My opinion is that it is a slotter and the machine is set up for
making a gear. as there ar no chips around, it does not depict a
production situation, maybe a photo op of a nice looking female next to
a slotter.

i

On 2018-02-19, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 06:41:52 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

Hi Folks,

What is this machine?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.bb8abd1abc2c

The Washington Post article from which is comes refers to it as a turret lathe (2/3 the way down the article, and just a "lathe" elsewhere) in this obituary on "Rosie the Rivetter". But it looks more like a milling machine with a rotary table than a turret lathe. Is it a gear broach?

Anybody recognize it?

Dan

I don't think it's a lathe of any kind. It looks like a
special-purpose bed-type milling machine, built to handle that big
rotary table. The drive shaft suggests that it's a production machine,
but it looks like she's locating the setup with the handwheels -- for
an operation that could have no possible relation to the powered
shaft. Here's a sharper version of that photo:

https://tinyurl.com/y9wycx3u

I question whether the photo is of a real operation, or whether it was
cooked up for the photo. The reason I say that is that there's a gear
fixtured on top, and a toolholder that looks like it could be for a
shaping operation. But the toolholder doesn't look like it's holding a
shaping tool. And there's no way, in wartime production or any kind of
production, that you would cut a gear like that with a single-point
cutting tool making straight cuts. Even if you did, one of the
handwheels would have a big and obvious index-pin dial on it.

The whole setup is screwy. The lathe chuck on top, on top of all of
that fixturing, looks like a kludge. There is no way you'd use a chuck
that way for gear work. And if the suggestion is that she's indicating
or gaging spelling intentional a gear tooth, there is no apparent
way to accomplish the measuring. And that is no freaking measuring
machine.

I'd give it four Pinocchios. d8-)