A 19th Century Machine Shop Diorama

[zeeprogrammer]

no matter which way you look, you see something that you didn't see the first time you looked.

A top-notch quality. 

[J.L.]

Thank you.

When I first built the grinder for the diorama, the original intention was that when the model was on display I would be standing behind a table looking out at the public working the model. That was a faulty notion. With so much going on with the many moving parts and steam, water and  oil to monitor, full attention would be required in front of the model. So the idea of switching the grinder on and off from the back (photos 1 & 2) had to be revamped.

 On the original grinders sold back in the day, a lever was placed just under the table to the right of the operator.

Our configuration here assumes that a floor casting could have been used as a fulcrum point for a lever to slide the belt shifter (photos 3 & 4) . The wooden lever was reused (photo 5).

Tomorrow should finish the reconfiguration.

[zeeprogrammer]

If one could miniaturize oneself...that would be a shop I'd be happy in.

[b.lindsey]

A nice new detail John that hopefully should work well from the front side as you say.

Bill

[J.L.]

Hi Carl,
Yes, it would be a nice shop to be in. I imagine myself in it often as I think of scaling parts.

Hi Bill,

Success! The lever works very well. In vertical position, the belt runs free on the loose pulley.

[10KPete]

Sweet, John. Really sweet!

Pete

[Jack B]

Hi John, That's a very nice Diorama you built. In 1951 I graduated from a vocational school in Pawtucket Rhode Island. I was a 17 year old  beginning machinist. My first full time job that June of 1951 was in a shop set up similar to yours. The old wooden building built in the 17 Hundreds  had three floors. The first and second floor were a wooden box manufacturer. There power came from a steam engine with a boiler fueled by scrap wood. I worked in the mill for two years but wasn't interested in the box shop operation. So I never really took a good look at it.

I worked in the machine shop on the third floor. There were three of us. The owner who was gone a great deal of the time getting work for us. My boss who was a young man in his late twenty's. He was the set up man and I was the apprentice. We were running 13 double ought Brown & Sharpe  Screw Machines. My main job was to keep them in stock and I had to spot check the work as it was being made from 12 foot bars of different materials.

The machines received there power from overhead belts just like your shop. Our main source of power was a very large electric motor about five or six feet high and wide. This motor was mounted in the ceiling in a separate room. There was a shaft about three inches in diameter that ran the length of our shop mounted in the ceiling like yours. It had double width pulleys at each station. There were triple width  pulleys out over each machine. One was free wheeling the idler and the other two  were keyed to the shaft. I could shift them from a long wooden handle that hung down from the ceiling. It is 65 years since I worked there but your Diorama brought back memories. It was a dangerous place to work. If a belt slipped off a pulley which happened quite offten I had to go up a ladder and put it back on while the rest of the pulleys were turning. The boss taught me how to hold the belt safely so it would snap out of my fingers and go back on. I hated doing that and it was one of my reasons for leaving the job.             Jack       

[J.L.]

Hi Jack,

Thank you for this insightful recollection of what it was like to have worked in such a machine shop. Although I have not worked in such a place, I have also commented on how dangerous a place they were back when line shafts powered many moving belts. I'd never though about having to get a belt back on a pulley. I can see why they would want the shaft to be turning so the the  pulley would grab the belt and draw it in to the centre of its crown. But your fingers Jack!!! I think I'd be leaving the shop as well.

Jack, I've seen historical pictures on the internet of children in bare feet crawling under revolving machinery in textile mills. Having to go up the ladder and do what you did makes me shudder.

Again, thanks for sharing the experience.

John

[ShopShoe]

Trivial FYI post.

I have heard somewhere that the children in the mills climbing and crawling around greasing the line shafts were called "grease monkeys" and that is where the term came from.

ShopShoe

[Johno]

Hi John,

Fantasist work. As a relatively new member been playing catch-up with your posts which are fascinating.

Regards drive shafts and belts; by the mid 1800 UK legislation with respect to welfare and industrial safety was well developed. For example, the working day for children was reduced from 14 hours to 10! Legislation was also in place that required the fencing of rotating machinery. The legislation developed into the Factories Acts of 1909, 1934 and 1961.All now repealed by the present Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974. The old Factories Acts did recognise that certain tasks had to be performed on 'live' rotating equipment, such as the slipping of belts from one pulley to another. The Acts allowed for "Machinery Attendants" to be appointed (in writing) by a senior manager to undertake such work on un-guarded machines. By the 1960's Machinery Attendants were required to wear special close fitting overalls, with-out pockets etc. to reduce the likely hood of becoming entangled.

Also, with regards to legislation, it was requirement to have on display within the work place the relevant Act.

Don't know if you had considered adding a suitable poster to your superb diorama.

Ian

[J.L.]

Thank you for the compliments and the historical observations gentlemen. I am pleased that this diorama has sparked these kind of discussions, as I am also a student of history.
So much can be learned from the spin-offs of these model threads. 

Cheers...John

[J.L.]

The next floor machine to be built is the 1/12 scale model of J.E. Snyder Company's 21" upright drill press. An illustration of the actual production machine can be found on page 116 of 'Charles A. Strelinger's 1895 catalog (illustration #450).

However, modifications will be made to the basic kit. It was intended to be built as a display/presentation model and used brass to enhance its appearance. Our press was a hard working production model that would have come directly out of the factory. So the column will be steel, not brass.

Also, the PM Research model was not designed to operate with a working mechanism to switch the machine's belt from the fixed to the loose pulley. I have found a photo of how this was done with a simple foot pedal. I hope to incorporate this feature on our  drill press.

[b.lindsey]

Great John, yet another chapter to enjoy following along on. That drill press will make a nice addition to the shop!!

Bill

[mklotz]

Don't forget to make a vise for it...

[J.L.]

Yes Bill, the drill press should fit nicely behind the centre column.

Hi Marv,
A very nice vice it is Marv. Your vice represents a vice that would have been placed on the table about twenty years after the Snyder press was introduced. Hex cap screws were not patented until 1910.

The crank shaper should also have a heavy vice sitting on its table.