What's new
What's new

W.H. Nichols attachments

jimarcuri

Plastic
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Hi Guys

New to the forum.

I have come across what appears to be an unknown attachment for a w.h.nichols horizontal mill. It is a shaping head that mounts in the same manner as the standard vertical milling head does on the circular t slot around the spindle.

Can't find any info on the internet, anyone know anything about this would be appreciated. I will upload a photo asap

Thanks
Jim
 
Hi Guys

New to the forum.

I have come across what appears to be an unknown attachment for a w.h.nichols horizontal mill. It is a shaping head that mounts in the same manner as the standard vertical milling head does on the circular t slot around the spindle.

Can't find any info on the internet, anyone know anything about this would be appreciated. I will upload a photo asap

Thanks
Jim

"Shaping" head? Or d'you mean "slotting"? Or even "cherrying"?

We need pics!

Not impossible it is an adapted BeePee one. Size, mass, and power would be about right.

Otherwise, the whole tribe of slotters were sore scarce in sizes appropriate to small mills, cherrying even more so. Even the BeePee ones of each were/are rather uncommon.

Shop fabs exist, too, at least for the simpler slotter.

Pics, please!
 
The casting isn't from a vertical head.

I agree, there's sure some aspects that could well be "shop made" there, but the mount to hold it to the mill was specifically cast for it- note the rectangular face, integrally cast, where the "box" mounts. That's not a feature of a vertical head.

If I had to guess- and it's only a guess- I'd say that Nichols may have made a very limited number of such heads, for some specific machining job (since they were in the business of supplying machines for long-line production) and since they were limited in number, they were largely in-shop made, rather than "production" usints as the conventional vertical heads were.

Again, just speculation, but at least plausible.

Doc.
 
The casting isn't from a vertical head.

I agree, there's sure some aspects that could well be "shop made" there, but the mount to hold it to the mill was specifically cast for it- note the rectangular face, integrally cast, where the "box" mounts. That's not a feature of a vertical head.

If I had to guess- and it's only a guess- I'd say that Nichols may have made a very limited number of such heads, for some specific machining job (since they were in the business of supplying machines for long-line production) and since they were limited in number, they were largely in-shop made, rather than "production" usints as the conventional vertical heads were.

Again, just speculation, but at least plausible.

Doc.

Aye but I don't think it was cast "of a piece". Joint looks welded. Not the same as when a pattern or mold is altered with a bit of the pre-shaped leather to fair-in the joint.

View attachment 225066

I do agree Nichols themselves are a more likely maker than some arms-length third-party.
 
Thanks All

Aye but I don't think it was cast "of a piece". Joint looks welded. Not the same as when a pattern or mold is altered with a bit of the pre-shaped leather to fair-in the joint.

View attachment 225066

I do agree Nichols themselves are a more likely maker than some arms-length third-party.

Okay, so Thank you all for replying to me, Now I need to decide what to do with this amazing discovery (LoL)

Do you guys think it has any value like a million dollars ? anyone interested in making an offer on it to buy? is it something I donate to the Industry museum here in waltham ?

What are your thoughts
thanks in advance

Jim
 
Put it on eBay if you cannot sell it here.

List it for $100; go down from there by increments if it does not sell.

The problem is the Nichols was not as common as other mills.

If it does not sell right away, take any offer you get. Please do not throw it away.
 
The top piece that your hand is on to stedy it looks like a soup can that is soldered? to the top plate.
If you did a good cleaning of it you should be able to tell if the joints are cast or welded. Especially the transition from round to square.
 
Okay,
So, I live in Newton mass w.h.nichols was right down the street in Waltham, my company even did some business with the pump division and I have 4 nichols mills of various types, I do believe this head was made by nichols themselves. is there a seperate forum for selling on this board if so where do I go... do any of you have any interest in the head. the industrial museum here in waltham does have a section dedicated to W.H.Nichols Company
 
I have 4 nichols mills of various types, I do believe this head was made by nichols themselves. is there a seperate forum for selling on this board if so where do I go... do any of you have any interest in the head.
I'd be interested, as much for the curiosity factor as the utility. But I'd be buying a usable tool, not a collectable. Give some more info on this thing. What's the stroke, and is it adjustable? What size tool bits (or toolholder shank) does it take? What are the dimensions (at a minimum, an accurate minor diameter and spline count) of the splined adaptor it requires? And why, in the last image of post#4 above, don't I see a female spline to receive that splined adaptor, but just the crank guts?
 
Okay, so Thank you all for replying to me, Now I need to decide what to do with this amazing discovery (LoL)

Do you guys think it has any value like a million dollars ? anyone interested in making an offer on it to buy? is it something I donate to the Industry museum here in waltham ?

What are your thoughts
thanks in advance

Jim

Fair query. Trying to be "objective" on that.

Disclosure first, then. I have a slotter. K&T head re-purposed to a US /Burke "Quartet" combo mill. Also a shaper. 12" Sheldon.

THIS head has as principle value the ability to do the hard thing for a mill. Cut INTERNAL keyways or splines. Not the only thing a slotter can do, but the hardest to do with the mill itself. One needs a planer, shaper, or slotter to do those with relative ease.

Clearly, the slotting head as an attachment takes up only a tiny fraction of the space, and NO extra power wiring, vs a planer or shaper.

Those are the "positive strokes", pun intended.

To the negatives, then:

The very need for internal keyways or splines at all is uncommon for most of us.

Those rare needs can be, and have been, served by cutting "stroke shaper" style by HAND operation of a lathe carriage, a milling machine table, or even an arbour press, or powered OFF drillpress quill. Not fun, but if needed but once in ten or fifteen years? Why tool for it. EDM contract shops exist. So, too waterjet. And, of course, bespoke gear and spline houses.

Even so, if I had acquired the Quartet AND its K&T slotter FIRST? I'd have no need of my shaper. Power I have aplenty. Floor space, not so much.

For someone with a Nichols - or any other small mill as this head could be adapted to - much the same applies.

Even if seldom used, it can obviate the need for a larger and bulkier machine tool, such as a shaper.

This presumes, of course, that the mill also covers the REST of what a shaper would be asked to do.

Where does that leave me with regard to cash-money?

Head is worth about a hundred buck gamble as a "potential" add-on to make my Burke #4 more valuable when I sell it.

Even so, "too many unfinished projects already", so I would be happier if it went to a Nichols owner instead - price irrelevent to ME - and had a far greater chance of actually being used.

If a museum-wanderer is to look at a self-fornicating device? Singer ... finished their mass-produced sewing machines to some of the highest standards the world had seen. Then. Or since. This head, even with a wash, brush-up, and repaint, would look like plumbing valve scrap next to any one of those.

5 1/2 CW
 








 
Back
Top