Fun machine

That is definitely NOT a Fun machine! It states very clearly that it is a Boring machine.

My wife thinks that's the only kind.

It bores holes. When you can't take the work to the lathe, you take a lathe of sort to the work. Think of a big machine that needs a couple bores reworked, or say bores for a long propeller shaft on a ship.

You ring up a mounting system to hold your boring device central to the intended bore and start going after it.

A number of years ago, there was an excellent thread on line boring.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Suspect it's a line boring machine of some kind.

The OD color, if that is really the color, makes me think it once was used to bore/ream the Id of a short cannon. Like Wes wrote, it was used to field repair the gun on a tank, etc. I have read that during war, the gun tubes wore out pretty fast.

Paul

Line boring machines are just the ticket when you have to make concentric holes on big equipment - think ship engines, big mining equipment and the like. Take a look at:

an example.

Could this be the (relocated) company?

Multiple Boring Machine Co., Inc.

3880 Industrial Dr. Paducah, KY 42001 Phone: 270-442-1559 Fax: 270-442-2462

"This item has been in storeage [sic] and unused for many years, we cannot find a current employee who has ever used it or saw it used, so it is being sold as is, with no idea if it works."

Yet, they think it's worth at least $200 (starting bid). I say start it at $5 & let the market say what it's worth. Especially if you don't even unwrap it for pictures.

Bob

That's a line boring machine, can't see what size range it does. I would have been VERY INTERESTED, if I had seen this before that huge awful backhoe rebuild job where i use a torch as a poor man's line bore machine.

Karl

I'd be real surprised if any 20th century military tried to rebore cannon in the field. For one thing you can't do it without increasing the caliber and then you have to have oversized shells to fit.

On the other hand, looks similar, and that company seems to have bought out the manufacturer.

Yup. If it were not quite so far away, I'd go have a look, though I suspect it's a bit on the too big size for most of my backhoe repair needs. Seems like I'll be cobbling one together, as the commercial units are much too dear to buy or even rent, and reasonable surplus/used ones are rare.

For the gun tubes, you would perhaps have to bore out the existing rifling, and then shrink-fit new linings with replacement rifling.

Or -- it was used (and can be used) to drill out and bush badly worn bores in things like backhoe or front-end-loader buckets and arms. Lots of OD colored equipment around which would match that too -- including tank retrievers.

Enjoy, DoN.

If you take your time and build guides, the gas axe (torch) makes an amazingly good line boring tool. After touching up with a die grinder for a couple hours, I was able to hold 10 thou over a four foot double pin assembly to hold a large hoe on to the tractor.

Karl

They should look around and find the rest of it. I could use the line shaft part. That's an old one. Think carriage between with an engine block upside down on it or the inverse with the whole machine moving slowly along the (with the) shaft while it spins cutting the main bearing caps and block. No fun setting up unless you like walking back and forth and then getting on your knees a bazillion times.

BTW Ig, has anyone told you or do you know already climb cutting and the inverse terminology that I can't remember? Maybe that's why your machine isn't going fast enough.

SW

Something like the prop shaft and cutlass bearing on a boat. They MUST line up.

Steve

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I can think of 2 shops that would love to have that portable boring machine..both of whom are in California. Both do a lot of machining in the field when repairing/modding exisiting equipment

Gunner

"A conservative who doesn't believe? in God simply doesn't pray; a godless liberal wants no one to pray. A conservative who doesn't like guns doesn't buy one; a liberal gun-hater wants to disarm us all. A gay conservative has sex his own way; a gay liberal requires us all to watch and accept his perversion and have it taught to children. A conservative who is offended by a radio show changes the station; an offended liberal wants it banned, prosecuted and persecuted." Bobby XD9

I thought it was old, as I am in St. Louis, and never heard of the company. Then I read further, and they say it has a Fairbanks-Morse motor on it! Yikes, that makes it a true antique, probably made pre WW-II.

It is probably of the sort used to bore main bearings for large engines

- truck, maybe even locomotive. After repouring the babbit, you have to bore to diameter and perfect alignment. It could be used on all sorts of other equipment as well, from lathe headstocks to printing presses.

Portable line boring rigs are still used in some trades, and I think you will find this machine bid up substantially by those practitioners.

Jon

Similar line-boring machines are used to rebore the cylinder and valve chambers of steam locomotives.

Dan Mitchell ============

Looks like something that my sister's father in law would have used. He was machinist, I forget the name of his craft, but he lived up here in North Dakota, and worked for a company out of Chicago. He would be sitting at home, and get a phone call and his employer would tell him that plane tickets are at the airport, and all the tools and equipment he needed were already on the truck on it's way to the customer, so get going! He would remachine some weird stuff, I wish I remembered what, but he has told me stories of welding up bearing journals on huge machines, then setting up some sort of portable boring machine and machining the journals back to standard size. The guy was a master of his craft. It was strange in a way because he might be home for a week or two, then get a phone call and be gone for a few days. Once in a while the phone calls would not quit and he would be gone for several weeks. He flew all over the country at the drop of a hat.

Modern high velocity artillery cannon use rings in grooves to engage the rifling, as the barrel swells, larger OD rings are used. A company I used to work for made the rings.

David