Vintage shop equipment and tools....Who still uses it?

Here is one old machine that I put to good use here at the shop. Its my Lennox "nibbler".

 

Like I said I gotta shop full of old stuff !! Stewart Warner Balancer from the early 60s !!! >>>>.

 

use the same old tools that have always been around,,don't think I'd buy new even if something had to be replaced,,they just make crap anymore

 

I have an old tranny jack it still has attachments for Packards, Lincolns etc. etc. it's all mechanical screw lift weighs about 250 lbs. and i wouldn't trade it for anything new! Oh and the best part about it...free! Guy set it out on the curb and I was the first to pass and I snatched that bad boy up!

 

I've picked up a few bits of old workshop equipment in the last few months.Here's a couple,fly press and Myford lathe.The lathe needs refurbished but came with lots of accessories,then I need to learn how to use it!I was told it dates from the '20's ,can annyone confirm that?I know very little about them.Thanks.

 

I just picked this 30" Peck Stow & Wilcox slip roll today for $100. I really wish I knew how old it is, and if I paid too much, it does work mint, nothings broken

 

Are you kidding? This is amazing! You paid a good price...

You people wont believe what I scored today, I saw it, but forgot to take a picture of it... I'll get one soon.

 

I wish I had a penny for every head I milled on one of those..I could retire.

I have one whole wall in the shop covered with antique hand tools.
Neat stuff.
All the power tools are semi modern.

 

I love the old iron! Both my Logan and Sheldon lathes are circa-1956 and still going strong. Both have been updated with a digital VFD for a wider range of speed controls and such, but the new import lathes just can't hold a candle to the old American stuff.

My Nichols horizontal mill was made in 1964, and the Wells bandsaw not much later than that.

The oldest machines in the shop are the 1905 Stockbridge 16" Shaper, and the 1909 20" Rockford "camelback" drill press. Both of those are in-progress projects. I also have a Lewis 10" shaper- Lewis sold machine tool "kits" meant for vocational class projects, where the class would finish and assemble the castings to make a complete machine.

Since it's a handbuilt, there's no way to tell a date, but Lewis made the castings from 1935 into the mid fifties.

My Ammco brake lathe probably dates to the sixties, and the big Queen City 12" pedestal grinder might be as old as the late forties, but more likely the mid fifties. The Keller die filer was made in '73, according to the castings, and one of my anvils dates back to sometime prior to 1910.

I also have an apparently rather rare Van Dorn #6 Valve and Tool Grinder. We figure it's from roughly 1946, and it's basically an extra-optioned, heavily-overbuilt valve grinder. The tables ride on linear bearings that'd cost $1,000 each to replace, today. The whole thing is 3/16" plate and heavy nodular iron castings- the work head has a built-in motor that drives the valve-chuck spindle through a true hypoid ring-and-pinion gear, and features an air-operated collet closer.

Basically to duplicate the thing today, it'd be a $20,000 machine- hell, according to the catalog, it cost $950 (!) back in 1946. Probably why it's so rare- that's the cost of what, one and a half new cars back then?

Doc.

 

I have a large collection of antique tools (sadly , I bought most of them new) I have 2 106 inch wet belt sanders. the one I use most was built between 1914-19 and another edger that was built in 1922

 

Have 1939 Keaney and Trecker 2H vertial mill. A Saig tureet lathe I just converted to regular use. A 1950 Soiux Albertson Valve grinder. Some 1920s hand seat cutters.
When i had my auto machine shop all was old . Nothing less the 50 years . As long as it works to tolerence the age is unimportant. Newer stuff is faster but in a small shop that is not a big deal.
Don

 

that's old....really old


you did good at $100

 

Here is a very cool old sheet metal brake. Tag says 1893, made out of oak with iron inserts.

 

I only know how to use the old stuff,,all these new fangled machines with computers are beyond me.. and the older stuff still works,,maybe one day when it breaks and there are no more spare parts to be had,,or make to fix em,,,i'll have to relearn things..

 

Sold my 1928 Kling/Ryerson ironworker a few years ago...it had a Ford Motor Company serial number on it... probably made Model A parts!

I still have a WWII vintage Navy surplus Fray All-Angle verticle mill, a 40's vintage Delta/Rockwell floor drill press, a 40's vintage Rockwell belt sander, a 70 year old Chicago finger brake, an old 8" grinder, and other vintage stuff from Pexto and others.

 

-Two questions: Is that actually your lathe, and is there any chance I can get a copy of that photo? I'd kill and help hide the bodies for a poster-size print of it.

I was going to send an email to the photographer as well, though I don't see it in his online portfolio. Well, there's a sort of picture, but some dude's standing in front of it and you can't see much.

Doc.

 

I forgot this. An Edwards #10 alligator shear. Solid iron, probably weighs close to 500 pounds, and it's rated to cut 1" square mild steel. I haven't tried something that big yet, but it'll sail right through a 1-1/2" wide bar of 3/8".

There's apparently no way to tell for sure, but I'm told this thing probably dates to the 30's. I gave $50 for it.

Doc.

 

Oh, and this. My trusty Stanley Unishear, an electric throatless shear that takes replaceable hardened steel cutters. Again, I have no definitive proof, but given the motor and the look of the etched brass plate, I'd say the 1920s to 1930s. Runs like a champ, and the blades are still sharp.

Doc.

 

Yea, you know it's old when there's a toggle switch to turn it on\off. Not no sissy trigger to pull and release at the first sign of trouble! Got to love pre OSHA tools.

 

I don't have the lathe but I have the instruction manual (copywright 1914...original price, $0.50 cents).
It has a black man as an operator on the cover, and
even the grammar in it is cool.

 

I have and constantly use a 1933 9" South Bend lathe, Delta floor drill press all cast iron and a bench drill press all cast iron with flatbelt drive.

 

My Bridgeport mill and South Bend lathe are older than me and I'm past my mid 50's. I use them everyday, they work excellent. Old tools were made to last if you take care of them!!!!

 

I have a older body hammer & dolly, love them both. I keep hoping I can find some old bodyman selling off his stuff and get all his body files and lead working tools...no luck yet tho

 

My favorite by a wide margin is my Porter Cable toolroom lathe, It is lineshaft driven conehead, 12 inch swing and weighs close to a ton. I have no idea when it was made, would guess late 1920's or early 30's.

 

That looks like a really cool machine!

 

Been in the trade for a hundred years, and have heard of wooden brakes, but that's the first one I've actually seen. Keeper.

 

Everbody seems amazed that the old machines work and do what they're supposed to, but as the man says...'Brand new, state of the art precision machinery is made on used machines'

 

My Lathe is a 1919 Rockford Drilling Machine, flat belt drive. My Bridgeport mill is a 1952 Round Ram with a shiftable Gear box power feed, a 1930's Lincoln 500 AMP Arc welder. And to top it off a 1890's Peter Wright Anvil.

 

I have an Australian built Hercus lathe which is a copy of the 20's South Bend like NeilinCA's. I only buy second-hand Australian, British or U.S. made tools from swap meets or garage sales. Most of the new stuff here is made in china and not worth a pinch of cocky shit.
I still have and use all the tools I bought when I was an apprentice, over 30 years ago. The older guys used to say "buy a good one and you only have to buy it once". How right they are.

 

By the way, just got this neat old Niagra beader for our shop, set it up on a motorized stand we previously used for a pexto 622. This one's much better for heavy stuff, not sure of it's age, but it works great.