Model Engine Maker
Supporting => Tooling & Machines => Topic started by: Tater on December 06, 2014, 07:10:00 PM
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This may be a little off topic, butI though you guys would appreciate these photos. Back in 1998, I had the great fortune to visit Russia as it was emerging from the Soviet Era, to see and document some of the transformation. One of the highlights was getting to visit Uralmash, a famous heavy industry manufacturing plant in Yekaterinburg. It is knows as the "factory of factories" as it produces equipment used in mining, steel production, and heavy equipment of all sorts. They also produced a lot of T-34 and various self propelled guns on the T-34 platform during WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralmash
The plant had no computer controlled machinery. Virtually all of the design and drafting was still done by hand. They had about 3 computers in the engineering department.
BTW - when I was there, it was December. The temperature outside was -30 Fahrenheit. Inside the plant it was still well below freezing.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-PTqCYjmLnMY/Th7oSFsMYOI/AAAAAAAAAJU/pnmOt-9Ww4c/w986-h629-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-10.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-22XfNPXh4-M/Th7oRTYcaGI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/jpEerTvHweo/w986-h636-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-9.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8oAW5Lo4lvc/Th7oJ0bFfOI/AAAAAAAAAJM/UzZ0magxIdI/w986-h632-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-18.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Z0q2qclTwsw/Th7oIJ2s6OI/AAAAAAAAAJI/pKqnBMEK7a0/w610-h958-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-4.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-jJ6x613xDmo/Th7oHdLVQaI/AAAAAAAAAJE/fZpoo46A2eM/w649-h958-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-17-2.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-m8iCob8sI4k/Th7oATp8YtI/AAAAAAAAAJA/bmi2ygK0llk/w986-h621-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-5.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-bCu0vJraoQM/Th7n6p9a9aI/AAAAAAAAAI4/jFQMuJOwWR0/w986-h623-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-8.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7uCm_nqPM9s/Th7n4yqsNxI/AAAAAAAAAI0/Ew5EEnYanG8/w985-h625-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-7.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-gH2Z1GnJXrU/Th7nwdFiPAI/AAAAAAAAAIw/d8fV3cm3oRQ/w605-h957-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-6.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_0uX0cx2K7Q/Th7nvj_MP3I/AAAAAAAAAIs/Xp_OUqVrJ94/w986-h623-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-17.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-gc3Z2aq1TEQ/Th7nlvp5AWI/AAAAAAAAAIk/Dd7G1P6aQeE/w634-h958-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-2.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-MQeTHov9IYk/Th7nlY3leZI/AAAAAAAAAIg/WeXCicyjs3k/w985-h625-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-16.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-boKbbWgJAaM/Th7nkccoePI/AAAAAAAAAIc/vkkeg_Q3mtg/w986-h626-no/TTJ2009_AI_EDIT_-19.jpg)
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Wonderful, reminds me of some of the heavy engineering ROF's back in the 70's where they machines heavy tanks and guns
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Magnificent pictures :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: I also spent some time around the various ordinance factories installing and servicing high energy X-ray equipment (4-15 Million Volt :zap: )
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Below freezing in the factory? In the worker's paradise?
Jim
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Below freezing in the factory? In the worker's paradise?
Jim
That was still 60 degrees warmer than outside. Somewhere I have photos of the public bus, with an inch of ice frozen on the seats and handrails inside.
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Superb photos. Hugh.
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Love the look of the engineering office with all the drafting boards. Damn, I worked in an office just like that for 32 years, and I loved it. Oh yeah, I've moved on and became a 3D kind of guy, and it is better/quicker/faster---all of those things, but I loved my old paper drawings.----Brian
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Very "cool" ;) Visibly lacking appear to be OSHA-approved PPE and guards, and the overall appearance is like the factories of the WW2 era and the 1950s in the US. I also have a virtually unheated shop where the temperature may dip below freezing but is usually about 40-50F around this time, and thus I have to forgo the safety admonitions of working on machine tools with short sleeves. I suppose such low temperatures saves on coolant, and just the ambient air might act as a "cold gun". Perhaps that would be a cryological machine shop. With more emphasis on "cry" and less on "logical". :lolb:
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Fantastic pictures of some major metal working machinery.
I wonder though, if you have a hi-res copy of the 6th picture down from the top? My tired old eyes can't quite make out the postings on the bulletin board in the break room. :o I'd like to be able to read the "safety notices" posted there :naughty:
Cheers,
Phil
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I wonder though, if you have a hi-res copy of the 6th picture down from the top? My tired old eyes can't quite make out the postings on the bulletin board in the break room. :o I'd like to be able to read the "safety notices" posted there :naughty:
Cheers,
Phil
Heh. Those were everywhere - on the control panels of many of the machines.. They're from cigarette packets. High res version is avilable :naughty:
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Damn! Wish I never quit smokin' :smokin2:
Cheers,
Phil
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That was still 60 degrees warmer than outside. Somewhere I have photos of the public bus, with an inch of ice frozen on the seats and handrails inside.
At the end of a long plane ride from Adelaide to Novosibirsk we arrived there at 0400 and the terminal building was a grey blob in the distance. We were led onto the tarmac by Miss Bulldozer Tractor 1937 and invited??? to board a bus for the terminal. This bus consisted of a box attached to a prime mover.........no seats, just grab bars running down the length of the box. My hands and my gloves were in my coat pocket. Bare handed I reached up and grabbed the grab bar...........no problem! Letting go was another matter entirely as at least half the skin of my palm remained behind on said bar. I have had quite a few rides in Russian buses in the winter as well as trains and basically touch nothing without gloves. At least the trains are nice and warm inside.
Best Regards
Bob.
The Drawing Office Construction Department Siblish Marsh Novosibirsk see how all is covered for my visit with Galina who is centre stage.
(http://i389.photobucket.com/albums/oo340/Maryak/414043E043A0443043C0435043D04420_1058_zpscef04211.jpg)
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I wonder though, if you have a hi-res copy of the 6th picture down from the top? My tired old eyes can't quite make out the postings on the bulletin board in the break room. :o I'd like to be able to read the "safety notices" posted there :naughty:
Cheers,
Phil
Heh. Those were everywhere - on the control panels of many of the machines.. They're from cigarette packets. High res version is avilable :naughty:
Yep, the Russkies like to keep abreast of things :slap:
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What a coincidence I was looking at the NASA site the other day as I am interested in the Orion Program, one of the videos shows building the return capsule using an enormous CNC milling machine, although the video is entitled welding the spacecraft.
The old adage still holds necessity is the mother of invention!!
Mike
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When Sir Tim Wallis (collector of fighter aircraft from ww2)couldn't get cash payment for work he was doing in Russia, he took a trade instead, six Polikarpov I-16 fighters, so they went to the factory where they were built about 70 years ago, turned on the lights, blew off the dust, and it was just the same as it was when production ceased, I think there were still some part built aircraft. They even found some of the factory workers(no they hadn't been shut in), they had moved to another factory. When one type of aircraft ended production, they built a new factory, and just walked away from the old one.
Ian S C
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That sounds about right, Ian. There's an entire BMW motorcycle production line somewhere in Siberia. The Russians got drawing and castings from Germany before the war, copied the designs exactly, tooled up and churned out hundreds of thousands of BMW clones. They basically built the same bike for 30 years with that tooling.
BTW did anyone notice what's on the wall in picture 6, on the other side of the pin-up wall - an Abacus! That wasn't for keeping score in card games. It was the shop calculator! I kid you not. Those guys cold do calculations fast, too!
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Totally off-thread, but....try to catch the Modern Marvels TV show on the subject of grease where they show the Wilson Elevator Comany plant in Pittsburgh, PA. The machine shop manufacturing area is still in operation after 100 years using the original line-shaft. They showed a man lubricating the bull gear of the still in use planer with a handful of grease. Yes, he swabs it on with his hand. He does this religiously once every 35 years! Other old, large machinery can be seen in operation.
Mosey :killcomputer:
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Mosey, you'd like the place I used to work. Just transitioned off DC and line shaft machine shop the mid 80's. Not a digital tool in the entire place:
Not a valid vimeo URL
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Tater, You're right, I like it!
Mosey :agree:
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I use to have a chinese made CJ750 motorcycle sidecar when I lived in Beijing, it was based on the 1956 Soviet IMZ M-72 which was copied from the 1938 BMW R71, they are still a popular ride round the city and are no doubt made to this day using the same tooling and proceadures as the originals