FILENAMES: autometric.jpg DESCRIPTION: This is a picture of an unusual K&T autometric machine. Posted by Dave Erickson . Dave provided the following description: ================================================================= I happen to have a copy of Hitchcocks Industrial Reference, 1946 edition, which is essentially a 625 page book of all of the brochures from the machine tool suppliers of the day. The Kearney and Trecker corp brochure is 46 pages and includes spec sheets on Autometric models A, B and C. You appear to have a Model A, the Model B is like a horizontal spindle mill with no overarm, and a rotary table on the cross-slide ways, while the Model C is a big vertical spindle machine with a 14" X 22.5" table. Text follows. Model A Autometric. The demand for precision boring of a wide variety of parts in relatively small quantities is ideally met by the Model A Autometric Jig Borer. It combines locating, inspecting and layout in one machine. Makes simple work of Tough Boring Jobs. These exclusive features provide Jig Borer superiority. Visibility and natural clearance of chips - vertical mounting of work. Steel ways hardened ground and superfinished. Built in rotary table with power drive for boring - hand rotation for setting up, inspection and arc milling. Taper boring at any angle. 14 boring spindle speeds from 30 to 2350 RPM. (note: this is in conflict with the speed range quoted lower for the spindle, which claims 294 to 2350 RPM) Verticle measuring travel: 10" Transverse measuring travel: 16" Carriage travel, hand or power: 13.5" Power feed changes: infinite, from 0 to 3.5 ipm Spindle: 10 speeds, 294 to 2350 rpm Collet capacity in spindle: 1/2" Taper in boring spindle: M3 hole size thru spindle: 1.5" Spindle rotates 90 Deg from perpendicular to rotary table. Rotary table: 14" dia, three 9/16" t slots, graduated 1/2 Deg, vernier reads 1 min. of arc, M5 taper hole thru spindle 1.5" power drive table: 30, 78, 170, 437 rpm Shipping data: Net weight 2600#, shipping weight 2700# Dimensions: 68" tall, 36" wide, 50 1/8" deep Speeds are for 60 Hz motor, doesn't say what HP or RPM for the motor. Cheers, Brian Dave and Sue Erickson wrote: > Last Friday I had the privilege to visit a 'real' machinist, > Allen Wein of Burbank, CA. Allen is 80, and his shop on N. Ontario > St. has been acquired by the city of Burbank by eminent domain, so > Allen was in the shop to see the last of his machines get loaded > onto trucks, and the remnants of his career spread to the corners > of the earth. He had a lot of interesting stories to tell about things > he had built, such as bathosphere windows that went 12,500 feet down, > hydrogen generators, sample tubes for taking earth samples thousands > of feet under the surface of the earth, ceramic components for American > space missions, gagets for Disney studios, wide angle portholes for > stewardesses to look through before opening doors, packaging tools for > baseball cards, and tools for use around the shop, including a roll-around > magnet to pick up iron filings (he lived in the house adjacent to his shop, > both of which he built when he graduated from high school in 1940). > > I was there to "supervise" the loading of a machine I had bought from > Allen, who had acquired it after the Navy released it at the end of WWII. > Burbank is 300 miles south of my house, so I let good sense win out over the > bottom feeder mentality of doing everything yourself, and the machine > arrives by truck Monday morning. What a machine. I had never seen another > like it, and could find only one hit on the web (!!) for it. It is a > Kearney and Trecker Autometric. It has the same footprint as a Monarch > EE, but it is a boring mill, so it is as if there was a 12" vertical rotary > table in place of a spindle, and there is a spindle with its own motor (similar > to a toolpost grinder) mounted on the cross slide. The rotary table at the > head can be raised and lowered (Z axis), rotated by hand or under power. > The spindle on the cross feed can be rotated to any fixed angle, and has > power feed in the X direction. The maximum diameter that can be turned > (with the rotary table fully raised) is 36", so it will serve as both > a larger dia. lathe and a milling machine. One cannot help but wonder > why the machine is so unusual; many aspects of its geometry make a great > deal of sense. > > My guess is that it was used on a submarine tender or a Navy repair ship > during WWII. I'd sure like to know the history of the machine. > > I'll post a picture in the drop box under the name autometric.jpg. > > Anyone with information about the machine please respond. As I mentioned, > I saw only one hit for it on the web: the bandits at Machinery Manuals > want $100 for a copy of a 32 page owners manual! > > -Dave