We Can Do It! WWII - FULL Virtual Exhibit Tour - Heinz History Center

@5:11 there is an image of a Cincinnati horizontal milling machine like the one that was in the basement machineshop where I was raised. I'm not sure what became of it over the years as it is no longer in the shop because of how limited it was for setups.

It had a hydraulic table x axis feed with stops that could be set with simple bolts and cams on the table face. It was considered a programmable semi-automatic mill, a precursor to modern CNC equipment.

It was originally tooled to mill part of a firearm receiver for the war effort. Many of the machines that were in that shop were bought around the Cleveland Ohio USA area,a product of WWII surplus after the war effort ended.

To this day,there are still WWII surplus equipment in the shop,one being this 16 inch swing Springfield engine lathe to my right still in use today. https://www.autismforums.com/media/me.9622/

It has a tag riveted to the headstock embossed with "Made to the orders of the War Production Board"

A small surface grinding machine resides in the toolroom area where it is dedicated to cutting tool grinding and other smaller tasks. It was originally on a Naval Warship in their onboard repair shop.

There are still a WWII Cincinnati mill in operation that is dedicated to slicing off free poured polyurethane tubing to make drive tires for for an unknown industrial application.

It just goes to show how dedicated industry was to making durable equipment that was not going to fail when needed the most.