[TheForge] OT, but I Just have to ask...

[Justin Fellenz]

Thing about that stuff is that if you can find it it's usually cheap,
just scrap price or less because of the hassle of moving it. A friend
of mine bought a huge lathe, big enough to swing a 2' face plate or so,
in great shape for $750 because he could move it and nobody else could.
And a machinery dealer I know told me he had 4 Nazel power hammers and
scrapped them all because he couldn't sell them. Oh, the agony. I
*know* there are four people out there who would be more than happy to
own a 17' tall, 8-ton personal earthquake. But you gotta find them.

Maybe there should be a society for the protection of huge old tools,
like the spca.

Seriously, has anyone tried to make a cannon? Any gunsmiths out there?
I'm told it can be done but I'm not sure of the equipment you'd
need...deep holes *are* difficult to drill true.

Justin



--- Andrew Vida <osan at netlabs.net> wrote:

> 
> 
> Chuck Robinson wrote:
> > The  16" barrels were made in the Washington Navy Yard.
> > I used to work in the building that housed the monster lathes.
> > I was told they were cut up for scrap after ww II.
> 
> 	Really?  For some reason I thougth they'd survived longer than that.
> 
> Must have been a hell of a contraption in any event.  Largest lathe I
> 
> ever saw face to face had 27' dia. chuck and topped out at something 
> like 4 or 6 rpm.  More shipyard equipment.
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