Brown & Sharpe #44 Gear Hobbing Machine
Greetings to all from Herring Cove(Nova Scotia)
I am in the process of rescuing a B & S #44 Hobbing Machine
I actually owned this same machine from 1997 to 2001.
I bought it in Dennis, MA. In the 4 years I had it, I used it to make 9 gears.
The machine is serial number 4, and I believe the it was built in 1907. It has a huge stack of change gears(4 sets, for 1. spindle speed, 2. feed rate, 3. helix angle, and 4. indexing the number of teeth).
It can make Spur and Helical gears up to 20" dia.
I was told it worked from then until 1965 in a GE plant in MA.
When the man who operated it retired, he bought the machine and took it home to start a small gear business of his own. He never got it set up, so the machine was on an extended vacation for 32 years!!
When I first tried it, I had a customer for a pair of 16 DP gears with 26 teeth. Seems like a small job for a machine that can make gears up to 20" dia. Anyway, they came out perfect on the first try, to everyone's amazement(including mine).
I have a photocopy of the user's manual, which I would be happy to share.
IMHO, this is a wonderful machine, and I definitely look forward to having it come home.
BTW, if anyone has hobs with a 1.25" bore, I may be interested.
RGDS
Errol Pierce