Any idea on who made this?

[MikeA]

Hello everyone,

I've been looking for a dividing head for my Benchmaster mill for quite some time now and hoping to get one of American manufacture that was sized appropriately for this mill (not a lot of Z axis room, so limited to the smaller sizes).

eBay has plenty of items but most are too big, too expensive or just resales of Chinese cast iron, not what I wanted. After about a year of watching I was able to pick one up off eBay last night and it has the right 'everything' as to what I was looking for - 3 1/4" from table to center, tiltable head, four discs, and definitely looks like older 'American Iron'!

According to the seller, he has little knowledge about this piece. What I was hoping is the collective knowledge here would give me some information as to the manufacturer and anything else you can tell me about it.

Below are some photos from the listing -



Best,
Mike

 

[Lakc]

Since the handle and dividing wheel are on the opposite side you usually see, the joke answer is its British. Something that old you would expect to see some markings somewhere, unless it was some type of journeymans project?

 

[MikeA]

Hello LakeC,

Thanks for the response - hadn't even noticed the reversed aspect, perhaps because I'm left-handed?

Of course, it could also be nothing more than the photos being 'flipped' - see the image mirrored below.

Not to sure about the journeymans project as it appears to be all castings - would they have done so back then? As well, would they be making something this small?

Once I have it in hand and tear it down for clean up/check out I imagine something should show up.

Best,
Mike

 

[steamer]

...
Not to sure about the journeymans project as it appears to be all castings - would they have done so back then? As well, would they be making something this small?

Once I have it in hand and tear it down for clean up/check out I imagine something should show up.

Best,
Mike

Sure, why not, that would be a great Journeymans test. Castings , gears, tight tolerances, If you made that soup to nuts, you could make most anything I would think.

Once you clean it up and maybe move a little paint here and there, I bet a stamp will show up.

Dave

 

[shred]

I would suspect the round unpainted cover to be most likely to have markings on it. My Ellis dividing head is only marked there, and only lightly. A little surface rust and it disappears.

It does however look different, so it's not an Ellis, or not the one I have.

 

[steamer]

You'll notice some minor blow holes and such on the head casting in the second photo. I would be suprised if this was a "volume" product.

....just speculating....it's a nice past time.

;D

Dave

 

[MikeA]

Thanks for the input - guess it really doesn't matter who made it as long as it works! I should be receiving it in the next few days and first order of business is a complete strip - likely will also take the paint off.

I'd be a bit surprised if there was no ID but I've lived long enough to have plenty of surprises!

All the best,
Mike

 

[MikeA]

Hello all,

Well, it seems to me 'Steamer' is the winner of the all expense paid vacation for t........Oh, wait! No prize, but you sure seems to have hit the identification dead-on!

When I received the dividing head and stripped it down, there were indicators this must have been a journeyman's project of some sort - each piece had a number '13' stamped on it somewhere, I imagine to denote they had been machined to fit individually. The finish/fit of the machining is of an high order with closeness that makes it a bit difficult to assemble as everything has to be exactly lined up with guessing 0.001" tolerance max.

I was surprised they didn't do anything about the blowholes in the castings; all are cosmetic, but with the machining aspects so well done one would think a bit of time spent on cosmetics would make sense. The restorations I've done of older equipment has shown some filler on every thing, including premium equipment made in Austria, so one would think cosmetic blowholes and casting defects are common.

Spent a bit of time with that wonderful 3M material 'Bondo' and took care of the cosmetics, then a coat of primer and finish machinery enamel to match the mill and I'm more-or-less done.

The 'more-or-less' aspect is due to one 'slight' mistake I made; I was not paying as close attention to the washers/wave washer/spacer order when I took it apart, so I have some 'figuring-out' to get it operating as smoothly as I want and will likely make some PTFE or Delrin spacers/washers to eliminate any metal/metal contact. Is there more-or-less a standard for the arrangement?

The taper is a B&S #9 for which I have the supplied dead center with lathe dog driver, as well as a 3/4" collet I bought - figure I can make various holders that will fit into it. Also need to make a drawbar for the collet but that's simple enough.

The nose threads on the spindle seem a bit odd - 1 5/8"-8TPI although I believe some Logans and others may have used that at one time.

Overall, a nice little dividing head that's just about the perfect size for my Benchmaster mill - centers at 3" above the table and of course tilts -10° to up past 90°.

Any input/suggestions would be appreciated.

All the best,
Mike