09-20-2006 09:22 PM

Bill_Hancoc

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

HAHAHA....any CNC control.

im guessing that at some type of muesum judgeing by the plaque in the side. If so where is it at i would like to see it some time

09-20-2006 10:29 PM

Mark McLeod

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

National Museum of American History in DC.

I wander through there whenever I get the chance. Good place for an engineer.

This mill was powered by the belt vanishing at the top of this photo to a drive shaft that ran the length of the room powering other tools, driven by a steam engine of course.

09-20-2006 10:52 PM

Joe J.

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

We got a new lathe a few years back.

09-20-2006 11:01 PM

Greg Marra

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

Approximately 3 minutes before seeing this thread, I was wondering what kind of machinery they used to make machines back in the 1850s. I just finished up a reading about Lowell, MA's huge textile mills, and to make such (relatively) precise machinery on such a scale is a huge feat for the time period.

09-21-2006 02:04 AM

=Martin=Taylor=

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

I just sold my mill from 1906. It was getting... Well it was very worn .

It must have pre-dated electrically driven machinery since it had large flywheels, presumably to be driven off of an over-head drive shaft. It might have been steam driven.

When I bought it someone had already rigged up an electric motor, which had clearly not been a part of the original machine.

09-21-2006 07:46 AM

Al Skierkiewicz

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

Greg,
I had a job last year in Lowell and took part of day and visited the museum complex. You need to get over there some time and see and HEAR the spinning machines in action to get a feel for what it was like. The amazing part was that everything was run by water power and the town is designed around canals used to divert river water to the mills.

09-21-2006 09:53 AM

Not2B

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

They have an old OLD lathe that you can use at "The Henry Ford" to make brass candle sticks (for a few dollars). It runs on a belt, but the belt shaft on the celing is powered by an electrical motor. But the belt noise alone is impressive.

09-22-2006 11:33 AM

Jeremiah H

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

Could be worse...could be chain drive
Seriously, that is really neat, I'd like to have a chance to work with a machine like that. It seems to me that the "old timers" really knew how to build their equipment, most of the older machinery (at least all I've ever come in contact with) is very tough, high quality stuff, especially considering the time and tools with which they were made.
Speaking of which, does anybody know where the FIRST of the milling machines/ equipment came from, I mean, it all had to start somehow.
-Did it sort of evolve the way technology does today?
-But then haw can the created be greater than the creator?
-Can it be?
(take that one as deep as you want to, I'm game ) JH

09-22-2006 12:54 PM

Qbranch

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

I'll bet its rigid as all get out though.

-Q

09-22-2006 06:37 PM

Rickertsen2

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

The first machine tools were adapted from woodworking tools and made by the people who used them. Over time they became what we know now and shifted from being made for a specific purpose to general purpose machines such as the mill.

09-23-2006 06:30 PM

colin340

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine

i have a pedal metal lathe it's very hard to use you need to petal as you work and not fall off