American Machinist Memories
Machine Shop 1900-01
A
hundred years ago American Machinist Magazine was written for the professional
who used machine tools very much like those we use, usually just a bit
larger in size. And the machinists would often send the magazine some
trick or set up they had created to solve some problem they encountered.
They would argue over the best ways to true up a worn chuck, case-harden
some component, or use a dividing head. True, most of the articles are
of little value to us, but scattered throughout the same pages in 
which
Osborne wrote his wild tales of the Oil
Country are some great articles that entertain, educate, and stimulate
ideas. You get those articles here.
Check out details of the newer small lathes on the market like the small lathe created to machine taps with 200 to 300 threads per inch. Or the small lathe to create arbors for time pieces. A couple of experienced machinists debate the best way to true up worn spring chucks (we call them collets these days.) You get tips on making drills and taps, cutting square threads, making a square and more.
One
lengthy debate centers around using an indexing head to cut a prime number
teeth on a gear such as 37, 43, or 71 which at first sight seems to be impossible
to do. Not so!
Another interesting article tells of the development of interferometry to measure straight edges and threads to accuracies of millionths of an inch with light beams.
These days you and I would use a dial mike to precise center
a piece of drill rod in a chuck. But in the old days you used a test indicator,
a simple device that magnified round out so it could be eliminated. I've often
thought an interesting little project might be to create a variety of such
indicators because there almost as many different designs as there expert
machinists. 
They
are small, precise instruments, some of which are very ingenious in their
designs. Here, you get two.
Some of this is fun, like the filthy dirty inaccurate machine shop one writer describes, and others quite educational like hobbing worm wheels in a lathe. It's just the very best from the pages of American Machinist Magazine. And, of course, it's heavily illustrated. I think you'll like it. Get a copy! 8-1/2 x 11 softcover 80 pages
No. 22741 ... $11.95
CONTENTS
A Tap-Threading Lathe - Threading Tools and a Grooving
Fixture * A Shaping Machine With Novel Features * Improved Bench Lathe * An
Improved Steady Rest * Handles, Ball-Cranks and Hand Wheels * Machine-Tool
Handles Charted * Standard Machine Handles * White Metal or Gunmetal for Bearings
* Truing Spring Chucks * Truing Chuck Jaws * One of the Earliest Milling Machines
* A Spherical Grinding Rig * Cutting Spiral Gears on the Lathe * More Early
Milling Machines * A Staff Lathe * An Antique Drill Press in an Antique Shop
* Boring and Turning Flywheels and Pulleys * A Big Right and Left Steel Screw
* A New System for the Manufacture of Steel Balls * Some Tricks in Spacing
Gear Teeth Spacing for Prime Numbers of Teeth by a Jack-in-the Box Mechanism
* The Making of a Real Square * The Making of a Real Square Using Test Blocks
in Place of a Square * Boring Head- and Foot-stocks of Lathes * Threading
a 5-inch Pipe Without Dies or Lathe * A Knife-Edge Square * A Non-Wabbling
Wabble Drill * Making Small Inside Micrometer Gages * A Lathe Indicator *
Rectifying Defects in a Band-Saw Mill * A Large Bench Lathe * A Machine Shop
on Wheels * Three Box Tools and Some Other Fixtures * Some Points of Experience
in Making Twist Drills, Taps and Dies * Tube-Forming Tools * The Interferometer
* Design for Special Screw Cutting Lathe * The Three-Bearing Lathe * A Test
Indicator * Spacing the Teeth of a Rack * Cutting Square Threaded Screws *
Hobbing Worm Wheels in a Lathe * A Case-Hardening Job * Handy Vise Attachments.
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