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Cleveland Automatic Screw Machines

rockfish

Titanium
Joined
Aug 27, 2006
Location
Munith, Michigan
Does anyone remember these, or have any information pertaining to them ??? Any thoughts or opinions ???

My dad has a couple of these, I believe 2" capacity, maybe bigger. I've heard they are a little slow, and cannot skip index on the turrets. Otherwise, I'm told they are fairly accurate and very dependable. My uncle talked my dad into buying these years ago, and said they were worth picking up. He claims with the right job, they are still capable of making a little money.

I can find virtually no info on the web about these. Not even an old eBay listing. I would love to see a pic of one, if anyone has one.
These machines are stored in my uncle's basement at this time, but we are planning on pulling them out and possibly putting them to use.

I guess I'm just wondering what we've got here.

rockfish
 
Rockfish.... check my posts in this recent thread.....

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/30/321.html#000000


Love to see a pic of your machines. As stated earlier I remember seeing several of them down there on Spring Grove Ave. They were larger machines and looked fairly complete. I believe now that Lenz bought them in the sixties somewhere. He/Lenz Co. still uses a few in Dayton I believe to crank out fittings. The die cast machine line outlasted the other machine lines and was finally sold off to THT, Thaman in Dayton in early nineties. I remember seeing thousands of fixtures and jigs lining the center columns of the assembly floor on Spring Grove...I don't know if anybody even knew what they were for! Try looking for their contraction name...Camco.
 
What you have there is some machine tool history. The Cleveland screw machine was a basic simple to use screw machine that used universal cams.

I don't know for sure where you'd be able to find any info on them today, but I have a couple of ideas.

First I would try contacting the PMPA, formerly known as The National Screw Machine Products Association. They are still the screw machine industries association and a wealth of information.

PMPA Link

The second place I would try... Actually I would probably try this guy first. That would be Don Wood who is the editor of Automatic Machining magazine. I had the good fortune of having lunch with Don last year and he is a walking history book in regards to the machine tool industry, screw machines in particular. Here is a link to an excellent series of articles that Don wrote back in '73.

From Archimedes to Automation

There is a picture of the first Cleveland automatic screw machine in the article. You may also want to read the 125 year commemerative issue of the magazine, archived here:

125th Year of Screw Machine Products

Anyway, I don't see any reason why the machines couldn't be dusted off and revived. Whether or not you could find a job to put on them that would make money... I don't know.

Good luck!
 
Another scrap of information, which may explain how Cleveland Automatic came to Spring Grove Avenue in Cincinnati:

From the May/June 1967 issue of the LeBlond News:

"Just prior to World War II, the company (RK LeBlond Machine Tool) established LeBlond Engineering and purchased the Beech St. Norwood Plant. LeBlond Engineering produced Rapid Production lathes, hoisting units for lift trucks, 11", 13" and 15" Regal lathes and gun boring lathes.
In the early '40s the company purchased Cleveland Automatic Machine Co. which was moved to the LeBlond Engineering complex. Cleveland Automatic produced automatic screw machines and die casting machines."

Mike
 
I've never run the Ceveland but they look like a very basic straightforward machine that shuold be fairly easy to figure out. Good for short runs if I remember right from talking to old dudes and for the price of them you can sure afford to be competitive on the hourly rate. They might fit in today's climate quite well if you can find jobs where the tolerances are not too tight.

Regards,
Tom
 
When I worked at Davenport in Rochester they used Cleveland's to make most of the hex head bolts. They looked old 30 years ago, but seemed to run ok.
 
Automatic screw machines can still be huge money makers. I worked at a shop 10 years ago that had two of them, one made gear blanks for a hospital bed gearbox, and the other made a threaded ring that went over a shaft, which later was crossdrilled and tapped for a set screw.

The best thing about them is they run all day, with little operator intervention other than changing bars (I think the bar turret held 8 or 10 bars!) and raking out the chips. The owner claimed they blew away the CNC lathe (a then new, top of the line Hitachi-Seiki turning center). And to top it off, they run all day, every day, and almost never require maintenance, burn up $15 inserts, blow out servo amps, etc. Held +/- .001 morning, noon, and night.

We made over a thousand of each every day, not a bad paycheck for a machine that requires virtually no attention, and cost next to nothing to aquire.
 
Hello,
Patrick here. My Dad has three. Small, Med., and large. He passed away this past Fri. 13th. He made parts with all 3 for the last 50 yrs. they still run fine and are for sale. Anyone know what these guys are worth? Thanx.
 

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Had a 3-3/4 machine and ran it into the early 2000's.I can't imagine the remaining machines are worth much. There aren't many of us who have seen these machines,let alone set them up and ran them.It was a reliable machine,but wasn't very fast.
 








 
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