Originally Posted by
Toolmaker51
Fergit dem Gerstner's.....Real star of the pic is front row left. Milwaukee Rotary Head Milling Machine, Model D2 [exact same model also show up as Kearney & Trecker]. One lucky curly haired kid is running the single greatest concept in metal working machinery ever. EVER!
That his set-up includes a rotary table say's he's on more than a common milling job. The machine has a rotary spindle arrangement of its own...Of all my iron, she is my one true favorite.
Why you say? Well here is why. This film introduces the machine, as prepared by the builder, not interpretations of a 4th or 9th owner. In the 80's, regular knee mills were ~$5,000 and 2300 pounds. D2's were long out of production, treasured none the less. IF you had a core [rebuildable] the service was $50,000 and they weigh 5500 pounds, within same approximate footprint. I first was assigned one mid-70's, and right to this instant, a machine more entertaining to operate hasn't occurred. I spent/ waited 25 years trying to locate one fit for purchase; a lot of machinery dealers didn't [even more still don't] really know what they are.
PJs 'guy' with his arm up, I think, is stationed at a Cincinnati horizontal with a Bridgeport head attached. Not sure why that approach taken, shop obviously has resources for a dedicated knee mill, maybe not the floorspace. The 'differential' seems a tooling bench of indexers and dividing heads. More perplexing to me are off to right with a transverse motor well above normal machine envelope. Left of the D2 is a small planer, and a band filer.
Too bad perspective ruined by such a low angle shot, a lot more would be clear. If there any lathes, this appears a milling department, certainly one would be a hydraulic tracer, or a Kellering machine, esp Pratt & Whitney.