# Giant scale machining!



## lotsasteam (Mar 20, 2013)

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/guides/William_Doxford_and_Sons

Had to post that link,its pic heavy and very impressive!
Manfred


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## Hopper (Mar 20, 2013)

Now those are some lathes. 
And not a pair of safety glasses in sight!
Probably  because the chips would just knock your head right off, glasses and all.


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## aonemarine (Mar 21, 2013)

Hopper said:


> Now those are some lathes.
> And not a pair of safety glasses in sight!
> Probably because the chips would just knock your head right off, glasses and all.


 
 Thats too funny!!!  Im tring to put a year to the photos...I have seen such equpment offered for sale about 15 years ago....If i only had the room....


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## stewburner (Mar 21, 2013)

If you read to the bottom of the text it say's that the photo's were taken from 1957-58 period.


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## fltenwheeler (Mar 21, 2013)

The nice thing about the photographs is that it shows how to set different items up for machining. Around picture 27 shows spacer screws being used while turning the crankshaft.

It would be great to have a scale version of the giant layout table?

Tim


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## Mbusha (Mar 21, 2013)

Absolutely wonder old photos. Thanks for posting. 

Brings back some memories of working in a rebuild shop in the '70's. worked on lot's of old stuff, not that big, but close. One very hot summer my boss and I spent some time scraping a 40' planner table. I soon figured out that digging holes in cast iron, by hand, was no fun.

Thanks again.


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## LSEW (Mar 21, 2013)

..... and this is why we build scale models.

BTW, it would be interesting to have one of you out there tackle a scale model of that engine. That engine seems worthy of the challenge. Perhaps a team design/build. How about you CNC folks?

See y'all at NAMES.


maury
Lone Star Engine Works


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## jixxerbill (Mar 21, 2013)

That was a great set of pictures.. I would hate to be the tool sharpener !! I have cut a few chunks of metal with a torch and then proceded to machine them, it is pure heck on the hss tools.. Bill


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## n4zou (Mar 21, 2013)

I worked for McDermott Shipbuilding in Morgan City, LA in the early 70's in the machine shop. It was almost a copy of the shop shown in the pictures. I remember starting a cut and spending the day watching it. A couple of apprentices were available to watch the machine cut when the operator needed to go to the head. One notable machine we had that is missing from the pictures was a lathe setup with a stainless steel wire welder. It was used to weld a stainless steel coating on  propeller shafts and struts. Rudder shafts and struts were also stainless steel coated. My hourly wage was $7 an hour back then. The equivalent wage today based on the current  IAMAW Union Standard would be $25.38 an hour.


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## mygrizzly1022 (Mar 21, 2013)

So ......."You can do small work on a big lathe" theory kinda goes out the window. I would not want to be near one one of those puppies with the chuck turning 2500 rpms

Bert


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## ChooChooMike (Mar 21, 2013)

I've seen those pictures a few years ago and am still awed by them !! Would love to see what the machines look like nowadays !!

Those were the days of the manly-men !!!


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## Walsheng (Mar 21, 2013)

Nice pictures.  Brings back memories.
When I was in high school back in the 60's (it hurts to even think about how long ago that was) I worked in a machine shop that I thought had big equipment.  We had a surface grinder that had a 3' x 8' (it was around that, going from memory)magnetic chuck and a Lucas machining center that had a 10' x 20' table.  I found out later there was a shop across town that machined bow slips for ships.  They had machines that you could mount the whole Lucas on with lots of room to spare.  I saw some "chips" from one of their machines and they were about 3/4" square.
The big shop is still there.  The only one left of a half dozen that were around back in the 60's.  It is now a division of Rolls Royce.  Don't know what they make these days.

John


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## n4zou (Mar 22, 2013)

ChooChooMike said:


> I've seen those pictures a few years ago and am still awed by them !! Would love to see what the machines look like nowadays !!
> 
> Those were the days of the manly-men !!!



Those machines would look the same today or perhaps better than they looked in the pictures. Machines like those are rebuilt when required. I remember one lathe in the shipyard's machine shop that still had WW1 and WW2 war production data plates attached to it. It also had a data plate listing rebuild and upgrade dates and the company that did them. This was when I worked there in the early 1970's. I'm sure those machines are still in use.


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