This Hamilton followed me home

This Hamilton followed me home. It’s big, beautiful, and it’s mine. Well not quite home yet. Took all day to get it to the door ready to load. It’s about a six hour drive from me, road detours for forest fires, truck engine blew up on first trip back with tooling, and the trailer I was going to use is no longer available. So I’ve got no truck, no trailer, but this will be overcome. Every trips an adventure.

Question: where is the serial number? This is about a 1902 and was told it came from the battle ship Oregon. How can I document the navy use? Age of machine? Instruction for gearbox? This is a 24” and the bed length is 10’ so is this a 24x120? How many of these were made?

Thanks in advance for the help. You guys are great.

Kelly

Hamiltons are well known for following people home, it's something in the cast iron they used that gives Hamiltons a near magnetic pull.

Mine pulled the same stunt dragging itself onto my trailer back in the 70s after it levitated in a garage belonging to a man it had followed there. While it was in the air it bolted itself to a skid made from 8" channel that had previously been a high voltage tower that had a set of steel wheels from a large safe. It insisted on a bath before rolling into my shop.

No idea how you'd confirm it was aboard the Oregon. You might know when you get it running. If the machine is liberal on tolerances that might be evidence of being part of Oregon. Navy back then didn't feel a need to attach tags to property they didn't figure was easily borrowable.

The serial number is stamped into the bed crossmember nearest the tail.

There are a number of posts on this board regarding Hamiltons, I suggest you do a search.

Glad to hear Steve Eastman's biggie was saved from the Oregon woods near Medford.

Bed length is over all, not between centers

Here are some of the nice C/L photos

As far as how the gear box works, see what you can find on Edward Flather's 1895 patent

Like so.....

US536615A - Screw-cutting lathe - Google Patents

No doubt this will require some work, like reading all the text and studying all the drawings until you actually understand what you have

Machinery-1903, Hamilton

If it came from a Navy ship it would likely have an anchor inspector stamp on it somewhere.

I see I never updated this old post. Serial number is #51. Tag on the motor says property of Kaiser shipyards which is where the Oregon was turned into an ammunition barge. Once I got all the hazelnut shells out of the gearbox and lubed it works great.

Kelly

That's a nice lathe. My grandfather had a production grinding shop in Jackson, Mich. many years ago as well as a stamping plant in Toledo, Ohio. If memory serves he sold it in 1971 or 72 for a few million. That was real money back then. Anyway my uncle, who worked there for many years up until the sale, told me that they had a large Hamilton lathe in the shop. I'm not sure what size it was but your mention of it made me think about it. As a 7 year old child I was in the grinding plant so I'm sure that I saw the lathe but I don't remember any specific machines. I just remember being impressed with the machinery and thinking how neat it all was.

kelly.s said:

I see I never updated this old post. Serial number is #51. Tag on the motor says property of Kaiser shipyards which is where the Oregon was turned into an ammunition barge. Once I got all the hazelnut shells out of the gearbox and lubed it works great.

Kelly

Click to expand...

Those Filberts were just a placebo.

Sort of a psychological security blanket to keep it sane until it could find a new two-legged Old Iron nut to love it.

If/as/when you part with it, be sure to provide a replacement in kind to see it through its journey to the next Old Iron nut, lest it go mad of loneliness in the transition.

I seem to remember that Joe Michaels has a thread about his experience with Hamilton lathes. Maybe he will post it here again.

-Doozer

Dang that's a heavy lathe. Nice save! There is a 14x30 near me, but apparently theives stole the overhead pulley and stack of change gears. It's pretty rough. I have a feeling it will be chinesium before too long and the legs stuck under some kitchen table.

There's a Hamilton, probably 14x30 or slightly larger, near me here in upstate SC. It appears to have been kept inside, never parked out back. It looks to be complete with a quantity of tooling. Daughter selling it says her father purchased it from a machine shop where he worked. Looks like all he did was bring it home but never got it wired & running. Don't think she'll sell just the lathe & tools, but hasn't been able to sell the building contents in one lump. I saw lots of junk and nothing else of serious tool consequence, but there may be odd bits in there. There are approx 1000 used horseshoes (not kidding)....

look at greenville.craigslist Building full of Tools and Machinery - tools - by owner - sale