I love this stuff. Studebaker cylinder heads being machined.
On the back of the picture is written: "View of worker operating a Greenlee machine at the Studebaker plant in South Bend, Indiana. Label on back: "The Studebaker Corporation, South Bend, Indiana. The special Greenlee machine, a portion of which is shown above, is one of the automobile industry's contributions to the mass production of aircraft engines. It was designed and built by Greenlee at the request of Studebaker. The complete machine is more than 175 feet long and has 50 operating stations. When in full operation it handles approximately 130 cylinder heads at a time. All told it has 162 tools including 36 drills, 35 reamers, 15 mills, 30 taps and 46 special tools."
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Man, i friggin' loved engine plants back in the day. Finish machining of heads, cranks, etc. Fascinating.
Off topic: Went into GM's Livonia engine assembly (finish machining of major parts and assembly of Cadillac V8s) plant once back in the 1980's, insisted on going into a physically segregated room, indicating "dangerous noise, ear protection mandatory'.
Nerd that I was then/still am, I had to go in there to see what kinda noise, in an engine plant, could kill you. Anyway, there were "broaching machines" in this room. four of them I think, each one doing four blocks at a time.
nearly 170 decibels I was told. Even with full-ear cover (like used on decks of aircraft cariers), it was hard to stay in the room for more than a few minutes. The floor shook with each pass, let alone the
thunderous screechin" noise that was STILL loud through the ear protection.
the "decking" machine picked blocks up, spun them 90 degrees, then scraped them horizontally, back/forth a few times, dropped them on a conveyor, then grabbed four more. rinse & repeat
NOT what I saw, but an older example from the 60's (small block Chevy engines).
source;
Worker operating broaching machine, Chevrolet plant, Flint, Michigan | DPL DAMS
