Jeffrey Shortwall Coal Cutting machine

Well  on July 2nd 2007 our restoration team has almost completed another mining equipment project. The last thing to do is paint!

A 1920's Jeffrey model 35 B shortwall cutting machine.
This machine was last used in the eastern Ohio Bituminous coal fields.

This was the most dangerous piece of equipment to operate in a deep mine.  More people were killed either by operating or by the coal dust caused by the cutting action of the teeth latter causing "BLACK LUNG".

This machine quickly gots its name as the:

"WIDOW MAKER"

Technical specifications

35 hp
6ft cutting bar
250 Volts DC
Built by Jeffrey in Columbus, Ohio

This piece of equipment when aquired has not operated in over 60+ yrs.

Basically everything was locked up & seized so bad that it made this project challenging.  Our team had to disassemble the gearbox by 70% just to remove the cutting bar to brake the chain loose.  Finally after getting covered in grease & coal dust we began to reassemble.  Our first test trial of operating the cutter at full voltage was completed successfully on July 2nd.

We do apologize for the gap in pictures for the removal of the cutting bar & reassembly.

Do not miss at the bottom of this page a diagram of how this machine was used in service.