Serious horsepower

13 Responses to Serious horsepower

1. Darin says:

   April 10, 2016 at 01:03

   Packard Marine V-12’s
   Not sure which model,but very similar to the ones installed in the Elco PT-boats.

   Here is a war time film on Packard and in particular Packard/RR Merlin production.Packard applied modern gauging and manufacturing standards to RR’s design.Tolerances were controlled to the millionths of an inch which eliminated hand fitting of components.

   https://youtu.be/PoRDzzM9b78
   • KG says:

     April 10, 2016 at 01:38

     Good stuff! Thanks, Darin.
     I never could understand that Brit obsession with “hand made” where machines could do it far better.
     • Darin says:

       April 10, 2016 at 06:17

       It wasn’t the machines as much as the lack of national standards.In Britain and also Europe there was a mish mash of local standards and no standard tolerances for given types of parts.So a cylinder sleeve produced in the north was made to a different tolerance to those in the south.When it comes time to assemble,tolerances have to be gauged and parts reworked by hand to a running fit.That method doesn’t lend it’self to interchangeability in the field.

       In the US we began adopting national standards as early as 1880.Our screw thread standards were chiseled in stone round about 1905 and standard tolerances tables had been evolved so that charts and books were available so even small shops running far out on the plains could produce parts to exacting standards that would seamlessly interchange with ones produced elsewhere in the country.

       One such publication is the Machinery’s Handbook which has been published and updated in one form or another since 1881.

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinery%27s_Handbook

       Written by two engineers Orberg and Jones it contains specs and tolerance charts for nearly every type of work.So if I need to produce some 3/8″ steel dowel pins I know from the standards charts that they are to be ground to a tolerance of +/-.00015″ which gives me a range of .37485 to .37515.As long as they fall in that range they will work and pass quality control anywhere in the country.
       The book has changed over the decades according to changes and advancements in technology.Today it’s one volume of about 3500 pages give or take.

       Another key factor was quality control,production parts sampling and the whole science of production management.One of the key figures in play since befor WWII was Joseph Juran who many consider the father of modern quality control.

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_M._Juran

       The whole system is one giant,complex machine and changing even one part is a massive undertaking.That’s something which is hard to get across to folks overseas when they wonder why we didn’t jump on the metric bandwagon.Many don’t grasp what a massive undertaking it would be.

       I watched an episode of Tank Overhaul where some British restorers were asked what was their favorite Tank to work on.To a man they all said the Sherman.The reason given was every part of a Sherman would interchange between every other Sherman in the same model# whether it was #0001 or #12000 in the series.That couldn’t be done by another other Tank regardless of if it was Brit or German.
       • KG says:

         April 10, 2016 at 06:53

         Thanks for that Darin. I wonder how much influence those same standards had on a)America’s ability to gear up quickly for war production (and the staggering amounts produced) and the post-war economic boom?
         • Darin says:

           April 10, 2016 at 13:49

           Yes,it had great influence,the bulk of the national standards frame work was already ironed out in in place by the middle of WWI.
           All measuring tools are comparison measuring tools meaning they are incapable of originating accuracy of measurement themselves.They only compare the work piece to a known calibrated standard.
           There are several levels of accuracy and trace-ability involved.Consider that a human hair is between .0025 and .003″ in diameter.A set of B grade gauge blocks is accurate to .00001″,An A grade set .000001″ An AA grade set .0000001″ and an AAA grade set .00000001″.
           I have a B grade set in my tool kit at work,those are used on the shop floor so the machinist can do a quick comparison check to see if his measuring tools are in spec,or use them to set angles precisely using a Sine bar and some Trig.

           The A and AA sets would be in the inspection department and the meterology departments of the company.Those would be used to calibrate the B sets on the production floor,and used as a master reference for all of the inspection tools in the company.

           The AAA sets are owned by calibration laboratories.These companies take in the A and AA gauges for calibration and comparison to a standard which is traceable to the National Bureau of Standards where the national,physical standards for the inch and millimeter are maintained.
           Here is a demonstration of how gauge or “Jo” blocks are calibrated-
           https://youtu.be/ZBBH0RBibZQ

           Okay,so what all that leads to is an unbroken line of traceability back to the national standards keeper .That ,means if let’s say Lockheed gets a contract for xxx number of a new bomber and they can’t produce all the parts themselves,they can put some of those parts out for bid by smaller sub-contractors.And if they know and maintain the trace-ability chain,then all of those parts will arrive at the assembly facility manufactured to the tolerance level specified on the blueprint,all will fit and function and the new bombers will roll of the line in an efficient manner.If the parts arrive and are found to be sub-standard,then the error in manufacture can be quickly traced down and corrected.
           So in WWII we had some massive factories churning out massive amounts of finished goods.Bu those factories were being fed partly by a massive number of small contractors.
           There was a story about a retired machinist that had a couple lathes in his basement.Being too old to fight he decided to do his part to help the war effort by making whatever parts he could under government contract.He landed a contract roughing out fuse cases for depth charge fuses.He employed a friend from his former employer and in a couple months he had bought a couple more machines and hired on some more retirees and kids to man his new “factory”.
           The activity and noise got his next door neighbor agitated and he complained to the city.The old machinist told his contract handler and he said not to worry about it.The following day he over heard his government contract liaison talking to his neighbor ,the conversation went like this-
           “Mister,are you the one complaining about the machine shop next door?”
           “Oh,well in case you missed it there is a war on and he is making materials to help our boys win the war”
           “If we hear anymore gripe from you,we’ll assume you’re in league with the Axis and you’ll spend the rest of the war in an internment camp”
           The neighbor never complained again

           Running out of space,I’ll put a bit more at the bottom.
           • Bo Chandler says:

             April 10, 2016 at 16:19

             Holy smokes. I still measure stuff by hand. And I mean literally. The distance from the tip of my middle finger to the base of my palm is roughly 185mm so I have a rough guide to work by when I can’t find my tape measure.
             • Darin says:

               April 10, 2016 at 17:58

               I got a friend that builds motorcycle and dirt track car frames,he has an inch ruler tattooed on each index finger
2. Darin says:

   April 10, 2016 at 14:38

   When we look at Britain during WWII the situation production wise was similar to what it was here.Namely everybody that could make something was making something,everyone that could ration,rationed and everyone that could contribute did as in the scrap drives.
   We just had it all in several orders of magnitude greater amounts.Add to that the managerial framework and a population itching to get to work after a decade long depression and the makings of something great came together.
   Ever see a truck in a Russian video that looked like a Studebaker truck?Well that’s because it was a Studebaker truck.In the early days after Hitler opened the Eastern front,Russia was in a tight squeeze.They had to shutdown their steel making and Tank production and ship the whole business back behind the Ural mountains.During that 11 month period they didn’t have enough Tanks to halt the German advance.What they did have was heavy towed artillery,but no way to move it around the theater,enter Studebaker truck.In IIRC six months they were able to deliver 50,000 trucks of an eventual 150,000 truck order.The Russians paired the trucks with their artillery and helped turn the tide of the war by buying them time to get the KV and T series Tanks back in production.

   http://www.historynet.com/studebaker-us6-the-lend-lease-deuce-and-a-half.htm

   It was a bit ironic that in the early days of the cold war every May Day parade in Red Square included quite a few Studebaker trucks,that would not have existed if not for capitalism.

   The postwar boom began as the troops came home and decided to devote their time to living after having seen so much death.There was a nation deprived of living life and recreation for nearly 20 years,so it’s a no brainer that they wanted to live it all and have it all.
3. Darin says:

   April 10, 2016 at 14:56

   How surface plates are calibrated and conditioned-

   https://youtu.be/EWqThb9Z1jk
   • KG says:

     April 10, 2016 at 16:27

     I love this stuff!
4. KG says:

   April 10, 2016 at 16:26

   “enter Studebaker truck.In IIRC six months they were able to deliver 50,000 trucks ..”
   Rhetorical question: could they do that (or the equivalent) today?
   • Darin says:

     April 10, 2016 at 17:56

     Something simple like a truck,maybe,of course given the same circumstances and the discovery of the plutonium atom,the available lead time would be greatly shortened.
     • KG says:

       April 10, 2016 at 18:11