What's new
What's new

Historic Machine Shop Built for Marine Engines (thread 3)

VintagePA

Plastic
Joined
Jul 23, 2021
Location
Philadelphia
Historic Machine Shop Built for Marine Engines

Hello All,

My intentions are to start a thread here and add to it when I get additional information or make updates based on community feedback. I am a history buff, so this interests me and I want to make sure I am accurate with descriptions and so on. I am working through my late uncle's estate and in the late 1990s he purchased a property from someone he knew well (machinist/shop owner). This is a late 1800s through the mid 1900s machine shop and was used to make marine engines right off of the Delaware River south of Philadelphia. I spent much of my teenage years at this shop alongside my uncle working, not with these machines, but around the shop and his stuff. He was sort of a collector (nice way to put it), appreciated history and never said no to free. He knew what he had with these machines and unfortunately never got a chance to restore it to working order.

The shop still houses many of the line shaft driven machines and accessories that come with the equipment even though the building is aging fast. For me and my uncle's legacy it's about trying to preserve these machines and their parts and to sell them to the right person before we get around to selling the property and cannot control what will happen. :mad5:

I will make a list of the machines I can identify and I have an old picture that I'll include of the shop in it's glory. I believe these machines to be anywhere from 100-150 years old, unfortunately the diesel motor that ran the shop is no longer there, but the ceiling apparatus is. All of the stuff that I can see moves very freely and surprisingly well lubricated :D




Equipment for sale

  • 84" WR Davis Metal Lathe
    davislathe_34.jpg


  • 65" David W Pond Metal Lathe
    pondlath_full.jpg


  • Canedy-Otto Press (?)
    canedy_press_front.jpg


    canedy_press_back.jpg



  • Superior Drill Press, says Kokomo In. on vertical arm
    drill_press.jpg


  • Misc. Machine???
    addtl_machine.jpg

TheShop_early1900s.jpg
 
Last edited:
Updated Pics

Good Morning! I updated the original post with links to pictures, sorry for the clutter and some of these photos were not taken with this intent in mind. For privacy reasons at this time I did not include the name of the shop or the location. Serious inquiries I am happy to meet with people in person, I would also be heading in from out of town. :D
 
Someting like this:....:D

Ermmm.. Gary Larson's idea of humour might be the only thing left on PM more worn-out than tired lineshaft fossils?

Meanwhile.. speaking AS an Estate Executor as well as an Old Iron addict..

Somebody needs to klew the OP that this stuff is an expensive disposal CHALLENGE ... not a "treasure" worthy of pictures of salvaged reefer tubing, dead commmodity welders, stray plastic buckets.

..nor cloak-and-dagger-secret locations.

Whole thread might be shed with a "start OVER!" admonition?

CLEAR . .the silly JUNK.

Take DECENT per-each machine photos.

DO a bit of research to ID them.

Folks might could help. Maybe.

"Yard sale" technique falls on its nose when serious rigging is needed to MOVE the stuff.

And literally "one person in a million" even has an interest.

Eg: About 350 souls for the entire USA. And that might be optimistic, even so.
 
I dropped the wide shots of the shop and put close up of some equipment that's relatively open. Please note that this will likely end up being a multi-year project and not being particularly local I have to schedule time accordingly with a list of things to take care of each trip, these machines are not ready yet

Found you.

Deletion would be a kindness to the database.

Cleaning up the TRASH and doing photos of the MACHINES advice still applies!

Even packrats have "standards" to uphold!

:D
 
I dropped the wide shots of the shop and put close up of some equipment that's relatively open. Please note that this will likely end up being a multi-year project and not being particularly local I have to schedule time accordingly with a list of things to take care of each trip, these machines are not ready yet

Shudda said ".. and an experienced Executor in a Pennsylvania probate as well as Virginia.."

You actually have to do real work at this stuff.

Make an effort on-the-record to get the value for the residue in an Estate.

The Law requires that of a fiduciary - whether the heirs are fussy or not.
 
I’m confused…. Which doesn’t take much I must admit… I can’t find any pictures on either post? Is the OP listing this with the intent to sell?
 
Something funny is still going on, the other thread says "invalid thread" if I try to respond to it. There is nothing there. OP has 5 posts but click his name to see other posts only 3 show up??
 
There is definitely something funny going on with the PM software- I have no problem seeing photos on 2 of the threads, the old 1st thread had no pics and that is now undeleted. Hopefully we can get to a place where photos are reliably seen by all.
 
There is a pretty active professional (modern) blacksmithing community in Philly, and some of them may be interested in this stuff. Plus, two of the ones I know are avid bicycle guys. You might want to drop one or two of them an email and see if they know anybody who might be interested. These are guys who work with old tools daily, as a business, and know many of the people in the area who do so.

Holzman Iron Studio | Philadelphia Blacksmith | Philadelphia Iron Works

John Rais Studio - Applied Design In Metal
 








 
Back
Top