manual for old (very) horizontal mill wanted

You might try searching the achieves on Tony Griffiths web site at:

He has copies of manual for some of the old machines for sale. His email address is: snipped-for-privacy@lathes.co.uk

Steve

Been there (many times, excellent site) - but no Brown & Sharp in the list.

I have a manual for the No. 2 universal which may or may not help. I can run off a copy and send it snail mail.

Jim Vrzal Holiday,Fl.

I'm not sure, but don't think tools that old had manuals. Could be wrong, but I have never seen one. Does anyone know for sure?

V> Brown & Sharp, No. 0.

Every machine tool had some type of operators manual presented upon delivery. They may have been typed instructions or elegant lithographed bookletts. One copy would be kept in a master file cabinet and one or more copies handed to the operators of the machine.

The trick is the master file cabinet fairy would clean out the files every decade or so and flush the master copy into oblivion. Some times snapped up by master scroungers but timing is everything.

Sometimes the machine would transition to machine dealers and the manuals were "sometimes" passed along to the dealers file cabinet.

From there, the manuals will not see the light of day until the dealer goes out of business and his office is auctioned off.

Then, if your lucky, the cabinets will be carefully gone through and a kind soul who is also a pack rat will hold on to said manuals and recopy them for poor souls who didn't get a manual with the machine they bought at auction.

Jim Vrzal Kind soul, pack rat, and Master scrounger Currently running out of room in Holiday,Fl.

The owners manual and the Haines manual went with my '90 Lumina APV when I gave it to my son, he asked me to keep the "virgin" set of keys, good thing too because when it died in my driveway, I had a set to drive it to the repair shop next day, after charging the battery overnight. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Mawdeeb points out:

Not always. If we had a manual arrive with a machine we would keep it, if we had no other, and make a copy for the eventual machine purchaser. If it was a common machine and we had other manuals we would sometimes send the original manual along with the machine.

Additionally, in my experience, when machinery dealers go out of business it's other machinery dealers who purchase the manuals; they're quite valuable. I've seen some sold in this manner and they were always sold as a single lot. YMMV

You might try calling around to a few large machinery dealers. If you're lucky, and the moon is in the correct phase, etc. you might catch someone who isn't too busy. And if you're really, really lucky you might find one who had the time to sell you a copy. Use all your resources: If you may have machine needs in the future be sure to mention them and perhaps creating some customer good will will enter the equation (?). Someone on this group may know some friendly dealers for you to call; where are you located? I've been out of the business a long time but if you're near Chicago?

dennis in nca

Ya know, if I were trying to do this, I know right where I would start. Your comment about pack rat scroungers made some neurons fire in my brain.

Try dave sobel.

Jim