OT... RE: Tom Nie/Sister inquiry and other stuff.

LOL.... I can make you a single spindle, "multiple spindle head" ...er... or something that would be called something along those lines - with reversed gearing inside to make everything spin normal if you want. :)

Often times, the drilling pattern requires that some spindles spin one direction and the others the opposite. We avoid this most every time we possibly can, but I could make an exception for anyone stuck with a reverse spinning drill press and no knowledge of how to swap a few motor wires.

Seriously though, I am sorry to hear of your difficulties. I hope things turn around for you soon!

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

Joe AutoDrill wrote: [snip]>

You did detect the goofiness of my post, and I did have a 13 spindle 32 mm set-up at one time. There also used to be an attachment that clamped on to a drill press to do just that, I lost track of who made it. My business contacts are trying to suck me back into making cabinets again now that my Non-competition Agreement has expired..*EG*

The Neanderthal Method is starting to look better and better to me. Just a good brace-'n-bit, a couple of planes, scrapers, spokeshaves etc.... what a nice way to put some finishing touches on some CNC pre-cuts..*S*

Yes, my post - although legitimately possible - was a joke for the most part.

Besides the self-reversing tapping heads on the market for metalworkers? :)

Good luck with your family situation. It sounds like both your sister and you have clung to one small means of coping - humor. It does help. For most of 14 years my wife and I had at least one parent in extended care. During one period three at time. During the most intense periods we were usually able to force some kind of perverse humor into the situation. Sometimes we would get sideways glances when we referred to ourselves as 'nursing-home groupies'; or joke about our pact to push the other off of the curb when one of us started acting funny. Dark - yeah probably. But it takes the edge off. If you let it eat you alive, it will.

Keep the corners of your mouth turned up as much as you can. It helps.

RonB

Late 50's, early 60's, there was a company in Cleveland that built a multiple drill head machine that used a rotary crank system to drive multiple drill bits.

They would custom build a head to match almost any hole pattern.

Worked for a company that used one to drill graphite tube sheets for heat exchangers.

Don't remember the name of the outfit or if they are still in business.

Lew

It is actually a very interesting business to be in. Sort of like solving a different jig-saw puzzle every day. People drilling everything from Styrofoam to spiral hams.

As for the custom patterns, we do that now - but with internal gearing. The limitation we have is how close we can get (.532" C-C) or how far apart the spindles can be (around 36") Above around 7", it is sometimes easier to simply buy two or more pneumatic drills and automate them, etc.

The company you might be thinking of is Zagar. As a reference, my units start at around 20-30% of their prices. :)

Check out the Multi-Drill link below if you want to see some application examples - mostly steel work though as there isn't nearly as much production work going on in wood unless you get into the window and door industry (hinge patterns, casements, etc.)

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

That was it.

Thanks.

Lew

Zagar is sort of like the Rolls Royce of heads. They'll make it any way you want it. For instance, I think it is Zagar that has a 4000+ spindle head that does small holes in 24X48 ceiling tiles... The entire head does ONE ceiling tile in a single stroke. Look up. If your ceilign tile has lots of small, half-round holes drilled into it to absorb sound or create texture, Zagar might be to blame. :)

I could do it with our heads, but not in one shot... Probably split it up by rows and feed the tile between strokes.

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

There was a time when there were a lot of high end machine tool companies in Cleveland.

A lot of them have bit the dust primarily because of changing economics.

Customers going out of business, foreign competition, etc.

Probably the biggest surprise was the demise of Warner & Swasey.

Lew

Lew