The First Photo

The Photo Album is a place for "Shop Shots" as well as pictures and descriptions of projects that we are working on. Show off your Shops, Machines, and your Projects!

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Tom_Stamford_CT
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 1:46 pm
Location: Stamford, CT

The First Photo

Post by Tom_Stamford_CT »

While this is not quite a home shop machine, it is a piece of history! This is a 3" Lucas boring mill date of manufacture was 1923 I belive. The original owner was Norton grinder. It was well optioned for its day had it own motor from the factory, drove the gear box via whisper chain, even had a cover over the chain.Also had the over size table at 36" wide. Also had the "high speed "spindle a whopping 400 RPM, standard was 200. We wound up selling it a few years ago.

Tom

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Tom_Stamford_CT
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 1:46 pm
Location: Stamford, CT

Re: The First Photo

Post by Tom_Stamford_CT »

This is a picture of what we replaced the Lucas with. Also you can see how super clean and neat my shop is Image Image The download is the same photo shown in on both posts Image
Ralph_P
Posts: 110
Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 3:09 pm
Location: E. TN

Re: The First Photo

Post by Ralph_P »

My shaper has a "silent chain", looks like a timming chain on an automobile eng. Is a "whisper chain the same thing?
kap
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:48 am
Location: Maryland
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Re: The First Photo

Post by kap »

Here' my Pratt and Whitney six inch vertical shaper.
Patent date around 1916.
OMcG
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Dec 24, 2002 5:39 am
Location: Northwestern Ohio

Re: The First Photo

Post by OMcG »

What a "little" sweetheart that P&W is!!! NICE machine!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif"%20alt="[/img]
cprucha
Posts: 67
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 7:42 am
Location: Western, NY
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Re: The First Photo

Post by cprucha »

Hi Tom,

Enjoyed seeing the photo of the old Lucas Horizontal Boring Mill. I restore old antique oilfield engines and have a 3" Lucas Horizontal Boring Mill too. I believe it was manufactured around 1935-1937. I run this Lucas a lot in my shop where I restore the engines and use it mainly for boring cylinders. Below is a photo of an engine cylinder I am boring that came off of an engine built in 1898. If you have time check out my website. (see link below) I have a section that shows pictures of my shop. Thanks for posting the Lucas photo. See ya, Craig...

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<a href="http://www.antique-engine.com">Antique Engine Website</A>

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AAA
Posts: 331
Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 4:35 am
Location: Hillsboro OR

Re: The First Photo

Post by AAA »

Craig, I've just spend the last 2 or so hours looking through your site, all i can say is "Amazing!"
Where in the hell do you find the time?
Also, interested to know what you use for spark plugs on these old machines. I've done a lot of fiddling with propane car engines, so it's amzing to see it was used so long ago.
In Australia we use LPG (sort of cheaper propane) and it's very popular. Every cab here runs on the stuff.

Mike
cprucha
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Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 7:42 am
Location: Western, NY
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Re: The First Photo

Post by cprucha »

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the comments on the webpage. Time, its hard to find sometime but I spend at least 3 to 4 hours in the shop everyday and all day on the weekends. Its taken me 25 years to get the shop that I have now and I just love working in it every day.

Believe it or not, but on the oilfield engines the ignition is most of the time a hot tube that runs on propane too. There is a separate high pressure (2 to 3 lbs.) propane line that goes to a burner and that heats up the tube and makes it glow cherry red. The tube is hollow and closed on one end with the hollow end exposd to the combustion chamber. When the air gas mixture is forced up the hot tube during compression, it ignites. The neat thing is that the length of the hot tube controls the timing of the engine. The longer the tube, the more advanced. The shorter the tube, the more retarded. See the photo below. The hot tube chimney is the black vertical pipe with the smaller black hose going into it, horizontally. The black rubber hose is for the propane. The actual hot tube is in the center of the black pipe, the chimney. This type of ignition was very reliable once dialed in and was cheap to maintain because the natural gas off the oil well would run the engine and the ignition. The photo below is of a 25 HP Swan engine that I restored. The engine pumped oil for a living in Western Ohio. It was manufactured around 1900. See ya, Craig...

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