Kearney & Trecker Milwaukee Model K, No. 3 (page 1)
Getting the thing home
The photos below show one way of loading a heavy mill. The chain around the base is just that. The 2 ton chain fall had to be reset three times. Going up the ramp it as slow but once it was up on the trailer it slide right to where I needed it. Here is my warning: my trailer was over loaded! It was holding twice what it had ever held. If I had it to do it again I would have gone and rented a real trailer or called a mover. I also had a problem on the way home. I had it chained front and back. The problem I had is that it slid to the right off of the "C" channel. There I was on the side of the road with the chain fall pulling it back to the center and re chaining and adding more to hold it to the center of the trailer.
The drive home was all back roads and though some pretty rough roads. St Louis is 3 years running the most dangerous city in the USA. Driving at 20 mph in a area that looks like Somali during Black Hawk Down I worried about being in the news about a shooting. I crossed the Mississippi using an old two lane bridge and the only time I went over 20 mph was when I was rolling down the bridge. The unloading was done by lifting it with two, 2 ton chain falls and driving the trailer out from under it.(pic below) When I finally got it set down, the whole floor shook. |
It came with three supports, two shafts, and some cutters. The handles are all there but one door did not have its lock. The door you see removed is due to the missing latch. It was removed for the move. I plan on casting some latches to replace the missing one. The green bungy was used to hold the door closed. The only damage I have found is the lower pulley has a chip in it.
Power: It has a 10 HP motor. This created it own problem. I only have a 5 HP rotary phase converter. I got lucky and found a Phase-a-matic that is 8 to 12 HP. I still have to check the motor wiring. I figure it was setup for 3 phase 440volts so before I put power to it, I have to swap some wires. When I pulled the motor I found one of the pivot pins out of its hole. Glad I looked. I think that might be how Steve Summer's plate got broke. The motor does self center by these pin moving right and left and using the weight and a bolt to for alignment and tension. The mill is a war baby. It was born in 1943 during WWII. The government wanted the mills to be built as fast as they could be built to help with the war effort. I don't have the history of this machine but thinking it was building guns, or parts for the war keeps me in a state of awe. War finish from what I gotten means one coat of primer and one final coat. The flashing inside wasn't removed unless it had to be removed. At the end of the war a lot of these machines got lost in the paper work. See, the office tracking where all these machines were closed first. Companies that had these mills got stuck with them. This also helped in the recovery of the US after WWII. The government in there dumb ass way helped industry take over the world market by giving companies the means to employ the returning men from the war and the equipment to build stuff. The companies like Milwaukee made money making the mills during the war and more retooling. |