High-quality black-and-white photographs of large old machines and tools

[marksbug]

it looks to be portable....and look at the wood it's mounted to.and all the power transfer gears as well as the belt drive..with a tiny jack&board under it.

[Toolmaker51]

Worked around fairly good sized machinery, parts of various sizes, always made the days fly by.
In a shop or just pictures, the lasting impression I get doesn't hinge on immense parts. It's the tremendous equipment inventory to support it, giant cranes in bigger yet buildings, lay-down yards for material and work-in-process, needing acres and acres of real estate, machines of course, tool rooms, the gear to transport it out after assembly [usually partial]........
Somebody tells me he's in business....."Doing what?" I ask. Always turns out little more than rented office space, cubicle walls, PC's and printers.
Oooohh whoopie-do, am I impressed.

[hemmjo]

In regard to #315 , the shear with all of the wheels for sheet positioning... I am always interested in the evolution of the design of things.

I am imagining one of the shop guys (Alex) going to engineering to ask (Bob) about some obscure detail on a drawing. Alex and his coworkers have just finished wrestling a big plate onto the shear. As Alex asks the question, Bob rolls his desk chair across the floor to the wide shallow file drawers (no computers) to retrieve the drawing with his notes. A light goes on in Alex's mind as he watches the casters on Bob's chair adjust to the direction of travel... Fast forward to the next week... All of the office staff come into the office long after the shops guys have been hard at work. All the chairs are 3" (76.2mm lower than before. Someone has stolen the casters from all the chairs... Bob and his friends just smile as they hear the grumbling from the pencil pushers in the office. (the names have been changed to protect the innocent)

From that simple beginning, as ToolMaker mentioned, things evolved from swivel body casters to plate mounted or ball-transfers.

My imagination does wierd things sometimes... lol

[Toolmaker51]

Hearing 'pencil-pusher', I'm immediately offended...
But I enjoy it!
Because it reminds me of that ilk over rides shop floor supervision regarding many improvements and enact methods to write off Tooling/ Prototype variety of work 'overhead' and thereby not profitable.
But it is sooo entertaining to demean them. My favorite quip asks; "so, if we go under, when everything here is on the auction block, which of us leave behind stuff bidders ALWAYS clamor for?"

[Jon]

Kendall Gent milling machine.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...e_fullsize.jpg

[marksbug]

look how many Lilliputians you can put on this mill!!! awesome mill!!!

[Toolmaker51]

Far too many posers in the way......I'd bet the correct 'brochure' description is 'Planer-Mill'; powered spindles and toolbit holders, essentially lathe-like cross slides. Notice two vertical spindles on the cross-over, and two more side heads, must be 50 hp each. There are two similar machine types. What makes this a planer? The table runs on ways, carrying material. The variation is gantry type, cross-over travels instead, hence Mill-Planer. Then can be a little shorter in length, don't act like having that incredible rigidity of table type. Very first shop, one machine I ran was their 40' Gray Planer-Mill, most power of anything I've handled.
Big as this is, literally a quarter the size of the Ingersoll Planer Mill that was at Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Being on the coastline, insuring it had a solid foundation, the concrete footings were 30' deep.
I've posted it's pic before, because guess who retains and treasures the auction catalog, not to mention working the entire auction period.
Enough horn honking for now...

PS. Regardless the size of this machine tool, notice it sits on a larger yet floor plate, which had some degree of machine work done beforehand.

[Toolmaker51]

look how many Lilliputians you can put on this mill!!! awesome mill!!!

I get laughs from marksbug's posts, especially those intentionally wacky typo's..........I saw this and immediately read it more emphatic than not just a 'mill' but a mi-llllll. Lol

[marksbug]

I try to please...tomany people are too serious all the time and cant see the forest due to the trees. as for me..Im outstanding in my field.

[hemmjo]

... snip... as for me..Im outstanding in my field.

Would that be a field of clever...