Bullard Company - Man Au Trol: How it Works

This 1951 film was produced by the Bullard Company, the famous inventor and manufacturer of the vertical lathe. The film contains extensive instructions on how to operate the Man Au Trol machine (Manual or Automatic Control), with instruction for specific tasks. The beginning of the film shows images of the Bridgeport plant and some of its employees. This is an early industrial marketing and instruction film captured on 35mm film before video cameras and digital video were available.
Director: R.C. Bullard
Producer: Leroy G. Phelps
Original Music: Emil Velazco
Narration: James Clemenger

[@thepragmatic6383]

In the early 1980s, I worked on Bullard three-head vertical boring machines for Canadian Steel Wheel in Montreal. The machining of train wheels with a diameter of 33, 36 or 42 inches required this type of machine, but with a turntable with a diameter of 52 inches. A simple change of wheel diameter to be machined required an 8-hour set-up. I have seen train wheels fly off these machines during the machining process, following the breaking of the bolts holding the jaws to the turntable. When this happened, the safety instruction was to run as fast as possible.

[@bartpickens8650]

As a consultant, I had a client company that had half of their very large facility filled with these Bullard machine tools to produce their products which were large machined castings used in the pipeline and petrochemical industries. The company started in the 50s and most of their Bullards dated from that time, including some they bought from other machine shops in the area. The level of accurate work and heavy machining they did always made it interesting to call on them. The other half of their facility was filled with CNC machining centers. This video filled on some gaps in my knowledge about the capabilities of the Bullard tools.

[@jeffsnider3588]

People who developed these mechanisms were extremely intelligent.

[@ironworkerfxr7105]

And they were not hindered by pro nouns....

[@martybadboy]

We stand on the shoulders of giants.

[@machineman8388]

​@@ironworkerfxr7105sounds like you haven't gotten over it yet 😂😂

[@geo1962]

I "programmed" one of these Man Au Trol's Bulllards in the late nineties while working a 10 hour afternoon shift. Just to see if it would work. It did. Bullards were amazing machines.

[@GLF-Video]

A mechanical computer. These machines are amazing!

[@jimsvideos7201]

The engineers who designed this control system would be astonished by contemporary CNC technology, and the media departments can only dream of using hand-drawn illustrations and custom orchestral music.

[@muhammadebnuhu406]

CNC of the old times. I enjoy watching these kinds of videos and have a lot of admiration for the brains that put all this together with no computers or calculators. Thank you for these videos and I hope that these kinds of machines are sitting in museums or still in use.

[@Matt2chee]

The shop I was at had a 36 inch Dyn-Au-Trol and a74 inch Dyn-Au-Tape, which is still there but broken right now, it's pretty tired. It was fully rebuilt and Fanuc control in the mid 90's.

[@MW-tg6jp]

Very cool. I still use these machines today, but only manually. I always wondered how the automatic worked. Now I know. I like how he set it up, started it and just walked away. Fully confident no mistakes were made.

[@Erik-gg2vb]

Yeah, I hoped they had a single step function. Getting the two tools on the same holder to jibe is some skill, especially if they have to end their travel in the part.

[@bardmadsen6956]

I was thinking of machinists writing the scrip of that B film review of the bubble gum machine and coyote robots lipping off in silhouette, "I wouldn't turn your back on it."

[@MWL4466]

Bullard made great machines. I ran a vtl for many years, manual only. Our Man-au-trol machines were worn out and used only manually by the time i got there but were robust and strong.

[@DG-mc5oc]

Ran one of these till 2016 making aircraft frames. Real workhorses, most operators were scared of them. Maintenance guys didn’t want to touch them. Usually cutting 2 or 3 surfaces at the same time. Can’t say I miss it

[@ramiroramirez-c1t]

I’ just turned 22 and i feel happy for my self knowing i can use them manually on Bullard machines

[@aaronbaird3533]

As someone else noted, that would be a repairman's nightmare after a few years.

[@ironworkerfxr7105]

And,,,,fixing a machine today is .... Far worse !!

[@Tadesan]

Because you can't call a maintenance tech. and then wait?

[@karmachanix]

I have to replace a cone clutch in the left side head and lead nut for the cross feed of the ram. I'm in that nightmare. I'm just trying to figure how to deal with the twenty+ 3/8 metal hydraulic lines in one head.

[@silverdrillpickle7596]

@@karmachanix Yes

[@genesauter4755]

These were the days when a person could think for him self you were trained as a machinist.

[@vitesse_arnhem]

Now illegals are machinists

[@catranger01]

I worked at Bullard back in 79 detailing tooling for turn key machines.

[@sethcane5161]

Do tell what that was like! I'm from Fairfield/Bridgeport myself

[@catranger01]

@@sethcane5161 Absolutely huge machines but the machines at Farrel in Ansonia were even larger where I worked as a process planner.

[@backho12]

Farrel roll grinders are still being retrofitted. Just can beat old iron for longevity. @@catranger01

[@spitfirekid1]

Great machines for their time!

[@ypaulbrown]

Marvelous......thank you so much for posting this...bravo, from an old machinist n Florida

[@joandar1]

Great video showing the mechanical version of NC and of course CNC machining! Like shown here all of these mentioned above still need a Machinist to set them up! John, Australia.

[@bobw222]

It's a shame some billionaire doesn't hunt down a bunch of these old machines and open a working museum with them. The evolution from Hard programming here and on the Jacquard loom through paper/mylar tape through modern CNC is fascinating.

[@rickn.3062]

Excellent idea!

[@miles2378]

Jay Leno might have some preserved he has a number of steam engines in his colection.

[@JoeSmith-cy9wj]

Well ahead of its time

[@miketrissel5494]

Can you find a film on the Mag/Demag, chuck control to round it out. Was introduced to them in 1973 as an electrician. They were absolutely fantastic. Mod-u-trol if I remember right

[@chrisbrady-t1u]

We had a Bullard vertical lathe at a place I worked at in 2010 that was dated 1927.A lot of brass fittings on it.A lot of holes to squirt oil into.Had those drip lubricators too.

[@danielgriffith7694]

Back in the day, we at Cummins had several of these machines on the flywheel and flywheel housings line . Very good and dependable machines 👍👍👍

[@joaquinbrasher3722]

Can you see if you cn find any footage of Jimi Hendfrix's concert at Central High School in 1968?

[@peterdobson7140]

ABOUT THE TIME THAT THIS FILM WAS MADE I OPERATED A BULLARD 6 CHUCK MACHINE IN ENGLAND MAKING SIMILAR CROWN GEARS CASTING

[@dugwthree]

That's cool. My current work uses a Bullard machine with a 56 inch diameter capacity. I use to bore Boat propellers. It is manual with included hydraulic rapid travel

[@JohnBoyDeere]

Great video and a great machine! Long sleeves around rotating equipment, now that is another story...

[@toomanyhobbies2011]

Very nice video, thank you. That technology is as good now as when it was devised. Elevators worked in a similar fashion until the 1980s, but the mechanical aspects are still being used. Of course, the transistor and servos made the next great leap in control systems possible. Though not as robust, setup times decreased a hundred fold, with computer code replacing all those dogs, wires, and adjustments.

[@mike97525]

I ran a Bullard multiple spindle D16 at pacific valves many years ago

[@speedbuggy16v]

Incredible.

[@nobuckle40]

As someone who works on an engineering team doing New Product Development, I can say, first hand, that people have no idea what it takes to make a mechanical marvel like this.

[@jimmartin5362]

I couldn't imagine

[@bobg3034]

Got to love Mechanical Computers!

[@KingfishStevens-di9ji]

That drum programming is still used in washing machines.

[@christopherleung9234]

... someone from the world of programming microcontrollers at the level of line-by-line OP-CODE instructions would probably feel right at home with the discipline it must take to transcribe each step in a sequence of machining operations onto what seems like a radial punched card. Does anyone know how many "rows" there are on the drum used to encode each operation? Each segment looks like approx. 10 degree wide so guessing maybe 36 operations ... The ingenuity of combining several machining operations into a given horizontal or vertical pass is so great to see demonstrated ...

[@lecour]

8:08 show 39 steps. No far guessed.

[@KingfishStevens-di9ji]

Yeah i could program that no problem

[@heintmeyer2296]

" a new set up can be completed by a team of engineers in as little as two months!"

[@coloradostrong]

Marvelous Afrikan machines developed by the brainstorming that has always been central there.

[@vitesse_arnhem]

Not African at all. American ingenuity. African ... LOL

[@AndreLuis-fp4dd]

Fantástico! Mas... hoje tudo se resume a uma pastilha de Silício de 1cm². Onde se encontra todas essas máquinas? Ainda em uso?

[@padraiggluck2980]

My father worked at the Bullard factory.

[@Tadesan]

Baby weve come a long way.

[@Erik-gg2vb]

Cool, I wish they showed the contouring cut. I don't see how they could do it except having a form tool doing a step down program and that would have to be a continuous radius. How about a changing radius cut?

[@guytech7310]

Template follower like on older lathes. It is a lathe after all

[@billclark5943]

Some machine still operate with the many of these principles. Like screw machines

[@justtim9767]

Amazing.

[@ypaulbrown]

watching for a second time, just noticed at beginning, this was a IATSE Union made film

[@AdamKadmon-cg5qs]

9:15 - "This is the skull of Man Au Trol!" Please, someone must make a low-budget horror movie called _The Skull Of Manautrol_ .

[@backho12]

Just imagine doing offsets mechanically throughout the day.

[@DavidHuber63]

A big music box

[@jamestregler1584]

Ahhh the slide rule ; went to the moon and back 🤔

Whaaat?! I was pretty damn sure that cnc is something relatively new. Not from the times of black and white movies 😮

[@anthonyalbillar-montez5946]

Well it’s the year 2024.

[@mjcadr]

maintenance nightmare

[@jclay6680]

Looks like a motch-merrywether to me

[@SuperOlds88]

Seems to me the world of machinists, die makers, mold makers etc. is being overtaken by computers which means the operators can be paid less, have less skill, less education. The machine does the thinking. It's like that in a lot of things, people working at fast food places at one time had to know when to start a batch of french fries by looking at a temperature gauge so the oil had recovered to the required temperature otherwise you have greasy fries. Now the friers lower the basket into the oil when appropriate, and the baskets rise out of the oil when done, about all you need to do is dump frozen fries into the baskets, even a slightly educated monkey can do that. The history of the highly skilled machinists and tool makers are about gone, probably still some hanging on before they retire. It's too bad this has happened.

[@KingfishStevens-di9ji]

Yeah about 40 years ago.

[@daboyakasha101]

just to be clear, the machine does not do the thinking. They still don't. Modern CNC machines are still robots, and require instructions. You now have machinists who are programmers and/or operators. There are still many skilled machinists, just maybe not in older techniques.

[@guytech7310]

"The machine does the thinking." No. The CAD guy & to a limited degree, the operators that usually needs to tune in feeds & speeds. CAD guy programs the CAM do to the cutting, but also must deal with order of operations, fixures (clamping), and lots of other details.

[@fujifrontier]

My mind can’t understand how this thing works 😂😭

[@Tadesan]

That is an absolutely awful name. What were they thinking?

[@chrisyboy666]

How do,you cut a radius or a contour or an angle

[@StonesAndSand]

Just like an Acme Gridley....you use a form tool.

[@KingfishStevens-di9ji]

That won't do arcs circular interpolation. It could do polar interpolation..angles.

[@KingfishStevens-di9ji]

@@StonesAndSand chatter lol

[@andyhandysometimes839]

You would have used (and are still used) a Profile Turning attachment which usually had a sensing head with stylus which followed the contour of a usually precision made template statically mounted/fixed to a vertically mounted platen. These profiling units could be mechanical/hydraulic/glass valve or electronically controlled units which in turn controlled the movement of the cutting tool.Nowadays different types of sensing heads (now called probes) are used on machines to check the machined component dimensions before it is removed from the machine. Some of these Probes are used on CMM machines (computerised measuring machines) to statically measure the finished component. In certain applications laser beams are now used. Hope this explains how they produced a radius/arc before continuous path CNC machines and interpolation. By the way, this Bullard machine appears to be a Vertical Boring Mill and not a VTL (Vertical Turret Lathe), there is a difference.