Inside The Secret Underground Laboratory

[Major Seven]

Some maintenance and repair on one of my prize antique machines:

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My beautiful little 1925 Avey Sensitive Drill Press snapped its belt a few weeks ago. For the second time....From the factory, a hundred years ago, it would have been fitted with a very thin 1" wide leather belt, running down to an idler pulley where the electric motor is now.

When I bought it a few years ago, it had been fitted with a modern 1" wide thin rubber belt, joined with a little mini-Alligator clip. I never liked that metal clip, because it made the machine go clack-clack-clack as it ran. About a year ago, the belt broke, right at the Alligator clip. The crimped end of the clip ripped out of the end of the belt. So, I re-joined the belt with a skive joint, using West Systems epoxy. It seemed okay for a while, and much quieter running. But then it let go a few weeks ago.

So, I ordered a custom made-to-length Butyl rubber belt, already factory joined. From McMasters, about $130. But this sweet old machine deserves it.

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It took a bit of disassembly to get the new belt threaded in there correctly......

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And some adjustment of the alignment of the roller pulleys to get the belt to track down the middle of them.......

But it's in there, and it seems to working fine now. Smooth and quiet. Ready for another 100 years of drilling teeny holes.

It's amazing to think of how many hundreds of Machinists must have used this drill press, and how many millions of holes it must have drilled. And it doesn't have any significant wear. It was designed to run forever.

I'm proud to be its current owner and caretaker. It's got a light duty assignment here in my shop. I use it to drill all the 2 mm holes for the pins in my truss rods.

Only 10 years ago I saw a woodworking factory in a Vermont barn. They had a dozen or so belt driven machines in use with drive belts that went
to the ceiling all driven by one motorized shaft the length of the shop.

"It's amazing to think of how many hundreds of Machinists must have used this drill press, and how many millions of holes it must have drilled. And it doesn't have any significant wear. It was designed to run forever."

And building an entire B-24 Liberator in 90 minutes.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

When I was a kid, my parents had a late 50's era Frigidaire that we owned up until we moved in 1975, and it was still working, just too heavy and cumbersome to move, I think they sold it with the house. Same with our washer and dryer, we had (1) set my entire childhood, now I'm lucky to get 5 years out of a dryer.

Heh. Speaking of antique machinery in my shop, I have a Sanyo mid-size refrigerator that was made in the mid '70's. I bought it in a used appliance store in Burbank in 1986, when I moved to California. I still have it. It's been my personal fridge, 24/7/365 for 40 years. It's kind of grubby, but it still works fine.

 

[ardgedee]

They still make durable long-term-wear fridges. The secret is to look for garage refrigerators: Designed to operate in the wide range of temperatures. Cheap, no-frills, not quite as efficient as the French door fridge in your kitchen. Only real downside is temperature regulation tends to be a little sketchy, the swings can be too wide. Perfectly fine for keeping beer or dairy products or leftovers, not so awesome at long-term storage of produce.

These are ubiquitous in garages and car ports in the Southeastern US for whatever reason.

 

[CryingBass]

Heh. Speaking of antique machinery in my shop, I have a Sanyo mid-size refrigerator that was made in the mid '70's. I bought it in a used appliance store in Burbank in 1986, when I moved to California. I still have it. It's been my personal fridge, 24/7/365 for 40 years. It's kind of grubby, but it still works fine.

Should I even ask what stereo system you listen to?

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Should I even ask what stereo system you listen to?

Hah! Surprisingly enough, I never really got into fancy high-end audio gear. Even though, in my engineering career, I helped develop some very exotic speaker systems and speaker cabinets. And I also spent some years building and running sound systems for rock bands, and components in a few top recording studios. I'm pretty good with the mechanical side of audio systems.

But I've never been fascinated with "perfect" sound systems for my shop. I like to have music running in the background in my shop as I work. I do not like podcasts or talk shows. That interferes with my thinking. My "stereo system" these days is Spotify on my main computer, feeding into a cheap solid state automotive stereo amp module. Feeding a pair of filthy old bookshelf speakers. As long as the system doesn't have any serious distortion or buzz, that's fine with me. I adjust the Bass and Treble knobs on the amp to get the EQ curve about right. And the Volume isn't very loud.

What music do I listen to? Mostly bluegrass, the more modern lively kind with good harmony singing. Also, full Acapella bands like Home Free. Some Nashville Country. Some classic prog rock like Rush and Yes; some classic metal like Queensryche. Some historic Cowboy music, some Ragtime Piano.

My own musical outlet these days is a trio of old grey-haired geezers called the Bakery Boys. We perform every Saturday afternoon it the Geissner Winery here in Fillmore, CA. All three of us sing and play instruments. I sing baritone leads and bass harmonies, and play harmonicas. And yes, I do have a Bass Harmonica in my collection. I usually sing lead on a group of classic cowboy songs by Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. While wearing a black cowboy hat, of course.