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History and pictures of H.W. Kearns boring mills

Abom79

Stainless
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Location
Pensacola, FL
Since owning one of these boring mills, I often researched on the internet history and info on these machines.

heres a link to some history of the Kearns company.

A BRIEF HISTORY


Just look at all the tooling they marketed with this machine!

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This one is much like mine, only a bigger table.

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I count more than a dozen wrenches and spanners. Some of them look fairly specialized.

In as much as it's British, is your machine new enough to have metric fasteners, or does it have Whitworth fasteners? If so, I hope you've got all the wrenches!

John
 
Kearn boring machine

Some pictures of my Kearns boring machine. It came without a counter bearing/tailstock bearing or whatever it's called and the faceplate is something I cooked up myself. the spindle is a MT4. Is the secondary slot in the taper (3rd picture) part of a system to lock the tooling in the spindle?
More pictures can be found here;https://picasaweb.google.com/jos5414/KearnsHorizontalBoringMachine#

Jos
 

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Josv,
You got a nice mill too. Looks a little smaller than mine. My spindle is 3" with a #5MT. As for the second slot in the spindle, Im not sure exactly how its used. I always put the drift in the rear slot to knock the tools out. So did your not come equipped with a facing chuck?
 
I dont have any pictures that I can find, but I did build a mount for an old 4-jaw chuck and can set up the mill like a lathe. For the tool post, I built a riser mount that bolts to the table, and I also machined two different bushings for the tail stock, one will fit another smaller 4-jaw chuck, and one that takes a straight morse taper sleeve. Its a very versital machine. Set ups just take a while.
 
Kearns boring machine

ABom79,
When I got the machine there was no face plate or chuck but looking at the spindle nose (see picture) I think something has been there in the past. There is no date of manufacture but I guess 50's/early60's, what year is yours?
Jos
 

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Abom,

I much enjoyed your other thread (about your machine shop, showing your Kearns machine earning its living while sunbathing).

You said that you wanted to paint it black. I have seen a Richards horizontal borer in black, and it did look very smart. (Kearns and Richards were neighbours, and eventually merged). A lot of Manchester machine makers favoured dark green before the early 1950s.

In the 3rd and 4th photos in your post #1 above, the work piece on the table is actually a test piece. Kearn’s supplied every borer they made with such a test piece produced on the machine, using all the various functions. The pictures below should explain. Taken from The Engineer 5th September 1913. Unfortunately acceptance standards aren’t quoted.

Kearns01.jpg


Clickable thumbnail:-

 
Second slot in spindle is for a lock key, the equivalent of a drawbar for this machine. If you are working with a boring head, the head will have a matching slot on the shank so you slide it in the spindle, bump it with a 2x4 to lock, then insert the key and bump it to lock the key. Now your boring head cannot pull out. You also see this on big radial drills, where it is even more critical, what with gravity working against you.
 
Locking device

Second slot in spindle is for a lock key, the equivalent of a drawbar for this machine. If you are working with a boring head, the head will have a matching slot on the shank so you slide it in the spindle, bump it with a 2x4 to lock, then insert the key and bump it to lock the key. Now your boring head cannot pull out. You also see this on big radial drills, where it is even more critical, what with gravity working against you.

Thanks, I assumed it was something like that. Some of the tooling that came with the machine has this extra slot. I've seen more MT shanks with it and I noticed the slots in spindle and shank are orientated in such a way that inserting a wedge pulls the tool in, contrary to the regular slots. I just wonder how the actual key looks. It would have to be flush or lower than the spindle O.D. otherwise the spindle can't fully retract and I guess it has a positive lock to prevent it from flying out at higher speeds.
Jos
 
Kearns picture

Just thought I'd include a picture of the old girl I used to run... Mess and all.
 

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Great to see the photo's guys , brings back lots of happy memories. At some time in the past I've worked on machines like all those in the photo's.

Abom 79, you're a lucky guy if you got a little wide bed machine like the one in the photo, look after that and it'll last a life time in spite of the old " Kearns " patent belt drive. They still made their early numerical control machines with the same flat belt drive !

Josv, I think your is an early " O " type, maybe an " OB " , that's an unusual top table . If it's a revolver how do you locate it ?

Pat , I remember a labourer cimbing onto the balance weight to sweep down the back of the column on one just like yours, he'd been to the pub at dinner time and he managed to fall off the balance weight and cut his head open. Having said that standing on the weight was tricky even when sober.

The first slot in the spindle from the end is for a locating cotter pin as Mike C said, usually just a tapered piece of metal hammered in by some heavy handed operator. They seemed to hit the spindle more than the pin every time the put the pin in. An italian firm called " Bakur " used to make an adjustable cotter pin that worked very nicely as long as you fitted it the right way around. If you fitted it the wrong way around it was usually a complete travelling spindle out job, don't ask how I know ! Regards and thanks again for the photo's. Tyrone.
 
Thanks, John, I missed that.

I think some of those tests are quite challenging - especially the ones where you have to rotate the workpiece (e.g. on the rotating table) to machine the opposite face.
 
Hi John and Asquith, The Kearns machines had a patentened device consisting of a hardened and ground tongue fitting into hardened and ground sockets let into the revolving table to locate the table at 0-90-180-270-0. You can see it in the middle of the table on some of the illustrations and photo's earlier. The sockets were shimmed into place with very thick shims. They were usually very accurate and that particular test could be achieved with a modicum of time and effort.


Abom 79, How did you learn to set and operate your machine ? Are there many machines with built in facing slides in your neck of the woods ?

Regards Tyrone.
 








 
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