Reasons for Slant Bed

My name is Jerry Romito. I am brand new to this forum, but I worked at W&S in engineering for 21 years from 1968-1989. About half of that time was at the Research Center, starting under Joe Volk, and the rest at TMD, again under Joe Volk until he left W&S, and then as VP of Engineering.

Some time ago Jack Ubersax listed here reasons for the slant bed, which caught my eye, since I collaborated with Joe Volk to write that article in 1971, originally to help Russ Hill in a competitive battle. It was actually quite easy to write, since the brilliant W&S design work was already done, and all we had to do was explain it. Reading Jack's posting was quite a thrill for me, to see the article after all these years and realize that is was still of interest.

So from an engineering point of view, why the slant bed instead of the vertical bed like a competator of yours in the southwestern part of the state?

John

John:

I suggest that you refer to paragraphs 6 and 7 of my post dated 2/14/07 for the major reasons W/S chose slant bed as opposed to vertical bed configuration.

I thank Jerry Romoto for his kind words, in response to that posting. He was an "inside guy" in those years and understood well why the company went in that direction.

Jack Ubersax

John,

Sorry for taking so long to reply to you. I hope that you didn't take my pride of W&S engineering as being arrogant. On the contrary, my pride of W&S extends to admiration for a great many of the excellent machine tool companies that formed our industry. Companies like Warner & Swasey, Pratt & Whitney, Jones & Lamson, Cincinnati Milicron, Giddings & Lewis, Kearney & Trecker, G.A.Gray, Bullard, and others (forgive me for those I left out), formed a collective legacy that defined a whole segment of the American machine tool industry that for generations stood for ingenuity, quality, ruggedness, and productivity. Over the years I've met and worked with many brilliant engineers from these companies, and I've admired and envied their skills. It's hard to figure out what happened to such a great industry, but that shouldn't detract from its significance in history, and time marches on.