Thornewmexico
Aluminum
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2011
- Location
- SW, USA
I happened across a Craigslist ad of interest today: Pre-Estate Sale Viewing and Sale of Machines and Tools - tools - by owner - sale
Leon Wilson, age 95, passed on recently. He got out of the USN in about 1941, and enrolled in college as an engineer. After the war he worked at Sandia National Labs and/or Los Alamos. He acquired some of their stuff over the years. His hoard is up for redistribution to machinists who will again pass it on to other machinists when they pass on.
His garage is probably about four cars in size, no cars recently, with additional room to the sides of the cars, so plenty of room to pack in lots of stuff. This is the land of no rust, and as an added bonus, nothing appears to have been stored outside over night except as noted. There was very little rust or none on any of the machines, and only a little on the tooling. Dust and grime were fairly wide spread, as can be expected in this situation. I didn't see any evidence of rodents. Access to the machines is good. There are two garage doors which open onto an alley. The distance from the doors to the alley is about ? 8-10 feet. There is a slight incline up from the garage floor, for an elevation gain of about 2 feet. The alley is flat. It is not real wide, but an average pickup with a trailer should be able to get down it no problem.
What I saw in the garage:
DoAll Bandsaw, I don't know the size, but it was huge, so I am guessing it was 36" throat depth and since it was listed as V36 on the inventory sheet.
Van Norman Mill. It was a floor model. I looked up Van Norman mills on lathes.co.uk, and Tony did not have one listed. It was roughly the size of my Aciera F3, so much smaller than a Bridgeport / BP clone.
Brown & Sharpe Grinder
Cincinatti Grinder
Parks Planer for wood
Gould and Eberhardt Shaper, which said on the label 16-20 inch Industrial Universal It had a vise and what appeared to be an extra tool holder for a shaper, but I am not sure if it was for the G&E due to a different color paint (IIRC). This thing is even bigger than the shaper listed below.
BG 16 inch shaper. [EDIT: Andy FitzGibbon is correct, this is a Smith and Mills shaper. See pics below.] I measured this puppy at about 6 feet long, and about 32 inches wide, and it would likely require 4 feet of space minimum for access. It was suggested the motor could be reconfigured to make the length about 5 feet long. I estimate the weight at least 2,000, maybe 4,000 pounds given what Abom79's shaper size and weight were. This also had a shaper vise, and for some reason, appears to have a spare ram.
There was a home made wood chipper in the side yard, which looked a bit rusty. The engine was a Wisconsin from the 40's or 50's. The age was estimated for me. It appeared to be probably functional, or capable of functioning. Certainly it would be a good donor for parts.
Spot welder with jaws about ? 30" long, which looked pretty beefy to me, but I don't pay attention to these things.
There were a bunch of vises some of which were Chinese, four lathe chucks, (2 Chinesium, a 4 jaw about ? 8" USA made in CT, forget brand, one other, no maker obvious, pretty old)
I didn't see much in the way of tooling. I didn't see a lathe even though there are chucks laying around.
There is the usual detritus which collects in the machine shop of an old guy. Mr. Wilson collected a bunch of interesting things which might be of interest to some like oscilloscopes, a fancy old volt meter capable of high precision,a shelf full of ? pressure gages.
This stuff won't be there long. The house is being made ready for sale, and it has to be cleaned out. Death in the big pot of the shapers and the other things unsold is potentially weeks. I covet the BG shaper, but there is absolutely no way I can fit it into my garage.
Leon Wilson, age 95, passed on recently. He got out of the USN in about 1941, and enrolled in college as an engineer. After the war he worked at Sandia National Labs and/or Los Alamos. He acquired some of their stuff over the years. His hoard is up for redistribution to machinists who will again pass it on to other machinists when they pass on.
His garage is probably about four cars in size, no cars recently, with additional room to the sides of the cars, so plenty of room to pack in lots of stuff. This is the land of no rust, and as an added bonus, nothing appears to have been stored outside over night except as noted. There was very little rust or none on any of the machines, and only a little on the tooling. Dust and grime were fairly wide spread, as can be expected in this situation. I didn't see any evidence of rodents. Access to the machines is good. There are two garage doors which open onto an alley. The distance from the doors to the alley is about ? 8-10 feet. There is a slight incline up from the garage floor, for an elevation gain of about 2 feet. The alley is flat. It is not real wide, but an average pickup with a trailer should be able to get down it no problem.
What I saw in the garage:
DoAll Bandsaw, I don't know the size, but it was huge, so I am guessing it was 36" throat depth and since it was listed as V36 on the inventory sheet.
Van Norman Mill. It was a floor model. I looked up Van Norman mills on lathes.co.uk, and Tony did not have one listed. It was roughly the size of my Aciera F3, so much smaller than a Bridgeport / BP clone.
Brown & Sharpe Grinder
Cincinatti Grinder
Parks Planer for wood
Gould and Eberhardt Shaper, which said on the label 16-20 inch Industrial Universal It had a vise and what appeared to be an extra tool holder for a shaper, but I am not sure if it was for the G&E due to a different color paint (IIRC). This thing is even bigger than the shaper listed below.
BG 16 inch shaper. [EDIT: Andy FitzGibbon is correct, this is a Smith and Mills shaper. See pics below.] I measured this puppy at about 6 feet long, and about 32 inches wide, and it would likely require 4 feet of space minimum for access. It was suggested the motor could be reconfigured to make the length about 5 feet long. I estimate the weight at least 2,000, maybe 4,000 pounds given what Abom79's shaper size and weight were. This also had a shaper vise, and for some reason, appears to have a spare ram.
There was a home made wood chipper in the side yard, which looked a bit rusty. The engine was a Wisconsin from the 40's or 50's. The age was estimated for me. It appeared to be probably functional, or capable of functioning. Certainly it would be a good donor for parts.
Spot welder with jaws about ? 30" long, which looked pretty beefy to me, but I don't pay attention to these things.
There were a bunch of vises some of which were Chinese, four lathe chucks, (2 Chinesium, a 4 jaw about ? 8" USA made in CT, forget brand, one other, no maker obvious, pretty old)
I didn't see much in the way of tooling. I didn't see a lathe even though there are chucks laying around.
There is the usual detritus which collects in the machine shop of an old guy. Mr. Wilson collected a bunch of interesting things which might be of interest to some like oscilloscopes, a fancy old volt meter capable of high precision,a shelf full of ? pressure gages.
This stuff won't be there long. The house is being made ready for sale, and it has to be cleaned out. Death in the big pot of the shapers and the other things unsold is potentially weeks. I covet the BG shaper, but there is absolutely no way I can fit it into my garage.
Last edited:
