Douglas Horiz. Mill

[Ericp351]

I recently picked up an old douglas horizontal mill from a closed shop. I can't seem to find out anything about it on the net and there is nothing on the machine besides the cast-in name and a tag that says it has been approved by the war production board. It is in decent shape, takes a 40 taper arbor, (came with 2) has a bridgeport M head adapted to the ram, and has a mechanical power table feed. Any info will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Eric...

[David_Brown]

During the Second World War some machine tools were made under licence from major mfgs, due to the increased demand for machine tools. Douglas doesn't ring a bell with me, so it may have been such a product. Post a picture so we can see what it resembles.

[David_Brown]

Whoops, forgot to add that Douglas may also have been a machinery distributor. Lots of them had nice plates made up and attached to machines.

[Ericp351]

Thanks for the reply. I will take some pictures tomorow. I don't think that douglas was the distributor because the name is cast into the ram, and there is no other info on it anywhere. I will try to post a picture tomorow.
Eric...

[Lou]

Eric,
I'm not going to be much help, but I also have one that I picked up
last year. I have not found any info. on it yet, but wouldl be interested
if you find out anything.

Lou

[Ericp351]

Here is a pic I took today, I hope this helps.

[mendoje1]

Perhaps Douglas made them under license for someone else, who couldn't quite meet production demand during the frantic war years, but then disappeared after the war. If you have time to surf, you might try:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/page21.html

...and see if you could spot the same mill but under another name.

Jeff

[J_Tiers]

This is a wild idea, particularly as you are in NJ, far from CA.

Is it at all possible that Douglas, as in aircraft, could have needed more machines on short notice than they could get, and simply made their own? I have heard of similar things with other companies which had to expand quickly to do war work.

They would have known how to set up and scrape machines due to aircraft jig work.

It is entirely possible that a lot of work they did would have suited a small machine like that. There are a lot of relatively small fittings, cowl clamps, pulley brackets, hinge brackets, quite a bit of small "many-per-airframe" parts.

I don't advance it as a particularly likely answer, but as nobody else much has heard of your machine,. who knows?

[Ericp351]

J,
Yes that did cross my mind as it is all I can come up with. If any company had manufactured these machines for sale or for distribution I think they would have at least put the city and state it was produced in somewhere on the machine.
Mendoje1,
I looked at every mill on tony's site and did not see anything close.
Thanks for the reply's, Eric...

[jan3]

Hi Eric Did some looking around today but found nothing on Douglas mill ,but did find a Douglas shaper. I wonder if it is the same company? John

[willbleeker]

Hi Fellas,
The Douglas shaper mentioned in the last post was very common in Australian schools, I think it was made here, so maybe the mill was made here and sent over there.
Will