Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2004
- Messages
- 37,945
CAUTION - Before reading any further,
THIS THREAD CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF LARGE MACHINES. NOT FOR THE FAINT AT HEART ... OR ANYONE WHO VALUES THEIR FINGERS/HANDS/ARMS.
I was at a friends business the other day and he said I should go see his brother, who has a "little machine shop" across the street that he fiddles around in. His brother helped move in some of the big equipment and materials when I was building the shop. Nice guy. His brother showed me in and ... Holy Cow! ... there were machines piled on top of machines. He uses a small forklift to get to a machine he wants to use. Some of the machines I only have a guess about what they do. Others are just like what I use, only 20 times the size and 100 times the weight. He picks them up at dirt cheap prices, and sometimes free if he will haul them away.
Then there were the piles of materials and steel.
Sitting on one machine was a huge copper disc that he had cut into four pieces. On the floor was a box with about 1000# of copper blocks in it. I asked and he said he picked up 10 of those huge 2" thick by 28" copper discs a long time ago for $0.25 a pound. Each disc weighs about 200 pounds. I told him it was a shame that he already cut them up, I would be the envy of every knifemaker if I had those as quench plates. He said, "Want some pieces? Let me see what I can do." I told him heck yeah. He called back today to say that he sliced up two matching plates 3"X14"X2". He machined them on the mill to be flat and smooth. I'll take photos when I pick them up tomorrow.
To give a sense of scale, the Turnmaster 13" is a baby lathe compared to that monster LeBlond. He quarters the huge copper discs on that giant yellow ended bandsaw (it must be over 8-feet long), and then cuts them in blocks on that monster bandsaw.
He told me, "Come over anytime you want to use my machines or need something cut/drilled/milled/etc."
THIS THREAD CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF LARGE MACHINES. NOT FOR THE FAINT AT HEART ... OR ANYONE WHO VALUES THEIR FINGERS/HANDS/ARMS.
I was at a friends business the other day and he said I should go see his brother, who has a "little machine shop" across the street that he fiddles around in. His brother helped move in some of the big equipment and materials when I was building the shop. Nice guy. His brother showed me in and ... Holy Cow! ... there were machines piled on top of machines. He uses a small forklift to get to a machine he wants to use. Some of the machines I only have a guess about what they do. Others are just like what I use, only 20 times the size and 100 times the weight. He picks them up at dirt cheap prices, and sometimes free if he will haul them away.
Then there were the piles of materials and steel.
Sitting on one machine was a huge copper disc that he had cut into four pieces. On the floor was a box with about 1000# of copper blocks in it. I asked and he said he picked up 10 of those huge 2" thick by 28" copper discs a long time ago for $0.25 a pound. Each disc weighs about 200 pounds. I told him it was a shame that he already cut them up, I would be the envy of every knifemaker if I had those as quench plates. He said, "Want some pieces? Let me see what I can do." I told him heck yeah. He called back today to say that he sliced up two matching plates 3"X14"X2". He machined them on the mill to be flat and smooth. I'll take photos when I pick them up tomorrow.
To give a sense of scale, the Turnmaster 13" is a baby lathe compared to that monster LeBlond. He quarters the huge copper discs on that giant yellow ended bandsaw (it must be over 8-feet long), and then cuts them in blocks on that monster bandsaw.
He told me, "Come over anytime you want to use my machines or need something cut/drilled/milled/etc."
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