Stacked Histogram?

Your observation is correct, that the help file demonstrates a lot of cosmetic formatting. However, data layout in the spreadsheet is often a key part of creating stacked charts, and MS's example shows how to arrange the data in the spreadsheet. Did you take notice of how they arranged the data in the example (territory down the left column, quarter across the top, values in the body of the table)? I would expect something just like that for your data. If you match MS's example, you will have screw length down the left of your table, machine type across the top, contribution in the body of the table.

With the stacked column chart, it succeeds in showing total contribution to the whole for each type, but the "type" is length (as opposed to machine type) and the x-axis is row #.

This sounds like you may have made a good attempt, but Excel misread your desired series assignments on chart creation (Excel has a bad habit of this). After creating the chart, did you go into the Source Data dialog to see what ranges Excel assigned to each value series, the horizontal axis series, etc.? I find that I must frequently go into this dialog to correct Excel's misunderstandings.

I used the format type specified above.

The x and y axis are still not correctly representing what I truly want.
I'll attach the data on this post. I am giving Excel a lot less information than I should be.

y-axis should contain whole integers representative of a claim saying "10 screws were made that were within this range". The x-axis should contain that range (20-22mm or whatever it is). Ultimately, I would be able to make a claim saying.. "10 screws were made within 20-22mm, 7 within 22-24mm etc etc". The importance of the stacking is that I can see how each specific machine contributes to the total number of screws made within that range.

Thanks, I don't think I've ever spent this long trying to make a silly graph...

PS: couldn't attach the Excel file for some reason - so sent it via pictureexample.JPG

Conversely, a histogram gives the correct x and y axis. However, even with all data selected, it only graphs one column of data - the other columns are hidden behind it.
Note that the y axis is counting the number of times a value (in this case of type 1) falls between the ranges on the x axis. If I change those x axis ranges in the excel options, the y axis count changes accordingly. This is exactly what I want, but I want to stack all of the machine Types! frustrating stuff
example2.JPG