pic: Finally, our new milling machine
 

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

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.

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine
 

We got a new lathe a few years back. :cool:

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.

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine
 

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

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.

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.

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.

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine
 

Could be worse...could be chain drive :D :rolleyes:
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

Re: pic: Finally, our new milling machine
 

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

-Q

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.

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