Amazing HUGE machine work - British shipbuilding

[mhulbrock]

Slightly off topic, but these images are too great to not be shared.
Shipyard building process. These images are just great!

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

 

[ramtuff]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

 

[CoreyVanDine]

That stuff is incredible!!! Its hard to imagine that much steel. I bet those things burn fuel by the ton!!

 

[trainwreck]

AWESOME find. Thanks for sharing.

Is he using the original as a jig to cut the new one? I guess this is how they did it before CNC?

And look at the SIZE of this micrometer!

 

[John in OH]

Magnificent machines and fabrication facilities .... but not a pair of safety glasses or earplugs to be seen!! One wonders how many of the guys from the old days lost eyes, fingers, and hearing from working in what would otherwise be cool places to work.

 

[shoot summ]

Wow!

 

[Full Size 66]

Apparently I have seen many of those machines before. In miniature! Many of them are just like the machine shops I have either worked in and around or gone to for work... The only difference is the ones I have seen are really small in comparison.

 

[Firefighter315]

Magnificent machines and fabrication facilities .... but not a pair of safety glasses or earplugs to be seen!! One wonders how many of the guys from the old days lost eyes, fingers, and hearing from working in what would otherwise be cool places to work.

I was getting ready to say the same exact thing about the safety glasses or even bump hats....Great Pics!

 

[bdkruger1]

I love that one shot of the guy hand scraping ways. Awesome, and truly a dying art.

 

[Addrock]

Wow, Awesome. I too have worked on the miniature versions of nearly all of these machines. Very cool, I wonder if the engine on the test rig is still in service.

 

[Falcon67]

I don't think they got their tooling from littlemachineshop.com. Very cool set of pics.

 

[scott37300]

I have seen this posted on another forum somewhere before. It's awesome to see again. I could stare at these pics all day long looking at all the little details of what they are working on. A bunch of truely skilled craftsman that are the men that made the world what it is today.

 

[red69ss]

very nice pics, I worked as a machinist on my last job and we worked on very small pieces, I can't imagine working on such large workpieces.

I recently got a tour of a plant that I'm trying to get a job at that produced generators and turbines for the electric power generation industry. They produce huge assemblies, but nothing as big as the final assemblies they showed in those pics. thanks for sharing

 

[1320stang]

One time, a guy showed up in a buddy's chassis shop while I was there, he showed us pictures of a guy standing on a con rod in one of these big engines, anyways, he told us about walking into a room in this machine shop and noticed the floor was metal, upon further inspection, he was standing on the surface of a plate under a giant mill head. there were places to dog down giant pieces they would mill and he exclaimed to the guy giving the tour about the size of everything, the guy said, that's nothing, you should see the piece of equipment that made all this!!!

 

[bazzateer]

Sent the link to my Dad. His job when in the Royal Navy (50s-60s) was to maintain and repair those engines!

 

[He who turns wrenches]

Incredible photos thanks for posting the link.

 

[kbs2244]

Semi-trucks are big untill you see them next to a train.
Then trains are big untill you see them in a ship port.

Even the Brit Co.s are making their engines in Japan now though.

"100,000 horse power was actually achieved on a test bed in the workshop with the 14 cylinder model, running the engine flat out at just under 102 rpm."

 

[NismoPlsr]

Wow.

I guess the bigger the machine the bigger the chips.

 

[rwhite692]

Semi-trucks are big untill you see them next to a train.
Then trains are big untill you see them in a ship port.

Even the Brit Co.s are making their engines in Japan now though.

"100,000 horse power was actually achieved on a test bed in the workshop with the 14 cylinder model, running the engine flat out at just under 102 rpm."

Pics of Hyundai Heavy Industries in S.Korea (Worlds largest shipbuilder)

 

[MBeaty]

Thanks for the great pictures! I have seen them before, but could not help to look at them all again.

Those pics are of Hyundai Heavy Industries in S.Korea (Worlds largest shipbuilder)

I am actually sitting on a product of Hyundai Heavy Industries right now. It is phenomenal the amount of steel used in a decent sized (800 ft) ship. 2 and 3 inch thick steel is not uncommon here at all. I am not able to see the engine room, but I can imagine it it quite impressive. It has 6 engines, each one rated at about 9000 hp!

I know just sitting in one location, just to power the ship for a 24 hour period, we use around 15,000 gal of fuel oil.

 

[JordanFTW]

Thanks for sharing! Some incredible photos...

 

[Jononon]

Even the Brit Co.s are making their engines in Japan now though.

Damn near no British shipbuilding industry left

Incidentally, that first pic is in Croatia the engine's being transported to Germany.

 

[Johnny chaos]

I could look at those for hours......In a few weeks I'll be in Detroit looking at the monstrous machines inside The Henry Ford museum.......Can't wait!!!!!!

 

[HoosierBuddy]

!! One wonders how many of the guys from the old days lost eyes, fingers, and hearing from working in what would otherwise be cool places to work.

All of them. They went off to work everyday and gave their youth and health to a job to feed their families and keep roofs over their loved ones' heads.

And so it shall ever be.

BTW...the two guys pulling on the rope. What's up with that? I can't figure it out.

Phil

 

[bluestripe67]

The engine size overall is amazing, but the size of the crankshafts just blow me away. Dennis

 

[JCQuick]

wow is all i can say cool pics thanks for sharing

 

[e-tek]

Man can be SO amazing. Then so stupid....

 

[green.bubbly]

The pics almost look fake. Hard to imagine pieces that large.

Thanks for posting.

 

[ddawg16]

I have actually been through the Harland & Wolf ship yards in Belfast, N. Ireland......

Great experience....the original engine house (didn't go in) as well as the slip that the Titanic and Olympic were built on are still there....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harland_and_Wolff

Amazing how they could build such large items using machinery of the day....

 

[fomocoforrester]

Wonderful pics - thanks for sharing.

Never worked on building them, but I have been involved in maintaining them - checking hot crankshaft deflections with hot oil dripping down is not fun....

 

[fomocoforrester]

BTW...the two guys pulling on the rope. What's up with that? I can't figure it out.

Phil

They're checking the fit of the piston rod cross head. It joins the piston rod to the connecting rod in a double acting engine....

The holes on the pitch circle right in front of the two guys, correspond to studs in the lower end of the cylinder.

 

[Sick Puppy]

The pics almost look fake. Hard to imagine pieces that large.

Thanks for posting.

I know what you mean, I think the pics are using early colour film, or were B & W, converted to colour... AWESOME pics though!

 

[Jononon]

From a previous thread on these pics:

Nice set of pics There are people who'll tell you we can't do that kind of thing in this country any more. Luckily, they're wrong:

 

[meissen]

I have seen this posted on another forum somewhere before. It's awesome to see again. I could stare at these pics all day long looking at all the little details of what they are working on. A bunch of truely skilled craftsman that are the men that made the world what it is today.

Was probably here.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

They're checking the fit of the piston rod cross head. It joins the piston rod to the connecting rod in a double acting engine....

The holes on the pitch circle right in front of the two guys, correspond to studs in the lower end of the cylinder.

Thanks. That explains it. It must be one of those specially calibrated ropes.

Phil

 

[JMartel]

Damn near no British shipbuilding industry left
.

Or in the US. Generally speaking, unless it's a Navy ship/submarine or Navy auxiliary ship then it's built overseas. Most of the design work is done in Europe and they are built in Asia.

(I'm about to start a job in Engineering in a Sub Yard)

 

[widerberg]

Those shots are awesome. It's amazing to think of the scale. Sad that so many of those great ships now get beached and cut up for scrap in India, among other places, especially old liners that can't meet the latest SOLAS regs without major (i.e, expensive) refits.

 

[Falcon67]

I could look at those for hours......In a few weeks I'll be in Detroit looking at the monstrous machines inside The Henry Ford museum.......Can't wait!!!!!!

You're gonna love it.

 

[woody 73]

Wow just amazing pictures it just takes your breath away looking at those large machines...