The HOLY GRAIL of Precision Machining | SIP Hydroptic 6 Jig Borer

We are finally revealing our 1950s SIP Hydroptic-6 Jig Borer! The SIP Jig borers have a signature optical measuring system and hold tolerances up to 1 micron (0.001mm), so it's no wonder the Switzerland made machines are often considered the holy grail of precision machining. In today's era this vintage 1950s jig borer can even out perform machines of the modern world. In the video we share what a jig borer is, how it works and all the special tooling & accessories we received with it. We hope you enjoy this walk-around and tour of our amazing SIP Hydroptic-6 Jig Borer.

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[CuttingEdgeEngineering]

It is definitely a privilege to have this amazing piece of machinery in our workshop and we hope you enjoy seeing it as much as we do! 😎👍
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[Antagraber]

My father worked in Switzerland with this machine in the 60s. As someone wrote already, my dad said that it was in a room that was temperature, humidity-controlled and had an operating room level air scrubber.
He proudly explained to me how he worked with. Now, 22 years after he passed away, I see this amazing machine. It is touching to me.
He would be very interested in your channel.

Thank you very much, Mr Korenko.

[DingleyDell]

It makes me watery eyed seeing how well that machine is made, how well its documented, the diagrams, the spares and even how nicely the accessories are all boxed up. Its from an age where engineering seemed to ooze a level of pride that seems to have diminished. Its a large boxy, grey and heavy piece of kit, but its a thing of beauty to my eyes and built to last too!

[dimadee]

I did my toolmaker apprenticeship at Holden in Adelaide (Woodville plant). We had 2 of these machines in a temperature controlled room and I was fortunate enough to be trained on them and work in there on many occasions. These machines are bang on accurate and have no vibration or chatter when machining. Exactly like a Rolls Royce would be if it was a jig borer.

[dikkybee]

I started my Apprenticeship in '79 as a Fitter and Turner and after completing my trade with the added modules I was a Toolmaker at the Ordnance Factory Maribyrnong in Victoria. In our toolroom we had a Hydroptic 4, 6 and 8 which was beside each other in a controlled atmosphere. The 8 had 2 spindles, a vertical and horizontal which were aligned within 0.0002" so machining holes that were 90 degrees to each other and were aligned was easy. During the 90's we were making gearbox housings for the American Army for the M1 Abrams tank when the Gulf War was in full swing on the Hydroptic 6. At that point in time I was the Toolmaker Checker and so all the housings went through me before being sent to the USA. Unfortunately that meant working 80 hours a week, starting at 5:30 in the morning 7 days a week for 18 months doing 10 and 12 hour days. We worked all holidays except Christmas day and was the first time I earned more than $32, 000 as I think the base wage for a toolmaker was around the $22, 000ish mark. If the machine is the same as ours they have a glass scale which is where you get the black line that you align the 2 fingers when looking through the optics. The optical centre that goes in the spindle can also be used to pick up an edge. As the machines aged the best thing we did was put a DRO on the 4 and 6 as we were in the phase of going from Imperial to Metric so at the flick or a switch it went from Imperial to Metric and was just as accurate as the optics. The best thing about going to the DRO was you could make your fine adjustments in either direction unlike the optical which has to be done in one direction to maintain accuracy and if you go past you have to back off and start again. They are a great machine but they do suffer from problems you don't have with a normal mill in being able to see what is happening with your cutter as you cant get over the cutter and look down but you get used to it and have to have faith in what your doing. As with all machines they are only as good as the operator but they are great at what they were made for and not everyone I worked with was able to use the Hydroptic's due to the system used to hold a cutting head in the spindle and working out how to works the optics.

[alexfunke]

This jig borer is one of the wonders of engineering, and your description and explanation was simply a joy to watch and hear. You have a great gift for technical story telling. And the close up cinematography was a joy as well! Thank you both for this episode!!

[deniscolbourn]

Hi Curtis, Just found your excellent presentation and I have experience to add to your project. I was a maintenance engineer at the Small Arms Factory where we had two SIP Jig Borers, an old one and one like yours. In 1965 the SAF bought a 7A CN with NC rotary table making it a 4 axis NC machine. I was sent to Geneva for 9 weeks to study all the systems concentrating on the electronics and how to fix it if it fails.
At that time GM Fishermans Bend bought a 6A CN and a few years later the Ammunition Factory Footscray bought a 6A CN.
I had great experiences associated with this machine and later learned that when the SAF was disbanded, the 7A was auctioned off and went to the USA. What a shame. At this time the 7A with rotary table cost around 250, 000 pounds.
I recall that the positioning accuracy was +- .0001inch even with up to 1 ton on the table and it would do this on auto (NC),
The table moves on very accurate rollers so accurate that SIP had to build their own factory to make them. The factory had isolated foundations to isolate the grinding of the rollers form all sources of vibration.
The agent in Sydney was Mechanical Precision Equipment, the owner Cliff Done, the father of Ken Done the artist.

Cheers.

[jimwesselman]

When I was an apprentice machinist in late 60’s General Electric aircraft in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA had one installed. Besides the HVAC control in the room, it had to be put on an isolated floor to keep the vibration of the other machines from affecting it.
What I remember most is the Swiss engineer who came over to calibrate it. Wore a suit with white shirt and when he was finished it was still white!
Thank you Kurtis for sharing this with us!

[valuedhumanoid]

These SIP machines are indeed the top of the food chain. We had one in a room by itself that was temperature, humidity controlled and had an operating room level air scrubber. Only two operators in the shop were allowed to run it. They had a full service and certification annually. You got a helluva machine there

[Cannibal]

I work on this exact model every single day and it's rapidly become my favorite machine. I'm glad someone has put out a video on it! Mine has the mechanical rotary table that adds additional two axis movement. We manufacture very very close tolerance space and defense parts with it.

[eulerp]

nice machine ! Btw. 5:05 is not to set the table, it's to zero the scale to the next full (5-ish) digit. A lot of european machines from that time have the same feature. So its easyer for the operator to calculate long travel distances. You get to do a lot of calculating in your head when working with analog measuring systems. When zeroing, I use the tecnique of zeroing the 1mm scale, zeroing the 0.01mm scale on the handweel and then calculating the travel on the sacle, adding the needed rotations on the fine adjusting weel scale. You can then easely and fast travel your distance routhly by the 1mm scale, for eg. 250.5 mm travel, from 425mm to 675mm, then dialing in the 0.5mm with the fine scale on the handweel. And because all your indicators/scales are on the same zero, it works like a calculator. I also used to mark my "waypoints" with a permanent marker on the 1mm scale, so its easyer to navigate. When you are on 645mm on the 1mm scale, and 0 on the handweel scale, you are exactly at 645.00mm - I hope that makes sense, greetings from switzerland.

[nnien]

WOW!!...So good to know that smart people still cherish these mastepieces of mechanical technology. I bought one myself 3 years ago from an aerospace firm in Italy, and incredibly enough a game changer for my workshop even in the cnc era!

[MugzMoney]

As a skilled tradesman I'm amazed at how much you know about so many different machines and mechanisms. Your understanding of systems and way of explaining them is the best I've come across

[Ryan-dzjo]

Farking wow, life goals right there mate. I'm not sure how many people will truly be able to appreciate the design and capability of this machine. Love your work CEE!

[kenc]

Hi Kurtis, I seem to recall, as an apprentice at Borg Warner in Fairfield Sydney in the 1960’s, we had a Societe Genevoise jig borer in the air conditioned tool room. There was one skilled operator and no one else was allowed to use this machine. Hope to see you run the machine soon.

[rodrigoruttimann]

Congratulations! I used to work on a SIP 6 35yrs ago at our federal aviation company nowadays known as RUAG here in Switzerland. The machine was in a 20° conditioned glass box with ALL the tool options from the SIP catalogue. Until today this work experience remains as my personal TOP in terms of precision and smoothness. Just a dream for any passionate machinist. As you said correctly it's the Holy Grail in our machinist world imo.

[btphelps]

I can almost feel the generations of hands that have touched those controls! What a legacy you've found!

[paulc]

I recall one of these at Hawker-Siddeley (the Harrier maker) in Kingston, London in early 70's. It could be "programmed" with punch cards. It was a sackable offence to cross the yellow line near it on the shop floor if you were an apprentice.

[primsolllineguy]

I have been in metrology for over 50 years recently retired.
We rated the Sip as the best machine of its kind in the world.
30 years with Starrett; 10 with Mitutoyo and 10 in other areas of metrology.
I believe the plug in scope is an auto Collimator to check flatness.
We used them to measure surface plate flatness.
Great video, and happy to be retired.
Keep up the great job as you enter into real accuracy in machining.
My best sir.

[Cowboy-pbmt]

Just found your channel, love it. This takes me back, I'm 80 and I have retired quite a few years ago but being a machinists was one of the happiest times being on the machines was better than being a supervisor. Thank you for this channel, I'd love to be in your workshop. I would think that if I had the money I'd have a little workshop in my back yard just to play with.