OT- I'll be visiting San Francisco, and looking for places to visit

Aloha,
I'll be visiting San Francisco, and looking for places to visit. Maybe someones shop, or some manufacturer or any Machine related venue.
A Technical School or Community College with a Machine Program would be great.
Any ideas, or invitations?
Mahalo (thanks)
Doug

Cripes, seems a bit ironic an Australian giving tourist tips to an American, but since nobody else has yet replied, machinery related, maybe the cable car museum? That's pretty unique to SFO, maybe not the invite you had in mind, but hey at least one answer!

People often ask me where is the favourite place I travel to. It's always a difficult answer because it depends on what you're after, but for a city San Francisco is typically right up there. Super nice people. Enjoy!

Pete

PS Once you've finished mucking about with those machines let me know if you want to know where the good stuff is; I'm a mine of information on sleezy bars, greasy restaurants and strip joints

Not quite what you are looking for, but here are a few ideas:

A great hands-on museum:
Exploratorium: the museum of science, art and human perception

Tourist things to do:
Pier 39
People watch on Market Street
Lombard Street
China Town

SFO is one of the great cities to just wander around on foot.

(On Edit: Why does one always see a grammar or spelling error right after hitting Submit?)

SF bay hydraulic model

US Army Corps of Engineers

The Army Corp of Engineers has a large-scale 3D model of the bay and San Joaquin river delta in Sausalito, just over the GG bridge in Marin Co. Not exactly what you requested, but you may find it interesting.

The Computer History Museum has a replica of Babbage's Difference Engine, which is one of the all time amazing machines:

The Babbage Engine | Computer History Museum

If you like computers, there's a lot of other interesting stuff there too.

Cheers,

BW
CNC Cookbook: Blog

Don't waste Time on the cablecars!

You can travel around town much easier and cheaper on the bus system. Check out the Cable Car Garage. They have a mezzanine where you can watch the operation of the cable and the repair of the cars, The Liberty Ship Edmund O'Brien is open for tours ($5.00). Some neat machinery on board. The rest of the National Maritime Museum is also worthwhile, only a short walk from the ship. For good food served at a reasonable price, try the New Village Cafe on Polk Street. For good shopping, (you will laugh) the Goodwill Store on VanNess, below Mission St. If you are a book person, you should find the National Maritime Museum Reference Library located in Fort Mason. There is a large room of used books for sale cheap that tend toward the mechanical person. Take the time to check out the sealions, especially if you have kids with you. Have a good time, oh yes, all the girls aren't girls, and all boys aren't boys. Regards, Clark

sealark37 said:

Have a good time, oh yes, all the girls aren't girls, and all boys aren't boys. Regards, Clark

Click to expand...

WHAT!!! Ok maybe I better withdraw some of my strip club recommendations

Agree regarding the cable cars though, you ride one once to tick the box

There's not that many things to see that are purely related to machining, but here's some good stuff to see.

Take a walk over and back across the Golden Gate bridge, amazing construction and amazing view. You can also rent bikes to ride across and back, this is on wide separate walkways, not mixed in with the car traffic.

Take the tour of the Pampanito submarine at pier 45, here's a link to info about it:
San Francisco Maritime National Park Association - Maritime.Org Home Page

If you like the military stuff, also tour the Hornet air craft carrier in Alameda:
HOME PORT - Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet Museum

There is also a functioning Liberty ship you can also tour at Pier 45:
Welcome to the S.S. JEREMIAH O'BRIEN

There is a really good aircraft museum in San Carlos (about 30 minutes south of San Francisco)
Hiller Aviation Museum and Institute

Good luck-

Paul T.

I found a fun little ride last time I was there, parked out in front of the National Maritime Museum is an old open, like in the movie "CARS" type cartoonish Mack D75 fire truck, converted for rear seating, which meanders around to include a round trip over the Golden Gate Bridge. On nice days, (a staple in SF) a fun way to leisurely sight-see with an able talking guide, especially on the bridge, where I'm always too busy to enjoy the view, driving the car in heavy traffic.

It's easy to spend a great day in that area, several famous sea food restaurants a short walk from the where the fire truck is parked, scattered street musicians and much more, in addition to the museum.

Bob

I second the Exploratorium. It is more science oriented, but totally worth it. Some of the best hands-on science exhibits and demonstrations I have ever seen. They also have their own machine shop (closed to non-employees) which is visible from the floor, including a number of 10ee lathes. They also have a very, very old treadle lathe on the floor being used for some exhibit.

In 14 years living in SF, I've never once ridden a cable car. Unless you *really* want to, they are absolutely unnecessary for getting around town. Ride the buses (MUNI) for that. For getting to Oakland and the South Bay, ride BART.

There is the Musee Mecanique. From the website, "one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines." I haven't been there for maybe 8 years, but when it did, it was well worth it.

Welcome to the Musee Mecanique - The Mechanical Musuem

If you like Mexican food of any sort, get yourself a super burrito (the one with more than rice, beans, and meat on it). If you're gonna be downtown, there's a good burrito place on the corner of 4th and Bryant. If you're in the mission, t doesn't matter where you go.

It's not a museum, but there is the old Portrero point (Pier 70) shipyard, which once upon a time had the machine shop warehouse unlocked. Unfortunately the only things left in there were the bridge cranes and a huge (48"+ swing) lathe. Similar story with Hunters Point Shipyard, but that one has also changed.

Flickr: Hunters Point Naval Shipyard

Potrero Point - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you know anyone who can take you on a tour, Lawrence Berkeley national Labs has a huge, quite impressive machine shop (so I'm told).

watch out for the "girls" with those little collars around their necks!

submarine tour
Maritime Park Association - USS Pampanito Home Page

The Rosie the riveter museum in Richmond is not worth seeing. a big building that is fenced off. Though the victory ship there can be toured on some days
SS Red Oak Victory - Links

Make sure you realise this is in the city of Richmond across the bay for SF> SF also has neighbhorhood called "the Richmond"
Alcatraz seems to be liked by many

Are the blimp hangers in Sunnyvale open for tours?
Bill D.
Modesto

Visit Performance Machine in San Leandro, from SF travel east across the Bay
Bridge and you enter Oakland. San Leandro is a few miles south. They are the
last surviving machinery dealer in the area, new and used with loads of tooling.

Get up to Twin Peaks which is up-town and about in the center of the city.
Fantastic view of 360 degrees.

Mahalos to all of you for taking the time and making the effort to make suggestions. I have been there once before (took my son to enroll in college) and I have seen some of the sites that you mention. This time, the wife and I are visiting him together, but I could get away if necessary. About the "girls with the neck collars, etc. When I first moved to the "Big City" of Oahu, I couldn't believe all the beautiful "GIRLS" that could be seen on certain streets around town. My housemates had fun driving me around and and pointing them out, until I realized that they all had Adams Apples. Made me stay away from bars and strip joints.
I appreciate your ideas, any more?
Doug

rons said:

Visit Performance Machine in San Leandro, from SF travel east across the Bay
Bridge and you enter Oakland. San Leandro is a few miles south. They are the
last surviving machinery dealer in the area, new and used with loads of tooling.

Get up to Twin Peaks which is up-town and about in the center of the city.
Fantastic view of 360 degrees.

Click to expand...

Performance Machine Tools moved south to Fremont a number of years ago. It's probably too far out of the way for a SF visit excursion and unless you're shopping not worth the time.

Performance Machine Tools - New & Used Machinery

Regrettably the SF bay area is now slim pickings for public access large and interesting machine shop venues. The really good ones are definitely not public access (like LLNL). All the old large businesses that sold big old American iron are long gone from the San Carlos/Redwood City and Oakland areas.

The various ships and boats mentioned above have machine shop settings, wait until you see where the WWII submarine USS Pompano has a lathe tucked into. Add my vote of recommendation for touring them. The USS Hornet in Alameda is well worth a visit, particularly if you've not toured an aircraft carrier before.

My better half isn't interested in machine shops but she enjoyed visiting all the ships and boats. I appreciated the machine shops aboard them but didn't mention much about them.

If you need a little depression to cheer you up Alcatraz is a nice self tour also.

I'll second the Hiller museum which has neat things like the flying platforms and copter/jet belts on display. There's also a small aviation museum (with PBY) at the Oakland airport. Both of those have a lot of material about aviation history in the Bay Area.

I hope you don't rule out our other museums, Museum of Modern Art, the de Young, the Academy of Sciences and the Palace of the Legion of Honor. There are great French Impressionist shows right now at the de Young and Legion of Honor. The de Young and Academy of Sciences are across the concourse from each other in Golden Gate Park.

cheers,
Michael

If you want to take public transit or brave the street parking in Berkeley, you're welcome to visit my shop in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UC Berkeley. I run the student shop and we have a pretty fun place with 9 Bridgeports(4 with CNC retrofits), 9 lathes, 6 drill presses, etc. The department shop right next to us has an Omax waterjet, Mori-Seiki Duraturn 1530, Fanuc wire EDM etc. The instructional labs across the street are pretty cool also. Let me know when you'll be in town if you want to stop by.
Cheers,
Gordon

Laney College in Oakland has a really good machine technology program. I've taken machine shop and welding there. Unfortunately there aren't any classes over the summer and the labs are mostly closed. But if you want, PM me and I'll give you contact info for the department head - a really nice guy. He used to work at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and occasionally drops comments about some of the huge machinery they had there.

I think the instructors are in there sometimes and would probably be happy to talk and show you around, if your schedules fit.

I found Fort Point, under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge fascinating. There are coastal defense gun emplacements along the ridge facing the ocean going south.

Fort Point National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

Golden Gate National Recreational Area - San Francisco Bay Seacoast Defenses 1776-1974 (U.S. National Park Service)

Ask about seeing "Quake Shacks"

Earthquake Shacks

If you like old architecture the "painted ladies" might interest you.

Painted Ladies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is a wonderful variety of reasonably priced food there, your son should know where to go.

Paul