Thread: Perrin Freres Milling Machine

And I was thinking it was going to be a slide show.

in Moutier next to the tornos is a wonderful lathe museum

Yes, when Felix and Louis Perrin started up in 1923 there were already three makers of swiss screw machines in Moutier. Tornos is the last name standing, having absorbed the other two along the way.

I have more historic details that I'm translating from French that I'll add here as spice along the way.

Gregoire

Here's a few fresh photos of what we have so far: The right side of the machine, the junction box arrangement with handy 240v power point, and the coolant pump.

More photos:

1. The mounting arrangement for the vertical spindle and horizontal arbor support. Very chunky bearings supporting the MT4 spindle.

2. The top oil reservoir with cotton waste leading down to oiling holes which feed the now defunct leadscrew. Note that they are bone dry and have never seen oil.

3. The two speed 440v motor shown on a hand trolley for scale. A two-man lift, yet its only rated at 1.3 / 2 h.p. Swiss made, plate to come later.

Here are other views:

1. Showing the cutting speed chart (Vitesses de coupe). Below it is the tray for gauge blocks for precision locating. Note the original scraping marks evident. They are the finest scraping marks I've ever seen...they can't be more than 2mm in any direction

2. The spindle as seen from above. The gear, bearings and hardware are as good as I've ever seen

3.Spindle speed selector chart. 1200 rpm max on both horizontal and vertical spindle. (The Deckel mill in comparison has a higher vertical spindle speed)

Here's more slides. Happy Bob?

1. The serial number plate. Note the logo-that's the only place I've seen that.

2. Plaque inside the gear change door showing feed speeds with each of the eight combinations of the four pairs of gears and two motor speeds. Old school.

3.The motor attachment plate, heavy tee-slots for adjusting the motor's vertical location, and hence belt tension. Cool, n'est pas?

4. That gauge block tray again.

Some more trivia: The mill was originally called the PF-1 (Perrin Freres). Deckel, who sold the FP-1 mill, sued to have them change the model number and hence the U-1 moniker. The Un-Deckel?

Here's a night vision shot of the Perrin's feed gear shaft arrangement. The upper shaft comes in from the back of the machine, driven by a chain from the main shaft. It in turn drives an intermediate shaft. A pair of gears are fitted to the intermediate and final drive shaft. The gear pairs total 100 teeth, as can be seen on the speed chart above.

A shear pin is fitted to the final drive shaft-this allows easily repairable safety for the feeds. (Unlike my lathe which has nylon safety gears which are buried four hours up the guts of it.)

For contrast, my Deckel FP-1 is shown in white.
The Deckel's change gears have been removed in this photo.

"In 1923, two mechanic brothers, Felix and Louis Perrin, start a workshop at a place called "Corner of the Mill" in Moutier, where they create a company in their name, producing cutting stamps for timepieces. At the same time they revise or repair small watch-makers lathes and develop a rolling machine with pivoting clockwork gears.

Besides the two brothers involved, the company employs two mechanics and two apprentices. After some initial difficulties due to high unemployment in the area of ​​watchmaking, they moved in 1929 to Rue de la Gare in an old barn they transform into mechanical workshop. For the record, it is interesting to note that Louis Perrin was also a director of a private railway company, Solothurn-Moutier, and as such he would sometimes take the seat of the locomotive engineer."

"Rue de la Gare"= "Station Street" which makes it sound a bit less exotic

I have tried to quickly fix up some of Google's machine translations of this article which appears here: 2-Chapitre - Enfer ou purgatoire - Trois épopées industrielles

But 1929 was also the year of the cataclysm on Wall Street stock market, followed by the Great Depression of the thirties. After a few attempts at industrialization, more or less successful and sometimes epic (automatic coin sorters, a milking machine, continuously variable automobile transmission), the company manufactures jigs and spare parts for armaments (including templates and components for the Lebel rifles for the French Army)

Just before the Second World War and that kind of business is particularly profitable. For the record, the oldest residents of Moutier still remember the case of a small local industrialists too quickly enriched amazing late night patrons at the pub around him, lighting his cigars with banknotes . Another, on whom fortune had smiled again too fast, had the bad reputation to wash his car with champagne.

But back to Perrin Brothers. In 1939, the company changed its name from the status of limited partnership to that of company: Perrin Frères SA. Appearing on the board of directors was Charles Perrin (prematurely deceased in 1956), a banker who provided a financial contribution as important as welcome.

The direction is immediately taken to the manufacture of machine tools. First drill presses and drills on stand (or base, if equipped with a cross-table model TX-25.) Then a universal milling machine is developed: the model PF1 subsequently called U1 after a plagiarism complaint lodged by the manufacturer Deckel in Munich (a German company already selling a competing model called FP1, so a pre-existing trademark almost similar to the language and can thus be misleading).

Its evolution, the model U0 is a universal milling machine with lots of accessories, which is sold in Switzerland and elsewhere.



I think this clears up the confusion on Tony's lathes.co.uk regarding which was a Christen and which a Perrin: they were both Perrins. Obviously those Perrin boys thought the U-1 wasn't worth evolving as they instead made the much more advanced U-0 (pronounced "uh-oh")

Well, I cant be whinging about a lack of photos. Thank you Greg.

Not trying to push my luck but is there a chance of some detail shots of the overarm. You are correct, it does comply with typical French non convention. French stuff does have a particular appeal as a result.

BT

Let's see what else we've got:

1. Anyone recognise this inventory tag? The machine was apparently sold approximately 6 years ago at a local auction house in Bendigo. We are trying to ascertain from whence it spewed so that we might go on a parts hunt. (Cue Law & Order theme music)

2 & 3. The black and white arty photos (a tribute to AB's wonderful stuff)
are of the data plates on the coolant pump. The one from Frank Brewer's (Franz Bieri) kid has a serial number 58/27694. I'm betting that means it was fabriqué in 1958, which would be the right decade for this machine.

4. A brass oil sight for the main spindle gearbox. I find those things delightfully archaic.

5. It's life, Jim, but not as we know it. One of the sump strainers, alive with a jelly-like substance that smells like death, only without the charm.

Last month I discovered those ubiquitous* blue shop towels at Costco. They are around $20 for ten rolls. Here's one roll of them now, and a litre of turps.
N.B.: my nifty pink rubbish bin was a gift from my daughter.

Next to them a shot of two change gears, Perrin on top, 1948 Deckel below:

*ubiquitous if you see many American forums. Those shop towels are the best things since sliced bread.

'Cause lead screws and rags don't mix well, I've nearly weened myself off them. I use the the Coles equivalent of the Matt Preston endored paper towel. Super Cheap had some substantial blue towels but they were fairly expensive. They have dropped them for an inferior version. Unfortunately, Costco hasn't made it across the Nullarbor.