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Posted By: graybeardtmm3 old school tooling - 06/16/21 03:49 PM
didn't take the time to chase down the recent thread that touched on machinery powered by central shaft equipment....and using leather belts for take-offs...but i received this today, and thought it might be of some interest...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/zAvurSjBVW8

best regards,
tom
Posted By: Jtplumb Re: old school tooling - 06/17/21 12:29 AM
Thanks for sharing that was very interesting.
Looks like a very efficient way of doing it!
Posted By: GLS Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 01:48 AM
Here's an old French postcard sent in 1916 of gunmaking at Manufrance. Apparently it is as photogenic as sausage making...
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]
Posted By: LeFusil Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 02:23 AM
Originally Posted by GLS
Here's an old French postcard sent in 1916 of gunmaking at Manufrance. Apparently it is as photogenic as sausage making...
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]


That is an AMAZING picture of a real gun factory, producing guns. That is empirical evidence that MF made their own guns.
It’s too bad none of E.M. Reilly’s hundreds of employees didn’t bother to snap at least one pic of their gun making factory & machines.
Posted By: Stanton Hillis Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 02:42 AM
Great pic, Gil. Can you imagine what it would have sounded like to be there!!
Posted By: KY Jon Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 03:44 AM
WHAT STAN?
Posted By: Stanton Hillis Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 10:39 AM
Originally Posted by KY Jon
WHAT STAN?

grin
Posted By: ithaca1 Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 12:43 PM
I worked as a machinist in Abilene TX. In 1977. They had lathes that ran off of leather belts just like the photo above. Yes, they were VERY noisy. The lathes were large and old. Most of the time they were used for roughing drill subs.

That photo brought back memories and a smile!
Posted By: oskar Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 12:54 PM
Great picture, we used to go to the steam engine festival in Downer, MN(Thresherman Days), I only lived a few miles away. They had some really large running steam engines set up permanently there.

When I had my draft horse I helped a neighbor skid the logs for his cabin out of the woods and then hauled them to an old sawmill, the old guy ran it off a stationary case tractor with a long flat leather belt. We did all work loading and unloading the mill, the guy was a master with the mill cutting 20' oak 8x8's out of the logs.

My grandfather was a woodworker and his shop in the basement ran all his tools off a lineshaft on the ceiling.

When I was in Taiwan the little sewing factories would run all of their sewing machines off overhead line shafts. It gave me the idea to convert a fairly modern commercial sewing machine to treadle when I was living in the tent.

I still use it.
[Linked Image from imagizer.imageshack.com]
Posted By: Drew Hause Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 02:11 PM
One of Richard Beyer's images in the Fulton Historical Society showing the interior of the Hunter Arms Co. factory

[Linked Image from photos.smugmug.com]
Posted By: Drew Hause Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 02:15 PM
A small image from the Baker Gun & Forging factory

[Linked Image from photos.smugmug.com]
Posted By: Drew Hause Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 02:18 PM
Interesting as many ladies as men

[Linked Image from photos.smugmug.com]
Posted By: Drew Hause Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 02:23 PM
Another Manufrance

[Linked Image from photos.smugmug.com]
Posted By: graybeardtmm3 Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 03:09 PM
as oskar suggested, the common denominator of all these examples of historical manufactoring facilities, is steam as the power source. in my construction career i had a small exposure to boilermakers union folks, a trade that has downsized almost out of existence. there was a time when any factory was built around a boiler system. i oversaw several buildings that had dormant boiler systems in place, but to my knowledge none of them had been under pressure since the 1960's. in 1967, i drove an industrial supply delivery truck that occasionally delivered to the Kelly Plow Company in longview, tx. it was half a block long, dating back to civil war days, but only a small portion was still being used by then....everything that was still in production was driven by belts off a central overhead shaft (in my part of the world, called a "mule"). another example of the amazing amount of change that some of us "experienced" folks have witnessed...

best regards,
tom
Posted By: Drew Hause Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 04:05 PM
Early on, the power for the Hunter Arms factory machinery was primarily from the race underneath the building, as was, I believe, the Ithaca Gun Co. factory.
This drawing from 1924 shows 50% of the power from steam; 50% from water

[Linked Image from photos.smugmug.com]

In 1896 the factory also had a "300-light dynamo, which lights the factory in the evening when the men are working overtime."
Posted By: Drew Hause Re: old school tooling - 06/19/21 10:03 PM
Manufacture Liegeoise

[Linked Image from photos.smugmug.com]
Posted By: keith Re: old school tooling - 06/20/21 05:41 PM
Originally Posted by LeFusil
Originally Posted by GLS
Here's an old French postcard sent in 1916 of gunmaking at Manufrance. Apparently it is as photogenic as sausage making...
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]


That is an AMAZING picture of a real gun factory, producing guns. That is empirical evidence that MF made their own guns.
It’s too bad none of E.M. Reilly’s hundreds of employees didn’t bother to snap at least one pic of their gun making factory & machines.

Dustin... didn't you see all of those old pics of machinery and hundreds of busy E. M. Reilly workers, building both Reilly guns and other guns under license. in the epic Reilly thread?

Me either! But I am confident we shall see empirical evidence of that very soon.
Posted By: rrrgcy Re: old school tooling - 06/21/21 04:05 AM
How much of America’s old gun making and machine enterprises relied on Lufkin, Brown & Sharpe, Scherr Tumico and Starrett to measure and get on spec/tolerances?
Anyone use and collect measuring tools?

So bringing bit of modern to the mix, think of all the metrological equipment needed to at least initially tool-up setup validate and confirm. Starrett been around since 1880 and this tour is pretty neat, despite almost no workers due to holiday. Love the view of the buildings outside at the end, like a postcard. Delightful one hr vid.

Posted By: GLS Re: old school tooling - 06/21/21 12:45 PM
Originally Posted by Drew Hause
Another Manufrance

[Linked Image from photos.smugmug.com]

Drew, the fellow in the center front looks like a boy.
Regarding my postcard photo, the reverse side appears to be a MF order confirmation to a farmer in central France regarding a shipment of January 3, 1916. This was a year and a few months after French entry into WWI. From a French book on the Robust manufacture, it appears none were made between 1914 and 1919. The postcard must have been made prior to WWI and stockpiled for use by MF for confirming orders. Gil
Posted By: Dennis Potter Re: old school tooling - 06/22/21 01:38 AM
And no one in there wearing any eye protection, a sign of the times also. My Grandfather was an Engineer on the Soo Line and had lost an eye to a cinder on the road, and had a glass eye. That always reminded me to wear mine.
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