Thread: A treasure from Bob

Recently in Ewan's dividing head thread the Brown and Sharpe "Practical Treatise on Milling and Milling Machines" was mentioned. I expressed an interest in seeing a copy so Bob promptly sent me a copy that he had as a spare. It's a gem of a book if like me you like doing odd stuff with dividing heads. This edition is from 1951, but copyright is 1939 and I think they have been published before that.
A couple of interesting bits from it (and remember this is all pre CNC - in fact, those new-fangled electric motors are just being introduced)
This one has been posted before, but is worth showing again as it shows how versatile a mill was able to be. Shown on this page is a slotting head, a rack head and a rack pitch device. Remember too that these are some of around 30 standard attachments that B&S could supply to go with your mill.
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Next is a tilting table. This could be set up as a static tilt or as they have done in this application, be cam operated. So - gang milling cutters + cam operated milling table = engine cooling fins.
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Lastly, a problem I had recently (and now I have a solution!). When trying to cut Simon's bandsaw gear I ran out of lead (that's lead as in leadscrew not lead as in pencil). This do-hicky adds a bracket for an extra pair of change gears so that a dividing head can be geared down even further. The book even has a chart in the back with the standard change gears, all the combinations and a method for working out which pair of gears to use so that you don't need more than one set of the standard dividing head gears.
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I might have to buy a bolt or two to attach it, but I think this one is going on the list.

Michael