American Machinist Memories

This is for the few people who truly appreciate the complexity that goes into building a reliable automobile. And when you factor in the necessity of producing massive numbers of carefully machined parts, the complexity increases immensely.

Here you explore the production methods used to build the real innards of the automobile: valves, pistons, engines blocks, transmissions, oil pans, steering gear, radiators, and so on. But not on modern autos. This is how it was done in the days when the demand for automobiles outstripped supply.

Explore the shops of Crane, Winton, Hupp, Studebaker, Cadillac, White, Pierce-Arrow, Ford and others. Watch has workmen lift a Model "T" block into an upside down drill press and with one pull of the handle drill all the holes for main bearing caps. Watch as bar stock is cut, bent into horseshoes and magnetized to become the "T" magneto. Watch as 95 tubes are quickly assembled into a "T" Radiator.

You'll watch workman in Birmingham England ram up molds and pour aluminum into them to create crankcases for Daimler engines. You'll explore the machine that takes a roll of flat stock and creates radiator tubes with both circular and oval cross-sections, and does if fast! See how wire wheels were made.

You'll see the countless workbenches where gangs of men assembled "T" engines before the assembly line was installed. You'll watch as the main bearings in a Pierce-Arrow block were line-reamed rather than hand-scraped as before. You'll see workmen putting wooden wheels on the rear axle of a White touring car, and dual wheels on the huge chain drive White truck. You'll also see the clever way White cut enormous rear wheel sprockets.

If you've ever had an old Model "A" or "T" or a classic car you know that they were much simpler than today's autos. Yet I've many times wondered how so many of these vehicles could have been produced back before World War I.

The machinery used was only one step more complicated than the lathes and milling machines that you and I use. In fact you'll see many engine lathes equipped with fixtures and jigs to bore wrist-pin holes, universal joints and son on. It's fun to imagine what it must have been like to be part of the expanding auto industry, because so many of the mass production procedures are methods you and I could have come up with. You'll see none of the complicated machines that today take in a rough casting at one end and turn out a running engine at the other. It was far simpler then.

Great book for old time auto buffs and restorers. Great ideas for jigs, fixtures and solutions to difficult problems. Fun reading for people who work metal. And yes, maybe you can start turning out old-time autos on that assembly line you'll build in your garage!

Fun reading. One big picture book. Fascinating documentation on an important industry at a pivotal moment in its history. Get a copy. I'm convinced you'll like it. 8-1/2 x 11 softcover 160 pages

No. 22954 ... $16.95