Technical Ancient Cylinder boring machine

I picked this up at a swapmeet a few months back. I have not found any information on it on the internet. I think its safe to ***ume its 100+ years old. The motor the best I can determin was made by Emerson electric between 1909 and 1920
I am hoping one of you old timers like me who likes old equipmen might know something about it. It runs and is in good working order. I plan to use it to do the rebore on my mercury v8. The only problem I have is working out how the adjustable cutting head works. I gave tried to unscrew the castle collar but it wont budge. I dont want to break anything so I gave up after trying a 2ft handle.

 

Here's a similar cutter in action.

 

Thanks for the video. That machine is similar but different. Still I did get some ideas and inspiration from watching that.

 

Still in business https://stltool.com/
Email or call they might have an archive of info.
Nick

 

I've never seen anything like that !
My old timey Sunnen uses a Cat Paw to hold the cutter
You want a Camel Back Drill Press form the Same Era to go with it?

 

That company started in 1989. I am sure this machchine is older than that

 

You might need to put a little heat from a propane torch in it.

Old oil, once all of the light hydrocarbons have evaporated, can be quite adhesive.

 

Emerson Electric is still in business. However, I don't believe they have made automotive tools for a long, long time. It still might be worth a call or email. https://www.emerson.com/en-us

 

I have got the cutting head freed up and it adjusts smoothly. I soaked it in degreaser for a day then I just kept working the castle collar putting pressure each way and got some movement and kept working it and it started moving freely. Tomorrow I will set if up on the engine block and do a few light cut test runs. If it goes good I should have the block bored by the end of the weekend.

 

Mart has a video using something sim.

 

Thanks 38Bill I have watched his crusty flathead videos and found them interesting.

I have been trying my luck at cleaning up the worst bore. I dont want to be too hard on the machine so I am only doing 2 thou cuts now. I started off with 5 thou cuts but that sounded too taxing on the motor/gears so I am doing smaller cuts. I thought it would clean up by 20 thou but I am at 22 thou and still have a 4 thou ring wear / out of round mark at the top of the piston travel. I have noticed that all the bores on the drivers side (5678)at the top of the cylinder have all worn toward the outside (low side) with no wear toward the inside(high side) but the p***engers side (1234) is worn more evenly with a ridge the whole way around the top of the cylinder but the drivers side has no wear on the high side with all the wear on the low side.

 

Is there any chance that St. Louis Tool & Mfg. later became Sunnen or consolidated into them? Good to hear you got it loosened up and working.

Lynn

 

Work in progress

 

Cool old machine, glad you got it working.
My Dad rented a similar machine from the local auto parts store and bored one cylinder on his Ford six cylinder, in the car, when I was a youngster. Thinking back on it now, it seems strange to do just one cylinder but that was my Dad, always thrifty. A set of rings, one new piston, gaskets and oil and his daily driver was back on the road.

 

Why spend time and money on the five still healthy cylinders when only one has been damaged? Don't think that was uncommon back in the day, when it was a matter of repairing a broken engine just to get it back to work, and not restoring it to as new condition which would be overkill for many old daily drivers.

 

My grandfather spoke of a guy bringing a portable in-car crank grinder to his dealership in the '40s to turn down one bad rod journal.

 

carbide inserts would be a big plus, but real $$$

 

Yep, I've only heard about these machines. They did not have to go to the trouble of pulling the engine either from what I have heard. Pretty convenient. Just fix what is broken!

 

So I managed to bore 2 cylinders to .040 with out any problems but on the 3rd cylinder I was on the second to last cut and one of the cutter blades broke and put a gouge in the bore around .010 deep and 1/2 a turn before the machine stalled. Now I have to find or make a cutter and go out to .060 to remove the damage. I think I have more chance of finding rocking horse poop than finding a replacement cutter

 

Where exactly is the gouge? If it is at the bottom of the bore, below the rings, it won't effect anything.

 

Look for a tool grinding business in your area. They can usually make any kind of cutting tool you can imagine. Post a picture of it here, there are lots of knowledgeable guys here who may have one or know where to look.

 

1/2” from the top to 3/4” and 1/2 way around.
I measured it at the deepest and got .010 so double that to make an even circle and I get 3.244 which is not much wiggle room to clean up at .060 over

 

Bummer. As I am sure you know, it is going to be tough to near impossible to find replacement parts for that boring bar. You best bet is probably to buy a new cutter head and figure out a way to adapt it to the bar. (Got a machinist friend with lathe who can cut you a tapered spindle?) At least then you can move up to a modern insert cutter. You will have to finish hone to final size and pattern anyways. Plus, it is a flathead, so bore it out an 1/8", they don't mind.

 

Got the cutters welded and fitted back in the cutting head. Did some hand cranked test runs tonight and it looks like it is working good.
Tomorrow I will resume boring.

 

Let us know how that works. I would think the weld heat would kill the heat treat on the cutters and soften them up too much, but maybe they are softer than I am thinking, or did you re-heat treat them after welding and grinding?

 

The welding is far enough from the cutting edge that heat did not affect it. The block of steel and the copper help with moving the heat out of the cutter. The parts were clamped as shown in the picture then preheated before welding. While the cutting head was apart I sharpened all the cutters which made a major improvement. I ran it yesterday and its cutting really good. Its cutting better with less effort. I did a few 1 thou cuts on the gouged cylinder to start off and then did several 2 thou cuts. Went from 3.224 to 3.238 . That has cleaned up all of the dammage except the depest bit which is gauging at .004 which should clean up at +.060 fingers crossed. In the picture you can see the gouge is 3/4” down and 1/3 the way around

 

I'd be looking for high speed steel blanks of a size you could grind to fit the machine you have, or braze some carbide tips on what you got. Cool machine

 

Awesome! Keep up the good work.

 

That is great news .... congrats. Very cool machine

 

Machine is working good. I opened the gouged cylinder up to +60t
thou . Bored and honed at 3.248 the gouge is still there may not be enough to catch a ring but its enough to lose compression. what I have left is 1 inch wide 1/2 inch high and 1 thou deep at the middle.
Looks like I will have to go to +80 which is far from what I originally wanted to do.
The original plan was to stay as small as possible and as low cost as possible.