1905 pat. B&S dividing head-use or put in museum?

[Cannonmn]

Have this ancient dividing head-has collet now, is it threaded for lathe Chuck too? Anyone have experience using this model? How was the slotted faceplate thing used? This is a large head, maybe 15" tall, my aching back says it weighs over 100 lbs.
Anyone have a manual for it? It seems made primarily for indirect indexing; can't see any positive stops for direct indexing although the slotted faceplate is graduated in degrees and the one lever on it seems to be for locking the spindle.

[dalee100]

Hi,

If you need a dividing head, use it. Otherwise sell it and get it out of the shop and get something you will use with the proceeds.

Dalee

[Mcgyver]

marvel for a bit at how they made the female dovetail, then use or sell it.....I just don't think there are many machine museums out there (3rd option, start one and become a tax free charity lol)

[flylo]

If you need it use it & when you don't anymore give it to a museum.

[ngriff]

No advice on whether to use or not. Looks like it's been used already, you won't hurt it any worse.

But how DID they make that circular dovetail? would that have been using some kind of specialized shaper operation? A rotating cutter would work for that size of dovetail me thinks?

Nathan

[jmkasunich]

Set it up on the faceplate of a vertical turret lathe? Could probably put four at a time on the machine.

[Mcgyver]

But how DID they make that circular dovetail? would that have been using some kind of specialized shaper operation? A rotating cutter would work for that size of dovetail me thinks?

imo It had to be a single point cutter, lathe or vertical lathe, something with a single point cutter and rotating work....else you wouldn't get the smooth curve on what normally would be the flat or horizontal part of the dovetail

[Danl]

I think I'd take .200" off the mounting face to clean it up cosmetically, and put it to use.

Could they have made that dovetail with a specialized lathe? How would one scrape it in, let alone test it for accuracy? And without a gib, no slop adjustment?

Dan

[mickeyf]

Note that a "Patented Date" may be many decades earlier than a "Date of Manufacture". A serial number would be a better indicator of actual age.

[Bob Fisher]

Set it up on the faceplate of a vertical turret lathe? Could probably put four at a time on the machine.

I, for one, would love to see the set up on a faceplate to do four at once! Even with just one, how do you know when you have reached your dimension. Not much room for error when you have to have a given dimension between the two sides. I'm impressed with the precision. Bob.

[becksmachine]

I, for one, would love to see the set up on a faceplate to do four at once! Even with just one, how do you know when you have reached your dimension. Not much room for error when you have to have a given dimension between the two sides. I'm impressed with the precision. Bob.

Now I don't know for sure what may or may not be hidden under one of those washers, but everyone is assuming that the two pieces of the dovetail are a precision fit with each other that only requires a little tension on the clamping bolts to render it locked.

However there could be cylindrical inserts under those washers that would shove the opposite dovetail into it's mating surface achieving the same locking effect with the 2 sections of dovetail being a relatively loose fit.

It needs disassembly and cleaning, so maybe we will find out?

Dave

[JCHannum]

It is a B&S dividing head, no different than those of that style made today. The base and head rotate on the circular dovetail and are locked with a long split cotter affair. The collet adapter should be removeable from the rear and it should have a threaded spindle nose. They were usually furnished with the common dog driver and a three jaw chuck as well as a set of gearing for machining spirals and such among other accessories

The original B&S has a 10" swing, front end of spindle thread is Ntl. Std. 2-1/2"-4-1/2.

[Cannonmn]

Thanks, if you ever run across the manual for that exact one, let me know. If same as current ones, then the little bent lever on the side must be the 40-tooth-gear disconnect, where I thought it was a brake. I'll have to check it out further and maybe do some top-level-only disassembly as exploded diagrams of later heads show about 792 parts.

[michigan doug]

I think I'd take .200" off the mounting face to clean it up cosmetically, and put it to use.

Dan

You meant 0.020" right? twenty thou, not 200 thou?


I'm sure it will still function very well as a dividing head. Do you need a dividing head?

[Cannonmn]

You meant 0.020" right? twenty thou, not 200 thou?


I'm sure it will still function very well as a dividing head. Do you need a dividing head?

Dan can speak for himself, but I'll interject that the scars on the face are so deep you'd need about 0.200 removed to improve the looks very much.

As far as my using it, I have a modern one that does what I need and is now adapted to my table. The old one looks like it was made for 0.700 width table slots, but adapted by a later user for 0.690 slots, so I may have to make a new foot/feet due to my 11/16 slot width, but have yet to see if it'll fit my slot. It is way too heavy for one-man lift onto table so I'll use an engine hoist that I use to handle the rotary table. First though I'll check whether my K&T 2D mill has clearance for that large head, I'm pretty sure that using it with spindle vertical won't work on the K&T.