Hendey 12x5 with 'flaming bomb' stamp

[682bear]

I just dragged home another Hendey tie bar... it is a 12x5, serial number 19437, and has what looks like a flaming bomb stamp above the serial number. I'm thinking this was a WW1 era machine, possibly originally owned by one of the military branches.



Has anyone seen this before?

Thanks- Bear

 

[plastikdreams]

No...that's the yin/yang sign...it just got knocked out of position.

 

[682bear]

"Shell and flame" - early form of a hand grenade, AKA "flaming bomb". US Army Ordnance Corps origin.

Stamped on all manner of DoD-acquired weaponry or the goods to manufacture or support same, usually land warfare related. US Navy used an anchor. UK a broad arrow, "etc"..

So yes.. millions have seen the insignia.
Or worn it.

Google will find you the whole who-struck-John on it from a search on "US Ordnance markings".

Here's nice clean example on a pump shotgun:

https://fws-files.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/website/auctions/items/full/1962108_3.jpg

Yes, I have a few old military rifles with the flaming bomb stamp on them... I've never seen one on a lathe before... I didn't realize they stamped machinery like that. After googling it, it seems they put that stamp on pretty much everything that the Army Ordinance Corps purchased.

One of my other Hendey lathes is a April, 1918 build... and was originally shipped to Frankford Arsenal... it doesn't have that stamp, or maybe I just haven't found it yet...

I just thought it was an interesting find.

-Bear

 

[682bear]

First saw that, as a little kid, Watertown Arsenal, I thot it represented those round bowling-ball lookalike kerosene-fueled highway markers used at road contruction detours!

"Somewhere.." in the family.. is a set of solid Walnut bookends that the toolroom staff hand crafted with solid brass "Shell and Flame" decor.

Some sort of appreciation for Dad's work at Watertown.
Need for artillery was a tad desperate, as it were. Seems we had "misplaced" rather a lot of it amongst the confusion of the Korean War:

https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/giangreco.pdf

If only your Old Hendey could share conversations overheard over its long years of service!

If it could... I'd sit and listen for hours...

I had an old friend a few years ago... he was a veteran of WW2 and Korea... when I met him he was 87 years young, and still rebuilding Garands and M14s...

I was fortunate enough to be able to spend hours in his shop listening to stories as he worked on the old rifles.

I didn't talk much... just listened...

-Bear

 

[hendeyman]

682bear:

Normally, the records indicate if a customer was military, in this case there is no reference to any government agency.

Hendey lathe No.19437, a 12 x 5 Cone Head model was completed during the last week of November 1917. It was shipped with a Taper
Attachment. The original owner was the Coldwell Lawn Mower Company, Newburgh, New York. At a later date it was owned by the Portable
Products Corporation, Newburgh, New York. There are no longer any Patterns, Castings or Repair Parts left in inventory for this lathe,
but all of the original drawings are still in the files, so parts can be made if required.

Hendeyman

 

[682bear]

682bear:

Normally, the records indicate if a customer was military, in this case there is no reference to any government agency.

Hendey lathe No.19437, a 12 x 5 Cone Head model was completed during the last week of November 1917. It was shipped with a Taper
Attachment. The original owner was the Coldwell Lawn Mower Company, Newburgh, New York. At a later date it was owned by the Portable
Products Corporation, Newburgh, New York. There are no longer any Patterns, Castings or Repair Parts left in inventory for this lathe,
but all of the original drawings are still in the files, so parts can be made if required.

Hendeyman

Thank you for the information!

That's interesting... so I'm assuming there is no way of knowing where the stamp originated, or when...

-Bear

 

[john.k]

In WW2 in Oz ,lathes had to be registered with the War Production Board,and if you didnt have defence work ,men in a truck would come and take the lathe away...quite often lathes were grabbed even if you had defence work.......Conscripted machines were inspected ,and classified as to what purpose they were fit for.....In many cases they were melted for iron ,without the owner ever notified.

 

[682bear]

Serial number reduces probability of the bed being swapped from some other lathe to the vanishing point.

Not sure if used equipent donated or sold into War work was so marked, but "could be".

The other possibility is countrefeit for reasons hard to fathom..

Heraldry and Army history sez there were, in fact, variations in the rendering.
So I wouldn't waste a lot of time on that part.

What matters is that the Hendey tie-bar was about the ruggedest AND easiest to put right "basic" lathe anyone ever built in quantity, any where, any time.

Bar none.

Even the "Hendeyitis" of a tapered plain spindle bearing worn to jamming is a feature, not a bug. Because it is so easily - and accurately - "put right" again for yet-another go at serving long and well.

Enjoy THAT bit of history!

I'm guessing here... as I was googling Coldwell Lawn Mower Company, I found a vague reference to the fact that Coldwell 'might' have been producing military aircraft parts during WW2... depending on what type of parts they were producing, the machinery may have required some sort of inspection process by the Army? The stamp might mean the machinery was approved to make these parts...

I'm just guessing... It's really just a matter of appeasing my curiosity, anyway.

-Bear

 

[hendeyman]

thermite:

Hendey made other products, other than lathes and shapers, during WW2, they made torpedoes. I found the drawings for the jigs and fixtures a few years ago and found that the tailfin assembles were made on Hendey shapers.

When you mentioned Singer, it reminded me that one of the shapers in my shop was used at Singer during WW2. It was made by Holmes
Manufacturing in Milwaukee and was a "Black - Ops" project that required two men to design and build in secret for a bout a year.
When completed, the "men In black" showed up to removed the shaper, all drawings and any pieces it had produced. The men were
required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Mr. Holmes told me that he had heard that the shaper was taken to a secret room at
Singer for testing and to produce the finished product. He was never told what the shaper was built to make, but heard that it was
some sort of "shaped" charge that was to be used on some sort of secret project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. The ram and the base are
articulated and produce concave and convex curves. At one time, it was equipped with a dividing head, adding to the complex geometry
it produced. By changing a "former" at the back of the machine, various curves can be made.

Hendeyman