The Hercus No. 3 T and C Grinder

[Anorak Bob]

In the Ebay thread, Micheal " Localele" asked me whether the Hercus No. 3 Tool and Cutter Grinder was much of a machine in it's day. Hard for me to answer because I've had no experience in using it for its intended purpose. And I've never used any other T and C grinder to make a comparison. From the wear apparent on my machine, there were some shortcomings in the design. Z travel on the Hercus is by means of knee movement. Other manufacturers achieved the travel by mounting the grinding spindle on a travelling column and protection of the column was afforded by a bellows or telescoping guards. On the No.3, grinding dust falls onto the Z dovetail ways. No way wipers were fitted. It would have been left to the operator to hopefully cover the ways with a rag or such.

The No. 3 is handicapped by its table vee ways. They don't offer the same delicate feel as does a roller equipped table*. The absence of table end extensions on the Hercus, combined with a previous owners racking of the table to the extent of exposing the ways, has led to heavy wear on the rear vee way.

The machine is basic in its design when compared to other tool and cutter grinders of that era. Attached are a few images of other fairly basic machines from that period.
The Brown and Sharpe No.10 is from 1940 (not too basic). The No. 5 from 1958. The KO Lees from the mid sixties.

My Hercus maybe resurrectable. Surveying the wear will be the first task.

Hercus improved the grinder with the introduction of the No.1. Brochure attached in following post.

BT

* a comment based on the feel traversing an Astra AR5 -E table owned by a forum member.

[Anorak Bob]

The previous post had two purposes, to answer Micheal's question and also to highlight the areas of wear on one of these machines if someone else was keen to purchase a similar grinder. Arming yourself with an indicator and mag base when looking at a possible purchase can avoid a lot of work down the track.

Here is the No. 1.

[Graziano]

Hi Bob, do you know when the No.1 was first introduced?, that brochure looks like it's about mid 1970's vintage at a first guess.

Cheers,
Mark

[Anorak Bob]

Hello Mark,

I have a couple of scanned No.1 brochures. The one not posted shows the Hercus address as being on the corner of Beans Road and Anderson Street, Thebarton. The phone number has 6 digits.

I have a scanned copy of the No.3 Surface Grinder. The address is the same as the posted brochure, 56 Dew Street, Thebarton. The phone number has 7 digits. Next to the printer, Harman and Jacka's initials, is 78009. I would think then that the brochure harks from '78.

Knowing the year the the phone numbers changed would narrow it down. Here is a comment from Whirlpool -

In 1971 I spent about 18 months restrapping ARF and ARM exchanges in Adelaide for the conversion from 6 to 7 digit numbering. I can recall saying to a fellow technician as we worked in a permanent cloud of solder smoke – what would it be like if computers could do all this!

Now just to make it a bit more confusing. The 260 lathe was introduced in June of 1975. I have a 260 Accessory brochure. It has the Hercus address as Beans Road and Anderson Street. The phone number is the same 7 digit number as shown for the Dew Street address.

So maybe the No.1 was introduced in the early seventies.

BT

[Michael G]

This is getting odd.
I can remember visiting the Hercus factory before they moved to Regency Park on the corner of Stirling and Anderson St this probably would have been late 80's/ early 90's.
I've also found a reference that Beans Road changed it's name to Dew Street at some stage.
Dew Street and Anderson Street are on opposite sides of the main through road (West Thebarton Rd/ Phillips street - it changes), so it is possible that once they had the same name - that is, the whole road started as Beans, whole road renamed to Dew and then the northern part was renamed again to Stirling at a later date.
This is an old style industrial area that has been revitalised a bit as use changes, so these changes are all possible

Michael

[Graziano]

Bob, I see Tony at lathes.co has what looks like a No.3 photo and describes it as a No.1 grinder, so his claim of it dating from the 1960's might be inaccurate. As far as the 260's go, I'd never thought of their date of introduction, just that my high school had them new in late 1984.

[Ueee]

Bob, I see Tony at lathes.co has what looks like a No.3 photo and describes it as a No.1 grinder, so his claim of it dating from the 1960's might be inaccurate. As far as the 260's go, I'd never thought of their date of introduction, just that my high school had them new in late 1984.

Whilst doing some research into blondie i found that his leblond info is a bit shakey too. I have sent him a couple of emails, one about my little lathe and one about blondie but he has never replied to them.

Ewan

[Graziano]

He did communicate ok with me and ended up using pics of my Graziano SAG 180 and Advance lathes on his site as well as revising his Graziano entry.

[Anorak Bob]

The machine Tony has illustrated on his site is a No.3a. He is describing the 3a and actually mentions it as such near the end of his (or the factory's) description. My 1960 McPhersons catatogue shows an illustration of a 3a. My '49 and '51 catalogues feature the 3 with it's prominent table traversing handwheel.

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BT