rtwhiteside
Plastic
- Joined
- May 3, 2018
- Location
- Roanoke, VA, USA
Good morning ladies and gentlemen,
I posted a bit ago regarding a 12' Lodge and Shipley lathe but I received so much feedback that I decided id take a moment and share the rest of a recent acquisition with you all. About 6 months ago my dad and I purchased a machine shop in downtown Roanoke that is part of a string of buildings originally built to house Roanokes horse and carraige fleet in 1915. Not long after the popularization of the automobile, this particular building was converted into a machine shop to help support the railroad industry. The Price Filler machine shop had multiple contracts with Norfolk and Western for quite some time and as evident with the amount of tooling, was a very wealthy shop for quite some time. Fast forward 80 years, the shop was purchased by a gentleman and used as a prototyping or job shop and even manufactured pins and plates for the medical field with a specific focus in repairing large bone fractures (scary stuff).
The goal with the space is to find a home for all the machinery that is no longer practical to use (the massive lathes, super specialized equipment, some line drive tools, etc.) and retain one self powered lathe, one line drive lathe, the bridgeport, a vertical band saw and various tooling with the intention of opening a "maker space" sort of environment where people can come learn about machining, welding, blacksmithing, or even rent space to work on their own projects.
I plan to keep the pictured Hendey lathe attached to the still working line drive system as a sort of exhibit to show people how things used to be run before electric motors became so affordable.
Anyway, im really sharing just to share as I have been impressed with the collective amount of knowledge on this forum and I thought you all might enjoy a peek inside what is essentially a time capsule. Any information as to what i have here is greatly appreciated. Trying to find a home for all this amazing equipment is a challenging task but knowledge is power.
Cheers!
Pictures here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskxsTKYr
I posted a bit ago regarding a 12' Lodge and Shipley lathe but I received so much feedback that I decided id take a moment and share the rest of a recent acquisition with you all. About 6 months ago my dad and I purchased a machine shop in downtown Roanoke that is part of a string of buildings originally built to house Roanokes horse and carraige fleet in 1915. Not long after the popularization of the automobile, this particular building was converted into a machine shop to help support the railroad industry. The Price Filler machine shop had multiple contracts with Norfolk and Western for quite some time and as evident with the amount of tooling, was a very wealthy shop for quite some time. Fast forward 80 years, the shop was purchased by a gentleman and used as a prototyping or job shop and even manufactured pins and plates for the medical field with a specific focus in repairing large bone fractures (scary stuff).
The goal with the space is to find a home for all the machinery that is no longer practical to use (the massive lathes, super specialized equipment, some line drive tools, etc.) and retain one self powered lathe, one line drive lathe, the bridgeport, a vertical band saw and various tooling with the intention of opening a "maker space" sort of environment where people can come learn about machining, welding, blacksmithing, or even rent space to work on their own projects.
I plan to keep the pictured Hendey lathe attached to the still working line drive system as a sort of exhibit to show people how things used to be run before electric motors became so affordable.
Anyway, im really sharing just to share as I have been impressed with the collective amount of knowledge on this forum and I thought you all might enjoy a peek inside what is essentially a time capsule. Any information as to what i have here is greatly appreciated. Trying to find a home for all this amazing equipment is a challenging task but knowledge is power.
Cheers!
Pictures here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskxsTKYr