Detroit Axle RIP

[DC48080]

That plant was designed by Smith, Hinchman & Grylls and built by the Dodge Brothers to supply very delicate recoil mechanisms for French heavy artillery howitzers and field guns. It was designed and constructed in only 4 months and began production in March of 1918.

The contracted price for the factory and machinery was $3,500,000 but wartime inflation raised the price to $10,000,000, paid for by the US Government. Dodge Brothers bought the plant in 1920 from the government for $1,400,000.

Later, it was used by Graham Brothers Company to assemble trucks and after 1938 it was used by Chrysler to produce axles.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

That plant was designed by Smith, Hinchman & Grylls and built by the Dodge Brothers to supply very delicate recoil mechanisms for French heavy artillery howitzers and field guns. It was designed and constructed in only 4 months and began production in March of 1918.

The contracted price for the factory and machinery was $3,500,000 but wartime inflation raised the price to $10,000,000, paid for by the US Government. Dodge Brothers bought the plant in 1920 from the government for $1,400,000.

Later, it was used by Graham Brothers Company to assemble trucks and after 1938 it was used by Chrysler to produce axles.

Thx DC for the history.

[Ltdave]

when i was laid off from my plant in 2001, i was called to work there. i started 6 august 2001 and it was 106o in my department...

the cutting fluid used was rather oily and in the 15 months i was there, i had a MINIMUM of one nosebleed a week. i also went through about 4 pair of shoes because the fluids would dissolve the rubber in the soles...

there were machining lines that were installed in the late 50s or early 60s made by the JC Lamb company of Detroit. there were cutting tools on spindles that would slide sideways to cut a part, slide back out of the way and the conveyor would then advance the parts to the next station. everytime these spindles would start up, the cutting fluid that was flooding the workstation would kick up a rooster tail about 12-15 feet in the air...

from the back side of the plant to the front side of the plant [[along Mt Elliott) you couldnt see the entire 1200' because of the mist of fluid in the air...

we had a swaging machine that was used to swage one end of the axle tubes [[that come off the pumpkin, that house the axle shafts) that was rebuilt 3 times [[that i was told) the last time in 99. i was also told that they at one time used the line for necking down brass cases for the 75mm or 76mm high velocity shells for the 75mm field guns and the armament on the M5 Lee and M4 Sherman tanks...

Huber Foundry behind them used to provide the axle shafts for machining and hardening but an outside concern convinced the plant that they could provided the same axles shafts for pennies on the dollar. along with other work leaving Huber caused it to close and within a month the axle shafts increased 4,000% to more than triple what was being paid to Huber...

when i got some stuff taken care of at my home plant, i left the Axle and never looked back...

[MikeM]

That plant was designed by Smith, Hinchman & Grylls and built by the Dodge Brothers to supply very delicate recoil mechanisms for French heavy artillery howitzers and field guns. It was designed and constructed in only 4 months and began production in March of 1918.

The contracted price for the factory and machinery was $3,500,000 but wartime inflation raised the price to $10,000,000, paid for by the US Government. Dodge Brothers bought the plant in 1920 from the government for $1,400,000.

Later, it was used by Graham Brothers Company to assemble trucks and after 1938 it was used by Chrysler to produce axles.

http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1173645200