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DanASM's Shop

DanASM

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Mar 11, 2019
For the last 3 years I have been talking to a company about these Brown and Sharpes they have in storage. I guess they bought out a local watch company and put the jobs on their cnc swiss screw machines. I guess they took the Brownies out of the building as a favor to the company they just bought out and just put them in storage.

They sat in storage for a few years and they tried to get one or two running but didn’t have the best of luck. People don’t like getting dirty and they aren’t big money makers if you cant get them running.

I finally got a chance to get down there to see these machines. They are all “00” machines, many with pickoff/slotting attachments. I think they had 7-10 machines that were running when they took them out of service and have a few parts machines as well.

Lots of cam sets and tooling.

I am taking everything and going through it and keeping the winners and scrapping the losers. They are perfectly fine with it. I am pretty sure I can get 4-5 running machines I can keep long running jobs on so I don’t have to break them down and set up new jobs constantly. Let them sit until the job comes up and run the piss out of it.

I may even get a job or 2 that was running on them when they bought the company. They have notes for a miniature part that has a 3.5 second cycle time.

Anyway. Thought I would share the news. I will now have over 25 Brown and Sharpe Screw Machines.
 
Sounds like you have a plan....just out of interest what would it cost to fix the dud machines? and would it be worthwhile stacking and racking them if in the future you expand and need more machines ( fix later ) or they have one part you need later on to make it worthwhile. Once you scap them they are gone...
Obviously if you get more running you can make more money per unit.
 
Sounds like you have a plan....just out of interest what would it cost to fix the dud machines? and would it be worthwhile stacking and racking them if in the future you expand and need more machines ( fix later ) or they have one part you need later on to make it worthwhile. Once you scap them they are gone...
Obviously if you get more running you can make more money per unit.

It would be my guess is the bad ones need parts that are obsolete and hard to find, or prohibitively expensive. They might be worth keeping to scavenge parts from from if the OP has the space.
 
Did they all have the old school gravity bar feeds on them or have those been replaced? It seems like those things are hard to find. I am using one on a CNC Swiss I got that I bought with a useless to me 12 tube Gatling gun style bar loader that was custom fitted for a dedicated small diameter material job. I got lucky and a fellow small shop owner gave me one he was about the throw away.
 
Are they belt or chain (spindle) drive.
For about 30 years I would buy every 2G B&S that I could find
locally and have bought about a dozen machines sight unseen off EBay.
I have 18 machines that are under power and may run as many as 2-8 at a time
with 2 operators. I have about 15 machines stored in a warehouse for backup
or for parts machines.

I have I think about 4 3/4" #2 chain drive machines that I might sell if anyone is interested .
They would about 2K each Loaded from 76053.

Good Luck with your Brownies
 
All machines are chain driven.

I did not see bar feeders but he did have a few stands he will give me.

2 of the machines were picked for parts and wont be fixable.

The other 7-10 machines were running when taken out of service and may still be set up for production.

I saw a bunch of cam sets with layout sheets and setup sheets that they used in the 60's. He said I can have them all and if I can run them on the Brownies they will take them off the Star swiss machines they have and give the jobs to me.

I always wanted to leave a bunch of machines set up and in a storage container to be brought out to the floor and run when the jobs come up.

I have 4 "00" machines already but 1 is a parts machine, 1 needs a little tlc but I dont have the time to dig into it, and another just started giving me problems feeding out to length.

So right now I have 1 good running "00". I will get 4 in a row all running good parts, then keep 4 others in the corner "just in case". Then I can take 2 and put them aside for parts. The rest I can strip for anything worth saving.

He said 1 part they will let me run has a 3.5 second cycle time and they ran 350k a year/ish. Thats only like 12 weeks of machine time a year. It seems like it would be more.

Davenport Multi spindles take a lot of my smaller diameter work. I havent needed these machines much in a while due to this and China/India.

I like the fact they still have all the documents and camsets, tooling, etc. I told them if the jobs ran on brownies before than they sure can be run on them again. They dont have anyone who knows how to set them up or run and maintain them. I happen to be that guy.
 
Are they belt or chain (spindle) drive.
For about 30 years I would buy every 2G B&S that I could find
locally and have bought about a dozen machines sight unseen off EBay.
I have 18 machines that are under power and may run as many as 2-8 at a time
with 2 operators. I have about 15 machines stored in a warehouse for backup
or for parts machines.

I have I think about 4 3/4" #2 chain drive machines that I might sell if anyone is interested .
They would about 2K each Loaded from 76053.

Good Luck with your Brownies

I bough a few 2g machines last year. I was going to run fittings on them but the customer disappeared. I have 4 2G machines (3x 1.5" cap, 1 x 1.250" cap)

They are bulletproof.
 
Since this thread got moved to the My Shop and Photos section, it would be appropriate to see photos. Just saying.

Never run a Brownie, seen a couple in person for a few minutes. But they is machines and we is machinists.
 
What do you do when cams need a touch up, do you have a shaper set up? That is what we used back when I last touched a cam machine over 30 years ago. Not sure when CNC cam cutting machines came out, a friend worked at a place that got one in about 1990.
 
What do you do when cams need a touch up, do you have a shaper set up? That is what we used back when I last touched a cam machine over 30 years ago. Not sure when CNC cam cutting machines came out, a friend worked at a place that got one in about 1990.

I never really have to touch up cams. If I alter one I just use a grinding wheel and belt sander. They dont need to be perfect unless running big qty runs.

I can cut phenolic cams easy with a jig saw. They dont last very long.

I dont make them from scratch but I do know a guy who does. Dont know what he uses but its not expensive. They get heat treated as well.

If I were to have it my way I would draw it up on solidworks and send it over to my waterjet guy. It would probly cost me more than to send it to the guy I know now and just forget about it for $200 or so.

I also just got a button screw 7/16" x 1/4-28 with a slot. This would go great on these new to me machines. I wonder if the guy giving me the machines sent this customer over. I told him I dont have any slotting attachments on the smaller machines so the ones he is giving me will be an improvement.


EDIT:

The way they used to do it back in the day was amazing. Lots of math involved. Ive seen the pics out of the book and I feel like I've seen a video or 2 on it as well.
 
I used to cut them out on a mill with a Dynapath control.
Dynapath was OK with cutting a rising arc in one line - even back on the System 10 (blue) control from 1985!

That control can spoil you!


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
Do you have any attachments for your 00 machines? My CVA has a screw slotting and transfer attachment. I've never used it. A high speed cross drilling attachment would be something to see.
 
Do you have any attachments for your 00 machines? My CVA has a screw slotting and transfer attachment. I've never used it. A high speed cross drilling attachment would be something to see.

These new to me machines have slotting attachments on most of them. I have 1 Slotting attachment for an OG machine and just got another for a 2G machine we got last year. So I have them for all sizes at this point.

I made a cross drilling attachment for an OG, it was pneumatic and I did not like it. I have it still but never use it.

Camscan: I lost that fittings job I showed you. I still have those machines set up but they dont run now.

These new to me machines have a lot of job boxes with custom cut cams and tooling. They have setup sheets just like back in the day. I havent gone through it yet but its all there just the way it was in the 60's-70's. I will have to post some pics when I can. You would get a kick out of these.

Got an old Waltham Screw Machine lathe they made to make watch parts. I guess there wasnt a machine that could make their parts so they made the machine themselves. Ran them by belt off the driveshaft on the ceiling connected to the rivers flow.
 








 
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