Westbrook High School Vise

This vise is for sale on Maine CL. Do you think the school made the vise? There is a Westbrook HS in Maine.
Has anyone seen other high school vises? Or any cast items from a school foundry for that matter.
Seems like a time long ago when a high school had a foundry. I wish mine had.
The closest we got, in metal shop, was melting old linotype and pouring it in ingot molds for the vocational kids to use again.

I have a 4" vise made in a trade school in Baltimore.Its simelar to what you have there.Not a bad shop project.I went out to the garage this morning and read the side of it.Its from "Boys Vocational School".The words "drawings machine work patterns" are also on that side.The other side has a BV logo,and Baltimore Maryland on it.

With regard to your question, "Or any cast items from a school foundry for that matter" here is a "Central High" lathe I recently could not pass up,



Also included was a counter shaft set in a wood frame with bronze sleeve bearings. The old belt is imprinted with "Central Specialties Ypsilanti Mich," I suppose that is just a coincidence. Its swings about 10" the bed length about 36".

Bret

Gents,

My Alma Mater, Pelham Memorial High School, had a small foundry which, unfortunately, I did not get to use. They cast mostly aluminum. My younger brother made a house number plate with three raised digits. He's passed, so I cannot ask him how the pattern was done - probably a system of interchangeable digits because all his classmates cast the same object with their house number.

They also had a pattern to cast a sort of bas-relief of a derringer, which could be mounted on a wooden plaque made in the woodshop. That would not be PC today !

South Bend Lathe Works, which obviously equipped a great number of school shops, offered a plan for a small lathe suitable as a shop project. If anyone has a copy of this (it was reprinted by Lindsay Publications), the lathe above could be compared.

JRR

Hello John, you said " If anyone has a copy of this (it was reprinted by Lindsay Publications), the lathe above could be compared." I think I have a copy of that booklet but I don't know where it is. I was thinking the same thing when I saw this lathe, I'll bet you are right about the south Bend connection.

Bret

Bret Rochotte said:

Hello John, you said " If anyone has a copy of this (it was reprinted by Lindsay Publications), the lathe above could be compared." I think I have a copy of that booklet but I don't know where it is. I was thinking the same thing when I saw this lathe, I'll bet you are right about the south Bend connection.

Bret

Click to expand...

Here's a link to a copy of South Bend Lathe's booklet you are referring to:
http://www.wewilliams.net/docs/How to Make an 8-inch Bench Lathe in the School Shop - 1920.pdf
Ted

Bret,

Well, looking at your picture and looking at the .pdf of the booklet (Thank You, SBLatheman!), there are many similarities and some glaring differences

The tailstock on your lathe is skeletonized whereas the tailstock of the SB student lathe is solid. Could be an adaptation by the school aimed at making the job either easier or perhaps "more educational", not sure which would be harder to cast.

The bed and the legs look like dead ringers except that Bret's lathe seems to be a flat bed and the SB student lathe has one vee-way. It's obviously easier to true a flat bed lathe than a vee bed lathe.

The headstock is a close match.

The SB booklet gives a weight in pounds for the lathe. How heavy is yours? It will obviously be lighter due to the tailstock construction.

Starting from a casting kit, I wonder how long it would take an apprentice to complete such a lathe? (Or, the vise for that matter.) Could it be done by one person in two semesters? The students, are, after all, beginners and there are a LOT of skills involved.

JRR

Thanks for posting that Ted. Very interesting. I wonder how many talented craftsmen never realize their potenial just because they have never been exposed to a trade they would excel in.
I'm thinking of high school students today who live with their mother only and industrial arts were phased out of schools long ago. They have no way to even get a taste of things mechanical.
I remember in my high school metal shop class there was a tough kid who sat in the back, very sullen, never spoke, and seemed angry all the time. The teacher had a lot of oxy/acetylene torch cutting he needed to do. He introduced this kid to it and it was like a light turned on inside him. He was waiting at the door every day when the class started and went right to work cutting. I remember thinking back then that he had found a future.