Found this AWESOME pic series of ship engine manufacturing from the 50's....

[blackbetty]

lathes......lathes....EVERYWHERE

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/guides/William_Doxford_and_Sons#The_Manufacturing_Process

Cutting a crank:

What they called the "light machine shop".....

Connecting rod:

 

[oldbiker]

hi guys,,, that looks fimilar... ah! VICKERS RUWOLT...1968...,,,we were the biggest mining eguipment builder in australia... i was their apprentice for 4 1/2 years,,, it was a treat .. we turned the gun barrells on the melbourne... unfortunately now its all new high rise units .. some of the bigger lathes ,,we used too extend the lathe bed depending on the length of job ...it was great ..regards oldbiker

 

[Robbo]

OldBiker... Thanks mate for those details, personally I find that stuff fascinating.. Australian history is young compared to alot of other nations but pictures and related info such as this paints the complete picture..
When I was a little fella growing up in Sydneys Balmain an area with a large dockside industry I loved to wander around the wharves and adjoining factories and was drawn to the engineers shops.. I would just stand and watch in awe as the big machines cranked and roared.. Sadly I think alot of those places no longer exist thanks to inner city development..

 

[Ironriot]

Amazing stuff! What I'd give to have one of the "small" lathes or mills..... Look at that massive bastard of lathe in the back of the first pic. I wonder how big the throw is...

 

[xjwmx]

If you're making a crankshaft 10x as big are tolerances 10x bigger too?

 

[Mcnabb]

Lol need 0.002 off the top.

 

[xjwmx]

^I once helped a guy try to make giant grinding wheels to some tiny tolerance. I never knew what tolerance exactly, because nobody would ever tell me. Once somebody said something like .003", into their sleeve. I was programming stepper motor gizmos to raise and lower molds and determine the thickness. I was supposed to just get the most out of the equipment. And then prove the unacceptable result was the equipment, not me. I should have run out the door. It was hopeless. At that point in time I didn't have the experience to know pie in the sky as easily as now. I got paid anyway, and the guy lost his ass.

One week they'd run some test and they say great! The next time it was a failure, but nothing had changed. It must have been the temperature of the room or bad tests, who knows.

 

[tadd442]

....reminds me of work.

 

[Travis]

Tadd, let's see some pictures if you can.. I've always wondered what was in that building.. I saw an XS650 parked outside your work on the street the other day.. Wondered if it was yours.

 

[Travis]

Holy shit! Biggest lathes I've ever seen.

Look at the size of these curls:

 

[blackbetty]

It's so gnarly what we were capable of in '58.....

 

[hotdog]

I bet those cranks were bitches to true up...lol

 

[Kingwj]

This equipment is probably still running somewhere in Asia.

 

[Purplezinger]

He has no eye or hearing protection. Industrial accidents were huge.

 

[pyroman]

Safety glasses? Whats that? Geeze!

 

[xjwmx]

I found videos of them putting these ship engines together on youtube. They have a mode where they run slow as clockwork and you can climb down inside and examine it while it's running.

 

[tadd442]

Tadd, let's see some pictures if you can.. I've always wondered what was in that building.. I saw an XS650 parked outside your work on the street the other day.. Wondered if it was yours.

I'll see what I can do for pics....you probably saw the 500 brat...tan seat & anarchy symbol spray painted on it? There is also a honda scrambler that regularly shows up. No XS650 that I know of though. (yet)

 

[72XS2]

Thanks for the link, I really like to this kind of stuff.

 

[Travis]

Tadd, Don't tell me I confused an XS500 for an XS650! I was just driving by though to it's possible. It had a black tank and scrambler style exhaust. That's about all I can remember.

 

[tadd442]

Tadd, Don't tell me I confused an XS500 for an XS650! I was just driving by though to it's possible. It had a black tank and scrambler style exhaust. That's about all I can remember.

That was the Honda, amigo!