Pictures of Huge Machinery

[M.B. Naegle]

Stuff like this is mind boggling. All the stuff we make is small, not micro small but still small. Our "big" lathe is 18" swing. The biggest parts we'll make are cast iron machine frames and it's decades between runs on those (specialized low volume). They'll still fit in a 24" cube though.

 

[plastikdreams]

I've never really run anything big. I've welded on 10" sch 80 pipe, i think ive turned some as well but that's it for big lol.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Markwesti thanks for the Mesta stuff. Just amazing! Never been around any machining over 4' or so, much less any huge machining. Love to look at the pics and glad I haven't been round it at the same time. A buddy's father-in-law spent his entire working life at Lakawana. He was one of the last to go. IIRC he had 3 months of vaca a year. He's gone now and a less practical guy you'll never meet, but wish I woulda talked to him about the plant.

Tyrone, we Yanks also horseplay and to bad results. Was the swordsman wearing safety glasses? Great glass eye story. I still have a visual of it in my minds eye. At an antique store in New Orleans i saw a big bowel of glass eyes. Weird.

Intercontinental Machine is a big shop just north of Kansas City in Riverside, Missouri. I've always heard about it but never been there. Alas, their website pictures feature products. Not so much equipment. Go figure!

Nobody wore safety glasses back then I’m afraid. The sad part was he agreed to drop any legal proceedings against the company on the understanding that he would have a job for life ! He got about 25 years of that deal before the company went bust.

New Orleans eh ? Are you sure they were only glass ?

Regards Tyrone

 

[guythatbrews]

Nobody wore safety glasses back then I’m afraid. The sad part was he agreed to drop any legal proceedings against the company on the understanding that he would have a job for life ! He got about 25 years of that deal before the company went bust.

New Orleans eh ? Are you sure they were only glass ?

Regards Tyrone

I'm not sure they were only glass. I didn't touch them or anything. There was a voodoo shop a few doors down. Hmmm.

It was an amazing antique store. More like a museum.

I'm still amazed at the no safety glasses thing. Some guys still resist and must be forced to wear them. I even wear them at home when needed. But, well, they are trifocals and i need them to see.

My dad told me to wear hearing protection long ago. He regretted not doing so. I almost always do and have for a long time. My hearing has never been great and it's not getting any better. When i don't use earplugs it's like going commando. Kind of a guilty pleasure.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I'm not sure they were only glass. I didn't touch them or anything. There was a voodoo shop a few doors down. Hmmm.

It was an amazing antique store. More like a museum.

I'm still amazed at the no safety glasses thing. Some guys still resist and must be forced to wear them. I even wear them at home when needed. But, well, they are trifocals and i need them to see.

My dad told me to wear hearing protection long ago. He regretted not doing so. I almost always do and have for a long time. My hearing has never been great and it's not getting any better. When i don't use earplugs it's like going commando. Kind of a guilty pleasure.

The one I wish I’d have used earlier was knee protection. All that kneeling down on concrete working on installations - levelling up - repairs etc have wrecked my knees.
Plus all the football and cricket when I was younger of course.

Regards Tyrone.

 

[markwesti]

Niles on a Niles

 

[markwesti]

About 20yrs' ago , when I had my shop one of my customers got a Cincinnati 3 head 5 axis CNC gantry kind of like this one .
The owner told me that the cash out lay for the machine was the cheap part . He had to pour the foundation for the machine , move the machine in place and then build a building over it , then he had to have the city up grade the power in area .

 

[John Garner]

I've been fascinated with large machine tools since I toured a shop (in South San Francisco, IIRC) in the late 1960s.

Since then, I've read magazine articles and watched movies featuring large machine tools, totally fascinated with their construction and operation.

What I've wondered about all of these years is how the very large workpieces are set up for machining. I understand the fundamentals of jacks and clamps, but how are the finer adjustments actually performed when the workpiece weight is quantified in tens of tons?

I'd be grateful if somebody here can point me to how-it's-done books, magazine articles, movies / videos on the subject that go beyond what's in the G&L Handbook.

 

[Jim Christie]

While not as large and as old as some gears shown in earlier posts I kind of liked this picture with gears made by the U.L.R.O.'s Blackness Foundry .
It was found in a book Bonnie Dundee And Round About by D.C. Thomson .
I didn't find a publication date but other photos dated from 1950 .
I may post some other pictures from the book that have no large machinery later probably in this older thread related to Robertson and Orchar that was later merged to become U.L.R.O.

Robertson and Orchar

I have been watching this forum for some time but have finally gotten signed up I am more comfortable running and repairing old machinery than I am using the computer so I hope I don't make too many mistakes . I was prompted to get signed up after I read on the most interesting topic started by...

www.practicalmachinist.com

 

[Jim Christie]

Here are some pictures of large gear machining at Dominion Engineering Works in Lachine Quebec from 1960 .
Lachine is now a borough of the amalgamated city of Montreal
There are 19 pages total so here are the first few to start with showing the largest gears and machines.
There are other older posts about Dominion Engineering on this forum if you use the forum search to find them.

 

[Jim Christie]

A few more

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

While not as large and as old as some gears shown in earlier posts I kind of liked this picture with gears made by the U.L.R.O.'s Blackness Foundry .
It was found in a book Bonnie Dundee And Round About by D.C. Thomson .
I didn't find a publication date but other photos dated from 1950 .
I may post some other pictures from the book that have no large machinery later probably in this older thread related to Robertson and Orchar that was later merged to become U.L.R.O.

Robertson and Orchar

I have been watching this forum for some time but have finally gotten signed up I am more comfortable running and repairing old machinery than I am using the computer so I hope I don't make too many mistakes . I was prompted to get signed up after I read on the most interesting topic started by...

www.practicalmachinist.com

32 tons seems a lot for two fabricated gears.

Regards Tyrone

 

[Jim Christie]

Tyrone ,
You could well be correct.
I have no Idea how accurate weight in the caption is and given that it is more of a promotional publication than a technical one anything is possible.
I found some of the scans from other issues of the Dominion Engineer that I posted a while ago here in post #4 ,

Looking for manufacturer of 150 ton hydraulic press

I work for an aircraft restoration company. Please excuse my lack of knowledge in this field. We recently acquired this 1500 ton press. ( sorry I mistyped it as 150 in the title and it won't let me edit the title) Though it was listed as a Domininion press, the seller confirmed they didn't...

www.practicalmachinist.com

I'll try taking some pictures of the pages I couldn't scan earlier and see what happens.
I tried another image search and found this article in French about a turbine for the Three Gorges Dam in China that was made at DEW after it was taken over buy General Electric.

InfraStructures - GE Hydro participe au projet de centrale hydroélectrique des Trois Gorges en Chine

My Micro Soft Edge browser offered this translation that I saved so you will find there are some expressions that may seem a little odd.
I also found these pictures of some milling operations there c. 1970 from a Lachine Face Book page
Ville de Lachine d'antan or City of Lachine from earlier times.

https://www.facebook.com/Lachine.Quebec2016/posts/1449775731743118

Jim

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Tyrone ,
You could well be correct.
I have no Idea how accurate weight in the caption is and given that it is more of a promotional publication than a technical one anything is possible.
I found some of the scans from other issues of the Dominion Engineer that I posted a while ago here in post #4 ,

Looking for manufacturer of 150 ton hydraulic press

I work for an aircraft restoration company. Please excuse my lack of knowledge in this field. We recently acquired this 1500 ton press. ( sorry I mistyped it as 150 in the title and it won't let me edit the title) Though it was listed as a Domininion press, the seller confirmed they didn't...

www.practicalmachinist.com

I'll try taking some pictures of the pages I couldn't scan earlier and see what happens.
I tried another image search and found this article in French about a turbine for the Three Gorges Dam in China that was made at DEW after it was taken over buy General Electric.

InfraStructures - GE Hydro participe au projet de centrale hydroélectrique des Trois Gorges en Chine

My Micro Soft Edge browser offered this translation that I saved so you will find there are some expressions that may seem a little odd.
I also found these pictures of some milling operations there c. 1970 from a Lachine Face Book page
Ville de Lachine d'antan or City of Lachine from earlier times.

https://www.facebook.com/Lachine.Quebec2016/posts/1449775731743118

Jim

I worked on lots of big gears Jim and they don’t look like 32 tons to me, especially if they were fabricated.

Regards Tyrone

 

[Jim Christie]

To continue on from Post 3 31

 

[Jim Christie]

The remaining pages ,

 

[Jim Christie]

Oddly enough or perhaps not so oddly these videos turned since I posted these pictures.
I skipped through them fairly quickly

The gear cutting starts at the 20 minute mark of part 2

This looks a lot like some of the gear boxes once made by D.E.W.

D.E.W. may be no more but spare parts for their old products may still be made somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/@hydraulichands/videos

Jim

 

[john.k]

I worked at a place that had huge machines,but they were in the process of scrapping them,as even in the 1970s,all the big work was going to South Korea......last time I was there ,about 1990,there was still a 30ft faceplate lathe in a deep pit,and took up the whole building.......but I was there for the auction of their successors ,Comeng......subsequently the State Govt bought the site for a "Trade School" .but far as I know ,that fell by the wayside .....but anyway ,the lathe shed is still there.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Interesting films Jim. Nice to see an old W&B DH vertical borer going strong. There was an even older D type in the background. They stopped making them in 1948 !

We used to sweat couplings on just like the guys in the film only we used a “ mouse “ to line up the keyways. That was was a piece of key with a long rod attached.

Regards Tyrone

 

[john.k]

The rings and gears for cement kilns used to be done on huge lathes .......I dont think there is a cement works left in this country.......cement is all imported from China or Indonesia.