Vintage work crew photos

**Hoosiersmoker** · Nov 29, 2022, 08:33 AM

I got email notification that mansworld responded to this thread but I don't see it here? Wonder why?

**hemmjo** · Nov 29, 2022, 09:05 AM

That post got moved. I searched for "tobacco" to find it.. Tobacco

**Duke_of_URL** · Nov 29, 2022, 11:37 AM

Look close, those boys were rolling their own filterless "straights." They couldn't afford them 'fancy' store-bought smokes on their wages.

**Jon** · Dec 4, 2022, 10:07 AM

Steam donkey crew. Vancouver, BC. 1917.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...5_fullsize.jpg

**Jon** · Dec 11, 2022, 10:07 AM

Blacksmiths. Despatch, NY. 1904.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...8_fullsize.jpg

**IntheGroove** · Dec 11, 2022, 01:39 PM

That horizontal press is beautiful...

**hemmjo** · Dec 12, 2022, 05:57 PM

Did we see a different photo of that same shop a while ago? Or was that just a common way to build shops of that nature?

**Inflight** · Dec 12, 2022, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by IntheGroove

That horizontal press is beautiful...

The Grandfather of all modern OBI presses. Nice machine!

**Toolmaker51** · Dec 12, 2022, 06:54 PM

OBI (Open Back Inclineable) are punch presses, separating bits from strip stock in blanking, coining, forming, punching, and piercing. That baby is inclined as far as it will go!
Machine in use at left front of photo is a bulldozer. Nowadays mostly for compressing scrap into bundles, they were the forming machines. Lots of them in shipyards. Gobs of mechanical power, slow moving ram. It looks like the men are making something like frame cross members or springy bumper reinforcements. OBI's are capable of such operations but modern production uses tonnage in forming compared to rapidly closed dies. For some products, metal likes a second to flow into a shape other than flat. Fast hits create different characteristics.
It interested me being labeled as blacksmiths; they certainly are, mechanized at that. Can't imagine trying to meet production of parts like that with a sledgehammer.

**schuylergrace** · Dec 12, 2022, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by hemmjo

Did we see a different photo of that same shop a while ago? Or was that just a common way to build shops of that nature?

I remember seeing a machine shop in a similar building to that one not long ago. From what I've seen over the years, that was a pretty typical design for industrial buildings with lots of windows, both down below and up in the clerestory, and workspaces on either side of a clear center aisle. The shop I'm thinking of had artificial light to supplement the sunlight, but this one doesn't seem to have that luxury.