The skills of old school machinist/Tool makers

[Rangier Rover]

Would you believe this thing was built in this gentleman's shead. I mean all of it.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=12172&stc=1&d=1228684393

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=12173&stc=1&d=1228684468



Sounded like the real thing as well.

Tony

[Shonky]

You haven't seen Dinty's Locomotive then I take it... :o

[JDNSW]

Yes, I'll believe it. His shed probably has all the machinery and more that was used to build the full size engine ninety years ago - and he has learned from their experience. What he does have is the application to use this knowledge, which is rather rare these days.

Consider for example John Harrison, who not only built the first chronometer, with no machine tools, no previous work to build on, no training (he was a carpenter), but also designed it from scratch.

Or Lawrence Hargraves, who built the first rotary aeroplane engine with no power tools except a lathe - and no training.

John

[Rangier Rover]

Another pic.... I'm still amazed by the detail and scale of this thing.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=12177&stc=1&d=1228690147
I also have a video of it running but can't up load with my limited bandwidth:(

Tony.

[mike 90 RR]

Luv it ... Even went to the detail of twin spark plugs ...

[Bigbjorn]

All the early engines and motor vehicles were built using simple manual control machine tools, usually flat belt driven from a single mill engine by mainshaft and lineshaft. Lathes, shapers, planers, slotters, gear shapers, milling & drilling machines were the normal content of a machine shop. Often the cutting tools were forged and heat treated in house by the machinists from bar stock of tool steel. True high speed steels and tungsten carbide cutting tools came along much later.Hand finishing by scrapers was normal practice also. I was taught these during my apprenticeship in the late 50's. Yet in 1987 I came across a fourth year apprentice who said he had only used scrapers in first year college, in the traditional exercise of reducing a surface by chipping, filing, and scraping to make small surface plates. He did not have clue as to how to use them on a job, so I had him remove the cylinder ridges on a marine diesel with scrapers. His trade skills were greatly improved by the time the job was over. He couldn't even sharpen a drill properly yet had finished his TAFE requirements and was only months away from becoming a full blown fitter. He did not like me but I am sure I made him a better tradesman by the time the job was off the slip.

Capstan, turret, and automatic lathes started to be used from the late 1800's making true mass production possible. Have a browse through the historical content of the Practical Machinist web site and you will be totally surprised by what was done with simple machine tools and hand skills. You will also be very surprised by the size and scale of what was the golden age of heavy engineering. Massive locomotives, battleships and their armament, giant castings, huge lathes, heat treatment ovens that took rail wagons of armour plate, etc.

[Disco_ute84]

Capstan, turret, and automatic lathes started to be used from the late 1800's making true mass production possible.

I was always under the impression that these were an invention of WW1?

[JDNSW]

I was always under the impression that these were an invention of WW1?

The first turret lathes were invented in the 1840s - one reference I have gives the inventor as the firm Pratt & Whitney (much later part of United Aircraft and building aeroplane engines, but originally a machine tool maker), with semi-automatic ones in the 1860s and the first automatic one patented in 1873. Unfortunately for the inventor, he had a lousy patent attorney and the key part was not covered - and every man and his dog started making them. By 1914 they were very mature technology, and in widespread use.

John

[Bigbjorn]

Pratt & Whitney were toolmakers. The Whitney was a relative of Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin amongst other things. Pratt & Whitney, and Brown & Sharp, along with L.S.Starrett were toolmakers to the toolmakers. P&W relinquished toolmaking during or after WWII to concentrate on aero engines. I have P&W taper shank drills and machine reamers supplied to the U.S. forces in WWII. Brown & Sharp developed the principles and theory of gear cutting & much of the tooling. Gleason (later the Gleasman Co.) developed gear cutting machinery and much theory of gearing. Gleasman developed in the 1970's-80's the Gleasman Torsen differential. The Tru Trac used in many 4WD's is from the Torsen design.

An interesting read is Dreadnoughts in Camera - Building the Dreadnoughts. See if your local library has it. Lots of photos of grand scale engineering and shipbuilding. In one photo of the gun shop at John Brown, Clydebank, I could count fifteen large naval gun barrels in process or waiting. Imagine a 105 foot lathe with five tool stations.

[Offender90]

Truly impressive... just like the bloke who built a 5/8 scale series 1 from scratch, engine and all! Attached scan downloaded from www.mulgo.com.au (http://www.mulgo.com.au/media.html)

Bojan

[Bigbjorn]

That model rotary engine can be bought as a hobby engineers kit of castings with drawings and instructions. A friend, a retired taxation inspector made one and is now working on a scale model RR Merlin. He started off after taking early retirement with small hobby shop steam engines working up to a triple expansion big enough for a 24' boat. He then built the boat to put it in. He plans to build a scale model Offenhauser 270when he finishes the Merlin. Given his progression with the steam engines, I would not be surprised to one day hear of a replica Indianapolis roadster growling around the streets of Coorparoo. He is but a boy of 87. One of my other customers is 92 and has almost finished a scale model of a South Australian main line steam loco. No hobby shop kit of castings this one. Made from scratch.

[101 Ron]

At a old hydraulic mining site there is a old 1880s steam engine.
It is single cylinder (about 15 inch) with the high pressure piston pump driven on the same piston rod.
The single throw crank has a fly wheel of about 16 ft in dia.
The interesting thing is the fly wheel is two piece and the two halfs are double dove tailed together perfectly.
This was done so the engine could be handled and transported.
To this day that fly wheel runs perfectly true.
The machining of the large castings is perfect.
The engine was made in Melbourne.
The engine was last used in the 1930s depression as a diesel was too expensive to buy.

[JDNSW]

Truly impressive... just like the bloke who built a 5/8 scale series 1 from scratch, engine and all! Attached scan downloaded from www.mulgo.com.au (http://www.mulgo.com.au/media.html)

Bojan

Yes, saw it at Cooma.

John

[Jeff]

A bloke I used to work with is building a 3/4 scale Mustang, not the car but the WWII fighter aircraft, with a V8 Chevy engine. Last time I saw it all the timber was cut out and stacked flat ready to assemble.

It keeps him off the pokies I suppose.

:rocket: Jeff