Monarch Machine Tool Company - THE TURNING POINT - 1950s Promotional 16mm Film

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I was recently given dozens of old 16mm films that were rescued from the dumpster of a local college many years ago, all dealing with machine shop topics, ie training, etc. Since I couldn't find any reference to this particular film online, I figured I'd use it as a trial run for scanning these films. It's a laborious process. I will most likely be passing these films along to an archive rather than tackling them myself, but maybe I'll do a couple more of them. Scanned with my Moviestuff Retroscan Universal. I normally clean my films as part of the scanning process but this time I was running very low on film cleaner and didn't want to use up the rest of what I had on this experiment, so please excuse the dirt.

[@tracylemme1375]

The shop I work in has a Monarch EE10 with a manufacturing date of 1954. It is still one of my favorite lathes to use. Still holds 0.0002 in.

[@RRaucina]

Saving these movies from the trash was a heroic act indeed

[@mudnducs]

I bought a 1953 Series 61 lathe in 2015. I opened the headstock when I got it in my little shop to clean, check the oil, the Bijur valves in the lube system. The machine was over 60 years old then. I was STUNNED at the condition of the gears, shift forks, bearings...they didn’t look 2 months old! Man I miss that lathe.

[@simonhahn668]

I work in Germany/ Saxony as an lathe and mill operator, sometimes also on surfacegrinders and so on. Just a couple of months ago I finished my 3 year training, and everytime I see such a film like this, I cant wait to go to work again. I love to use precision Tools and machines, to create different types of workpieces what ever it is. Such a great job!!! Danke für den tollen Film!

[@christophercolumbus8944]

what do germans like to use for their engine lathes? ?

[@simonhahn668]

@@christophercolumbus8944 Greetings, because we are in former eastern germany, we still use in many companies machines built in the USSR OR GDR. But sadly new machines from asia for example are used more and more. We used have many, many very good german machine producers, but they are pushed away from china and so on.

[@christophercolumbus8944]

@@simonhahn668 are you in prussia? ?

[@simonhahn668]

@@christophercolumbus8944 No, Saxony. Near Dresden

[@christophercolumbus8944]

@@simonhahn668 here in canada we used soviet machines too but in trades school only because the schools don't have money so even if they have money they buy taiwan and chinese but again that's college. soviet machines are simple and stupid most people like their okuma engine lathes i know mazak and mori seiki used to make lathes. i always thought the british made lathes were very difficult to operate and there is a lot of those here too.

[@thomasaccuntius9946]

Here in my home town of Sidney Ohio. I had an uncle who worked , he ,he started out of high school and was kept working there during WW2 and after, until he retired. A neighbor was a technician who traveled the world repairing Monarch equipment. The factory is still here, but not in the glory it once was.

[@wilde.coyote6618]

I stopped at a McDonald's, off of I 75, while driving from Detroit to Cincinnati. I seen a local, old-timer, and inquired about some tressel bridges. When I told him I had a monarch lathe in my garage, he was excited. He told me he worked there his whole life and was now retired. He has 2 monarchs at his house.

[@franciscolinera7618]

I have fond memories making chips in the 70's and 80's. Monarch, Le Blond and Axelson. All wonderful machines proudly made in the USA. How times have changed.

[@DavidSmith-bh7fd]

Indeed. We have fallen so far.

[@chrisjarvis4449]

hi pea i thank you again for taking all these films off my hands and sharing them with the world .and a big thanks goes out to mike burger [ san diego city collage] for letting me save them from the dumpster it only took 25 years for something to happen with them but hey better late then never keep up the great work pea

[@cuocsongvatrainghiemnhat4637]

Hy vhuhhhvhhuu l

[@hazardousrusty4259]

Keep up the good work, one man’s trash might turn out to be a generations treasure! I love how these videos were made, they are informative. A tiny bit manipulative in information they give, but oh fuck it’s 1000 times better than what an average educational video looks nowadays. I’m a 2002 kid, and I find this video to more informative, clear and straight to the point. Less colours but more entertainment. More raw footage taken from actual work rather a “modern artist” who just takes all life away from reality with their modern “trending” drawings. Fuck yeah lets go love this

[@dengyun846]

​@@cuocsongvatrainghiemnhat4637even cats approve!

[@carsonp.7009]

@@hazardousrusty4259 03 here and i agree i love these old educational/ training films. It seems like they have so much more substance and thought put into them.

[@LifewithDavid1]

Thanks for posting this. I've recently been getting back to my roots; I was an engineer for Monarch Machine Tool Company in 1976 and early 77. I think that was the turning point in the American machine tool industry. I remember the company worrying about foreign competition and the struggles to stay cost competitive while maintaining the high quality reputation of the Monarch brand. It was very interesting; the union went on strike in early 77 and I worked in the shop for a few months until I left to pursue a 39 year career in the electric power industry. The factory looked much the same as in the film. However, the instruments were all state of the art. The 10EE was still being produced and was a great lathe. I cut my teeth designing customer requested options for the Model 60. However, I wanted to work with computers, and there wasn't an opportunity for me in the CNC area at the time. So I left and lost track of the machine tool industry until just recently. It's comforting to see that Monarch still has a great reputation!

[@Prairiedrifter1]

I wish America would go back to producing more machine tools. I work in a machine shop where we build press brakes. And it’s freaking cool to see where our machines end up in the US. Trailer companies, grill manufactures, tech schools, and even the in armed forces! We need to move companies back to America and bring back quality.

[@glennschemitsch8341]

That type of machine has been replaced by CNC machines.

[@zaffvideos5688]

Robots are doing most of these jobs, 24/7, no holidays no sick pay.

[@Prairiedrifter1]

@@glennschemitsch8341 we manufacture CNC press brakes. And yes some of them end up working with robots… bending parts 24/7

[@joelhart9020]

I have a suspicion my Chinese lathe was not made to the same standards

[@eaglewi]

Does it matter for a lathe though? The bed and ways always take so much abuse, especially in a production environment. Pretty much the whole thing is a wear item. You can find a quality Chinese lathe like a willis

[@joelhart9020]

@@wilde.coyote6618 I guess good wages are relative to your living expenses, in my country I don’t think I can buy a product that doesn’t have some Chinese components in it so if I took your stance I would be naked and homeless with no phone but I respect your decision

[@JohnSmith-gy4qj]

AS you will discover when one oif the grubscrews works loose where a keyway was supposed to be used. But there is a huge price difference too.

[@milojanis4901]

80 years ago. I doubt ANYTHING ever made in China will be around in 80 years, in 2102. Except Chinese people, and then only if we avoid world War III, which we are rapidly closing in on.......

[@gvi341984]

Why not make better parts for it? Then remake said parts with the replacement parts.

[@Daniel_cheems]

When they said their lathes were made to last, they weren't kidding one little bit...

[@mech4211]

No safety glasses, no respirators, no gloves and all the chemicals poured down the drain at the end of the day.

[@markmilam3152]

I know of a German man in Germany who wanted the best lathe in the world so he went to all the trouble to import a used Monarch 613 metric - inch all the way to Germany for his shop. He knew something most people didn't know a Monarch lathe is better than any lathe made in Germany

[@wilde.coyote6618]

I have a voest lathe, from Austria. But I can't get spare parts . Now my model k monarch, no problem.

[@Zonkotron]

I wonder if this is really true. I agree that after the war Germany was 10-20 years behind USA in machine tools. But, say, a 1965 VDF is a mighty machine....very similar to many of the American lathes. Proper Camlock spindle, direct, clutched drive, forced lubrication, gigantic clasping style double half nuts, automatic bed and slide lubrication, huge micrometer dials, high speeds despite being a 4000lbs machine ....no complaints.

[@stefanstamatov7725]

does he got youtube chanel?ive wathed one german to import monarch to Germany,and i ask him,why not buying propper German one.he sad monarch is the best

[@christophercolumbus8944]

what's popular in germany? or germany likes cnc as you may not know GUILDEMEISTER is the father of lathes

[@Zonkotron]

@@Chris-te7uk Just because Germans aint braggers the fact remains that VDF machines are fucking awesome! Need stronger language or is that clear enough for you. Cheers mate.

[@danneumann3274]

I have one from 1956. I love it. This video makes me even prouder to own this machine

[@paulbfields8284]

My dad trained me to journeyman status as a Tool Die Maker/Designer. He always said the “Monarch Lathes were the King of the lathes”.. he also was quite fond of LeBlonds as well. This video shows you how quality accurate and repeatable machining can be attained without a door a button and a cycle complete light.. this is old school and the reason why you can still use these old lathes today and make beautiful parts.

[@backho12]

Yep, Monarch lathes were always the best in their size range. Too bad they could make a decent transition to CNC.

[@rcdogmanduh4440]

Your dad was correct Monarch was the Cadillac, old LeBlonds (pre 80's) were good then fell the sad path of quality!

[@tonyedward6909]

Southbend lathes.

[@tonyedward6909]

Retro fit an old Bullard VTL awesome machine .

[@bcbloc02]

One heck of a video their quality control was pretty intense. Thanks a bunch for uploading this!

[@jonbender9110]

Wow now I know why a monarch is so good. I also have a monarch model c lathe and I am very blessed to have it. My dad served his machinist apprenticeship in the dupont Wilmington shops he always said you can't beat a monarch lathe.

[@jeffgreenfield7025]

The EE is still my favorite, they still run smooth 50+ years later.

[@ActiveAtom]

GREAT video we are two very thankful guys here that you saved this historic video sharing the Monarch lathes. Our favorite lathe by Monarch is either of the 10EE 20- or 30-inch versions, so rigid they truly are. Thanking you again, Lance & Patrick.

[@Ujeb08]

Thanks for sharing this great film! I knew Monarch lathes were good but never really thought about why. Being a retired tool and model maker and then running a laboratory for Materials Science for engineers, I can really appreciate the extreme precision and care that went into making their lathes. Down to the metallurgical inspecting for the right amounts of each element for the materials for making lathe parts. The work that goes into making a metallurgical specimen for inspection would shock people. I remember my first specimen and the cutting, sanding, grinding, polishing to .1Um to obtain a mirror finish and then dripping acids onto that surface for 4 seconds, neutralizing the acid and again polishing - just to be able to look under a high powered microscope and see grain boundaries and microstructure.. Hours and hours of work. I had the pleasure of running a few well used Monarch lathes and the 40's models were a blend of science and art !

[@chrismorris8695]

Wow, thank you for transferring and sharing this! As a Monarch owner this is just awesome.

[@bryco32]

Ran a Big Beautiful Monarch 32NN for several years running bearing bores on big acid piping and boots. 15" deep bores and 10.245 in dia. I bet that machine made a Billion dollars for that company over its life. Sadly a corporate buyout sent it to the scrapyard and a shiny new cnc took its place. It lasted 5 years and gave up the ghost and then they had to job out the parts. I remember down time on the machine meant I could throw on its huge 3 jaw chuck and make brass hammer heads for everyone in the shop. It was pretty cool seeing such a huge machine widdling out 1.750" brass bar stock for hammers LOL! Such good times.

[@davidb6576]

Thanks for the work in transferring this tape. Hope you can do a few more, or that whoever you hand them off to can do a similarly great job.

[@komoru]

"You'll find the selection of a Monarch a definite TURNING point toward better products" 🤣 Gotta hand it to whoever slipped that joke into the end of the video!

[@roberttauriainen9242]

Proud owner of a 10ee. This video is fantastic!

[@glennstasse5698]

Spectacular! I found myself wishing I could talk to some of the people in the film. And wondering what happened to the old metrology equipment. I loved the pictures of various models near the end. Who wouldn’t want one of those turret lathes or that air powered machine that made the ash tray? A 10ee is the object of my desire. Thanks for the work you put in bringing the film back to life. As they say, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

[@vicfunk4306]

All that complex precision machining made without digital readouts 😮

[@Vankel83]

Cut my teeth on a 1948 Monarch 10EE in the 80's. That lathe hands down was a head of it times when it came out.

[@chrisyboy666]

I don’t think any lathes or mills Cnc or conventional are built to this standard anymore

[@physicsguybrian]

Now that's quality!!! Great film from the 40's too!!!

[@engineeringtechnologyORG]

Great piece of history! Thanks for saving.

[@jameswilkinson1713]

I have a 1942 Monarch CK12 in my shop at home and I make parts on it for several local repair shops and thread the ends for hydraulic cylinders

[@jamesrobinson1022]

@Abom79 and @Keith Rucker would love this.

[@christophercolumbus8944]

he would be like i am right here watching a monrach right here it's best lathe i haver owned and muh daddy my daddy and his daddy blah blah blah

[@janvisser2223]

Finally!! A film made in the Monarch factory👍👍 I hope there is more.

[@peahix]

i have a couple more, and a couple more beyond that that are sadly too far deteriorated to do anything with.

[@rickseeman5679]

I love Monarch and I love WWII America.

[@erics7712]

As a country we have gone from private industry making the absolute best they could to now making the most profitable they can. Subsequently, machines and everyday goids will never be made this well again. Washers and Dryers to lathes and tools, are made to be obsolete within a fee short years. Sad indeed.

[@ypaulbrown]

this is fantastic, thank you for doing this....Bravo

[@dixiefix6055]

I have one made in 1944 and it still runs great, that being said i would love for Monarch to go through it and have it freshened up.

[@enedenedubedene4811]

Das war noch eine andere Qualität als der heutige Chinaschrott.👍👍👍👍👍😃😃😃😃 Viele Grüße aus Germany

[@StonesAndSand]

Utterly amazed by the profuse use of superlatives and lesser adjectives.

[@teipplestar5586]

This was priceless. Thank you.

[@billdoodson4232]

What can I say other than fantastic. And then you use all of this to make an ashtray accurate to 1/000 of an inch!

[@Wmbhill]

Thanks for the video. The 10 EE toolmaker’s lathe I ran was an amazing machine, so was the later model engine lathe I did the roughing work on.

[@MattandDonna]

Very nice! No crappy AI generated narrator to make one's ears bleed, and the man actually knows how to speak his native language.

[@whereswaldo5740]

I love this title. We used to make fun of any drama in the shop typically the same person or persons by saying As the Wrench Turns. Like a soap opera title. Good times great guys. Miss that work and the relationships.

[@dastardlydave1455]

I worked for a company that had a Monarch 4 axis cnc lathe. I traveled to the Sydney plant for the runoff. I remember the hardwood floors in the shop. Cool video!!

[@mistervacation23]

We began to teach me how to use different tools and help him with projects he built me this go-kart and I was the Envy of every kid on our one here he is in his second this is my favorite picture of him and it was made while he was still teaching school talk about a bad beat

[@bostedtap8399]

Excellent, very interesting, especially the machines testing components.

[@backho12]

This was probably from the late 1940's or early 1950's. Definitely not the early or mid 40"s. You can't kill a Monarch! They just keep on running.

[@peahix]

the date code on the Kodak film stock indicates a stock manufacture date of either 1943 or 1963.

[@ellieprice363]

Check out Steve Watkins channel on KZbin. Someone did a number on his 10ee that he’s restoring. Not only wrecked and bent the spindle but put some serious wear on the hardened ways. Sadly but obviously old Bubba ran Steve’s machine for a number of years.

[@backho12]

@@peahix Toward the beginning of the video you can see a 1952-3 Ford sedan. I'm very familiar with Monarch lathes and the ones shown are definitely not from the early 1940's. Great video none the less.

[@philbert006]

​@@backho12 they discussed retrofitting WW2 era machines at the beginning of the video, so definitely enough later to wear out monarch lathes. Mid to late fifties from the look and style, not to mention spotting the car. Good quality black and white recording, indicating later. If you see this stuff from the early sixties when they started using color, there's a huge backwards step in the quality of the recordings until they get it figured out and start to improve color equipment. It's absolutely fascinating and wonderful to see this stuff. Periscope film is one of the best KZbin channels for this kind of thing. It has thousands upon thousands of videos just like this about all manner of subjects. I highly recommend if you aren't already a follower.

[@stuarth43]

I never owned one but had the best BRIT, DEAN SMITH GRACE from 1978 and top French Cazenueve HB 575 X 2000 from 1976, still have the Caz

[@randymagnum143]

Beautiful Thompson grinder, built down the road in Springfield Ohio!

[@thunderbugcreative7778]

If I didn't want a Monarch lathe before I sure do now! Imagine how serious the machines were that built these machines.... what has become of them? Anyone know what happened to this original factory and all of its thousands of tools?

[@metriconejkt]

Now i using this machines.. amazing

[@izzynutz2000]

My grandfather's brother worked there all his life

[@rodolfoescobedo7396]

That was beautiful...

[@ananda_miaoyin]

Definitely our manufacturing high water mark.

[@metrovick5417]

Superb, thankyou for sharing.

[@randymagnum143]

Love the Monarchs, but Leblond had better ways. And the Lodge & Shipley Powerturns were top of the line. Of course, these are all little bitty lathes!

[@electech3339]

Thanks for saving and posting these. Very cool.

[@beyondmiddleagedman7240]

I couldn't afford a Monarch. I have a LeBlond Regal instead. Nothing is made to the standard of the Monarch especially in today's world.

[@gufbrindleback]

..... aaaaaand.... we made an ashtray! :D

[@jonnafry]

lol ... that micro precision in lathe construction really paid dividends here.

[@eXactModellbau]

Safty glasses weren't invented that time. 🥸

[@DavidHerscher]

Outstanding

[@robertklein1316]

Those machines probably found their way to Tiawan.

[@glennschemitsch8341]

Never had the opportunity to use one, but everyone knew a monarch was the best. I will question some of the 50 millionth tolerances quoted. Just to check those, requires temperature, humidity controls that you cannot do on a normal factory floor. very good video.

[@Gigachado344]

Are there any such promotional films on grinding operations?

[@flat-earther]

Did they do line shaft driven lathes or all self contained motors

[@philbert006]

By this time they had probably stopped making them for line shaft applications unless it was custom ordered. This looks very much later 50s.

[@tjlovesrachel]

It’s so beautiful

[@jimsvideos7201]

Same planet, different world.

[@christianpaulroldan4010]

That lathe is awesome. But are they still exist?

[@fulviolevati9805]

Wondeful video!!!!!

[@tr1ph0p]

so so amazing

[@adamadelsberger3512]

Thank you for this!

[@jefferygivens9993]

I was very impressed with the display of their testing. As someone who works in a lab, I was also shocked at the lack of PPE. I wonder what all those chemicals did to the technicians.

[@philbert006]

Ask your grandfather, if you're lucky enough to still have him around. I reckon the lack of any kind of safety was pretty much prevalent all across the country and any industry you can imagine. Surely you could find more videos about it than you could ever watch right here on KZbin too, but that's nowhere near as satisfying as spending time with and hearing stories from someone who was there, even if the subject matter isn't exactly cheerful. This was long before osha or any other kind of organization, government or otherwise existed. The union may have pushed for some kind of safety if they or the workers thought it was needed. But that's probably the only organization that gave more than a fart in a windstorm, and them only if pushed.

[@jefferygivens9993]

@@philbert006 I was blessed to spend a lot of time in the garage shop with him while he was alive. He used to tell me stories of working at the pipe foundry in Chattanooga after WWII. His first job after the Navy was removing rust by hand with a wire brush. I've had some unpleasant jobs but that exceeds anything I've had to do, including cleaning out restaurant kitchen grease traps.

[@philbert006]

@@jefferygivens9993 My grandfather started his first and only job at 14 years old, sweeping coal off of barges and scrubbing engine room floors on riverboats for the United States army corps of engineers. When he retired he had been the captain of the MV Mississippi, the flagship for the army corps of engineers, he was captain that retired the MV Arkansas, the last steamboat to ever work on the Mississippi River which it's engine and paddle wheel are inside the Mississippi River museum here in Memphis Tennessee still to this day, and when he retired he was captain of the MV Sullivan which to the guys that worked on the riverboats wasn't even bigger deal than being captain of all those other boats because it is the fire boat here in Memphis Tennessee, which means unlike everybody else that worked for boats in the corps of engineers him and his crew got to go home every night. He died when I was probably 15 or so. I spent a good bit of time with my granddaddy but most of it before I was old enough to learn anything like that from him and by the time I was getting old enough to learn things from them he was getting to be pretty sick. They almost lived in another world it seems. Sad that most of what they believed and built their lives on has been so casually sold or pushed out of schools and workplaces.

[@bobhemphut4011]

Thanks for sharing his story. Go Forth and Conquer like he did!!!

[@adamstripp39]

Loving it!

[@jeffdumpster1470]

All machine tools are the sons of the Lathe.

[@analogdesigner-Jay]

I still want a 10EE lathe!

[@Louis-kk3to]

And after thay reached the peak thay went back down the mountain 😢

[@arneminderman3770]

Greate film!!

[@metriconejkt]

Any others about turning videos 60 years ago

[@orlandosanfeliz2956]

Exelent lathe .😊

[@alan-sk7ky]

Bravo ...

[@ajimasnugroho7759]

Without coolan stay presicion👌

[@jmsanmiguel1801]

y pensar que ahora el CNC es lo ultimo , cuando ya antes lo hacian,

[@patrickboudreau3846]

I wasn’t made to these standards !

[@aguilacalva2625]

👍👏👏

[@jeansouvay8127]

J ai travaillé sur un tour revolver semi automatique marque jenny très bon tour

[@jeffdumpster1470]

A tenth is .0001 of an inch if anyone wants to know.

[@MegaRiffraff]

👍🏻

[@mackk123]

they threw this stuff away and never replaced it... on purpose

[@wilde.coyote6618]

You can buy a new EE lathe for 79,000 from monarch today. My boss bought a lathe from China for 10k. It is against my ethics to run the annn yang lathe. I'll use the beat up clausing. Have a monarch model k at home

[@itthus9552]

@@wilde.coyote6618 is that 79000 DOLLARS for a 10EE manual lathe?

[@philbert006]

​@@itthus9552yes. And that's for a base one. No attachments or extras. Shit, an 80 year old one in good, not great condition costs $25,000. Anyways, you get to adding dro, taper attachment, steady rest, follow rest, all that kind of stuff it's gonna be more like $125,000 to $150,000. 🤯

[@genesauter4755]

Your Chinese lathe won't last I have a old Logan early 1950s. I can still get parts. Can you you can't beat the value of American iron good luck

[@olegevstigneev5367]

Интересно.

[@김정택-n5d]

카피

[@michaelschwartz9485]

I used to run parts on the VMC150.

[@massimobianchi4262]

From this fantastic video you can see the love for mechanics and the calm with which all the mechanical workings and checks are made to give the customer a top machine! Nowadays the main focus is the speed of production and cost savings. How sad!🥲

[@philbert006]

You can buy a brand new monarch 10ee. Made in that same shop, with that same car and precision. They start at about $80k and only go up, and they go up fast. It's not cheap. It's not affordable. It's definitely not practical. But it's available if you are willing to spend a house worth of dollars.

[@7071t6]

Also forget any fumes the workers might ingest due to using any acids, nope just you tongs to hold the part immerse it in the acid, no timing and no face marks or seals protection behind glass and fans used to extract any possible fumes etc? 🦘🦘✌✌👍👍

[@7071t6]

WOw using a old school pump fan to push any shavings from the drill sample , @ the 5:54 mark, what ever happened to air compressors and hoses with specialised fittings, plus its in the specialised lab section of the factory, talk about skimming on internal funds to buy the best of the best products to use in the factory?🦘🦘✌✌👍👍

[@superman35405]

@abom79