USS Olympia machine shop

Jeremy · Apr 26, 2015

The USS Olympia is the last remaining ship from the Spanish-American war. Check out the line shafting for the machine shop.

Panoramic picture so can't post image directly.

USS Olympia

JST · Apr 26, 2015

Hmmmm. All I get is something that looks like "dazzle camouflage" on the screen

I was through that ship, but don't recall seeing the machine shop. Of course, it was 50 years ago.....

moonlight machine · Apr 26, 2015

I thought they were going to scrap the Olympia as the hull was in such bad condition......

atomarc · Apr 26, 2015

Beautiful pictures, thank you for sharing. I'm amazed that the big stove in the galley has no provision to keep pots and pans from sliding off in rough seas.

Stuart

jdleach · Apr 26, 2015

moonlight machine said:
I thought they were going to scrap the Olympia as the hull was in such bad condition......

Efforts are still ongoing to save the Olympia. There were at one time, six different preservation entities vying for assuming title to Olympia, and of restoring her. All of those applicants have dropped out, or been rejected by the current caretakers, Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia.

ISM has instead, embarked on a national fund raising program to restore the ship. I am not sure how much has been raised, but have read that the most serious leaks have been addressed, and the cruiser is no longer in danger of foundering at the pier.

CBlair · Apr 26, 2015

atomarc said:
Beautiful pictures, thank you for sharing. I'm amazed that the big stove in the galley has no provision to keep pots and pans from sliding off in rough seas.

Stuart

That was one of the things I thought of, but as those would likely be of brass they were probably taken long ago for scrap value once the ship was decommissioned. Something easy to take and few would miss.

Charles

CBlair · Apr 26, 2015

wow, if you use the scroll knob when on the photo you can zoom in and out a bit....neat.

Double wow, if you click on the picture and move the mouse you can do a 360deg of the whole thing....superneat!

Charles

CBlair · Apr 26, 2015

The Admirals cabin has ordanance....! Ill bet that would wake him up.

This is really nice, thanks for sharing this one, way better than any Chinese lathe C..P!

Charles

Jeremy · Apr 26, 2015

Go to the root index, there's ton's more content about all sorts of places. I especially liked the ones of the Hanford B reactor. I've been on that tour a few times and always wondered what the top of the reactor and the rear face looked like, but they are still off limits because of contamination.

Nonplused - Archives

CBlair · Apr 26, 2015

In one of the engine room shots there is what appears to be a spare steam turbine with protective covers. More stuff to see than you can catch in one sitting, I will have to refer back to this site later.

So neat that so much of it is still there. I do hope to get to see this in person someday.

Charles

moonlight machine · Apr 26, 2015

CBlair said:
In one of the engine room shots there is what appears to be a spare steam turbine with protective covers. More stuff to see than you can catch in one sitting, I will have to refer back to this site later.

So neat that so much of it is still there. I do hope to get to see this in person someday.

Charles

Not very likely a spare turbine, this ship has a piston type steam engine. To bad there is no photo of the breech block of the gun on the deck, 6 or 8" as I remember from 1989 or so. the breech swings closed and locks by turning 1/4 turn or so. It has tapered interrupted threads about 4" long to hold it closed when the gun is fired. Made by real machinists with no cnc anything.

stonehaven · Apr 26, 2015

S.W.Putnam Sons lathe

David Bodkin · Apr 26, 2015

I found the Hornet's Machine Shop: USS Hornet CV-12
And the Ranger's: USS Ranger - CV/CVA-61

Winterfalke · Apr 27, 2015

My father has a nearly identical drill press to the one next to the grinder, except his has a square boss on the back of the foot for a motor mount, and doesn't have the side mount tool tray.

magicmaker · Apr 27, 2015

moonlight machine;
Here are 5 gun pics I took when I toured the Olympia. They look even bigger in person. Enjoy.
Jim

Peter S · Apr 27, 2015

Re. Olympia machine shop panoramic image: the other drill press (at tailstock end of the Putnam lathe) looks like a W.F. & John Barnes to me.

What caught my eye is a wall-mounted steam engine (?) in the background, outside the machine shop. The machine shop line shafts look to be driven by electric motors, so I am not sure what this engine does, perhaps a steam-driven back-up? It doesn't look quite right to be a steering engine. Not sure what the Olympia used to power her turrets, elevators, capstans etc.

moonlight machine · Apr 27, 2015

magicmaker said:
moonlight machine;
Here are 5 gun pics I took when I toured the Olympia. They look even bigger in person. Enjoy.
Jim

Thanks Jim. Think about making that breech block with no cnc anything, no calculator, did they even have slide rules when that gun was made?

Frank R · Apr 27, 2015

CBlair said:
wow, if you use the scroll knob when on the photo you can zoom in and out a bit....neat.

Double wow, if you click on the picture and move the mouse you can do a 360deg of the whole thing....superneat!

Charles

If you tilt up you can view the ceiling. If you then scroll left and right you can get it spinning. If you are not careful you are going to hurl.

If you look above the lathe you can see the pulley and belt arrangement.

Frank R · Apr 27, 2015

Is that the line shaft drive motor mounted on the ceiling above the workbench? It looks like there is a modern motor peeking out on the left side of the ceiling.

Another old drive motor above the grinder. Early switch box too.

Full set of change gears on the wall rack to the left of the big lathe head stock.

Why the arc of shame on the drill press table by the big lathe? Seems pretty uniform.

SouthBendModel34 · Apr 27, 2015

Olympia's Guns

The USS Olympia's broadside guns are not her original armament. They are WW1-era 5"/51 guns, the same as the secondary battery of the USS Arizona and USS Texas. The USS Olympia was given these more modern guns so that she could serve as a gunnery training ship, her last active duty.

A 5"/51 gun (51 calibers in length, 5*51=255 inches or 21 feet 3 inches) can only engage surface targets. They were superseded by the 5"/38 which can engage wither surface or aerial targets. A notable difference is the the 5"/51 loads separate projectile and powder bags, whereas the 5"/38 has "fixed ammunition" with the shell attached to a brass cartridge case

The "secret" of making these is the "relieving attachment" on a lathe. (Hendey, among others, offered this attachment.) To shorten the story, the relieving attachment operates the cross slide as if it was a shaper while the spindle is turning. This is under the control of a cam. It allows "stopped" thread cuts.

Somebody made a remark about the availability of slide rules back when these guns were made. I think you will find that basic slide rules existed since the 1600's and that by 1900 they were refined into their current form.

About the tiny steam engine: When you visit the Olympia, you notice right away that there are tiny reciprocating steam engines in places where a newer ship would have an electric motor. For example, the ash hoist for hoisting coal ash out of the fire rooms is powered by a tiny bulkhead mounted two cylinder steam engine!

USS Olympia machine shop

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