John I you put some magnification on to the image there is a notice which says that it and other tools are not for sale. In the background is a set of Silversmiths sized rolls. The book beside it looks like an ‘A4’ ring book. This gives a work surface of some 12”- 18” (305mm – 458mm) by 6” to 8” (152mm – 208mm) wide. The rack looks about 1” (25.4mm) wide. This machine can ‘Graunch off’ 1/16” deep cuts in bronze. It would be big enough to surface the valve chests of a 5” locomotive.
With a suitable gear box containing some ‘jiggery-pokery’ for automatic reverse you would have a nice little power driven table top machine.
The base and the slide are both dead ringers for Epoxy Cement construction. http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=51617
There was a foundry here but the Hungarians required to make their own drawings and patterns for a 3 ½” railway wagon wheel that I wanted 6 off. The pattern was ‘not metric’. Neither was mine except that you could measure its dimensions in metric. The Hungarians believe that all foreigners are naïve and stupid. The foundary, all the metal in it and even the tin roofs on the on the toilets have all gone.
As I want to make one for myself I think Epoxy Cement technique is the only way.
I had totally forgotten about planers. There was one in the Heavy Machine shop in one place I worked. It was used to machine the base castings of the machines we made. It was some 10 meters long, with a 7 meter stroke. The machinist sat beside the clapper box over 2 meters off the ground. It also had its own cranes etc for lifting the spanners used on the holdfasts.
_Paul_ why not make one yourself . My guestimate that the main base would only take a couple of weeks from drawings to finished casting.
Regards
Dick
Edited By Richard Parsons on 30/06/2011 14:20:24