S.W. Putnam' Sons Universal Milling Machine

JBoogie · Sep 7, 2016

Just picked up this old mill. It's very complete. Still has the plugs for the spindle oil holes, oil drip can, differential indexing head and some other stuff. Someone did a decent overhead drive conversion along the way. Everything feels pretty tight. The Cope book says this style came out in 1892. Looks like it came from the factory with green paint.

R_Audano · Sep 7, 2016

nice piece. The overhead drive looks like it was cast for the machine! Hang on to our heritage!

t.jones · Sep 7, 2016

Factory counterweight for the knee ...Trevor

Gewehr 98 · Sep 7, 2016

That is very wicked cool, and seemingly pretty rare. Surprising the size of the machine and knee, but so little table top and only a single T slot.

JBoogie · Sep 7, 2016

The narrow table is something I found interesting as well. I'm speculating that since it is a universal mill that it was mainly intended for helical work like fluting twist drills and reamers or cutting helical gears. It will be a long while before I get it set up to play with. Other than the counterweighted knee some other unusual features are a lack of graduations on the table swivel, and the divisions for knee elevation are stamped inorganic the knee so they are stationary and you have to stand on your head to read where you're at!

Robert Lang · Sep 7, 2016

JBoogie said:
The narrow table is something I found interesting as well. I'm speculating that since it is a universal mill that it was mainly intended for helical work like fluting twist drills and reamers or cutting helical gears.

That is correct.
A lot of the early universal mills had a narrow table with one T slot. It was mainly meant for bolting the dividing head to it.

Rob

jhruska · Sep 8, 2016

There is only one view of the dividing head and it looks very much like Brown & Sharpe.

John

JBoogie · Sep 8, 2016

Thanks for rotating the pictures. There is another dividing head that came with it but I don't have pics of it.

Riderusty · Sep 8, 2016

Drive set-up looks like a Cullman unit--uses the original countershaft powered by a motor and double reduction chain drive.

Tom B.

Joe in NH · Sep 8, 2016

jhruska said:
There is only one view of the dividing head and it looks very much like Brown & Sharpe.

John

And that would be the later "cylindrical" dividing head - which by 1892 was THE head made (and still made by a range of pacific rim producers.)

The first B&S dividing head of course "block" form.

Joe in NH

jhruska · Sep 8, 2016

Have not heard the head referred to as a "cylindrical" dividing head before.
Here are images of both heads mounted on mills from the 1894 B&S Treatise.
Note similar design features common to the B&S mills and the Putnam mill.

Images of the early head. Note the parting line on the worm gear. The worm gear is of two piece construction. See the Fig 4 section view. The two halves can be rotated to take up wear between the worm and the worm gear (wheel).

And the better known Spiral head.

John

Joe in NH · Sep 8, 2016

I admit I was reaching when I termed the head "cylindrical." But you got what I intended.

I like the "spiral head" nom de plume.

Its on the print above. I assume this from the Brown & Sharpe milling machine booklet?

Joe in NH

jhruska · Sep 8, 2016

Yes those illustrations are from the B&S 1894 Treatise.
B&S referred to each one as a Spiral Head.
The 1891 Treatise does not yet have the spiral head in it's final form but here it is mounted on a sub-plate along with the tailstock.
This 'spiral head' cannot be geared to the table and cannot be used to cut spirals. The worm gear was made with 60 teeth.
The head and tailstock could also be removed and used without the subplate.

The first spiral head cannot do direct indexing.
Here are a couple of patent illustrations detailing a design that when fitted to the head enabled direct indexing and also had a clamp that could be attached to prevent the spindle from turning.
The last illustration shows the tapered O.D. of the spindle fitting into the tapered bore and at the same time seating to an angular counterbore. :bowdown:

John

JBoogie · Sep 9, 2016

Good stuff on the dividing heads! Any chance the B&S design with the split worm wheel is spring loaded for anti-backlash? Or is it intended solely for manual lash adjustment?

Something no one has mentioned is the spindle being adapted to NMTB 30??? or some modern taper. That should be handy. Hopefully I can find a collet chuck that will fit. Then I can make my own straight shank arbors and grip them in a collet.

Gary McGarity · Sep 10, 2016

Beautiful. It looks like an adapted shaper.

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S.W. Putnam' Sons Universal Milling Machine

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