Amish Factory - Part II - It Isn't Pronounced Pee neumatic!
Since the Amish can't use electricity even in their business in any real, meaningful way, they adapted hydraulic and pneumatic powered equipment as a substitute. Having already seen hydraulic machines earlier, here are some pneumatic powered examples...
... a conventional bandsaw...
...with a pneumatic powered motor.
Pneumatic powered fans are just a few more examples of how they've adapted modern equipment to a unconventional power source. The power source for all the factory hydraulics and pneumatics was done with 2 extremely large diesel engines located behind the plant. One powered an enormous air compressor and the other a large hydraulic pump. I tried to get some pictures but was unable unfortunately.
I haven't given up and if I can get some I will post them at a later date.
As noted in Part I, this factory specializes in makes butcher block tops of all sizes. Once borads are cut to the proper width they begin the laminating process.
This is a container full of glue that flows to...
...the roller seen in front and below this...
...stack of boards. Once they have glue on one edge...
...they are stacked in this jig with care toward orientation of the wood grain...
...where they are clamped while the glue dries. Note this butcher block assembly has random width boards.
This clamping machine will hold these clamped tops for several hours while the glue sets up.
Once they are dry, the tops are sanded.
They are rough going in and...
...smooth when they come out.
Once sanded they are stacked and then cut to ordered widths.The factory also does custom work when so ordered.
Here's a special order laminated stack. This appears to be about 10" X 10" or 12" X 12". Once laminated like this, it will be dimensionally much more stable than if it consisted of a single chunk of wood of the same size. You might remember that's why I used laminated legs on the
Barn
Bench.
The factory was in full production when I took these pictures but you don't see too many people. One reason is many Amish prefer not to have photographs taken of themselves which I tried to repect and the other is the plant is highly mechanized. Even without electrical power as a main power source that factory is still extremely modern and efficient. Everyone I talked to was exceptionally friendly, proud of their craft and very willing to stop with what they were doing and answer any questions I had. I can certainly vouch for the quality of the work they produce. Top notch all the way.
Once my tops were ready we did use a fork lift to load both of them.
You can see I use my truck for work, but I did use a couple of furniture blankets and some cardboard to protect the bed.
This main top alone for the
BB weighs several hundred pounds and would have been just to unwieldy and dangerous to fabricate in our small shop. The factory was an interesting experience, I took over 100 photographs and these are just a small sampling of the various machines and work done there. I hope this was of some interest and gives some more background to...
...the
Barn
Bench. Thanks again everyone.
Thomas
!!
Thanks for thinking of me now when you see a crooked switch trim plate.............I think.
It was a long read but the weather was so bad no much moved and I didn't get any work done.
The read was well worth it though.
