Any Ames Triplex owners?

rata222 · Jan 19, 2015

I am in the process of restoring a 1938 Ames Triplex. I purchased the machine at an Estate sale. The machine was badly neglected – but not abused. Seems to be all original. The asset tag says it came from a US Navy Yard. Originally Purchased 1938 .
A web search found limited information on this machine.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who may have experience with one of these machines.

I was able to contact forum member Toolznthings (who had posted a several years ago about his Triplex .) He helped me immensely by sharing all the information he had on his restoration. – Great guy.

I read that the Ames lathes used an A1 collet. Does anyone know what collet the Triplex uses? I could not identify them from the picture on Tonys UK site.
Also, my machine did not have the threading attachment. If anyone was familiar with this, and could share some pictures it would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jim
[email protected]

Bill D · Jan 19, 2015

What is that ? what is it used for? looks something like a china type lathe + mill.
Modern ones seem to be some kind of sheet metal forming tool.
Bill D.

Alberic · Jan 20, 2015

rata222 said:
I am in the process of restoring a 1938 Ames Triplex. I purchased the machine at an Estate sale. The machine was badly neglected – but not abused. Seems to be all original. The asset tag says it came from a US Navy Yard. Originally Purchased 1938 .
A web search found limited information on this machine.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who may have experience with one of these machines.

I was able to contact forum member Toolznthings (who had posted a several years ago about his Triplex .) He helped me immensely by sharing all the information he had on his restoration. – Great guy.

I read that the Ames lathes used an A1 collet. Does anyone know what collet the Triplex uses? I could not identify them from the picture on Tonys UK site.
Also, my machine did not have the threading attachment. If anyone was familiar with this, and could share some pictures it would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jim
[email protected]

Congrats on finding a very rare and very cool old tool. I've been hunting for one for years. I've got a small herd of the Ames lathes, so a Triplex to keep them company would go well.

Meanwhile, Ames made two sizes of collets: the 1" (1A) collets, and the 5/8" (3A) collets. Collet OD on the 3A is about .750. At a bet, that's what the Triplex uses.
(The 1A's look like skinny 5C's, and the 3A's look like small 1As.) They float by on Epray once or twice a year.

I've got the threading attachment for the *lathe*, (mostly) but the Triplex used a wildly different setup. The only part that might have carried over were the master thread hobs. Pretty standard stuff, the only odd part is the threads on the master (and the follower) are buttress threads. That way they don't unseat themselves under load.
If you get to the point of needing to know the sizes of the masters, drop me a line, and I'll excavate mine.

Hope that helped,
Brian

sandiapaul · Jan 20, 2015

I too have looked for one for years. There is one for sale(maybe) now on this odd site:

Triplex Ames combo mill lathe machine 120 volt - Other

I registered on this site and tried contacting the seller but I don't get any replies.

Sorry can't help you with your questions.
I wonder how many of these were made and how many there are today.

On edit:

I got curious and dug through an old hard drive and found this. I don't know who sent me this, more than likely someone from this board years ago. Someone was selling theirs. I have a few pics but they are so small as to not be worth posting.

Designed by John H. Wilhelm in 1920 and built by the B.C. Ames Company of Waltham, Mass. and sold from 1920 to the early 1940's. This machine is a mill,both vertical and horizontal ( and angle ), drill press and lathe all in one. You can turn tapers, and mill or drill from horizontal to vertical. I currently have only been able to find two other Triplex in operating condition. Depending on avaiable information there were as little as 500 machines made or a total of 1150. This machine is number 1089 and was purchased at an estate auction over 10 years ago. I have done a complete overhaul over an eight month period in 2003. The machines overall condition was good as far as castings and surfaces. No welds or broken castings. Repairs were done to keep the machine as true to original, but make it useful as well. Previous attempts to repair the machine were poor at best and were the primary reason for repairs. The machine has a R-8 spindle taper to make tooling easy to obtain. Using information from another Triplex owner I duplicated pulley sizes and tool post. Equipped with new motor and motor mount and endless flat belt drive the machine has six speeds in two ranges. ( 90 - 1050 RPM 1/2 HP 1 PH. 120V ) The machine sold for $ 485.00 in 1923 . The opitional base was $ 24.00. This combination weighs approx. 670 pounds. I have copies of catalog pages and a review written in 1928. I also have numerous digital pictures of the rebuild from start to end and all old parts. All copies of papers and the digital photos are included with the machine.

rata222 · Jan 20, 2015

Alberic said:
Congrats on finding a very rare and very cool old tool. I've been hunting for one for years. I've got a small herd of the Ames lathes, so a Triplex to keep them company would go well.

Meanwhile, Ames made two sizes of collets: the 1" (1A) collets, and the 5/8" (3A) collets. Collet OD on the 3A is about .750. At a bet, that's what the Triplex uses.
(The 1A's look like skinny 5C's, and the 3A's look like small 1As.) They float by on Epray once or twice a year.
.....

Hope that helped,
Brian

Thanks Brian for responding. Yes the Triplex seems pretty cool. When I saw it - I knew I had to save it from the scrap yard. 77 Years old.
I appreciate the collet information, Looking at the specs though , the 3A collet would be too big. I cannot insert a .750 OD bar into the hole. I am searching for specs on the 2AM collet made by Ames that looks like it may fit.
At first I thought it was a MT2 Taper. The collets fit- but I think I detect some wobble??? When I blue them up and insert/twist - I only see touch markings over the front 3/8 to 1/2 inch - so I assumed the spindle must not be MT2. Tonight I got to thinking that most of my MT2 stuff was "inexpensive" and maybe they were not perfect. I repeated the test in my Clausing mill and got just a little better results. Repeated in my little Atlas Mill and it showed a lot of contact, Tomorrow I will make two plugs of two diameters and measure the insertion depth of each and calculate the taper. Hopefully I can do this accurately enough. Wouldnt I be lucky if it was a Morse Taper!!! I am still looking for the taper dimensions on a 2AM to see how that compares.
I may take you up on the pictures of the thread masters later on. Will be awhile before I will get to that.
Thanks again for the information.
Jim

rata222 · Jan 20, 2015

sandiapaul said:
On edit:

I got curious and dug through an old hard drive and found this. I don't know who sent me this, more than likely someone from this board years ago. Someone was selling theirs. I have a few pics but they are so small as to not be worth posting.

Thanks Sandiapaul for trying to help. The information you found was from Toolznthings. He is the fellow that kindly sent me the info that he had. Which was Super.. But I was still looking for some more information.
Thanks again.
Jim

rata222 · Jan 20, 2015

Bill D said:
What is that ? what is it used for? looks something like a china type lathe + mill.
Modern ones seem to be some kind of sheet metal forming tool.
Bill D.

Hi Bill
It is a Combo machine. Here is a good description, if you are interested.
Page Title

Thanks
Jim

Alberic · Jan 20, 2015

2A collet?

rata222 said:
Thanks Brian for responding. Yes the Triplex seems pretty cool. When I saw it - I knew I had to save it from the scrap yard. 77 Years old.
I appreciate the collet information, Looking at the specs though , the 3A collet would be too big. I cannot insert a .750 OD bar into the hole. I am searching for specs on the 2AM collet made by Ames that looks like it may fit.

Jim

2A? News to me. So far as I know, they only did 1A and 3A. I'm prepared to be wrong, but I don't think so. Some of the Triplexes I've seen online (after digging them up last night.) have been converted to R8. Maybe it's an R8 conversion? (if you're very lucky)

Here's a spec-sheet for all sorts of old collets. This may help you.
Collets

Regards,
Brian

rata222 · Jan 20, 2015

Alberic said:
2A? News to me. So far as I know, they only did 1A and 3A. I'm prepared to be wrong, but I don't think so. Some of the Triplexes I've seen online (after digging them up last night.) have been converted to R8. Maybe it's an R8 conversion? (if you're very lucky)

Here's a spec-sheet for all sorts of old collets. This may help you.
Collets

Regards,
Brian

Hi Brian
Here is the link listing the Ames 2AM collet .
http://www.tools-n-gizmos.com/specs/C_Collet.html
The link was forwarded to me today by another Triplex owner who is also in search of collets. Dont know if it will fit - since there are no taper angles given.
I wish I were lucky enough to have an R8 spindle - since I have a set of R8 collets.
I appreciate your interest in helping me. I had never seen a Triplex or any Ames lathe previously. I will post what I find.
Jim

Alberic · Jan 21, 2015

rata222 said:
Hi Brian
Here is the link listing the Ames 2AM collet .
C (and similar) Collets
The link was forwarded to me today by another Triplex owner who is also in search of collets. Dont know if it will fit - since there are no taper angles given.
I wish I were lucky enough to have an R8 spindle - since I have a set of R8 collets.
I appreciate your interest in helping me. I had never seen a Triplex or any Ames lathe previously. I will post what I find.
Jim

Interesting. You may be screwed. I've been running Ames lathes for 20 odd years and this is the first reference I've ever seen to the 2AM collet.
Ames only made a couple of machines: lathes, with two different sized headstocks, that used the 1AM and 3AM collets, and the Triplex. Since the 2AM wasn't used on the lathes, that leaves the Triplex. Which means you may be well and truly screwed when it comes to collets. That may also explain the R8 conversions.

(Edit: I forgot about the horizontal milling machine, but that used a lathe headstock as the headstock, so it used the same 1AM/3AM collets as the lathes.)
The mill *might* have also used 2AM, but they're not much more common than the Triplexes are, so there aren't going to be swarms of them around like there are with the lathe collets.

Once upon a time, Hardinge was (and may still be) willing to make up some 1AM collets for me, for about $150 each. They may be willing to do the same for the 2AM. It's just a matter of setting up the program in the CNC at this point. For a full set, that'd get pricey, but for just a 1/2", and maybe a 3/8 and 1/4, it might price out cheaper than converting the spindle to R8. Depends on how far into the spindle you're going to have to get in your rebuild anyway.

Please post a close up side 3/4 view of your spindle nose. Ames used a particularly sneaky (and accurate) way of mounting chucks onto the lathes with a sort of dummy collet that located the chuck off a taper ground on the OD of the spindle nose. I want to see if you've got the same rig on the triplex. If you do, then there's the fun of finding (building) a chuck adapter.

I'm glad to help out with keeping another weird old machine rolling along for another 50 years.

Regards,
Brian.

Toolznthings · Jan 21, 2015

Hi,

That was me. Wish i still had it some days. Jim has a keeper, much more original than the one I had. Someone did a hack job
on the machine before I found it. Fun project !

Brian

sandiapaul said:
I too have looked for one for years. There is one for sale(maybe) now on this odd site:

Triplex Ames combo mill lathe machine 120 volt - Other

I registered on this site and tried contacting the seller but I don't get any replies.

Sorry can't help you with your questions.
I wonder how many of these were made and how many there are today.

On edit:

I got curious and dug through an old hard drive and found this. I don't know who sent me this, more than likely someone from this board years ago. Someone was selling theirs. I have a few pics but they are so small as to not be worth posting.

Designed by John H. Wilhelm in 1920 and built by the B.C. Ames Company of Waltham, Mass. and sold from 1920 to the early 1940's. This machine is a mill,both vertical and horizontal ( and angle ), drill press and lathe all in one. You can turn tapers, and mill or drill from horizontal to vertical. I currently have only been able to find two other Triplex in operating condition. Depending on avaiable information there were as little as 500 machines made or a total of 1150. This machine is number 1089 and was purchased at an estate auction over 10 years ago. I have done a complete overhaul over an eight month period in 2003. The machines overall condition was good as far as castings and surfaces. No welds or broken castings. Repairs were done to keep the machine as true to original, but make it useful as well. Previous attempts to repair the machine were poor at best and were the primary reason for repairs. The machine has a R-8 spindle taper to make tooling easy to obtain. Using information from another Triplex owner I duplicated pulley sizes and tool post. Equipped with new motor and motor mount and endless flat belt drive the machine has six speeds in two ranges. ( 90 - 1050 RPM 1/2 HP 1 PH. 120V ) The machine sold for $ 485.00 in 1923 . The opitional base was $ 24.00. This combination weighs approx. 670 pounds. I have copies of catalog pages and a review written in 1928. I also have numerous digital pictures of the rebuild from start to end and all old parts. All copies of papers and the digital photos are included with the machine.

Toolznthings · Jan 21, 2015

Hi Jim,

Looking GOOD !!!

Toolznthings · Jan 21, 2015

I converted mine to R-8 since the original spindle along with many other things was toast. R-8 is easy to do.

The other Brian ( in Ohio )

rata222 · Jan 21, 2015

Alberic said:
Please post a close up side 3/4 view of your spindle nose. Ames used a particularly sneaky (and accurate) way of mounting chucks onto the lathes with a sort of dummy collet that located the chuck off a taper ground on the OD of the spindle nose. I want to see if you've got the same rig on the triplex. If you do, then there's the fun of finding (building) a chuck adapter.

I'm glad to help out with keeping another weird old machine rolling along for another 50 years.

Regards,
Brian.

Here are some pics of the spindle. Mine came with a chuck.

I Also went ahead and drew up measured dimensions of my spindle and attached a pic. Mine is close to an MT2. (1.22 degrees instead of 1.43) The picture of the collets (Ames?) shown with the Triplex on Tonys site appear to have a much greater/shorter taper more like a 5C.

What is standard on this machine - may be at a dead end. I will figure out what mine has in the next few weeks - I will be out of town.

Brian...I sent you a PM with some info.

Jim

Alberic · Jan 21, 2015

rata222 said:
View attachment 127866 View attachment 127867 View attachment 127868 View attachment 127869

Here are some pics of the spindle. Mine came with a chuck.

I Also went ahead and drew up measured dimensions of my spindle and attached a pic. Mine is close to an MT2. (1.22 degrees instead of 1.43) The picture of the collets (Ames?) shown with the Triplex on Tonys site appear to have a much greater/shorter taper more like a 5C.

What is standard on this machine - may be at a dead end. I will figure out what mine has in the next few weeks - I will be out of town.

Brian...I sent you a PM with some info.

Jim

Okay.... That looks nothing like any of the lathe spindle noses. Good thing yours came with a chuck, as I have no idea what it used.
The "normal" Ames collets do look a lot like 5C's, or small 5C's. The taper is 11 degrees, IIRC. Nothing at all like an MT collet.

So god only knows what this thing took. Other than thinking it's cool, I'm officially out of clues on this one.

Regards,
Brian (The other one. *From* Ohio, originally.)

rata222 · Jan 30, 2015

rata222 said:
View attachment 127866 View attachment 127867 View attachment 127868 View attachment 127869

Here are some pics of the spindle. Mine came with a chuck.

I Also went ahead and drew up measured dimensions of my spindle and attached a pic. Mine is close to an MT2. (1.22 degrees instead of 1.43) The picture of the collets (Ames?) shown with the Triplex on Tonys site appear to have a much greater/shorter taper more like a 5C.

What is standard on this machine - may be at a dead end. I will figure out what mine has in the next few weeks - I will be out of town.

Jim

For those that responded and contacted me... I measured the taper of the spindle several more times on the Triplex. The closest match I found was a B&S #7 taper. I gambled and ordered an ER32 adapter with the B&S taper. It fit perfectly. It marked the bluing all along the taper and held tight.
This information may help someone else. (If another Triplex shows up.) My machine came from the Naval yard - so it may have been ordered with a non standard taper.
Thanks all
Jim

Oldironrox · Oct 18, 2017

Ames Triplex

rata222 said:
I am in the process of restoring a 1938 Ames Triplex. I purchased the machine at an Estate sale. The machine was badly neglected – but not abused. Seems to be all original. The asset tag says it came from a US Navy Yard. Originally Purchased 1938 .
A web search found limited information on this machine.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who may have experience with one of these machines.

I was able to contact forum member Toolznthings (who had posted a several years ago about his Triplex .) He helped me immensely by sharing all the information he had on his restoration. – Great guy.

I read that the Ames lathes used an A1 collet. Does anyone know what collet the Triplex uses? I could not identify them from the picture on Tonys UK site.
Also, my machine did not have the threading attachment. If anyone was familiar with this, and could share some pictures it would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jim
[email protected]

I've recently acquired an Ames Triplex was wondering if anyone has a user manual,parts list they'd be willing to share .I will post pictures as soon as I get it home. Any info would help.
Thanks
Dave
[email protected]

Oldironrox · Oct 20, 2017

BC Ames Triplex,

I have just recently inherited an Ames Triplex and it is obviously missing some parts, collets ,chuck,etc. Any information whatsoever about this machine would be greatly appreciated. Its a beautiful piece and I'm hoping to bring it back to life.
Thank you
Dave
[email protected]

Jasper 25 · Mar 17, 2018

Jasper 25

Toolznthings said:
I converted mine to R-8 since the original spindle along with many other things was toast. R-8 is easy to do.

The other Brian ( in Ohio )

Good day, Sir. Are you the 'Brian' who desires to sell your Triplex? I saw an offer yesterday but cannot seem to pull it up again. Please advise when you have a chance. Thanks in advance. Robert

JLarsson · Mar 17, 2018

Jasper 25 said:
Good day, Sir. Are you the 'Brian' who desires to sell your Triplex? I saw an offer yesterday but cannot seem to pull it up again. Please advise when you have a chance. Thanks in advance. Robert

What you may not have noticed is that Brian's post was from 2005. A lot can happen in almost 13 years...

Any Ames Triplex owners?

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