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cmac
Starting Member
1 Posts |
 Posted - 10/18/2015 : 7:55:59 PM
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For some reason I cannot come up with information on the Quality Hardware Company... Where where they based out of? What other things had they made? Etc.... Any help-thanks!
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USA
Mountain View |
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Tuna
Moderator
3254 Posts |
Posted - 10/18/2015 : 8:43:58 PM
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| Quality Hardware and Machine Company was located in Chicago. Before the war they made tools, dies. machinery, stampings and some other things dealing with equipment. Quality only made the carbines receiver and had as many as 100 sub-contractors making everything else. They received their barrels from the government free issue program. Quality was the company that started with testing cast parts for carbines. SA was very interested in this and in testing found the cast parts to be in general OK BUT they also found that the parts did not hold up well in cold weather. But Quality Hardware was a company that was always looking forward with carbine production and made many of the jigs, and tools needed for carbine production by other companies. |
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Jackp
Veteran Member
USA
1047 Posts |
Posted - 10/18/2015 : 9:37:48 PM
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| Quality Hardware was also involved in making special equipment for the fabricating and handling of uranium components for the University of Chicago during the 1944-1945 time frame. Rumor has it that this was in support of the Manhattan project. The company liquidated it's assets shortly after the war and no longer exists. The original Quality Hardware facility was at one time considered a candidate for the governments radiation cleanup program. I guess it was decided that radiation levels were below cleanup criteria at the time (1989). The location on Ravenswood Ave. has since become the site of a 36 unit condominium project. |
JackP
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Jackp
Veteran Member
USA
1047 Posts |
Posted - 10/18/2015 : 9:50:56 PM
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Sorry for the poor quality (pun). This is the same view that was on their letterhead.
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JackP
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Edited by - Jackp on 01/25/2018 4:58:38 PM |
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Meckanic
Starting Member
9 Posts |
Posted - 01/20/2018 : 11:03:54 AM
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Since I live in Chicago, I began researching QUALITY H.M.C. and came up with a little info of no relative significance. From what I could find out, 3 brothers owned the company. In the 30's and 40's Quality made vacuum cleaners. They always had ads in Popular Mechanics type magazines looking for products they could manufacture. Sometime in 1944 or 1945 they sold the company off to a private investor. Later after not getting their asking price, they sued the new owner. The company was basically dissolved by 1949-1950. They acquired back some of the machinery thru court order. Most of their carbine parts were made by subcontractors and the only part they manufactured was the TYPE 1 receiver. Later while trying to make the TYPE 2 receiver, they contracted with Union Switch and Signal to make the receiver (i.e. UN-QUALITY) I can probably guess due to the drilling of the slide spring hole which gave others fits. They did contract for the encapsulation of radioactive material in the late 40's and the property was checked for contamination but it was found to be "clean". Really, you could have called them an assembling point and not so much a manufacturer in the sense they only made one part and needed the others to send them parts. ROCKOLA was close to them in terms of distance so you can see why they used alot of parts made for and by ROCKOLA. Chicago at one time was a manufacturing center for the country and from what I could see, most of the subcontractors were in the Chicago area with the exception of the barrel, later receiver and stock.
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Edited by - Meckanic on 01/20/2018 11:09:04 AM |
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Tuna
Moderator
3254 Posts |
Posted - 01/22/2018 : 10:19:06 AM
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| No carbine maker made all of their own parts. All had sub-contractors making many of their parts for them. Q.C. had the contract, made their receivers and assembled the carbines with their name on them. The exchange of parts was done through the Carbine Committee who's job it was to make sure the production of carbines was uninterrupted as possible. They were the ones who controlled the flow of parts from one maker to another. That does not mean that Q.C. didn't ask Rock-0la or vise versa for a few say 50 firing pins or 500 springs and then report that to the committee. That did happen among all of the makers. But the need for 10,000 recoil plates or hammers all went the committee as they knew who had excess in their inventory. The biggest maker was Inland in Ohio along with Standard Products. The largest area for carbine production was with Winchester, Underwood and IBM in the Northeast with the New York district. |
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HB of CJ
Junior Member
USA
77 Posts |
Posted - 01/22/2018 : 2:14:19 PM
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| One very young family person has her own Mix Master late type Quality Hardware M1 Carbine. It is a sweet shooter. The only difference we are only kinda concerned with is that recoil spring tube receiver. It is NOT a deep drilled receiver. Makes no difference to her. Only a slight difference for us as some extra spare parts must be had. |
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Eyospt
Greenhorn Member
USA
48 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2018 : 08:37:33 AM
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| The more I read on the 30 M-1 Carbine the more impressed I am that this was a nationwide-joint-effort between government and multiple corporations to rapidly get a product out the door........America could NOT possibly do a project like this today in such record time!!! |
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Tuna
Moderator
3254 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2018 : 09:58:41 AM
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| No they could not do this today but if they had the lead time the US government did with WW2 and with Lend Lease going before we got involved it might be a different story. Remember most of the US industrial base was already making war materials. Major companies were being prepared to be able to go to full production of war materials with just a phone call from the government. It was all preplanned and on a massive scale. The US military and government knew we would get into the war, just not sure just when but it was ready. |
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BEYU
Advanced Member
USA
298 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2018 : 3:08:29 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Eyospt
The more I read on the 30 M-1 Carbine the more impressed I am that this was a nationwide-joint-effort between government and multiple corporations to rapidly get a product out the door........America could NOT possibly do a project like this today in such record time!!!
And of course, in our new "enlightened" times, the government would be looking to give contracts to minority owned, female owned, politically correct companies that also contributed to powerful politicians. Not to mention, environmentally sensitive companies that make use of renewable resources.
You're right... they could not get it done if they had 20 years... |
BEYU
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
- Benj. Franklin
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More information on the company???
