email: tony@lathes.co.uk
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Ajax Mechanical Hacksaws
Ajax Milling Machines
A manual is available for Ajax saws
Operation Manuals and Parts Lists are available for many older Ajax machines


Built during the 1960s and 1970s in a range of four sizes, Ajax mechanical hacksaws were typical of the Company's offerings being of a good speciation, well built and very competitively priced. Who manufactured the machines came is not known, but as most other Ajax offerings at the time came from within in Eastern Europe - for example as Bulgaria, Romania and Czechoslovakia - that is where they are likely to have been made.
Able to cut round material 6 inches (153 mm) in diameter and square and other sections of up to 5.5" x 5.5" (140 mm x 140 mm) the two smallest models the AJDS6 and AJHD6 were of the same mechanically design. However, while the AJDS6 was intended for light-duty use and fitted with a 0.5 h.p. motor, machine speeds of 75 and 105, stroke rates of 3 inches and 5 inches (75 and 125 mm) and took a 12-inch (320 mm)  blade, the AJHD6 was intended as a more heavy-duty type and supplied with a 1 h.p. motor, machine speeds of 70 and 95, a single stroke rate of 5.5 inches (140 mm) and a 14-inch (350 mm) blade.
Intended for continuous industrial use, the AJHD10 and AJHD16 were much more powerful machines, the former with a 1.5 h.p. motor, speeds of 70 and 95, a stroke of 6 inches (153 mm) and an 18-inch (450 mm) blade. With a stroke of 7.5" (190 mm), the AJHD16 had a motor twice as powerful, speeds of 53 and 70 and took a 24-inch 600 mm) blade.
The masses of the machines are a clear indication of their expected use: The AJSD6 weighed a rather light 330 lbs (150 kg); the AJHD6 705 lbs (320 kg); the AJHD10 1190 lbs (540 kg) and the massive AJHD16 nearly one ton at 2095 lbs (950 kg).
All models incorporated an adjustable rate of down feed and a simple, automatic motor cut-off when the job was complete. Included with each new machine was a no-volt safety starter, coolant pump, tank, setting bar and a vice, able to be set at 45 and 90 degrees, that locked down into abutment slots.
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Ajax, formed in 1939 and based in West Mount, Halifax, Yorkshire was begun one George Carter and Donald Walker. The name for their new machine-tool company came from H.M.S. Ajax, the Royal Navy battle cruiser that had been adopted by the town.
Original products, not doubt insisted upon by the Ministry of Supply during WW2, included a variety of drilling and milling machines needed urgently for war work By 1950 a new public company,
Ada Domestic Appliances had been  incorporated and acquired the whole of the issued share capital of the original Ajax company. With a new machine-tool factory built and equipped at Holmfield, Halifax, the West Mount premises were used for the production of the rather less exciting though no doubt profitable washing and ironing machines. In 1953 Ajax became a Limited Liability Company and, following considerable success in machine-tool sales, was acquired in 1958 by the Dutch Electronics Group, Philips International. By the 1960s the Company had changed direction and become, as well as a manufacturer, a well-known importer and distributors of a wide range of what might be described as well-constructed but less expensive industrial machine tools.  Items factored included milling machines ranging from simple hand-operated horizontal types through a number of popular Bridgeport Series 1 clones to ordinary but massively-built vertical and horizontal types. Slotting machines, shapers, metal saws, lathes drills and doubled-ended grinders were also offered in a wide variety of models, styles and sizes..
In 1979 the Company moved to new premises in Bredbury, Stockport and became part of the CEI Group, within their specialist engineering sector - a subsequent sale transferring assets to Graseby Plc. In 1992 the Company was transferred back into private ownership following a management buyout from the Graseby Group. By October 2001 the company was in new hands, having been taken over by the Viking Group - who counted amongst their acquisitions Startrite bandsaw and drilling machines. Now based in Birminham, in  November 2002 the company was taken over by its current owner Mr Savin, (who relocated it to Hampshire), to be joined in March 2005 by the long-established Southampton-based machine tool dealership Semco Machine Tools ( Southern Engineering & Machinery Co.) The Company trades successfully to this day.

Ajax Milling Machines
A manual is available for Ajax saws
Operation Manuals and Parts Lists are available for many older Ajax machines
lathes.co.uk
Ajax Mechanical Hacksaws
email: tony@lathes.co.uk
Home   Machine Tool Archive   Machine-tools Sale & Wanted
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