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Inside The Secret Underground Laboratory

#341
I love those old machines. I don't know if anyone might be interested, but my great grandfather was James Archdale who founded Archdale Machine Tools. Between the wars they were one of the biggest machine tool makers in the UK, and sold all round the world, including a lot in the USA. They ended up mostly making large milling machines and massive radial arm drills. Stuff like this:
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You can see in the first picture unguarded pulleys and general chaos. What a different world.

I know it's a long shot, but if anyone ever used an Archdale, I'd really really love to hear about it!
 
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#342
honza992 said:
I love those old machines. I don't know if anyone might be interested, but my great grandfather was James Archdale who founded Archdale Machine Tools. Between the wars they were one of the biggest machine tool makers in the UK, and sold all round the world, including a lot in the USA. They ended up mostly making large milling machines and massive radial arm drills. Stuff like this:

Invalid Link Removed







You can see in the first picture unguarded pulleys and general chaos. What a different world.

I know it's a long shot, but if anyone ever used an Archdale, I'd really really love to hear about it!
Click to expand...


Yeah, open pulleys and operators working in long sleeve shop coats and ties. Gotta love it!
 
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#346
honza992 said:
I love those old machines. I don't know if anyone might be interested, but my great grandfather was James Archdale who founded Archdale Machine Tools. Between the wars they were one of the biggest machine tool makers in the UK, and sold all round the world, including a lot in the USA. They ended up mostly making large milling machines and massive radial arm drills. Stuff like this:
img9.jpg

img8.jpg






img5.jpg


You can see in the first picture unguarded pulleys and general chaos. What a different world.

I know it's a long shot, but if anyone ever used an Archdale, I'd really really love to hear about it!
Click to expand...

That's a cool history! I've never personally touched any Archdale machines, but I've certainly read about them and seen pictures. They were a British company, and not many of them have made it over here across the pond.

I presume you know about Tony's web site all about historic machinery, mostly centered in the UK? Here's his page about the Archdale company:
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You have to remember that these pictures were all carefully posed. Back in those days, photography was expensive per shot. And cameras/film were much slower. If a company was paying to have pictures taken of their assembly line, things were shut down, cleaned up, and designated people were carefully posed for the shot. The machines weren't running, and the guys had all washed their hands and combed their hair. Some might be senior management who slipped on a pair of coveralls. What you are seeing isn't a real snapshot of daily work in progress.
 
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#347
A general note about safety in machine shops a hundred years ago:

Those shops weren't as dangerous as they look in the pictures. Workers didn't really get hurt that much. A job in a machine shop was considered to be nice cushy safe work, as compared to other skilled trades like construction, mining, railroad yards, sawmills, etc.

Remember that these old metalworking machines run at much slower speeds than modern machines. A milling machine cutter or drill bit ran at a few hundred rpm, not a few thousand. Chips flying off land 6" away. It's not spraying sharp hot bullets like a modern machine. That's part of my enjoyment of using these old dinosaurs; they are mostly quiet and non-scary. I always wear safety glasses in my shop, but they really aren't necessary with these old metal cutting machines. They don't throw shrapnel, even if you crash the machine and snap a cutter. They do, however, spray oil!

The biggest danger in running these machines is in getting your hands tangled up in the moving parts. And that's true of any kind of machinery. If you work around machinery, you have to learn to keep your hands off the machines.
 
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#349
I love the old catalog images of machines from the 1900-1930 era. They were mostly drawings, beautiful technical illustrations. Classic style technical illustration technique.

Here's the 1910 catalog illustration of my rare Knecht Bros drill press. Now that's fine art! Old catalog illustrations like these are my main source of information for restoring the machine.

Yes, that is a drawing, done by hand in pencil. Some guy sitting in a corner of the shop, with a machine parked in front of him. A small drawing board, a sheet of paper, a couple of pencils, an eraser, and maybe a straightedge. It's all done by eye and by hand, just like drawing a portrait of a person. You can see the artist's signature at the lower left.

I know from experience, because I used to do this style of technical illustrating as part of my work in the R & D labs of companies I was at. It's a specialized skill these days. It's hard. Those guys back in the early 1900's were masters.

Knecht Bros Ad.jpg


I like the line about how the friction drive is "both efficient and satisfactory". I may have to borrow that for my Scroll Bass advertising:

The AMB-2 is both efficient and satisfactory.
 
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#350
And, for some Sunday evening fun, I turned on some bluegrass in the background, and made up the permanent base for the little Rhodes shaper. I pre-made the wood parts, and then rolled my trusty gantry crane out into the hall. I used the crane to gently lift the Rhodes up off the pallet I had it on, and then assembled the new base underneath it. As I've said before, a gantry crane makes life so much easier, if you are into messing around with machines.

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The new base is the same general form that I make for most of my machines. It's 4 x 4's going crosswise and lengthwise; 30" wide x 36" long in this case. That's a nice reasonable size that gives it a wider stance, so it doesn't tip over in an earthquake. And a narrow pallet jack fits neatly underneath so I can move it around easily.

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The machine's base is bolted to the crosswise 4 x 4's with 3/8-16 x 5" bolts and washers and locknuts. I used a big Forstner bit to counterbore the underside of the crosswise beams, so the bolt heads are recessed. I don't want them interfering with the pallet jack. Then the cross beams are lagged down to the side beams.

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While I was there, I used the crane to support the weight of the jackshaft assembly, as I unbolted the whole thing from the back of the machine. That whole assembly is over 100 lbs.

I mentioned in the posts above that the jackshaft assembly wasn't original to this shaper. It's from some old '30's or '40's lathe. My plan is to build an extension frame from 4 x 4's that attaches to the back of this base frame, extending straight up about 7 feet. I'll mount this jackshaft assembly up on the top of that, running a single 1" (synthetic) leather belt down to the step pulley on the machine. That jackshaft assembly already has a built-in adjustable mount for a motor. A V-belt will run from the motor around that big pulley.

That should make a nice historic-looking drive rig for it. Small footprint and easy to move around. That's how I plan to rig up drives to most of the Dinosaurs.

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Here it is, back in the shop with most of the excess stuff removed. Now it's going to get parked back in Dinosaur Row with the others. I really don't have the extra time to work on it now. This is a hobby project, and I don't have much hobby time these days. But I'm glad that I grabbed it when it turned up, and have it safely in my collection.
 
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#351
Hi everyone;
You may have noticed that I've been kind of quiet for the past two weeks. My health is fine, other than some serious stress, but we've got a serious crisis going on here at the Secret Underground Lab.

I don't want to get into it in much detail here, but there's been a long-running battle going on between the City of Fillmore and our building's owner, over establishing the code requirements for our type of shops in this 100 year old building. The Lawyers and Architects have been going back and forth over this for four years.

Now the battle has escalated into war.

Ten days ago, they Red Tagged our building. Claimed it was Unsafe For Occupancy, based on a bunch of completely fictitious safety claims. A City Inspector and a Police Officer ordered me out of my shop, and locked me out, under penalty of law. I think you can imagine my outrage! Everything I own is in there.

Of course, we immediately unleashed our Lawyers, and began screaming at every city official that we could get hold of. We were all locked out for five days, over a long weekend, before they relented and reduced it to a Yellow Tag condition. We are now "allowed" to be in our shops and operate our businesses, but only during the hours of 8-5 Monday-Friday.

The whole situation is complicated and outrageous. Our Lawyer says that we've got a solid case against them, and that they are going to cave to prevent an enormous lawsuit against the city.

There's a big meeting of the top lawyers this Thursday, and the whole mess may get settled right there. But there's a risk that this could drag out, and our whole project could collapse financially. I could be forced to move out and find another home, and start over. And I'm about broke right now. This could potentially wipe me out.

We're sticking it out, and we believe that we're going to win, and be able to stay and continue on with the project. But, waiting out the decision this week, my life is horrible. I'm camped out in a friend's motorhome about 2 miles away, with a laptop, some sandwiches, and a couple of beers. I have to spend all of my evenings and nights here, wasting time, fuming about the situation.

During the day shift, I'm in my shop every minute, working as hard as I can to get some project work done. I'm making some progress. But there are so many interruptions and things I have to do to help the battle going on.

I'm letting you all know about this situation, in case you are having trouble reaching me about a project. In the motorhome, I have WiFi internet connection, but I don't have my e-mail set up on this borrowed laptop. And during the day, I don't have time to take calls and communicate with you. Hopefully, in about a week things will be back to almost normal.

Please Please Please let's not fill this thread with your comments and outrage about small town government abuse, etc. This is not the place, and the Moderators don't want political discussions on TB.

I'll keep you updated.
 
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#355
Bobo said:
Keep the faith. Sending good, positive vibes, Bruce. #016’s daddy, Bobo Lavorgna
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Thanks, guys! I especially ask my customers, like you Bobo, to not panic! I will find a way to get your instruments finished. In the situation this week, I am getting some good work hours in the shop. I normally work about 14-16 hours a day (honestly!). Right now, I'm getting about 7 hours. And under a lot of anger and stress! I'm trying to stay cool and concentrate on building basses while this all sorts out.
 
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#359
Bruce, is there something we can do to help?
City officials can just look at this pages and see how you have brought back life to the building. You have fans from all over the world that probably never heard of Fillmore, until you moved there. You are salvaging and bringing back to "useful life", noble and old machinery. You are a valuable part of their community!
Is there anyone we can communicate with at the City level?
 
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