Photo Index - J. G. Blount Co. - patternmaker's lathe

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
J. G. Blount Co.
Everett, MA

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Lathe, Wood
Machine Size:	12" swing, 4' bed
Submitted By:	Gary Thomas

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	patternmaker's lathe
Date of Manufacturer:	ca. 1940s
Serial Number:	53896
Last Updated	5/24/2014 8:13:57 AM

Comments:

I acquired this lathe about 1986 from a pattern shop that was closing up in nearby Ipswich, MA ($400). The seller indicated that he had bought it from the United Shoe Machinery Co. (USMC) some years earlier. USMC was the world leader in building shoemaking machinery until being broken up by the government for being a monopoly. Their facility, built here in Beverly in 1903-5 was enormous. It contained 1.2 million sq. feet of floor space, including what was probably the largest foundry in New England. The USMC building was the largest reinforced concrete structure in the world until the completion of the Boulder Dam. The pattern shop usually employed over 60 men, over 200 at it's peak in WWII. The facility is now an office complex, aarrgghhh. Black & Decker had owned USMC at the end and was the last owner of the land & buildings before becoming offices. I assume they wanted USMC for some of the innovative products they developed outside of shoe making machinery such as pop rivets, hot melt glue, and the pop top beverage can. They were so inventive that they are second only to General Motors in the number of registered patents. In a conversation I once had with J. G. Blount III, he mentioned having visited this facility several times when he worked at the local GE plant in nearby Lynn. He was the grandson of J. G. Blount and worked at GE after the demise of his family's business.

This machine has a four speed dial with the highest speed blocked by a pin, this has always intrigued me. It also has the carriage with compound, which I have also used to mount a router to for fluting. The tailstock has a cross slide capability for tapers. My brother, a patternmaker by trade and half owner of the machine, made patterns for the missing toolrests and machined them.

Unlike many of these lathes, this one has a flat bed, which I haven't seen often on these. It runs on 3-phase and is currently hooked up with a phase converter at my father's house. It will need to be moved soon and I will take clearer pictures then.

I remember at the local trade school there were 4 of these lined up in row. Even that school is since defunct. USMC had seen fit to supply them with these and a wide variety of heavy industrial equipment in order to better train the kids who were almost guaranteed a job with the 3,000 or so others who worked at USMC. I attended the auction of contents of the USMC facility in 1987 and in 3 days they barely made a dent in the contents of the building, with the large majority going to scrap.

USMC was also known as the world's largest job shop and would take on any manufacturing job, however large. My father, a longtime employee of Reid Bros. (manufacturers of surface grinders), mentioned to me that USMC once built a large batch of surface grinders for them. Reid Bros. was just 1/4 mile down the road from USMC. I have heard from former employees of USMC that they had made large numbers of woodcutting bandsaws there back in the 30s or 40s but they had no specifics as to who for. They were also known to make tank turrets and gun barrels in WWII, when the place employed 6200 people.

the image below with the number is from the right end of the lathe bed which I had never noticed until I cleaned this machine up last year. I had always thought that the serial number on the motor was the one for the lathe but I now believe that the motor and lathe had separate numbers. It is not common to even see a serial number on Blount products.

Photo 1:

Comments: lathe at my father's cluttered shop
Source: my photo

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Photo 2:

Comments: carriage with compound
Source: my photo

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Photo 3:

Comments: closeup of tailstock with livecenter my brother made
Source: my photo

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Photo 4:

Comments: serial number
Source: my photo

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Photo 5:

Comments: same machine repainted and at it's new home
Source: my photo

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Photo 6:

Comments: showing the position of the rotary phase converter
Source:

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