Evening star., 1942-06-29
Machine Tool Scouts
Hunt Idle Hours
In War Drive
Seek to Put Every
Piece Of Equipment
On FuII-Time Busis
BY JAMES MARROW AND
WILLIAM PINKERTON,
Wide World Business Writers.


The big machine tools, shock
troops of the battle OF production,
are being ordered into double time.
Tool experts of the War Produc-
tion Board are combing the coun-
try's industrial centers for idle ma
chine-tool hours. which may help
solve the bottlenecks OF some small
er industrial plants.
Aim of the critical tool survey.
now in progress. is to put every tool
of the IL critically scarce types on
a full time schedule
Result of the drive will be a
machine-hour index, which will
guide the stumped manufacturer to
the machine tool in his community
which has precious work hours to
spare
WPB's tool scouts are looking for
the plants which have certain scarce
machine tools, but do not work them
full time for their own needs.
For instance. the ABC Corp.
works on a l20-hour- a week sched-
ule. To keep its other machines
going full tilt, however, takes only
30 hours work on its large planer
That leaves 40 hours of idle time
on the planer.
WPB intends to make that idle
planer time available to the XYZ
company down the street. whose
work is jammed up for lack of
planer.
Work in Chicago Area.
Ten teams of tool scouts are
working in the Chicago area now.
They already have surveyed the
critical machine tools around Phil
adelphia. New York. Boston and
Cleveland. Later, they will go to
Detroit, Minneapolis and Kansas
City
Out Of each survey comes list
of all critical machine tools in the
region Cthe regions are the same
as the Federal Reserve Board dis
trictS) The tools are listed by cities
and by type of machine.
These lists will be available to all
industrlalists working on war jobs
and on essential civilian production
in that region, They will be avail
able, too. To manufacturers just over
the regional borderline in the next
FRB district.
A manufacturer finds his work be-
ing dela"ed for lack of a broaching
machine oI a bevel gear cutter. He
can consult the critical tool list. find
a man in his community or a neigh
boring town who has spare hours
or the needed machine and make
a deal to put the machine on full
time work
Some Confusion Seen.
There has been considerable con-
fusion over the much discussed
"machire tool bottleneck" Thou
sands of small industralists have
been stumped to know why. despite
all the talk of machine tool short
ages. his machine tools stood idle
and no. even a buyer appeared.
The answer is that there are ma
chine tools and machine tools. The
"bottleneck' tools are the large and
complicated devices, those keyed to
operate on extremely close toler-
ances. Comparatively, the ordinary
planer or drill is in the dime
dozen" class For some types OF
machine tools. there is no need
at all.
For reasons of military security,
the really scarce machine tools can
not be described in detail. In gen.
eral, however they fall into IL types
of tools with some So specifications.
WPB describes the types thus
(but remember that in each case
it is the large. close-tolerance mod
els which are scarce:
Boring mills (horizontal and ver-
ticaD. broaching machines. drilling
machines, forging machines, gear
cutters gear hobbers. bevel gear
cutters, grinder thread, internal,
external cylindrical, centerless)
lathes (engine, turret and auto
matic), screw machines automatic
single and multiple spindle). mill
ing machines boring, planing), +,
planers, so inches and up; thread
millers external, internaD.
New Tools Produced.
The critical tool list is only one
string in the bow of the WPB's
critical tool service.
New machine tools still are being
produced. Here the accent also is
on the small list of critical tools.
One way and another, a lot of
machine tools have been, and are
being, converted to war jobs. Big
gest conversion, of course, was con-
version Of the end product, where
the tool did essentially the same
job as before but turned out air.
plane parts instead of auto parts.
Idle machine tools found in the
hands of secondhand dealers are
being moved into production, too.
WPB can hold the threat of requisi-
ton over a dealer who tries to hang
onto such tools without reason.
OPA has fixed the price on them.
Some tools can be adjusted, with
minor or major changes, to the new
jobs thrust on them by war work.
Thus, by changing the cutting edge,
marble cutters have been turned
into steel cutters.
Officials pin high hopes on the
critical tool survey for getting every
scarce machine tool into full-time
production. The worst limiting fac
tor, they admit, is the simple fact
of geography. There is limit to
how far heavy goods can be trun-
died back and fourth for the needed
tool job. In areas where war plants
are fairly thick, however, the pay
off in completed work may be quite