the self-acting motion shafts are completely enclosed. The spindle runs in gun-metal bearings and the front neck of the spindle is coned to ensure constant concentricity. Anti-friction metal washers take the thrust. The tail end of the spindle has a plain journal, but the bush in which it rotates is of taper section externally and this is drawn tightly into a tapered housing in the main framing. This arrangement allows of considerable adjustment for wear. The spindle is hollow and the cutter end is bored to a standard, Brown and Sharpe taper ; a draw-in rod passing through the spindle holds the cutter in position.

Two excellent examples of vertical, boring and turning mills may be seen. One of these will take work up to 20

inches in diameter, and the other will take up to 30 inches in diameter. The general lines of both sizes are much the same. The vertical, boring and turning mill is rapidly taking the place of the ordinary type of horizontal lathe for boring, turning, and finishing blanks for gear-wheels and other circular parts which are made of high tensile steel and, therefore, require great rigidity of both tool and work. Many advantages are possessed by the vertical mill in addition to its claims for rigidity. One of these is that a much heavier cut may be taken with greater safety. The 20-inch machine, which we illustrate on page ms, would he found a most useful tool in any motor manufacturer's works. The chuck spindle is of large diameter, and, as the face-plate and chuck are driven through a large gear-wheel attached to the face-plate, it will be understood that there is practically no torsion on the spindle; chattering is thus avoided to a great extent. Better work can be turned out from such a machine than could be obtained from the horizontal type of lathe, in which the drive is taken through a spindle in torsion.

The vertical slide is provided with a turret and has an automatic feed for the tool, as well as an adjustable stop. This vertical slide and turret are mounted on a saddle which gives an automatic traverse, or teed, across the table ; this is for use when surfacing. All the feed motions may be instantly reversed through the medium of a clutch and lever. The heavy, vertical slide is counterbalanced so that in every position it is practically in a state of equilibrium. In addition to the mechanical feeds, a hand feed is provided, and this offers a quick and ready means of adjustment. The 30-inch machine is built on the same lines as the 20-inch model but it may be run either as a single or as a double-geared machine, and the turret slide can be swivelled to bore or turn angular pieces.

The disc grinder. has, for some years, been the recipient of much attention from machine tool experts. Many and varied are the pieces of work which can be finished with a very high degree of accuracy, on a machine of this type. Cunlilie and Croom show two good examples of this class of machine which is rapidly dispensing with the necessity for skilled fitters for repetition work. Other exhibits by this company include two planing machines and two swing, back-geared drilling machines.

These stands are unquestionably among the. finest in the show.

The Smith Slotting Machine Co., Limited. (Stand 10).

This company, whose address is 1, Temple Avenue, London, P.C., stages one of the most interesting and novel machines to be found in the exhibition. The Smith slotting machine differs from any other slotting machine in the most important detail—the cutter. This is not of the lathe or shaper form, neither is it reciprocated. The principle of the milling machine has been turned to account on this tool, and the cutter is of the " miller " type but of semi-circular form, and its motion is an oscillating one, Our illustration on this page will give some idea of the work done on this interesting and useful machine, which may be seen in operation on stand No.

TO. By the use of this tool, filing and broaching are dispensed with and the cost of production of slotted parts is brought to a minimum amount. There is much slotting work to be done in connection with motor-vehicle construction, and, as a machine of this type reduces the time necessary for cutting such slots (which, when done on an ordinary slotting machine, always require a considerable amount of fitting before they can be passed into the stores), it should be found extremely useful in any large machine shop. The special form of cutter consists of a circular or semi circular body of the required cross-section; the cutter has a long shank, which fits into a dove

tail-shaped recess in the front of the oscillating head. The shank is of such a length that the centres of rotation of the cutter and the oscillating spindle exactly coincide. It follows, therefore, that, when the spindle and head are caused to oscillate rapidly, the cutter turns, or rather vibrates, about its axis, as if it were mounted on a spindle. As there is no spindle passing through the centre of the cutter, there is nothing to obstruct it in cutting slots of considerable depth. In order to give the cutter as little work -to do as is possible, a number of holes are first drilled through the piece. Four important advantages are claimed :—

(a) Uniformity.—The cutter takes only a light cut, is well lubricated, and oscillates at a very high speed. The cutters are made of a first-class tool steel, and we are assured that the wear on the cutter is very minute and that a large number of holes may be slotted by one cutter before any appreciable variation in sizes is caused by the wearing away of the cutter.

(b) Freedom from distortion.—The action of the cutter, as only a very light cut is taken, does not subject the material to the distortion caused by excessive fibre stress (such as is produced by broaching or drifting) as would be necessary were the slots first cut in the usual type of machine.

(c) Avoidance of stress.—As the operation of slotting is free from all forcing action, internal strains in the material are avoided. This is most important in the case of such pieces of work as are afterwards to be case-hardened, and which would, on heating, tend to assume their normal shapes.

(d) Economy.—The work is finished by a single passage of the cutter, when working at a high speed. It, therefore, compares favourably with alternate methods of slotting, with regard to speed, cost of production, and high finish of the work produced. Providing that cutters can be produced at a reasonable price, as we are assured by the company can be done, we are of opinion that the statements of the maker are no idle boasts. Interested machine-shop managers would do well to examine this tool and witness a demonstration of its capabilities. The exhibition remains open until the reth of this month hut one of these machines may be seen at work any time at 2, Brighton Terrace (Battersea Park Station, L.B. and S.C. Railway).

[A further not:ce of the exhibits will be given next week.--En.]

A Protest.

The directors of the Standard Oil Company have issued a pamphlet, by way of protest against what they term the persistent and. adroit warfare that has been waged, with all the overpowering authority of the Federal :Administration, against themselves. The introduction to this pamphlet states that the company desires to emphasise, for the half million of people directly interested in its welfare, the assurance of its absolute innocence of wrongdoing in any of the prosecutions lately instituted against it in the Federal Courts. It vilifies Cornnr. Garfield's rates report.

The major contents of the 32-page pamphlet consist of extracts from American papers, and they conclude with a plea for fair play. In the absence of ability to give the necessary time to grasp the intricate details of the controversy, we prefer to refer any of our readers to a copy of the pamphlet, which can, no doubt, be obtained on application to the English representatives of the Standard Oil Company.

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Locations: Manchester, London

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