Heavy Iron at A/M Air Starters

[texasgeartrain]

Up next is a multi driller/multi tapper from NATCO (National Automatic Tool Co):



I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the model to be a D5, and the serial as 272:



In a search I found this from 1941, which has a serial of 302, if this machine serial is 272, then I would expect the date of manufacture to be close:



My problem with that is that listing shows it a 14 spindle, while looking at this machine I see 10:



Part 1 of 2. . .

 

[texasgeartrain]

Part 2 of 2:

A little hard to see, but they had a slogan on this tag, "Solves your hole problem". Pretty cool I thought, and a play on words, hole/whole :



I did not find other exact literature, but there is a pretty good collection of sales brochures here:
25-pieces of 1930s National Automatic Tool Co. sales literature for NATCO drills | eBay



Natco did some pretty serious sized machines as well:



Here's a peak under the table:

 

[Cal Haines]

One of the first machines I encountered was a Hardinge HCT Chucking Machine:

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Here's a video that has some information about the "Production Threading Head" on the HCT's overarm: link

Cal

 

[texasgeartrain]

They have several turret lathes. This one is from the Stearns Roger Mfg Co, called the Denver 6.2:



I'm not familiar with them, though I found a manual from 2 sources available:
Stearns Rogers # 6-2 Universal Ram Turret Lathe Operation & Parts List Manual : Machinery Manuals | Parts Lists | Maintenance Manual | Service Instructions | Schematics

Stearns-Rogers # 6-2 Universal Ram Turret Lathe Operation and Parts Manual: Stearns Rogers: Books

Some government tags, I'd like to know what's under that one tag:



Looking at spindle speeds, it looks like it tops out at 365 rpm:



part 1 of 2.

 

[texasgeartrain]

Part 2 of 2.

Looking at some of the controls of the Denver 6.2, apron and carriage:



On the tailstock end:

 

[texasgeartrain]

Outside of some of the production machines, they have some with greater versatility as well. One of those being a Van Norman #12:



Brochure here:
Van Norman Machine Tool Co. - Publication Reprints - Van Norman No. 12 Brochure | VintageMachinery.org

Operation, maintenance, and parts list here:
Van Norman Machine Tool Co. - Publication Reprints - Van Norman 12 Installation. Operation and Maintenance | VintageMachinery.org

Plus many good threads here on PM such as this one:
grease and oil in the VN12?

A variant on the "War Production" tag, National Production Authority is a new one to me. Perhaps a pre or post war version:



part 1 of 2.

 

[texasgeartrain]

Part 2 of 2, more VN #12 pics:

Still has atleast one arbor support.

 

[Cole2534]

I miss the sound of air starters winding up the Cat 3516s we had driving gas compressors.

WEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee grunt grunt grunt ...go!

Programmed via Mazatrol

 

[Cal Haines]

Outside of some of the production machines, they have some with greater versatility as well. One of those being a Van Norman #12:

View attachment 348976 View attachment 348977
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Serial Number 9513. That's a fairly late model No. 12, built in 1952. Van Norman updated the design of the No. 12 in 1947, creating the No. 16, which included options like a universal table. No. 16 production started in 1947 and both models were produced until 1955, when Van Norman switched over to the Nos. 16L, 16M and 16S. The later model No. 12, like this one, shared the No. 16's redesigned roller-bearing gearbox and cutter-head. No. 12 and No. 16 millers only had a single overarm arbor support and had Van Norman 'C' spindle tapers (aka Hardinge 5V).

Cal

 

[Garwood]

I miss the sound of air starters winding up the Cat 3516s we had driving gas compressors.

WEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee grunt grunt grunt ...go!

Programmed via Mazatrol

I don't know if I miss it lol. In my early 20's I helped keep a Navy FFG plant running for 3.5 years. Four 16V149TI Detroits, a pair of GE LM2500's and hundreds of other small things. The air start systems for the Detroits and the turbines was fed from a bank of a dozen or so very large 5000 PSI air cylinders. The backup for the HP air system was a multistage supercharger mounted to the crank snout of one of the 16V149's.

Those 149's are 2 ship decks tall. More times than I can count I was in a 149 enclosure when the engine did an autostart. Damn that would make you jump a foot in the air and rattle your brain at the same time. Detroits fire instantly and the mechanical governors our generators used had zero delay. They went from dead cold iron to 1800 RPM with a megawatt load sync'd and dropped on in about a second.

Funny the things you can remember like it was yesterday.

 

[Cole2534]

I don't know if I miss it lol.

Nostalgia here as well, memories from an excellent portion of my career. The turbines were air (gas) start as well, those also very cool. Equally as cool were the big electric motors, up to 7000hp. The sound wasn't as neat, but knowing that if you tried to start 2 at once you'd brown out Bryan County, OK was kinda neat.

In short- more HP = more cool, and lots of that stuff is air/gas start.

Programmed via Mazatrol

 

[Garwood]

That's pretty awesome when you think about it. 7000HP electric motor. I'd like to see that!

The old FFG's were 453ft, 3973 tons and 42,000 HP with two gas turbines into a single prop. They were actually pretty quick, like you could feel the acceleration at full power. Iirc both main engines at full (rated) power burned 250 gallons of diesel a minute.