Motor muncher

[Byron510]

I too am a machinist taught in the old ways, had very little NC work over the years - maybe two years of my twenty years in the trade. I've pretty much been manual machining the whole way. I too worked in a military yard for a few years, Canadian Navy. We had a couple vertical lathes like shown above, but we also had 1 gantry vertical lathe; likely WW2 era s well - hard to tell eith really big machinery. The bed (chuck??) was 10 foot across, bug you could swing a 14 foot part on this machine.I think it was called Bertram or some such name. I may have photo, have to look when I get home.
It's cool stuff, this old machinery.

Byron

[q-tip]

our biggest chuck is 186" if i remember correctly. i cant get over some people that say theyre a machinist have never run a bridgeport or an engine lathe

[Byron510]

our biggest chuck is 186" if i remember correctly. i cant get over some people that say theyre a machinist have never run a bridgeport or an engine lathe

I've come across this quite a bit in the marine industry. In ship yards, they call everyone a machinist, but many have never operated more than a drill press.
I have been very fortunate in my career to work with some top notch European trained old school machinists. Most of my experience was on Bridgeport type mills, but mostly lathes ranging from prescision dovetail bed types to a huge Stanko monster which had 14' beteen the chuck and tail stock and even had a power compound with 10" stroke! There was another lather at the navy yard where the bed itself rolled away fromthe headstock - strange machine, but worked awesome for straitening stailess steel prop shafts - now that's an art - using a touch and a hose to straiten a bent shaft.

Lost of fun over the years, from making contact lens machinery at a tool and tie shop to masive gearboxes for Russion built mining machinery, to green chain parts for the logging industry....

I have loved what my trade has brought me, now I'm doing turbochargers on a massive scale - wouldn't have seen that one comming 10 years ago!

Byron