Working 2B-36 Devlieg

gregfortin · Oct 20, 2022

I’ve wanted a HBM for at least 10 years. It finally happened when I found this small one in Detroit recently. It took some effort with the help of a few talented men to move it and get it wired. This in my first paying job. Shout out to this website.

Blazemaster · Oct 20, 2022

Nice! I have been hounding a member on here for years trying to get him to sell his, but no luck. Want to sell it yet Brian? lol...

johnoder · Oct 20, 2022

DeVliegs just move the table and have no movable spindle, right?
(such as in your hole making there)

Derek Smalls · Oct 20, 2022

johnoder said:
DeVliegs just move the table and have no movable spindle, right?
(such as in your hole making there)

The couple I have run, which look very similar to the one pictured, do have a spindle which moves in the z axis for drilling, boring, ect. with power or hand feed. In this respect they are very similar to a conventional HBM like a Lucas or Giddings & Lewis. The table however has very limited travel in the z axis and can only be positioned, that is to say it can not be fed by hand or power in the z axis. Not sure if all Devliegs are like this or not.
I know some (maybe all???) had a slick automatic positioning system which could be programmed to go from point to point for production work. This system was disabled on the machines I have used so I don't know any more about it than that.

johnoder · Oct 20, 2022

Derek Smalls said:
The couple I have run, which look very similar to the one pictured, do have a spindle which moves in the z axis for drilling, boring, ect. with power or hand feed. In this respect they are very similar to a conventional HBM like a Lucas or Giddings & Lewis. The table however has very limited travel in the z axis and can only be positioned, that is to say it can not be fed by hand or power in the z axis. Not sure if all Devliegs are like this or not.
I know some (maybe all???) had a slick automatic positioning system which could be programmed to go from point to point for production work. This system was disabled on the machines I have used so I don't know any more about it than that.

Thanks Derek - I must have been thinking backwards

gregfortin · Oct 20, 2022

Big or small, all DeVlieg’s have the same table functions. The table(platen) move to and away from the spindle and has no feed function. The spindle (Z) moves in and out and is very precise, and allows drilling, boring work.

gbent · Oct 22, 2022

The aspect ratio looks off, it must be an extended height column. 36" x 36" travels. Standard was 24 vertical.

DeVliegs typically have the same platen travel as spindle travel. In the case of Greg's machine 12" each. A 2B is a 2 1/2" bar machine.

Peter S · Oct 23, 2022

I was reading brochures from 1946-48 for a 3-B and they refer to the table travel to and away from the spindle as "retraction travel", for tool changing and taking measurements. Does that mean the table travel (to and away from spindle) is not used during machining, i.e. only the spindle travel used?

gbent · Oct 23, 2022

Peter, that is correct. The platen is only a positioning axis with no feedrate. The stop for the table on the spindle side of travel has a micrometer stop, so the position is known if machining needs to be performed with the table at some other position. As made by DeVlieg, the table position is known only when the table is brought up against the stop. A DRO fixes that problem.

gregfortin · Oct 25, 2022

My machine is a Herbert and has 36“ of vertical travel. I think this might have been an optional feature.

gbent · Oct 25, 2022

Built in England when Detroit couldn't keep up. IIFC, all Herbert machines were 36" vertical.

Peter S · Oct 26, 2022

Here are a couple of Herbert adverts, 1958 and 1962. I can't recall where they came from, perhaps from this forum.

gbent · Oct 26, 2022

Peter, thanks for those ads. I am wrong about all Herbert 2B machines being 36" vertical. But I don't believe I've ever seen a 24" vertical Herbert 2B on this side of the pond.

SMM · Nov 27, 2022

Here are some pictures of my 2B-36 at work. The machine is so versatile. I've deck and bored engine blocks, transmission cases, rebuilt the table and carriage for a small Lucas Boring mill and recently finish a Camel Back for scraping. It gets used a few times a year and I don't know what I'd do without it. It'

s crazy accurate and machined the Lucas table ways to within .0005. Since the table machining required the entire window of travel; it provided proof of the accuracy I suspected.

Richard King · Nov 27, 2022

2 weeks ago I was doing a class and some maintenance work down in Oklahoma and they had 2 Devliegs, One ad a built in rotary table and the other didn't. In the manual it told you how you pull 4 alignment pins under some round plates on the table top and pull them up and spin the table. It said on some bigger machines they had an airlift table so it would spin easier. My dad use to scrape them for Kurt Mfg and we called the a Jig Mill and we scraped them .00005"/12" and 40 PPI. They ae a horizontal Jig Bore.

EmanuelGoldstein · Nov 27, 2022

Richard King said:
they had 2 Devliegs, One ad a built in rotary table and the other didn't.

Umm, what ? Never saw or heard of a builtin rotary. Interesting. Got a photo or two ?

gbent · Nov 27, 2022

The way Richard describes pulling the pins to rotate the table makes me think its just a regular E table. They look built in if one doesn't know what they are seeing.

EmanuelGoldstein · Nov 27, 2022

gbent said:
They look built in if one doesn't know what they are seeing.

That sounds about right ...

Richard King · Nov 27, 2022

General catalog Check page 24 - http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/10762/25879.pdf
Parts Manual http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/10762/25790.pdf

davehud · Nov 27, 2022

gbent said:
The way Richard describes pulling the pins to rotate the table makes me think its just a regular E table. They look built in if one doesn't know what they are seeing.

This. They're not round. Just a square positioning table that pins into the working table. They pin in place at 0-90-180-270 degrees. We used to use sine bars for in between positions and then clamp the positioning table in place. For multiple positions it was often easier to throw a standard rotary table on top of the positioning table.

Working 2B-36 Devlieg

Aluminum

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Hot Rolled

Diamond

Stainless

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Aluminum

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Aluminum

Diamond

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Diamond

Aluminum

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Diamond

Cast Iron

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