American Precision Museum

[Brian Rupnow]

This past week my wife and I decided to take a short vacation and travel to Vermont to see the coloured leaves. (The coloured leaves in Ontario are just as nice, but I've been seeing them for 63 autumns now!!!) One of the highlights of the trip (for me anyways) was the American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont. This museum has a collection of machines and machine tools that were built between the middle 1800's and the middle 1900's. The museum building itself has some very interesting history, as the birthplace of rifles with totally interchangeable parts, which were manufactured for the American military. I am not an expert photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I did have my digital camera with me, and with the museums permision I took a number of pictures of the incredible old machinery on display there. Some of the following machines were built by individual machinists for their own personal use, and some were mass produced peices. I will start out with a small homebuilt metal lathe---Unfortunately, my camera did not capture all the information on the "description cards" posted with each machine, so I am relying on my memory for most of the descriptions of the pictures I will be posting.----Brian

 

[Brian Rupnow]

A verical boring mill--------

 

[Brian Rupnow]

My favourite---a gunstock copying lathe-------------

 

[Brian Rupnow]

A beautifull example of lineshaft technology------------

 

[Brian Rupnow]

A rather large horizontal boring set-up, with the boring bar set up between centers and the blue peice being bored bolted to the apron---------

 

[Brian Rupnow]

This is either a stamping press or a punch press---I can't remember which---

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Here we have the very first Bridgeport mill ever made---serial #1---------

 

[Brian Rupnow]

A nifty little gear cutting machine---This one was actually demonstrated for me, and the small brass or bronze gear which they cut was then stamped with the museums logo and given to me as a souviner.----

 

[Brian Rupnow]

My wife really liked this one---An "ergonomic" typewriter, circa 1891---------

 

[Brian Rupnow]

A very poor picture of a belt driven surface grinder.---(Told ya I wasn't a great camera man!!!)

 

[Brian Rupnow]

And some of the most incredibly accurate, WORKING models of machine tools that I have ever seen, built by someone who I believe emigrated to USA from Germany---

 

[Brian Rupnow]

And last, but not least, a poster which carries a message which is just as important today as the day it was when created in the 1900's---(Hope you can read it).----Brian

 

[black85vette]

Very nice trip indeed. Thanks for the photos.

We head over to North Central Arkansas in a couple of weeks for our annual trip to see some fall colors. Here in the middle of the flat lands we don't have the really pretty trees.

 

[gbritnell]

Hey Brian, now that's my kind of trip. My wife accompanies me on such forays but only because we're married. She says she's seen enough old machines and model engines to last her another lifetime. I take her where she wants to go so that I don't hear as much complaining when I write something on the calendar.
gbritnell

 

[cfellows]

Thanks for sharing the visit with us. I love these kinds of museums. Unfortunately, I haven't been to nearly enough of them!

Chuck

 

[jthulin]

Too cool! Thanks for sharing the photos. Gunstock copy lathe? Who would've thought!

 

[RonGinger]

On Saturday, Oct 31 the museum will hold it 10th annual model engineering show. Ive been to most of them, likely will go again this year. Its a small show, mostly the guys form the New England Model Engineering Society. Usually only a dozen or so vendors.

One good part is the Friday setup day when the exhibitors get to tour the storage rooms of the museum and they hold a reception for the exhibitors.

This year Paul Hamler will be there as a special exhibit with his miniature Kentucky rifles. See hamlertools.blogspot.com for some of PAuls amazing work.

The museum is always worth a visit.

 

[David Morrow]

I love stuff like that. I'm also very fortunate that my girlfriend also loves making things in our workshop. We travel extensively on our motorcycles and are always on the lookout for that sort of thing. We may head east next year so that'll be on my list.

For those of you who like museums and technical tours, here's a link to a factory tours website where you can find no end of interesting places to go :

http://factorytoursusa.com/

 

[CrewCab]

Looks like a great day out Brian, thanks for sharing the pictures, very enjoyable. 8)

CC

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Thank you Brian. Very enjoyable. I love museums.