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What to do With a 1915 Machine Shop

rtwhiteside

Plastic
Joined
May 3, 2018
Location
Roanoke, VA, USA
Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

I posted a bit ago regarding a 12' Lodge and Shipley lathe but I received so much feedback that I decided id take a moment and share the rest of a recent acquisition with you all. About 6 months ago my dad and I purchased a machine shop in downtown Roanoke that is part of a string of buildings originally built to house Roanokes horse and carraige fleet in 1915. Not long after the popularization of the automobile, this particular building was converted into a machine shop to help support the railroad industry. The Price Filler machine shop had multiple contracts with Norfolk and Western for quite some time and as evident with the amount of tooling, was a very wealthy shop for quite some time. Fast forward 80 years, the shop was purchased by a gentleman and used as a prototyping or job shop and even manufactured pins and plates for the medical field with a specific focus in repairing large bone fractures (scary stuff).

The goal with the space is to find a home for all the machinery that is no longer practical to use (the massive lathes, super specialized equipment, some line drive tools, etc.) and retain one self powered lathe, one line drive lathe, the bridgeport, a vertical band saw and various tooling with the intention of opening a "maker space" sort of environment where people can come learn about machining, welding, blacksmithing, or even rent space to work on their own projects.

I plan to keep the pictured Hendey lathe attached to the still working line drive system as a sort of exhibit to show people how things used to be run before electric motors became so affordable.

Anyway, im really sharing just to share as I have been impressed with the collective amount of knowledge on this forum and I thought you all might enjoy a peek inside what is essentially a time capsule. Any information as to what i have here is greatly appreciated. Trying to find a home for all this amazing equipment is a challenging task but knowledge is power.

Cheers!

Pictures here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskxsTKYr
 
Interesting the big POND has that on one end and NBP on the other - of course relating to Niles Bement Pond.

I see Pond liked the massive sloping front way as much as R.K Le Blond did for his heavies
 
Interesting the big POND has that on one end and NBP on the other - of course relating to Niles Bement Pond.

There was apparently a longish transition period after the P&W acquisition and merger of Niles Tool Works with Bement and Pond to form the "conglomerate" - for that is what it was, long before, Textron, LTV and such - of N-B-P. They went on to acquire dozens of other firms.

From the many that Galis used, it seems it depended on when they "got a round tuit" as to modifying the branding on otherwise still perfectly usable casting patterns.

One "medium" lathe I used of around 20" swing, mere 8-foot bed, is still a mystery.

The clue, cast into in the tailstock's base was "City of Allegheny". Happens I was born there, not the first generation of our family, either. We knew that a legal and popular battle had been waged over long years to resist forced incorporation as "Northside" Pittsburgh, PA.

That helped with dating, but was not, itself, the mystery.

That I cannot find ANY reference to machine tools of that sort being built in that jurisdiction, nor the fossilized remains of any such facility as could have done in that era, is the mystery. The physical terrain - Cutler Street, Pittsburgh's steepest, was a short walk from home, and the whole small area very steep and on chronically sliding soils, is not at all suited to foundry operations, nor even assembly.

Best guess is that there was but an "administrative" office - perhaps for tax reasons on inventory or sales - the machine-tools actually built at some distance.
 
Wow! Beautiful shop and tools. I'm only a few hours away from you. I would be very interested in that planer. Well, maybe it is too soon to be asking, but anyway, I'd like to see it.

Thanks,
John
 
Wow! Beautiful shop and tools. I'm only a few hours away from you. I would be very interested in that planer. Well, maybe it is too soon to be asking, but anyway, I'd like to see it.

Thanks,
John
I'd love for it to go to a good home, I'm usually around on Thursdays and fridays cleaning and sorting, call me 5403140800 anytime

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
I see what you mean looking a little closer the L andS seems a little redundant with the big NBP in there and some others . Great pictures by the way. Even have a Hendey T and G.
 
I see what you mean looking a little closer the L andS seems a little redundant with the big NBP in there and some others . Great pictures by the way. Even have a Hendey T and G.

Those old L&S of that era were slow, but Niles were old designs and slower, yet. All of the ones Galis used had been "up motored", probably during the World War II build-up. Some had been line shafters before even that. The "Dinosaur" had been a cone-head, then fitted with a Morse rocker-link so-called "silent" (a lie, if ever was..) chain around 10"-11" wide. A fifty HP Dee Cee motor drove that to make lots of big chips.. and even more noise and brilliant green arc flash.

The 8-foot VTL, "Karussel" to First-shift foreman of German heritage, "merry go round" to the rest of us, had lost its cushioning on drive rims - probably Gutta Percha - of the variable speed disks that powered the traverse. Screeched like a banshee the whole shift. Fortunately was only needed a few times a year, 'coz we had safety glasses and steel toads, but no hearing protection, those days.

Niles also had soft-beds, and were less precisely finished to begin with than a smaller L&S.
File finishing a workpiece wasn't an option. It had to be standard.

Heavy on the controls to the point of relative clumsiness, it was drudgery to run anything Niles built any bigger than the famous "railroad drill" that Mattingly & Moore sold so many of lots of folk don't know it WAS a Niles.

Summertimes, one could go off-shift easily 5 pounds lighter than when you clocked-in.
Even a pre WWII L&S, which Galis also had several of, was akin to a sports car by comparison. Being tasked on one of those was about as close to "easy" as a shift ever got, that shop.

Nothing special. There were about 60 of us, three shifts, more-yet "FMC" parent company plant a few miles down the road in Fairmont, WV, and tens of thousands nationwide in much the same boat. The aftermath of major wars has lots of marginal shops living off the table-scraps of machine-tools.

Wudda been a richer company, more of our ones would have been War TWO salvage than War ONE, but it paid the same hourly rate, so what was there to complain about?

:)
 
Wow, time capsule is right. What a great and well equipped shop, it looks like there'd be very little they couldn't tackle at a moment's notice.There's certainly no lack of tooling, that shows the broad variety of work that had been accomplished there. I can only imagine what an investment that was at that time. I remember being in shops like that as a child. Too bad it can't be preserved in total as a museum of sorts.
Great photos! If you have any more, please post them!
 
I think that I'd have to keep the Niles.......because, I don't know where there is another one anywhere near me.
But then again, doubt I'd get rid of the L & S either, mom told my wife, he will never get rid of you, he never gets rid of anything.
 
mom told my wife, he will never get rid of you, he never gets rid of anything.
No one even needed to tell my wife, she became painfully aware really quickly! We bought a house together right before we got married, I insisted that it have a large garage. She, at first, thought I was concerned about keeping the snow off her car in the winter.:wrong:
That was the edge of the "slippery slope" for me!:cheers:
 
I appreciate seeing the pictures, a lot to look at in one space. The one lathe some one added risers to was different than any factory job but probably sufficed for the intended purpose. As some one else noted even a Hendey T&G included in the works. Good show!
Dan
 
Thanks for sharing. Too bad it was bought with repurposing in mind. Ready made machine shop museum. Glad Va is a ways off for me. The little VTL would be tempting me and the tooling, my goodness. Wow old iron paradise, very nice place. Best to you. John.
 
more pics to at least keep it like was hopefully. Cleaned up even wouldn't be as interesting. Not to many places frozen in time like that around.
 
Might want to consider getting in touch with an auction house and have them come do an assessment. I'm not too far from there and could suggest one I've dealt with in the area if you're interested.
 








 
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