The grinder assembly floor was just beyond the front wall of engineering, so it was easy to stroll out several times a day to see what was going on. The foreman of the group was Ivan Spencer, well-liked by most everyone. Ivan certainly helped me get acclimated when I joined the engineering group. There were perhaps eight assembly personnel under Ivan, who built the machines and ran them off. As mentioned earlier, there were numerous models being quoted and sold, but the bulk of the business was with the E2 and E3 form grinders. Electrically, these were relay equipped and in most instances had a small hydraulic tank used for work holding, and perhaps automation. Most of these machines required separate coolant tanks to provide necessary coolant over the grinding wheel. The coolant could be water based or grinding oil, depending on the job.

One of the stories told to me involved the electrical wiring foreman on the grinder assembly floor. Because some of the grinders had no coolant reservoir, we had a small (maybe 40 gallon) roll-around tank and pump which was moved into place when the machine was run off. This tank usually had grinding oil in it, for use on the older thread grinders; and the oil didn’t get changed very often (i.e. stinky!!). One day this electrical foreman lost his balance and fell butt-first into the tank (it had no cover). He ended up sitting down in it, and what a mess; of course he went home to get changed. When he returned, there were questions about how this could happen, so he dutifully demonstrated, and fell in again!! 

Lunch time at J&L usually involved standing out near Clinton Street and watching the cars go by. This was the late 60’s-early 70’s, and the muscle car craze was going strong. There were plenty of lead-footed drivers showing off their machines. Clinton Street had just been widened to four lanes, and the railroad tracks had been taken out. So it was smooth sailing with new blacktop all the way to I91.The Springfield Terminal Railroad was still in town, but basically just served the foundry (where the fire station is now), and J&L. They would bring in carloads of iron scrap for the foundry, and heating oil for J&L. The railroad had a small concrete block building on lower Clinton Street, just below where the  Nortrax tractor dealer is now. The rail line ran behind the two J&L buildings and over a steel bridge to the foundry (the bridge is gone now). There was a siding between Plant #1 and Plant #2, where the oil tank cars were placed. I think we burned some sort of industrial heating oil.

Before the street upgrade, the rail line used to run all the way up Clinton Street, taking a left onto Mineral Street, all the way to where the state offices are now (at that time that was J&L Plant #3, where we fabricated all our sheet metal parts). The automobile traffic had to share the (two lane) road when the train was running. Even without the train, driving on Clinton Street was a challenge with the uneven rails and potholes. Most of us drove cars that were forever in need of alignment.

 

J&L is remembered mostly for its lathes, but they also produced several other noteworthy products. The grinder branch of the company produced grinders for various tasks, including thread and form grinders. Grinders are basically used to machine hardened items, using an abrasive wheel, or in some cases, multiple wheels. Because of advances in turning tool technology, a lot of hardened items are now machined on lathes, using “hard turning” techniques (if surface finish is not of paramount importance). But a grinding machine is still indispensable in many instances.

The grinder engineering department was a small group of veterans, some of which were reaching retirement age. So when I transferred into it, I was the young one. The Grinder Engineering Manager was Clyde Quimby. Clyde kept track of all the department tasks on little pieces of paper, which he reviewed every morning. It worked for him. In the beginning, I worked with some of the older engineers on small tasks, to familiarize myself with the product line. But because of the increase of orders, it wasn’t long before I picked up my own projects. Most of the time these were the “Special Tooling” items that were required to be used on the machine order. The basic machines were already engineered, so no work was required from us on them, just write up the order and build it. The “Special Tooling” might include a work holding device (chucks, mostly), perhaps a special tailstock center, or diamond dresser items. Grinding wheels need to be kept sharp, and the only way to do that is with an industrial diamond dresser. These might be just a single point diamond traversed across the grinding wheel face, or perhaps a diamond impregnated roller to dress out a complex shape. The diamonds remove the dull portion of a grinding wheel, exposing new, sharp cutting edges.

J&L had a couple of older model manual thread grinders that they were still selling in the 60’s, one was the 6×36 and the other was the 12×45. The numbers refer to the machine capacity, the first being the largest work diameter, the second being the longest work piece length. These grinders used single point diamond dressers to (usually) dress a single wheel to the shape of the thread form being put on the work. Most of the time the job was to grind threads or grooves on hardened shafts (like an automotive transmission shaft). If threads were being ground, the wheel head could be tilted to the appropriate angle to match the helix angle of the thread. The work slide would traverse at the rate necessary to achieve the proper thread lead, using change gears.

Another grinder product was the E2 and E3 form grinders. Basically plunge grinders to grind annular grooves on automotive shafting. The E2 had a rather limited wheel width capacity, the E3 could mount multiple wheels, with spacers in between, depending on the job. The wheel  adapter could be upwards of 12″ in width, so long shafting with multiple grooves could be accommodated. We also had a line of tap grinders; a specialty grinder to grind the “Christmas Tree” forms on jet engine turbine blades. The latest grinder in the product line was NC controlled, the 1040 shaft and shoulder grinder. This was being developed in R&D when I joined the group.

When I arrived in town, there was a car dealership directly across the  road from J&L Plant #1, that was called Yankee Ford. After I started work, I went into the dealership to inquire about the new Ford Mustang that had been recently introduced. I was interested in a fastback with the high-performance 289 engine. They gave me a price, and details of the financing / monthly payments. It was going to be a stretch, but I thought I could swing it. Until I found out what insurance would cost. So I ended up buying a one year old Plymouth Sport Fury (with the small V8).

The garage was not in business very much longer, and eventually J&L bought the building and converted it into the J&L Technical Center (it is now the town police department). The “Tech Center” as we called it was set up to train customers and employees on how to operate various J&L machinery, mainly the TNC line of lathes. They had a very talented group of instructors of various disiplines, machine mechanical repair, electronic repair, and programming. They had several lathes in the building, and also one of the new 1040 NC grinders. Upstairs were the offices and classrooms, the machinery being on the ground floor. There were a lot of classes given to us engineer types, to educate us on all the necessary facets of these machines. Of course, each one of us was involved design-wise with small portions of the product line, but these classes brought all of it together. We even learned how the programming was done (even though most of us never really applied it).

During the Holidays the Tech Center was a beehive of activity and good cheer. This was the late ’60’s, and partying was pretty much wide open, not frowned upon as it is now (for liability purposes). There was always a big party at the Tech Center, and inside the main plants there were “refreshments” available if you knew where to look. But nothing  really out of control. Usually the bottles became visible during the last hours of the last working day before Christmas. I remember one Christmas in particular, when one of our older engineers happened to be over at the Tech Center. This was the last working day, and everyone was in the proper Holiday Spirit (hic!). A few of the instructors talked him into wearing a wig (he was quite bald), and they took him around the main assembly floor of plant #1. Their plan was to walk him around and introduce him to various people as a “poor customer who couldn’t get home for Christmas”. Our engineer was quite familiar with folks on the assembly floor, but it was amazing how many people were fooled by the wig and the shop coat he wore. But as they introduced him, there were some who slowly realized this was a trick……….

As we moved forward into 1970, there was a big storm brewing between J&L and the union. Union disputes were not uncommon in the valley, there always seemed to be bad feelings between the local UE and the shops. As they say, there are always two sides to the story; I think there may be three sides: Their Side, Our Side, and somewhere in the middle, The Truth…………..

It did not take me long to resume the role of draftsman after my army training. Business was good, and I had plenty of work. The day-to-day interfacing with my fellow workers was entertaining. We had an older man working as a draftsman, and he did a very meticulous job. A very quiet fellow, who, I found out, had a short trigger. Most of us brought our own lunch to work, usually in a paper bag. This fellow, lets call him “Bob”, also usually had a bag of potato chips with his lunch. I don’t know who started it, but when “Bob” left his desk, someone would open his drawer and crush his chips. When he found out……”WOW”!! Totally beserk. Can’t say that I blamed him, this happened several times, too. I think he finally found out who was doing it, by feigning leaving, and sneaking back. The harassment stopped.

Nearby was the Standards Department, headed up by an older fellow named Ray Hastings. They were responsible for keeping the company wide standards up-to-date. And they also ran the blueprint department, and microfilming of all the drawings and documents. The assembly lists were printed on standard perforated computer paper, then torn apart into 8-1/2″ x 11″ size and placed in three ring binders. When an assembly list became obsolete, they were microfilmed and destroyed; this saved valuable space as the microfilm could be filed away and retrieved easily if necessary. These obsolete assembly lists were microfilmed using a desktop sized unit, and feeding the lists thru one page at a time. Ray usually did this chore, but one day during the filming his string tie got caught up in the mechanism. And he couldn’t get it released. Moaning and calling for help, some of us ran over to unplug the unit so Ray wouldn’t get microfilmed…………..

It was about this time that I was asked to join the Grinder Engineering Department, headed up by Clyde Quimby. There was a definite advantage to moving, as the grinder group was located at the rear of the office, right next to the windows. So I went from sitting in the middle of the room to having a window seat. A great move, as I could work (at least in the warm months) with my window open. Never mind the dust from the parking lot, I had a view! I could watch the local railroad locomotive go by  with its load of scrap iron headed for the Springfield Foundry. And when they were pouring iron (making a casting), what a sight to behold, black smoke and flames coming right out of their roof! Another benefit was having some fresh air, as there were quite few smokers in the office (I was one of them).

J&L was a “family run” firm up until 1964, but at the end of that year there were some union problems, and then Textron bought it. This was before my arrival, so I don’t have any real details of what happened. But once Textron was aboard, they instituted a program to improve the business. They had the financial resources needed to do this. They bought some up-to-date production machinery, and hired several college-trained engineers. All employees now came under the Textron Pension Plan and Stock Plan. Once a year there would be a statement sent to me relating to my pension and what I could expect when I retired. Some of the old timers would kid me, saying “look at what you’ll receive when you retire in 2010!!” This date seemed so far away at the time, but, HERE WE ARE!!