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Pedestal mounted flat belt driven spindle with chuck

esbutler

Aluminum
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Location
Sloansville, NY
I need some help figuring out what this thing is that followed me home recently. There is a 3 jaw independent chuck (5 1/2 inch OD) on a belt driven spindle. The spindle is free-wheeling until the foot pedal is pressed at which time the clutch engages the pulley to the spindle. There is what I assume is a machined phenolic disc around the outside of the chuck presumably to keep hands out of the chuck or the work. The only name I can find is on the chuck: "The D. E. Whiton Machine Co, New London Conn, USA". Since Whiton made gear cutting machines, centering machines, and chucks to sale to others, I wonder if the machine was manufactured by some company other than Whiton who used their chuck or if it might be part of a Whiton centering machine of some sort although it does not look like the latter in any pictures that I have found. It does appear that something is missing based on the boss with an unused tapped hole at each end of the base. I would think the foot pedal operated clutch means either the operator's hands are busy with the work or that the drive can be engaged only for short periods of time or both. So... thoughts on what this is?

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Probably intended for polishing some kind of small parts.

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A further thought just occurred ..... ( Yeah, 2 in 1 day, ... who knew ? )

The Pulley seems larger than absolutely necessary, ... which might indicate that the "output" RPM's were intended to be fairly slow.

This would be consistent with a polishing operation.

.
 
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Yeah I second smoothbore's thought.

A gadget for polishing/deburring/buffing or some such finishing operation.

Or maybe painting it.

Or maybe a weld positioner.

Or maybe for turning the spit while roasting your meat.
 
I was thinking along the same lines as you guys with the polishing or something similar and it may be as simple as that. I can't help but thinking there's more to it and that something is supposed to be attached at those holes a few inches below the centerline of the spindle.

I think you're onto something Sea Farmer with the spit thought... I was thinking about putting a forge in the corner of my lineshaft shop. Looks like I should place this machine next to the forge...

I also want to capture the casting numbers here in case some other soul stumbles on something related in the future and starts searching. The pedestal has 04074 on it and the head has (upside down) 070643 or 070543 - it is not clear.
 
Jewelers and dental labs call a machine like that a polishing lathe, but they are generally more lightly built. Baldor and other makers still sell electric motor polishing lathes for jewelers and dental labs. They also, of course, sell buffing machines, which are larger and heavier, to run larger diameter wheels. One this heavy. with a lathe chuck, is more along the lines of an ancestor of a Schauer (or other similar) speed lathe.

Larry
 
Looks like a lineshaft-driven speed lathe. First one I've ever seen.

Basically a "speed lathe" is just a headstock on a motor. It's meant for second-op jobs, like deburring (with a handheld file) or sanding or polishing.

They're meant for production work- chuck the part, turn it on, touch the file, turn it off, remove part, replace. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Hardinge has a variant with an actual short bed, to which you attach a single-acting cross slide, or similar tool. Chuck part, make cut, replace part, repeat. Many of those models have an electrical foot switch to help speed things up.

Doc.
 
Thanks guys. Would you expect a 3 jaw independent chuck as opposed to a scroll chuck if a speed lathe or polishing lathe where you would be most interested in quickly chucking something up?
 
If you look at pictures of speed lathes, you will find some that have spindles for 5C collets with lever or air closers. But you will also find Schauer speed lathes with three jaw chucks. The Hardinge lathe has a spindle that can take any of the Hardinge tooling, including 5C collets, step chucks, expanding collets or jaw chucks.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sch...bxD-MT5VM:&usg=__aX1t_fS0e-TuPCKmA5xTS-A4n88=

Larry
 
Would you expect a 3 jaw independent chuck as opposed to a scroll chuck if a speed lathe or polishing lathe where you would be most interested in quickly chucking something up?

-Is it actually an independent 3-jaw? As in, each jaw moves on it's own? I certainly wouldn't expect that, as such things are almost as rare as honest politicans.

But a standard 3-jaw, certainly. Speed lathes are pretty much by definition second-op lathes, and thus are used to do simple steps to batches of pieces. A production shop might have one that's used for all kinds of things- deburring the pins from this run, polishing the shanks from that run, filing a light radius on the ends of this other run.

As such, a 3-jaw would be a natural- one run might be 1" OD, another run is 1-1/4", the next run is 3/4".

As noted above, some modern speed lathes often have collet capacity, but for something clearly from the flat-belt era, before collets were common, to say nothing of standardized, a 3-jaw would be a natural choice.

If you're asking if it's original to the machine, hard to say.

Doc.
 
Yep, it's a scroll chuck

-Is it actually an independent 3-jaw? As in, each jaw moves on it's own? I certainly wouldn't expect that, as such things are almost as rare as honest politicans...

Doc.

I did mean independent, HOWEVER, I was wrong so thanks for challenging me on that. The disc around the chuck has three holes in the outside edge for adjusting it and I had it in my head that these holes were in line with the jaws but they are not. They are between the jaws. I was able to tinker with it tonight. It is indeed a gear driven scroll chuck. That certainly makes more sense. Thanks for your comments.
 
If you use a steel pin in a hole in the periphery of the scroll to operate the jaws, there are no bevel gears and it is just a scroll chuck. Such chucks are generally on the small side and are often used where a light weight chuck is wanted. Or they are simply old, as in this case. If the holes have a square that is turned with a square ended wrench, then it is a gear driven scroll chuck.

Larry
 








 
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