Photo Index - Portland Co. - Thomes core-box machine

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Portland Co.
Portland, ME

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Other
Machine Size:
Submitted By:	William Thomas

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	Thomes core-box machine
Date of Manufacturer:	After 1904
Serial Number:
Last Updated	4/5/2005 7:40:16 PM

Comments:

Here's another interesting scrap item from my cellar. Unfortunately, there's not much left, so a description is in order:

The Thomes core-box machine consisted of a squarish base casting with a flat top made from two separate tables with a slot between them. The cutterhead was carried horizontally on the end of an arbor geared to another shaft held by babbitt bearings below the table surface. The cutterhead carrier casting was supported by dovetail ways that allowed it to travel vertically. Basically it was like a horizontal shaper. The cutters were two forged wings held in bronze collars to allow the diameter of the cut to be varied. A fence was bolted to one side of the table which allowed the work to be passed directly over the cutterhead in an action similar to coving on a table saw, but in line with the axis of the cut. This produced a semicircular channel of the desired diameter. The machine had a fence for straight work, as well as two round guides which could allow a curved piece to be made. Two of these pieces would then be put together to produce a wooden mold with a cylindrical hole through it. This core-box would then be filled with core sand to make a cylindrical section core for a casting.

The cutterhead was driven by a flat belt from a countershaft mounted on the base casting near the floor. This countershaft then had double pulleys and shifter forks to receive a drive belt from a lineshaft. The leaf shaped wing cutters in their bronze collars had to be manually set like shaper knives, and had no provision to keep them in other than friction.

I bought this machine for a few bucks solely to use as a set up table. It was definitely a white elehpant, being a relic of the patternmakers trade-a one use machine with decidedly obsolete cutter technology. I stripped out the mechanism, and removed one of the tables, which subsequently got lost through circumstances too involved to mention here. I later replaced it with a piece of a flush door to which I mounted a blacksmith vise. It makes an admirable iron working workbench. I removed the thick cast nameplate and polished it up and have it displayed upstairs in my shop.

It is worth noting that in the 1906 Oliver catalogue there is a similar machine.

Photo 1:

Comments: base of core-box machine
Source: Bill Thomas

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Photo 2:

Comments: Thomes Core-box machine nameplate showing original patent date
Source: Bill Thomas

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Photo 3:

Comments: Original patent drawing
Source:

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