Adcock & Shipley 1AD

[Parazine]

Not strictly Austin 7, but may be of interest to the forum. I hope to be able to complete some A7 related machining at some stage!
 
Having reached semi-retirement recently, I decided to investigate some of the sheds in the garden and rediscovered a milling machine, pushed to the back of the largest shed years ago. Yesterday, I moved the machine into the garage (not an easy job I might add), ready to start work on it as a background restoration project this winter.
I bought this machine twenty plus years ago in a fit of youthful ambition but it has lain, partially stripped ever since, as dismemberment was the only practical means to transport it. Fully assembled, it must weigh in at 700 kilos or more. It has spent a long time in the shed and has gone fairly rusty as a result.


   


It’s an Adcock & Shipley 1AD, manual toolroom mill, with vertical and horizontal capability, manufactured in 1945. Unfortunately, because of its age, it has obsolete taper fittings, 1 3/8” non-stick, which was a wartime UK standard, subsequently replaced with metric international standard tapers. I didn’t realize this until after I had bought it and tooling is very scarce apparently; I’ve never come across anything in the last twenty years that will fit. Caveat emptor! However, I have the horizontal arbour and I have turned up an adapter that will allow 30INT taper tooling to be used in the vertical head, probably with reduced accuracy. There is also the possibility of a Japanese CNC taper that may fit (BT35).  I have acquired quite a lot of horizontal cutters and a selection of end mills over the years so I now have a reasonable amount of tooling. I will need to add a dividing head at some stage.
It’s still on machine skids in the garage so that I can move it while I give it a burnish with paraffin and wire wool to get rid of the surface rust and a coat of paint. I can then reassemble and wire it up with a single-phase motor and modern switch gear as all the electrics have been stripped out. It will also need a suds system adding.


   


Interestingly, there’s a video on YouTube of a working A&S 1AD, it’s only 2 serial numbers different to mine and was produced for the same order!

[andrew34ruby]

1945. Not a very old machine then. Looks to be fun!

[Tony Betts]

they are the sort of sheds everyone should have.

[Bob Culver]

For clearing rusted machine ways I have found a file ground smooth  with a square end and used as a scraper is kind to the sound metal. A large angle plate would likley prove useful; a pity so expensive

[Tony Griffiths]

I may, just possibly, have a collet chuck with your fitting. Do you have the basic dimensions: minimum and maximum diameters and the length of the taper?

[Parazine]

I may, just possibly, have a collet chuck with your fitting. Do you have the basic dimensions: minimum and maximum diameters and the length of the taper?

Hi Tony,

Here's a drawing I did of it, years ago. It's midway between 30INT and 40INT, 1 3/8" is very nearly 35mm.



  taper1.JPG (Size: 38.12 KB / Downloads: 746)


Thanks!

Tim Reynolds

[Charles P]

I think this is the BS spec that your machine was built to

   

   

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Footnote

If Tony doesn't drag something out of the shed a BT35 chuck may fit better with a drive flange adaptor.
Same taper, a little bigger at the drive end but should fit without rattling!

c

[Tony Griffiths]

Hi, no, I'm sorry it's different - but I'm sure it came with an A & S miller from the 1930s or 1940s that was subsequently scrapped. Perhaps it never fitted in the first place!

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Here is a little more data for you. The last picture is of a No.0 miller, A & S used a similar series of pictures at the time. The girl running the miller might be 18-year old Mavis Ramsbottom, a trainee from Accounts - far prettier than the girls on the shop floor, or perhaps she and the photographer had something going?

[Parazine]

Thanks for all the info guys, it seems my mystery taper is 2 5/16" British Standard. I reckon BT35 will be a close match as well, we'll have to try it to see!

[Bob Culver]

Specs for these old Brit machines make for sad reading. I have a WW1 catalogue which includes lathes 30 ft between centres and a myriad other glorious machines. Without guards can see how each works. Seems once capable Brits now struggle to muster a firm which can make simple Seven cranks.