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Anyone know anything about Cleveland mills?

Lca078

Hot Rolled
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Location
San Antonio, TX
I have a lead on a Cleveland #4 horizontal mill that the gent is telling me is a workhorse (he more or less compared it to a Kearney and Trecker). The reason I'm thinking about it is because of it's long bed. While I don't think it's as good as quality as K&T mills, I have no idea what range of quality it would be. Would parts, manuals, etc. be hard to find. I've never seen nor used a Cleveland mill so I have no info on it's sturdiness, quality, etc. It's primary purppse would be for cutting of basic shaft keyways, not heavy hogging nor precision surfacing. Thoughts/opinions?
 
"Cleveland" machinery are imports that come through Cleveland Machinery Sales, Inc in Cleveland Ohio. They have a pretty good reputation throughout the Central Ohio and Western PA area. They are rugged machines that are built with what appears to be pretty good cast iron bases. Cleveland Machinery is over fifty years old and so they have established a faithful following over the past half century. They dealt primarily with used machines in the early days but have branched into a line of imports that they sell under their own name now. They can be reached at 216-741-8900 or www.clevelandmachinery.com. Hope this helps.

Joe
 
Isn't that the job imported by Cleveland Automatic Machine Co.? Cleveland Automatic was a screw machine builder in, guess, Cleveland. It was bought by John Lenz of Dayton OH. John Lenz is the inventor and pantent holder for the o-ring sealing hydraulic tube fitting and somewhere around late 40's early 50's he bought Cleveland Automatic. I don't recall if they were in Cleveland or if Lenz moved them to Cincinnati but while owned by Lenz they were on Spring Grove Ave in Cincinnati. I reckon Lenz purchased them to produce his fitting line, or perhaps they were ripe for the picking after the war contracts cancelled and surplus sold.

http://www.lenzinc.com/content.cfm?form_template=about

Out of the Cleveland Automatic line came their large screw machines (and they were big) and a whole series of die casting machines, both cold and hot chamber, from 50 up to advertised 1000 ton locking force. They attempted to expand into chipcutting with a series of milling machines and they looked like adequate machines from the #2 to #5 size Cinci's. I last saw new ones on their floor in the early 80's and they looked like they were 20 years old then, so I would put them to be produced say from 1960 - 1970?. If I recall right they were Italian or Spanish. Had knobs that looked oddly similar to the Cinci green aqua plastic with flatted top that Cinci used in the sixties. These 4 or 5 machines I saw looked like derilects that were canabalized. There were also MANY large screw machines scattered about the building. I believe, though, the milling line was an imported product that they half heartedly sold and as they are long gone they have no support. However who they bought them from may interchange and those here more versed in worldly machine tools may recognize a similarity from a pic.
All of the Cleveland parts, fixtures, patterns etc are gone or sold off and there was a used machine dealer in the building named Rudy Skoff (RMS).

Edit: After re-thinking this, it wasn't til perhaps the 60's that Lenz bought Cleveland Automatic (Camco, a contraction for Cleveland Automatic Machine Co.), and perhaps it was a last attempt by Cleveland to expand their product line to start offering the mills. Lenz still owns the humungous Spring Grove building with many tennants and perhaps parts are squirreled away in there somewhere!!
 
Joe- The mills I'm talking about look from the 60's/early 70's era with a lot of simalarities to the Cincinnati's and K&T's from same time. Bluchip described the handles/knobs very well. If they are imports, I'm pretty impressed with them. I haven't called the Cleveland dealer you posted but will do to check for parts.

Bluchip-I've seen a large number of Cleveland presses (OBI if I remember) but never a mill nor screw machine from them.
 
It sounds as if the mill you're talking about is one of these Cleveland Automatics. The Logo is a black placard and the C in Cleveland is a font that has a flat top. I had thought they were imported...perhaps they bought them from Cinci and relabelled them...doubt that though.
The screw machines they made were BIG...40 or 60hp area. Big spindle holes. They were good quality as I hear.
The mills as I recall looked respectable along the lines, quality wise, of a Rambaudi.
I don't think Cleveland Automatic was related to the OBI manufacturer. They ventured into the Die Cast machine arena about mid 40's. I kind of Googled around for a Cleveland screw machine and have not found one. I suspect the mill in question, if it's one that I spoke of, is going to be a rare bird.

Try to post a picture for us...I'd love to see if it's what I'm thinking of!!
 
Bluchip-
I got more info from the dealer about this mill. You got it right, it is an import from Spain. It's a little rough and definitely has seen it's share of cutting oil. If I ever drive near this dealer (he's a bit away from me), I'll look at the machine and get a feel for it's quality. Here are some pics.

Thanks to Joe and Bluchip for the info.

Cleveland1.jpg

Cleveland4.jpg
Cleveland2.jpg
Cleveland3.jpg
 
I know this is an old thread, but I just picked one of these up, seems very complete and fairly well tooled. Hopefully pick it up monday.

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Its home. Sounds good, hardly any wear, 1969, Rapids all work, got the vertical/universal/horizontal??? head with it, 4 different arbors, half dozen cat 50 holders.

Spindle motor wont stay running unless I hold button, trying to trace control circuit an accidental touched 240v when I had my meter set on DC and proceeded to blow control transformer and ruin my leads.
c6b4a5685158f461c5a1215f656af5d8.jpg
b06c5d51441d65b6faeacfbce8f1f512.jpg


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