Here is the first piece of equipment I will take. Note it even has automatic down feed! And how about that table that is adjustable for elevation! Any one have a lead on a foot powered lathe?



[ 03-29-2003, 03:09: Message edited by: John Ricks ]

Smart move, as I bet that machine will out live you! I got one buried in the junk somewhere that has an automatic downfeed too, it has a ratchet and pawl that turns the handwheel that is on the top there.

Of historical note though is this is similar to the drill the Wright brothers used to make the crankshaft for the engine used in their airplane. It was cut out of a block of steel I'm guessing 1 1/4" thick, and how they did it was drilled holes all the way along the layout lines, guess they didn't have metal cutting bandsaws back then!

John, I have a "post drill" around here somewhere. It has the downfeed also. I got it at a garage sale and some years ago I heard you could get an arm and a leg for them by selling in Mother earth news. I have seen them on ebay. How about a methane powered knee mill? You could have a small show room with a wood stove and free coffee and cookies and the hunters telling stories would supply all the gas you need to make it run.

i've got one of those... it was "recovered" at a flea market, where the flywheel had been rigged for a flat leather belt and motor, and the handle removed.. story was it had been in use in an old mexico saddle shop for 50+ years, after it had been stolen from a blacksmith shop is deep south texas....

mine looks a bit more primative...

"blacksmith's drill".. and the flywheel could be setup with a treadle, and the "spring" of the treadle was an ash sapling...

gotta love it..

now I need a BS powered electric generator...

jeffe

Chic, way back I bought some Kenya Coffee from Herter's. So I guess I could serve Kenya coffee in the Bush Veldt shop and attract the hot air producers, set up a Sterling Hot Air Engine, and have all the power one would need. An overhead line shaft, with Hippo Hide flat belts running the machinery and I would be set. (The Buffalo Drill Press in the above photo has a flat belt pulley adjacent to the flywheel.)

Let's see, I have a blacksmith forge and two anvils also, so I could specialize in forged receivers and damasacus barrels. All those BS'ers could pump the forge bellows and swing the forging hammers.

I would hang a sign under the overhead line shaft with this famous quotation from our friend George Herter: "Ask A Machinist Friend".

And over the door would be: "Last Week I Could Not Spell Gunschmidt and Now I Are One".