Mann Horizontal Milling Machine

michael_cullum · Dec 24, 2018

Hi all, long time lurker and thread reader from Norfolk England here, finally registered!

I'm looking for any information which may be available with regards to "Mann" machines, specifically the horizontal miller pictured here which I acquired some time back and have thus far been unable to find any information about anywhere on the web. It appears to be very solidly made and I'm sure that once I begin in earnest getting it back to operational condition won't be too much trouble. I'm just puzzled by the complete lack of information available...

Anything anyone has or knows about these machines would be much appreciated!

Mike

magneticanomaly · Dec 24, 2018

Looks a nice stout machine...Universal? Watch that narrow, tippy base!

Sorry I have no help for you.

Tyrone Shoelaces · Dec 24, 2018

A" Mann " is a new one on me. It could be a dealers logo. Most makers of that era would cast their name into the machine structure.

Regards Tyrone.

michael_cullum · Dec 24, 2018

No sign of any name in the casting, perhaps unscrewing the Mann logo would be a place to start?!

adh2000 · Dec 24, 2018

Oy, good luck to ya. Around here they scrap much nicer machines than that.

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thermite · Dec 24, 2018

adh2000 said:
Oy, good luck to ya. Around here they scrap much nicer machines than that.

Clearly, this one WAS scrapped!

As to make? OP, yah gots to do more homework. Data plates, motor info, metric or inch.. patent dates...

As it sits off but one photo?

The ram has features and shape reminiscent of those on Northern Italian free-for all rebrand-at-will builder's melee off Arno & Nomo. The coolant-tank base and drive system resemble Werner millers.

"Mann" (George) was at one time a major UK maker of printing machinery. Reasonable they might "property badge" a machine used to make jigs, fixtures, and parts FOR their product as they'd have already had badges in stock. Trademark search dasn't match it, but that's true of many long-gone firms.

DDoug · Dec 24, 2018

Now I've uncovered some pretty nasty stuff in coolant tank machine bases,
but have never seen green moss growing out the strainer..... :ack2:

thermite · Dec 24, 2018

digger doug said:
Now I've uncovered some pretty nasty stuff in coolant tank machine bases,
but have never seen green moss growing out the strainer.....

That's actually a very positive sign! Moss is kinda picky.

paul39 · Dec 24, 2018

Here is a beginning, maybe down the wrong path:

Mann Lathe

4356 C.A. Mann 1″ x 3″ Lathe Circa 189, Providence RI, Sold by Prentiss Tool & Supply Co (NY) << Gold International Machinery | The One Stop Shop for all of your Machinery, Equipment, Tool & Die Needs

Paul

Tyrone Shoelaces · Dec 25, 2018

digger doug said:
Now I've uncovered some pretty nasty stuff in coolant tank machine bases,
but have never seen green moss growing out the strainer.....

I worked in a sub contract shop once. They undertook the milling of a large die from a die makers in Manchester who subcontracted it from Short Brothers in Belfast who in their turn had subcontracted it from Boeing in the USA. It was quite a big piece weighing about 8,000 lbs. Something to do with the tailplane on the 737. We were only roughing out the die.

Unfortunately the guy who estimated times for jobs failed to notice that the die was made of some really tough tool steel and not mild steel.
As a result a job that he thought should have took a week took a month. The bloke on the big plano-milling machine had mounted the die on big parallels on the table. When he finally finished the job I was roped in to supervise the lifting of the die off the table. We managed to distract the operator long enough to slide some turves of grass under the die.

When the job was lifted off the table and away down the shop the operators face was a picture as he saw the grass apparently growing there under where the job had been !

Regards Tyrone.

michael_cullum · Dec 25, 2018

Thanks for the responses guys! I shall do my homework, the miller was not something i set out to buy, but in order to take the lathe I was after the seller insisted i also took the mill off his hands or it was "no deal" (both at significantly less than scrap value). The WM85 lathe is pictured if it's of interest to anyone!

Thermite, you're definitely along the right lines, I spy a very similar Mann logo on this printing press!

The mill is currently sheeted over, but from memory it has a Brook motor (what doesn't this side of the pond?!), I'll get the covers off and look for any more details once christmas family obligations are over!

thermite · Dec 25, 2018

michael_cullum said:
Thermite, you're definitely along the right lines, I spy a very similar Mann logo on this printing press!

View attachment 245281

Good eye! I ran three different logo/TM/SM searches and didn't find any others like it.

Page two: Pre Weird-Adolf, German firms were being paid in progressively worthless Weimar marks to build "stuff" as part of the reparations to the allies for WW ONE "damages". NACA, Langley, Full Scale (wind) Tunnel was originally powered (1931) by an array of ganged German Diesels that were built-brand-new as reparations", were never IN a U-Boat or battle-cruiser, but that's what they had been designed for. Dad had been an inspector on the construction, moved over to running that plant for a while.

If POST War TWO as to importation? The "Western" Allies did not strip their patch of Germany bare to the very Earth as the Soviets did, beyond stolen equipment as was too-seldom recovered, but export there was regardless. A shattered and starving hungry Germany tried to market anything they could produce or even produce only portions of.

Nearly as hungry Britain was also starved for any sort of machinery of production as had not been bombed, burned, nor to worn to flinders for their side of the war effort.

Your mill MIGHT have come into the UK under a similar program, been fitted-out locally, the Brook // Brook-Crompton motor part of that "integration".

michael_cullum · Dec 25, 2018

Closest I've found so far, again with your tip off, Fritz Werner is definitely the manufacturer, my example lacks all the castings bearing the maker's name, which would tie up with your war reparations theory! But the controls are almost identical. Now to figure out which model this actually is!

thermite · Dec 25, 2018

michael_cullum said:
View attachment 245284

Closest I've found so far, again with your tip off, Fritz Werner is definitely the manufacturer, my example lacks all the castings bearing the maker's name, which would tie up with your war reparations theory! But the controls are almost identical. Now to figure out which model this actually is!

Two things, then.

First: Tony does a borderline MAGICAL job with his lathes.co.uk database. But he tells you right on MANY pages that he still seeks MORE info, because he/we/all know that many, many makes he has only a small snapshot of their product line over their span of productive years.

Second: And with the above in mind, the "model" may be "none of the above", even a "never was" but rather whatever could be hybridized from whatever they had to work with whilst trying to bootstrap themselves back onto two legs.

michael_cullum · Dec 25, 2018

Lathes is an amazing website, and I have supported it by buying manuals for machines from tony wherever possible, it's a resource without which we'd all be poorer!

Always nice to have an enigma of a machine i suppose, bit of a talking point!

tooseybee · Feb 22, 2022

Hi, I'm sure this is a rebadged Fritz Werner, I have a vertical mill with the Mann name on it, good machine even though it must be 1940s era.

Peter S · Mar 14, 2023

Here is another Mann milling machine, this one a vertical and for sale here in NZ.

It looks to have a useful quill on the vertical head.

I found a couple of others on the internet, the UK agent seems to have been E. H. Jones, a well-known seller of machine tools.