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Love those LeBlonds

Yeah, what a beast! It's 1940's vintage, a 24" Heavy Duty. Not many made in that size; not many left today. It probably came from a military base or a shop that did military work.

If it fell over, the floor probably lost.
 
Bruce S Johnson said:
Yeah, what a beast! It's 1940's vintage, a 24" Heavy Duty. Not many made in that size; not many left today. It probably came from a military base or a shop that did military work.

If it fell over, the floor probably lost.
Click to expand...

Well, the handles must have lost also... ;)

BTW, did you move from Burbank ? Same person, right ?

Cheers,
Alan
 
johnoder said:
Different party - here is Bruce in Burbank, last on the forum October 2013

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/members/bruce-johnson/
Click to expand...

It's the same me. Over last winter, I moved my whole shop and all my old iron from Burbank to Fillmore (about 45 miles). Something got screwed up with my original login and password, and I wasn't able to get it corrected with the administrators here at PM. So I finally created a new Bruce S Johnson login.

I still have all my old LeBlonds, Buffalos, Diamonds, Royersfords, and many others. My new shop is in the basement of a huge old 1920's era citrus packing plant. A fascinating place historically, and very appropriate for my old machines. It's cool and comfortable to work in all year around, and my monthly overhead is about half what it was in Burbank. Fillmore is a little old California town that hasn't changed much in 50 years. It's in the farmlands and orchards of Ventura County, a little north and west of LA.

I moved my whole shop and all my machinery by myself, over three months. A total of 53 truckloads; U-haul box trucks, stakebeds, and pickups pulling small hydraulic lift trailers. An enormous job, but well worth it.

Overall, I'm real busy running my musical instrument business, and I don't have much spare time to spend working on my old iron. But they are all safe here in a good home. Some of my best machines, like my Regal 17 and my Royersford 20 get frequent use.
 
Bruce, Fillmore looks like a nice location. I used to live at Pt. Mugu. The citrus warehouse rang a bell. My grandfather worked for Mutual Citrus Products, but it looks like the warehouses in Fillmore were Sunkist. Jim
 
Hello Jim;

Yes, this is the old Sunkist plant. The town of Fillmore was built around it. We've been researching the building, and have found pictures of it in operation between 1914 and 1963. I'm in the basement of the newer wing, which was built in 1934. The basement was designed for storing oranges. It's about 80,000 sf of concrete chambers with the original hand-made wood partitions. The basement naturally stays between 65 and 75 day and night, all year, with no additional heating or cooling. You have to open all the doors and windows all day to get it down to 60 or up to 80. Those are the extremes. Typical August days are sunny and 98 outside, and 75 in my shop. January nights are 50 outside and 65 inside. Shop conditions don't get much better than that. Plus I have windows up high on the west wall, so I get sunlight and ventilation too.

The landlord bought the building about two years ago on a foreclosure, and got a good deal with the city. The plan is to restore the building with a historical flavor and lease it out to small craftsman shops. Preference is for shops who do interesting things with old machines. I fit right in. There are seven of us in here now, and it will eventually fill up with maybe 20 tenants. Right now the spaces are all leasing at $0.50 sf, which is really cheap for California. I've got three bays totaling 2700 sf. The basement has 10' ceilings, a huge sprinkler system, and plenty of 3P power.

If any of you around the LA area are looking for shop space, this is a rare combination.

Bonus entertainment: The Fillmore & Western Railroad is a small private railroad that runs vintage trains for movie shoots and weekend tourist trips up and down the Ventura valley. The station and railyard are three blocks away, and the tracks run right by this building. Several times per weekend, I have vintage trains going by (at about 10 mph) right outside my windows. They have several nice old diesels and and one steam loco. Hot rod shows, fireworks, a classic American small town.
 
Bruce,
Are you in the 344 A st. building? That looks like a neat location. I'm not a stalker, just had to find out where those Diamonds went. :D

Google street view is such an awesome tool for poking around parts of the globe.
 
I'm in 341 A Street, the big building to the west side of A Street, between the railroad tracks and Sespe Ave. The Fire Dept is right across the street on Sespe.

The tenant in the main floor of the new wing restores and customizes old Airstream and other trailers. He has always has 30 or so trailers parked in the building and in the lot out back.

My shop is down that ramp into the basement, to the right side.
 

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Bruce,

Good to hear that your music biz is going well, and that looks like great space. The temp sounds PERFECT! I'm sure you don't have any power issues, given the old Sunkist plants...so I bet all of your machines are happy...

I studied music at Moorpark College in the late 70s / early 80s, so kinda know that area. Haven't thought about Sespe in a long while...there used to be 4-wheeling to the hot springs.

Not to digress, but congrats, Filmore is an AWESOME area compared to Burbank, and I'm sure you enjoy it. Taste is relative though, and what one person thinks might not be the same for all...don't get me wrong, Burbank has some cool places, but I'd personally just rather be living in Filmore. ;)
 
Bruce S Johnson said:
Hello Jim;

Yes, this is the old Sunkist plant. The town of Fillmore was built around it. We've been researching the building, and have found pictures of it in operation between 1914 and 1963. I'm in the basement of the newer wing, which was built in 1934. The basement was designed for storing oranges. It's about 80,000 sf of concrete chambers with the original hand-made wood partitions. The basement naturally stays between 65 and 75 day and night, all year, with no additional heating or cooling. You have to open all the doors and windows all day to get it down to 60 or up to 80. Those are the extremes. Typical August days are sunny and 98 outside, and 75 in my shop. January nights are 50 outside and 65 inside. Shop conditions don't get much better than that. Plus I have windows up high on the west wall, so I get sunlight and ventilation too.

The landlord bought the building about two years ago on a foreclosure, and got a good deal with the city. The plan is to restore the building with a historical flavor and lease it out to small craftsman shops. Preference is for shops who do interesting things with old machines. I fit right in. There are seven of us in here now, and it will eventually fill up with maybe 20 tenants. Right now the spaces are all leasing at $0.50 sf, which is really cheap for California. I've got three bays totaling 2700 sf. The basement has 10' ceilings, a huge sprinkler system, and plenty of 3P power.

If any of you around the LA area are looking for shop space, this is a rare combination.

Bonus entertainment: The Fillmore & Western Railroad is a small private railroad that runs vintage trains for movie shoots and weekend tourist trips up and down the Ventura valley. The station and railyard are three blocks away, and the tracks run right by this building. Several times per weekend, I have vintage trains going by (at about 10 mph) right outside my windows. They have several nice old diesels and and one steam loco. Hot rod shows, fireworks, a classic American small town.
Click to expand...

What I heard: the railroad is being evicted or shut down ? Anyways... Turner Machinery is in Santa Paula and in an old packing plant, lots of old Iron, I bought my W & S #3 from them, paid too much, but it is running and glad I bought it, so so experience with them and probably would not venture there again, but neat building and worth a look, they knew nothing about the machine but would have sold me anything had I been so inclined
 
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