P&W Jig Borers

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Just found this : **LINK**

http://manuals.chudov.com/Pratt-And-Whitney-Co/Jig-Borer-Positioning.pdf

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Magnificent Beasts ….

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Now that is what is called a big milling machine. Never knew they made such large ones.

Steve.

[Anonymous]

Posted by Steviegtr on 27/04/2020 23:16:27:

Now that is what is called a big milling machine

Errr, it's a jig borer, not a milling machine. Of course one can use it for milling, but that's not it's purpose. It was intended for the accurate placing of holes for jigs and fixtures. It would be capable of working to a tenth or so, long before the days of DROs

Milling machines go far bigger than the picture in the link. Search for bed mills.

Andrew

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

I spent a very happy 9 months of my apprenticeship in a temperature controlled room housing the jig boring machines. The biggest was a Genevoise (Spelling ?) with a powered rotary table built in to the bed. Apprentices had to start on an old Newall machine.

During my apprenticeship I also operated a "Keller" copy mill which may have been made by P&W ?

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

Steve, If you want to see some big mills Google Waldrich Siegen, Droop and Rein. Big boys toys.

[Andrew EvansParticipant @andrewevans67134]

That P&W manual is really nicely written. Very different to modern manuals.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

P&W certainly made the “Keller’s” in our tool room. There were 8 BG22 in one bay but to confuse me No1 and No2 were Droop and Reins with Cincinnati Acramatic 4 numerical control fitted No1&2 Keller’s had been retired. The Keller’s were tracer controlled copy mills for auto body die manufacture. The mills were large so to operate them you worked on a platform that was part of the cutter head so you had good visibility of the cutter and tracer, all the controls were accessed on the platform. The regular maintenance job was the clutch plates on the magnetic clutches of which there were two on each axis. The toolroom was a filthy place to work as all the dies were cast iron, you wouldn’t believe you could see your reflection in cast iron but the dies for skin panels were polished by hand to a very high finish. A shame it closed in 2000 as BMW did not need any more tooling capacity and Cowley was focused as a body manufacturing and assembly plant.

Mike

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

If you want a big machine, in the 60s, in Harlescott Lane in Shrewsbury there was a company making boring mills so big that they started life in a hole big enough to take a house, and eventually grew to about the same height above ground level. Interestingly, the slideways were lined with Formica, because the coefficient of friction, when oiled was lower that of metal on metal.

As far as I know Genovese jig borer type instruments are still used in the calibration room, with in the standards room, at my former employers. (A place where they would measure and tell you the errors present on your slip gauges! )

Howard

[Stuart BridgerParticipant @stuartbridger82290]

SIP were the kings of jig boring, Société Genevoise d'Instruments de Physique

**LINK**

Interesting use case, that I did see was here **LINK**

[JAParticipant @ja]

I have a friend who operated a Geni, they were only ever known as Genis where I worked, (5E model, I think) for a good part of his working life. The factory had two, side by side, and only four persons were allowed to use them, two on days and two on nights. In their later days they were in an area called "The Fitters' Mod Pool". They were only ever used for one off jobs such as machining access in large very costly parts for instrumentation (thermocouples, strain gauges etc) and such like. They had to be available for urgent jobs at all times. There were long periods when they did nothing and, sometimes the management turned a blind eye to foreigners. I knew someone who had a Vauxhall Cavalier cylinder head skimmed on one.

A few years ago Home and Workshop Machinery was selling one. It seemed quite cheap but would not fit in my workshop.

A link: http://www.lathes.co.uk/sip/index.html – Stuart beat me to the link

JA

Edited By JA on 28/04/2020 12:35:08

Edited By JA on 28/04/2020 12:40:11

Edited By JA on 28/04/2020 12:41:55

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

If you are going to install large machinery then you need a hole, this one was for a new press line in our pressshop

[peter burgess 2Participant @peterburgess2]

as an apprentice pattern maker most of our work was on prototype models and models to go on various copy milling machines highly detailed very accurate models mainly formed originally in hardwood then plaster casts or resin casts off mainly for car bbody tooling / aero industry and ship building oh how things change!!

toolmakers i was at bought i think 4 sip genovios ? machines plus kellers great machines

days gone by !!

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