40's 50's Machineshop
- Thread starter Ulrick
- Start date
d.mcfarland
Well-known member
Plenty of inspiration, just have to search. Did you try the garages/shops here or even a quick google search?
Burtonrider10022
Well-known member
Not a hotrod machine shop, but a 50's shipyard machine shop: http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/guides/William_Doxford_and_Sons#The_Manufacturing_Process
Another member here posted this I think in the awesome thread. I don't recall who though.
Another member here posted this I think in the awesome thread. I don't recall who though.
BRENT in 10-uh-C
Well-known member
Just my thoughts on this time period is that a "hot rod fabshop" during that time period really wasn't that ...but more of a speed shop where items were sold to a person that took them home to his own garage (or back yard) where he did the work himself. I think those days were more about function over form. In other words it wasn't about the show.
With regard to the machine shop, I am not sure if you are speaking of an automotive machine shop or an auto repair shop. It is my view that most small independant shops back in the 40s - 50s really did not have a great amount of tools nor space to work in, yet they made up for that with the mechanic's ability to improvise or use what was available to him.
Amitygravel
Well-known member
Burtonrider ,
Thanks for posting that link !
Thanks for posting that link !
Dick in Wisconsin
Well-known member
Unbelieveable. Just unbelieveable.
No computers.
No computers.
Cedge
Well-known member
How about a 1930's toy steam engine shop. After 81 years of continuous operation, it still supplies the whole globe with the World Famous Jensen Steam Engines that you used to see in the old Sears toy catalogs. I have had the honor of working with this unique little company since 1993, as their webmaster and manager/ consultant.
Steve
http://www.jensensteamengines.com/tour-intro.htm
Steve
http://www.jensensteamengines.com/tour-intro.htm
coljar
Well-known member
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dirtmister16
Banned
love that shipyard! the part where they are cutting the crank parts is that a early plasma type cutter?
look at how thick that steel is they are cutting! freaking awesome. id like to part of something like that and say i was there. just amazing.
look at how thick that steel is they are cutting! freaking awesome. id like to part of something like that and say i was there. just amazing.
Thanks for sharing!! Love the old lathes and drillpresses!!
Burtonrider10022
Well-known member
My dad works for the railroad, the heavy duty industrial stuff they have there is so cool. On a depressing note, they have pipe wrenches on all of the locomotives for repairs or air brakes, IDK, but they are Harbor Freight brand
Cryptic1911
Well-known member
I love all this cool old machinery! just earlier before dinner I was out oiling our ~100 year old lathe in the garage. Not as cool as this stuff, but it's still neat. They sure don't make things like they used to
coljar
Well-known member
My dad works for the railroad, the heavy duty industrial stuff they have there is so cool. On a depressing note, they have pipe wrenches on all of the locomotives for repairs or air brakes, IDK, but they are Harbor Freight brand
I hate to hear that about the use of HF pipe wrenches on the railroad. Here at work, they only buy Ridgid, in fact, the biggest wrench I have is a 48" Ridgid pipe wrench. Two of the boilers are coal fired, which means a lot more large auxiliary equipment than you have with gas fired ones, which equates to big tools, mainly comb. wrenches, pipewrenches and sledge hammers............Ok, Ulrick, I'm done straying from the subject.
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Lippyp
Well-known member
I took my kids to a couple of museums at the weekend, we did two places, the first is called Enginuity and is the kind of place for kids where there are loads of buttons to press, levers to pull. Things like a full scale model hydroelectric system with three dams and lots of was to route the water. A demonstration of how a flywheel works which involces you spinning a wheel to move a real steam locomotive along a length of track and so on.
The second place is called Blists Hill Victorian Village and its a recreated Victorian industrial town, they have everything including a bank, pharmacy, photographers, printers, working pub, working fish and chip shop to a working iron foundry, leather worker, tinsmith, decorative plasterwork shop, woodwork shop (the guy there was carving rocking horses) Blacksmiths forge with a smith working, engineers shop with working period lathes, mills etc. All the buildings are staffed with people in period costume and working, so the printers was knocking out posters "Oscar Wilde Dies" and "Latest Boer War News" to be displayed around the site on an Eagle printing press made in 1860. I found it very inspiring and its given me some ideas for my garage which happens to have been built during the victorian period. I also made a great contact with the smith who's offered to come and give me a couple of lessons when I get my forge up and running.
This is at a town about 30 miles from us called Ironbridge, its a world heritage site and the cradle of the industrial revolution and the site of the worlds first ever iron bridge which you can still walk over today.
http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/our-attractions/blists-hill-victorian-town/
The second place is called Blists Hill Victorian Village and its a recreated Victorian industrial town, they have everything including a bank, pharmacy, photographers, printers, working pub, working fish and chip shop to a working iron foundry, leather worker, tinsmith, decorative plasterwork shop, woodwork shop (the guy there was carving rocking horses) Blacksmiths forge with a smith working, engineers shop with working period lathes, mills etc. All the buildings are staffed with people in period costume and working, so the printers was knocking out posters "Oscar Wilde Dies" and "Latest Boer War News" to be displayed around the site on an Eagle printing press made in 1860. I found it very inspiring and its given me some ideas for my garage which happens to have been built during the victorian period. I also made a great contact with the smith who's offered to come and give me a couple of lessons when I get my forge up and running.
This is at a town about 30 miles from us called Ironbridge, its a world heritage site and the cradle of the industrial revolution and the site of the worlds first ever iron bridge which you can still walk over today.
http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/our-attractions/blists-hill-victorian-town/
John in OH
Well-known member
Very nice link to the shipyard shop photos! Love all the machines and the heavy work. But notice that PPE was essentially non-existent !!!
lupiphile
New member
Here's a link I think y'all might be into. http://www.sandersoniron.com/studio ,Joel Sanderson, is an excellent blacksmith who has spent a few thousand hours restoring old machinery and orienting his whole workspace around said machinery, running the way it was originally run. His shop is as much a working museum/ art piece as it is a shop. Take care, Matt
383 240z
Well-known member
Coming back to topic:
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Southernbuild
Well-known member
Those are some amazing pictures! Kinda makes me wish I lived back in the days of America's industrial might....
383 240z
Well-known member
I cant even wrap my head around indicating these parts:
Cryptic1911
Well-known member
pmiranda
Well-known member
Awesome giant stuff!
Note that the only Personal Protective Equipment in any of those pictures is a brain and both eyes on the task at hand. No safety guards on any of the equipment, either. Mike Rowe would be a kid in a candy store there...
Great pics and post; thanks. Reminds me of the first Reynolds Metals shop I worked at in the early seventies. Not on that scale however; we build "can machines" for some of the first aluminum can productions for Reynolds Aluminum. The plant was massive and was one location where ww2 planes were recycled. This bring back memories. thanks again
I recall visiting Minster in Ohio once, they had some huge machine tools there.
MTN, I still see Mark IV bodymakers from time to time.
Is that from the Petersen Museum?Coming back to topic:
383 240z
Well-known member
Yep, Was there a few years ago. Kinda depressing. I had built it up in my mind from years of reading hot rod mag, I was not impressed. The Owl and Crawford and Lemay collections are much more impressive. Keith
I don't want to take us off topic, as this would be earlier than the period you mentioned, but I always admired the look of this recreation of Walter P. Chrysler's garage at the WPC Museum.
White painted brick walls, wood plank floors, belt driven machinery...the tool box and tools under glass in the foreground were really his.
White painted brick walls, wood plank floors, belt driven machinery...the tool box and tools under glass in the foreground were really his.
Bobdog
Well-known member
Those are some impressive pics, but the total lack of safety gear is what stands out the most from a modern perspective, not a single pair of safety glasses or steel toed boots even.