History of the Sheldon Machine Company

(Edited and Updated 10/15/2011 by John Knox)

At the request of several members of the Yahoo's Sheldonlathe Group, I
am submitting a brief history of the Sheldon Machine Company. This is
for the benefit of those who have an interest in the history of the
American machine tool industry, in general, and the Sheldon Machine
Company, in particular. I hope that my personal experiences and
knowledge will be useful.
To state my credentials, I began working with the Sheldon Machine
Company in February 1953 in the Engineering Department. I worked in
that department until 1957, when I became Plant Superintendent. In
1968 I went back to the Engineering Department to design the Numerical
Controlled machines and I stayed in there until Acme Cleveland absorbed
and closed the company in December 1982. I stayed on with the
company until everything was moved out of Chicago. In my 29 years
with Sheldon I had an opportunity to talk with some of the old-timers at
the Sheldon Company, which may have provided me with some unique
insights into the company history.
1935 - The Beginning
In 1935 the small Sheldon line of products was owned by R. S. Dean, and
was located at 3252-3255 Cottage Ave. in Chicago, Illinois. Sheldon
products at that time consisted of a 9-inch and an 11-inch lathe, a line of
hand bench arbor presses, and a mill (or shaper) vise.
There is no solid information to indicate how the name Sheldon
originated. It was mentioned that Mr. Dean selected it as a name for his
arbor press and vise line after he saw a Chicago street sign for Sheldon
Street. However, there seems to be no Sheldon Street listed in Chicago
street guides today. Another thought was that Mr. Dean's middle name
was Sheldon, but we may never know the true origin of the company
name.
The First Sheldon Lathes
The first Sheldon lathes were called the Metalworker Series. The origin
of the Metalworkers is a bit cloudy. It has been speculated that the
design was purchased, or perhaps copied, from the Monarch Machine
Tool Company's Monarch Junior 9- and 11-inch lathes. Indeed, the
evidence I have seen indicates that it probably was copied.
The first Sheldon lathes came out about the same time that Monarch
switched production to solely gear-driven lathes. The official word in
the company was that the design and manufacturing rights were

purchased from Monarch by Sheldon when Monarch gave up their beltdriven lathes and went to exclusively gear-head design. However,
Monarch has no record of such a deal, and none of the old-timers
remembered seeing any Monarch prints or drawings at Sheldon Machine.
One old guy recalled seeing Monarch lathe parts spread all over the floor
at the Sheldon factory and sketches being made. Initially, Sheldon
Metalworker lathe parts were made directly from the sketches until
engineering drawings were eventually made. Given that evidence and my
conversations with old-timers, I believe that the Metalworker was copied
directly from the Monarch Junior.
Additionally, when I communicated with Monarch about this issue, they
sent me several pages of documentation and information on the Monarch
Junior. The only difference I could discern between the Sheldon
Metalworker and the Monarch Junior was the name. I have some old
Sheldon pictures that I will have to look at and try to make further
comparisons between the two.
Evolution of the Early Sheldon Lathe Design
As stated, the first Sheldon lathe was the "Metalworker." It had no feed
box, but instead had a set of change gears. There was no apron clutch.
Its spindle ran in cast iron bearings and it was a very low-cost lathe.
Leo Zupan, an Austrian first-generation immigrant mechanical engineer,
was responsible for major design changes and improvements to the
Sheldon Metalworker lathe. These changes included: overhead, and rear,
flat-belt individual motor drives; the two drop-lever feed change box; the
Timken tapered roller bearing headstock; the down-through-the-bed Vbelt spindle drive; the U and E underneath motor drives (which
required a bed and headstock casting change); the bench and pedestal
type support designs to accommodate the new drives; and the telescopic
taper attachment.
1935-1937
Between 1935 and 1937 Sheldon's Machine Shop and Assembly
departments were split. One department was moved to Kilbourn, near
North Ave., and the other was moved to Kilpatrick St. During this time
the L (10-inch), XL (10-inch with a large hole through the spindle, the
S (11-inch), and the M (12/13-inch) lathes were developed through the
tireless efforts of Leo Zupan.
In 1938 George Carolan and the Armstrong brothers purchased the
Sheldon line. The brilliant engineering talent behind Sheldon, Leo Zupan,
went along with the deal. George Carolan, a diverse lawyer, Horace,
Lennox, and Paul were the Armstrong brothers of The Armstrong

Brothers Tool Company of Chicago, Illinois. Armstrong Tool was to list

the Sheldon products in their tool catalogs in the hope of interesting the
railroads and other businesses in the Sheldon line.
1940 - WWII
The operations continued in the same locations until everything was
moved into a new building at 4258 N. Knox Avenue in Chicago in 1940.
The new facility had all the newest over-head line shafts and flat beltdriven machinery of its time. North Knox Avenue runs north and south.
The plant was located on the West side facing the east, and a railway
siding came up to a loading dock on the west side (the rear of the plant).
A small street-level truck dock was located on the South end. Most
machines and material, having been moved by hand on hand trucks and
dollies, came and went by rail. The original plant was built of brick and
steel, with wood beams overhead, where pillow blocks for shafting were
located.
In the early 1940's there was a need for more space to meet the great
military demand for lathes. Sheldon continued to grow, with the
purchase of the Vernon mill and shaper line. To provide additional
manufacturing capability, an addition was placed on the south end of the
plant. The construction was brick, to match the original building, but
wooden beams were used because the war effort had made steel beams
unobtainable. The new building addition included an enclosed, inclined,
floor-level double truck loading dock opening directly onto Knox Avenue.
All machines being built for government orders at that time were
watched by federal inspectors on the assembly line. When a machine was
complete and passed federal standards it was stamped next to the serial
number with a very small x or a bomb-like symbol (among others), to
show that it was Okay to ship. Also, the inspector had to sign off on
the paper work.
Leo Zupan made an interesting period modification for military use of
Sheldon bench lathes. He designed a steel lathe cabinet that had its
lower left leg angled to clear the rear wheel well of Army field machine
shop trucks. In addition to the special cabinet, most of the field truck
lathes had a ball socket swivel arrangement built under the tailstock end
of the bed. The ball and socket was unlocked when the truck was in
motion so the bed did not see the twisting of the truck frame. When they
stopped and set up the lathe they were to level the bed and lock the
swivel joint. This arrangement may not be unique to Sheldon but I have
never known of a similar thing on any other lathe.

1945
After the war, Sheldon redirected its sales efforts toward schools,
universities, laboratories, and industrial consumers. Again, another

addition was made to the south end of the plant, with an eye toward
larger equipment. This addition was brick and returned to steel-beam
construction, with a single- bay, street-level dock facing south into a
parking lot. Through that dock many of the larger pieces of machinery
were brought into the factory.
The 1950's
In late 1953 Sheldon purchased the Sebastian lathe line from Cincinnati
Metalcrafts, Inc. to qualify for the opportunity to quote and build gearedhead lathes for federal contracts. Its interesting to note here that a
group that split away from the group that built The Monarch Machine
Tool Company had formed the Sebastian Machine Company.
To accommodate the Sebastian lathe acquisition, yet another addition
was made to the south end of the plant and set back from Knox Avenue.
It included an over-head crane to handle the assembly and movement of
the heavier Sebastian machines. The larger Sebastian lathe line included
12, 16, 20, and 24 swing machines. Limited production of these
continued while a new Sheldon-Sebastian line was designed.
In the mid-1950s the 13 and 15" Sheldon-Sebastian machines were
added to the line. These were the only Sheldon-designed Sebastian
machines ever built, and the only geared-head lathes that Sheldon built.
The 1960's and 1970's Introduction of the GR and R Models and NC
and CNC
Some people refer to the 1960s and 1970s as the Golden Age of the
American machine tool industry. Sheldon made several interesting
contributions to this period. In the mid-1960's they introduced first the
GR and then the R models, and thereby added a 17-inch machine to
the line. Some people refer to the later R-series Sheldon lathes as gearedhead lathes, but they were in fact belt driven from below with a one- or
two-speed motor or direct driven with hydraulic variable speed motor, or
other combinations. The design on the later R-15 and R-17 machines was
done by a sharp young man who worked for some years under the wing
of Leo Zupan and really made big strides in designing the "R" series,
starting in about 1958, after Leo retired. His name was Don Oddo and he
did a very nice job at the new and innovative design.
At the same time Sheldon was developing a large 30 HP NC 48"x 40"x14"
horizontal mill which was featured at the 1972 Machine Tool Show in
Chicago, at the Stock Yards. At this tool show Sheldon also unveiled a
new Model 1710 CN lathe. Four of the big NC mills were built and used
strictly for Sheldon machine tool production until Sheldon was closed.

Late 1972 saw the introduction of a 2816 NC lathe built on the frame of a
28 x 80 made by Voest-Alpene of Austria and the beginning of the
decline of "L", "XL", "S", & "M" lathe production. Also, by this time the "O"
mill and shaper production were dwindling. However, the demand had
increased for the "R" 13, 15, and 17 lathes. By mid-1975 the
production of all NC lathes had been changed to CNC lathes and they
were offered with 4 station rear turrets and 4 or 8 station front turrets.
1977 saw the introduction of a CNC 2040 vertical mill with 32-tool
automatic tool changer, followed in 1979 by the 3040 horizontal mill
with 2-18" 8-position index tables and a 30-tool automatic tool changer
under CNC control. The table capacity of these machines was 10,000 lbs.
At the same time under development was a CNC 32" 30 HP slant bed
lathe that was to have been in the 1982 Machine Tool Show at McCormick
Place in Chicago.
Sheldon and Other Machine Tool Manufacturers
To my knowledge there was never any hostility between Sheldon and
South Bend, or other machine tool manufacturers, however there was
fierce competition in the field of school, university, and laboratory,
contracts. The competition continued right down the line much like
you'd expect to see in a sporting event. I don't know if Sheldon ever sold
parts or accessories to South Bend but Sheldon, from time to time,
purchased parts and accessories from South Bend. Sheldon had a very
open policy about competition, even at the machine tool shows. Their
policy was that if competition comes to you with questions or for
manufacturing information, and they are up front about who they are,
"tell em what they want to know, but if theyre not being up front don't
tell them anything. I was involved several times taking folks from other
builders, South Bend included, through the Sheldon plant to look at what
was going on. I remember explaining how we were doing things, on the
theory that if they really wanted to know, why make them sneak around
to find out and take a chance that they got bad information. A very
sharp line was drawn at giving out blueprints however.
1982 The End of Sheldon Production
In late 1980 Sheldon was purchased by Acme Cleveland who closed the
Sheldon factory in December of 1982. I guess if I had to give a reason for
Sheldon closing it would be too many big ideas and different directions,
too quickly.
I'll continue to look for Sheldon pictures and documents that may be of
interest, and if any Sheldonlathe Group members have any other
questions, or if I can do anything to help you with your projects, please
let me know.

Respectfully,
John Knox