Dagnabbit you younguns don't know what a real machine shop looks like. No software glitches here. Water power and leather belts!
Knight Foundry -- Historic Water-Powered Belt-Driven Machine Shop
So there!
Cheers,
Very old school machine shop
Started by
Half Fast
, Mar 28 2018 06:50 PM
9 replies to this topic
#1
Half Fast
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Posted 28 March 2018 - 06:50 PM
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Bill Botjer
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#2
Samiam
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Posted 28 March 2018 - 06:57 PM
Yeah... what happens when there's a drought? 
Sam Levitch
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"... because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook."
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"Fool me once, same on... shame on you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again."
George W. Bush
"If you have integrity, nothing else matters, and if you do not have integrity, nothing else matters."
Robert Mueller, special counsel (2013)
"... because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook."
Richard M .Nixon, Nov 17, 1973
"Fool me once, same on... shame on you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again."
George W. Bush
#3
Half Fast
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Posted 28 March 2018 - 07:12 PM
Ummmm.. I didn't think of that! 
Spoilsport!
Cheers
Bill Botjer
Faster then, wiser now.
The most dangerous form of ignorance is not knowing that you don't know anything!
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
#4
Phil Hackett
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Posted 28 March 2018 - 07:54 PM
Get out the horse and tie him to a shaft and have him walk in circles chasing the carrot and when the horse gets tired use the cow. If you don't have animals, use an old-style farm windmill.
Click HERE to contact Sonic Products. The messenger feature on my Slotblog account has been disabled.
#5
slotbaker
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Posted 28 March 2018 - 08:18 PM
Yeah... what happens when there's a drought?
Ya get ya steam-powered traction engine out...
Steve King
#6
Cheater
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Posted 29 March 2018 - 10:06 AM
That Knight shop could have been in someone's backyard or barn.
Here's a serious machine shop:
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Gregory Wells
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#7
Ramcatlarry
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Posted 29 March 2018 - 11:00 AM
Basically it is in the historic 'time frame'...
Pre- steam power. Before about 1850. All shaft-driven tools are run by animal or water power forces.
1850-1900 introduces steam power to replace the water power still using the central shaft in the ceiling system utilizing buffalo leather belting to drive the machines. This allows manufacturing to be away from the local river water sources. Small locomotive engines become the primary source of heat and steam to power rotary shafts.
1900-1960 developments of electrical powers allows small electric motors to power the same tools with each machine having its own motor.
1960-2000 enters into the automated tool timeframe with robotics and numerical control.
I learned to run a lathe on one that was a survivor of the pre-1900s.
Larry D. Kelley, MA
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#8
Phil Hackett
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Posted 29 March 2018 - 11:18 AM
Sonic's first machine was a Brown & Sharpe #0 screw machine. It was built in 1915 and was a lineshaft driven machine. It had an overhead adapter with a gearbox and electric motor. The spindle belt flapping around and the general sketchiness of the whole thing was one reason it left ASAP when we finally had money to buy something more modern. The machine required awareness when working around it. Plus you got to know about flat leather belts, flat-belt pulleys, lacing tools and all sorts of old stuff... OSHA wouldn't have approved.
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Click HERE to contact Sonic Products. The messenger feature on my Slotblog account has been disabled.
#9
Mike Patterson
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Posted 29 March 2018 - 09:01 PM
I admire all the engineering expertise involved in the design, production, and layout of the old equipment. To me, AutoCAD pales in comparison. But then, I'm a draftsman. Old engineering drawings are often pieces of art in their own right, a concept that I attempted to continue as long as I could.
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I am not a doctor, but I played one as a child with the girl next door.
#10
Dave Crevie
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Posted 30 March 2018 - 12:38 PM
By the way, the water wheel shown is commonly called a Pelton wheel, and is used when the shop is not near a running stream.
I cut the tires for a Shay locomotive on a wheel lathe similar to the one shown with the bevel gear mounted up. It had been converted to electric power way back when, but still used the leather belt to drive it. One of the tool shops I worked for had a Hendey lathe with flat belt drive, but it had been converted to electric before the first World War when it had been used to make artillery shells.
South Bend built lathes with flat belts into the '70s.
I cut the tires for a Shay locomotive on a wheel lathe similar to the one shown with the bevel gear mounted up. It had been converted to electric power way back when, but still used the leather belt to drive it. One of the tool shops I worked for had a Hendey lathe with flat belt drive, but it had been converted to electric before the first World War when it had been used to make artillery shells.
South Bend built lathes with flat belts into the '70s.
