Adcock & Shipley 1AD

[Tony Griffiths]

Specs for these old Brit machines make for sad reading. I have a WW1 catalogue which includes lathes 30 ft between centres and a myriad other glorious machines. Without guards can see how each works. Seems once capable Brits now struggle to muster a firm which can make simple Seven cranks.

Bob, for a list of interesting machine tools, British and otherwise, there are few listed here with details http://www.lathes.co.uk/page21.html
For the perfect workshop, all you need is one of each....

[Bob Culver]

Thanks Tony...as if I dont already spend too much time on this site!.
With great reluctance a few years ago I sold my fathers 100 year old Brittania. 4 inch, long bed and originally treadle operated. Had a gap bed although how anyone could utilise with a treadle I dunno! Sadly the treadle and flywheel were scrapped decades ago reducing the value. Unlike moderns it looked like a lathe. The hum with join bump of the fast/loose belting is amongst my very earliest memories.

[Parazine]

An update on this project:

I'm taking a bit of time off from the Top Hat at present and thought I'd get on with the milling machine. I had previously fitted a single phase 2HP motor that I was given but found that it didn't have enough torque to start the machine turning. It was a single capacitor motor, which are good for fans and low torque applications but not enough "grunt" to spin this machine up. It was however free  


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At this stage I pushed the machine into the corner and forgot about it again.

Last week, I finally ordered a mighty 3HP, 2.2kW single phase capacitor start, capacitor run motor. This needed some fiddling to fit; the output shaft was 28mm dia whereas the pulley was 25.4 (1"), so that had to be bored out. The motor also had different bolt spacing so I had to alter the frame that I had made to adapt it to the machine. Finally fitted it today:


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together with temporary wiring (I'm still waiting for the correct cable and some of the switchgear to arrive).


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Couldn't resist setting up a piece of scrap metal and trying it out briefly!


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I'm glad to report that it cuts and all is working OK. I need to do some serious cleaning as the machine and tooling have suffered from being stored in the shed for the past twenty years or more but I'm now motivated to finish the project off and get this useful tool up and running.

[Zetomagneto]

Well done! Bilthamber is good for rust removal on machine tools.

[Duncan Grimmond]

Bob said " Seems once capable Brits now struggle to muster a firm which can make simple Seven cranks."

There are still many individuals and companies in the UK (or should that be the disUK?) able to do exquisite work but people don't want to pay more that cheapjack prices and as ever, you get what you pay for.

[Austin in the Shed]

We have a company here which used to maintain the cross channel hydrofoils. A couple of years ago they advertised all their large lathes  for sale,I believe they got scrapped as no one wanted them.
When we went over to Alderney we were told that when the allies liberated them from the Germans at the end of WW2 all the machinery was dumped in a water filled quarry as ordered by british officers.

[Tony Griffiths]

I'm sure that you'll find it very useful, especially with the vertical head. All these millers built to a strict standard - no Chinese-type thin-walled castings and short-life bearings for Adcock and Shipley - and they often went to the military or Government, where inspection standards were severe.

[Stuart Giles]

An update on this project:

I'm taking a bit of time off from the Top Hat at present and thought I'd get on with the milling machine. I had previously fitted a single phase 2HP motor that I was given but found that it didn't have enough torque to start the machine turning. It was a single capacitor motor, which are good for fans and low torque applications but not enough "grunt" to spin this machine up. It was however free  

That should be a really useful machine for A7 engineering work. I too discovered the hard way how tiny the Horses are in those cap start induction run Clarke motors. As a replacement for a burnt out 3HP motor, I fitted a 3HP version to an Ingersoll Rand Vee twin compressor -utterly useless.  I came to the conclusion that  the Clarke horses were actually Shetland Ponies. After quite a lot of argy bargy, Machine Mart gave me my money back and I bought a proper electric motor for the compressor.

I'm sure that you'll find it very useful, especially with the vertical head. All these millers built to a strict standard - no Chinese-type thin-walled castings and short-life bearings for Adcock and Shipley - and they often went to the military or Government, where inspection standards were severe.

I have seen Adcock and Shipley mills with what looks like a factory fitted Bridgeport 'J' head. My Bridgeport has an Adcock and Shipley commissioning plate on it. Don't know if this was badge engineering, UK assembly of US parts or a complete UK build.

[Charles P]

A friend of mine had an Adock and Shipley 1ES with a Bridgeport M head, which is an interesting package in a small footprint. The factory ones had a power socket for the head on the body. However the Bridgeport M head isn't particularly heavy duty . I've seen them with J heads as well and once grafted a Bridgeport J head onto an Elliot U0 mill. The downside is that the absence of any mechanism to move the ram made it a real pain to move the head in and out.

Charles

[Jacob Fowkes]

Lovely little machine , more a Cincinnati man myself , stay safe out there guys