Ames mill serial numbers

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TomBoctou

Hot Rolled

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Dec 29, 2007

Location

Boston, MA, USA

• Dec 1, 2017

• #1

Can anyone date an Ames mill with serial number 1115?
Drive underneath, 1AM spindle, overarm, green paint from the factory.

 

johnoder

Diamond

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Jul 16, 2004

Location

Houston, TX USA

• Dec 1, 2017

• #2

tom_boctou said:

Can anyone date an Ames mill with serial number 1115?
Drive underneath, 1AM spindle, overarm, green paint from the factory.

Click to expand...

About 1952 or 1953

 

T

TomBoctou

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Dec 29, 2007

Location

Boston, MA, USA

• Dec 1, 2017

• #3

Thanks for the info John.

 

johnoder

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Jul 16, 2004

Location

Houston, TX USA

• Dec 1, 2017

• #4

tom_boctou said:

Thanks for the info John.

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Extreme low production - like 2 or 3 a year some years

 

T

TomBoctou

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Dec 29, 2007

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Boston, MA, USA

• Dec 1, 2017

• #5

johnoder said:

Extreme low production - like 2 or 3 a year some years

Click to expand...

Around '52-'53, or other years? I'd read about some manufacturers dropping down to a couple machines a year during the depression, but I would have thought the post-war boom would have been good to them.

A bunch of my Ames accessories (dividing head, chucks, face plates, collets, etc) are engraved "USN BU. ORD.", so the gummint bought some, but I'm not sure when.

 

johnoder

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Jul 16, 2004

Location

Houston, TX USA

• Dec 1, 2017

• #6

A sampling of years - one supposes one number - like 1115 - represented one machine

1950 1079
1951 1093
1952 1104
1953 1120
1954 1124
1955 1126 - or two whole mills

 

T

TomBoctou

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Dec 29, 2007

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Boston, MA, USA

• Dec 1, 2017

• #7

johnoder said:

A sampling of years - one supposes one number - like 1115 - represented one machine

1950 1079
1951 1093
1952 1104
1953 1120
1954 1124
1955 1126 - or two whole mills

Click to expand...

I'm very surprised by that! Even if it's referring to lots of 15, that's still not many.

What's the source of choice for production records like this?

I'm curious about wartime production, but I'm not going to ask you to type all the numbers in. Ames production must have gone up during the war, compared to during the depression anyway, but was it a real boom? I've got the Kearney-Trecker production records, it's mind numbing to think of them turning out many hundreds of large mills a day during the war. There must have been a demand for smaller machines for smaller jobs, what would those machines have been?

 

johnoder

Diamond

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Jul 16, 2004

Location

Houston, TX USA

• Dec 1, 2017

• #8

What's the source of choice for production records like this?

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Serial Number Reference Book For Metalworking Machinery is one - its put (or was) for the used machine industry

 

T

tallcar

Plastic

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Mar 12, 2013

Location

Northeast Indiana

• Apr 12, 2018

• #9

Does that book cover the really old ones.....if anyone has the book...