Hi gang; I just added a new machine to my LeBlond collection... It's called a #2 Universal Tool & Cutter Grinder (I think that's the official name). I was very lucky to snap it up on ebay from Reliable Tools for the insanely low winning price of $150. I hauled it home today, and it's a beautiful little machine. I had thought it was from the 1950's, but I found a greasy old tag inside claiming that the motor had been cleaned and serviced on 7/23/44. So I guess it's late 30's or early 40's?
Do any of you guys remember these machines, or know anything about them? I'm somewhat knowledgeable about vintage LeBlonds, but I didn't even know that they had gotten into tool grinding machines. I'm sure it was intended for factory tool rooms. With a few accessories, it's capable of precision grinding all kinds of rotary and linear cutting tools.
It's a clever and somewhat peculiar machine. It weighs about 1400 lbs, with a 36" x 6" table. The travels are about 20"X by 7"Y by 10"Z. The X travel has a selector between a speed crank and slow wheel. The table has an additional vertical axis swivel for doing long tapers.
The center structure of the machine is a vertical column, about 6" dia, with a horizontal double end spindle at the top. A long flat leather belt drive runs up through the column to drive the spindle, from a motor and gearbox in the base. The cool thing is that the entire table assembly, including the knee and Z crank gearbox, can be rotated 360 degrees around the column to put the grinding wheels at any angle in relation to the table. There are even duplicate X and Y cranks on the back side of the whole assembly, so you can turn the table around and operate the machine from behind the column! A strange design, but I guess it makes sense.
The pictures may still be on ebay under item 3858925864 for a while.
Any info would be appreciated, and I'm always glad to hear from other vintage LeBlond owners. My pride and joy is a 1905 LeBlond #0 Horizontal Mill that I'm almost finished restoring. Bruce Johnson snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net