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...Photo... Nice Long Chip...

lathefan

Titanium
Joined
Nov 7, 2003
Location
Colorado
article-2287998-186E40B2000005DC-755_964x710.jpg
 
They obviously are making something important, like long chips.
The drape behind gives away the "product" being made.

If you work at it, you too can make "coil chrome".
 
In proportion to the lathe that chip is just ok. 😆

If it's a chip from a boring operation it's pretty damn impressive. I think he's just turning the entire thickness of the pipe into a chip. I guess that would be a chip making operation. 🤷*♀️
 
Amazing how they got such a long coil from a short workpiece!

The 'boring' fact is that the photo would merely have been the basis for a spray artist's rendering of a picture for a catalogue, either an airbrushed illustration or even a line engraving. The interesting thing is that it's a rare opportunity to see the typical arrangements used for such purposes by all manufacturers. Normally you only see the warts and all if you get your hands on makers' archive photos. Note the electric motor, which the artist would have to belt up. The artist would also launder the operator's overalls

The photo would have been taken in the very early 1900s when there was a flurry of activity to produce heavy-duty lathes to take advantage of the new high speed steels. Pictures of the size and amount of swarf were big features of the publicity.

The lathe has Lang's variable speed drive. Note the handwheel by the operator's elbow, which determined the separation of the coned faces of the pulleys.

Note also the sheet metal covers over the ways. I don't suppose they lasted long, once the chips piled up and made their escape.
 
I would wager that this guy was not the man that made the setup. Probably some foreman that stepped up for the picture. Most machinist's wouldn't be caught dead wearing a tie on the job. Is anyone familiar with the make of the lathe, "John Lang"? Maybe a British company? Anyway, thanks for sharing.

JH
 
I walked by the room where the apprentices were training.
One on a lathe making a long continuous chip, and two others walking it down the aisle to see how far they could go.

I asked, "what happens when it wraps itself around your leg?"

I was about 10 years old when I snatched a 1925 Society of Mechanical Engineers volume from the paper drive and found the article about making Number 9's the most efficient chips.

Years later, a grumpy old sweeper commented on how smaller chips were easier to clean out of the machine and off the floor and into the dumpster than the long strands of snakes.

Mike
 
Being sort of a dummy I have to ask..what is the purpose of what appears to be an electric motor sitting behind the lathe. All the belts on that machine as well as the adjacent machine indicate a overhead belted power-source.

In my non-professional opinion, the whole pix is a doctored up ad, complete with fake chips and a fake operator...and a mysterious electric motor that's just sitting there minding its own business.

Stuart
 
Being sort of a dummy I have to ask..what is the purpose of what appears to be an electric motor sitting behind the lathe. All the belts on that machine as well as the adjacent machine indicate a overhead belted power-source.

In my non-professional opinion, the whole pix is a doctored up ad, complete with fake chips and a fake operator...and a mysterious electric motor that's just sitting there minding its own business.

Stuart

Good catch, it's not even bolted down!!

G
 
Asquith's post #4 has the answer to that...

Well shoot! Before I commented I read all the posts so as not to ask what had already been pointed out..guess I didn't read close enough. Post #4 is indeed a complete answer to the question about the validity of the picture. It's a cool picture regardless.

Stuart
 
Looks like maybe that lathe was about to be converted from a line shaft drive to having it's own motor from the looks of the motor behind the lathe.
 
I would wager that this guy was not the man that made the setup. Probably some foreman that stepped up for the picture. Most machinist's wouldn't be caught dead wearing a tie on the job. Is anyone familiar with the make of the lathe, "John Lang"? Maybe a British company? Anyway, thanks for sharing.

JH

A once proud Scottish company that made just about the finest and heaviest lathes ever
Made.
They made their own crucible steel for the spindles and even made their own precision roller spindle bearings.
I have a 1930’s lang that makes my dsg and monarch look light pattern and the only noise from the headstock is the oil spray.

Scotland had a proud heavy engineering heritage.
 
That motor looks a little too modern for that turret lathe. They did a good job with the shadow effects behind the motor if it was added to the picture afterwards.

The way covers, wonder who copied who, Lang or Warner Swasay?
 
The photograph of this machine working was taken in the machining department of possibly the biggest malleable iron foundry in the world Messrs Leys Malleable Iron co, I feel the photograph may have been taken to show how well the firms malleable cast iron machined up,Giving a nice long cut, Hence as it was a publicity shot the shop foreman was taken into the "starring roll"
This pattern of a boring & facing lathe could be found all through industry, None more so than in the West of Scotland, They were real workhorses and Lang's boring & facing lathes went into production in I would think the 1880/s and lasted right up until Lang's gave up making traditional lathes All be it with more modern geared headstocks, some were fairly large six foot faceplate,
Lang lathes were real work horses Ted in Norfolk , has a nice old Lang Junior which at one time I owned , Again a real work horse.
 
I'm going to guess that is a DC motor, and it looks appropriate for the approximate year of the photo. Similar motors were used on planer infeed rolls due to their ability to vary speed.

I didn't realize that malleable cast iron could produce a continuous, curled chip.

Stuart
 
Well done, Mac, for linking it to Ley’s Malleable Castings Co. I’ve now found the photo in a Guardian webpage showing various photos taken at Ley’s:-

Leys Malleable Castings Company - in pictures | Art and design | The Guardian

However, I’m sceptical for various reasons, and wonder if the photo has been wrongly attributed to Leys.

It doesn’t fit in with the rest of the pictures, which were clearly finished photographs in their own right, whereas the lathe photo was simply a basis for the illustrator to turn into publicity illustration.

Also, if it was intended to illustrate the machinability of a casting, it seems a poor way of going about it. Surely the focus would have been much more on the casting being worked on, and not on the whole lathe and its small workpiece. More significantly, why would they have bothered placing the motor there, if not for the illustrator to paint in a belt and some wire to upgrade the lineshaft machine into a motor-driven one. Further, I’m not convinced that the lathe has left Lang’s factory! It’s not bolted down, and may not have got past the preparation-for-painting stage. Also, given that the machine is supposedly working on that small workpiece, why is the variable speed drive on its slowest setting?!

The Guardian webpage put the date at c.1930s. I’d guessed at early 1900s, thinking pre-1910, for no good reason. However, ‘4GSR’ raises a valid point about the motor looking too modern for the lathe. I can’t add anything here. Motor design changed very quickly, but the motor in the photo seems to have ball bearings, and I have no idea whether they were used on motors pre-WW1.
 








 
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