Abandoned Welding/Machine Shop

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vocatexas

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I've read about stories like this, but never thought it would happen to me. I was in a small community about 50 miles from my home last week on business and was talking to a local resident. This little town was at one time a fairly lively place, but over the last thirty years has almost turned into a ghost town. There used to be lots of thriving businesses there that are now long since closed. One of these was this guy's father-in-law's welding and machine shop. He told me it had been closed years ago and nobody had been inside the building for quite a long time. I asked him what equipment was in it and he said he wasn't familiar with most of it and didn't know what it was.

Anyway, today I was passing through the area and had time, so I stopped at the fellow's business and asked if he had time to just open the building and let me take a quick look around. He did, and I will definitely be going back. There are several old 'torpedo' welders, at least a half-dozen bench grinders, a very large pedestal grinder, at least three drill presses (including a camel-back), a fairly small trip-hammer, an Adcock-Shipley horizontal mill, and a lathe that appears to be about 12x48. It was very dark inside and I didn't have a light or camera with me. I talked to him and will be going back in a couple of weeks to better take inventory and hopefully have some pics to post for you guys.

I've been looking for a horizontal mill, and the Adcock seems to be in decent condition. It even has a rotary table still bolted to the table! The lathe is one I'm not familiar with. From what I could see it looked like the badge was a stylized MM or MK. Like I said, it was pretty dark. The lathe looks like it's probably '80s vintage and has a DRO on it. I'm hoping I can find a home for some of this equipment. The old building is starting to leak and these machines won't last too much longer where they are at. There are also several locked tool boxes. One wasn't locked and had some of his machinist tools in it. Tooling is scattered about on shelves and benchtops.

Anybody here tell me about the Adcock and Shipley mill? I found the thread here about one, but there isn't a lot of info. From my quick look, I think it's a 1ES-J.
 
Nice find. Is your contact there open to selling off the equipment?
 
Yeah, that's the idea. I told him I'd see if I could help him while it's still worth something. I'm interested in the mill and some of the smaller things, but I don't need another lathe. This one is going to need some work because it's been sitting there so long, but I think it's in decent condition. As it sits it's got a smallish 3 jaw, the steady rest, and DRO on it. I don't know what else is there. I'll know more when I go back.
 
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I hope you can afford to make a decent offer as a job lot. You say the building is starting to leak? Owner might be glad to find a good home and disposal is one less worry.
I have an Adcock & Shipley 2AGU that is still waiting on the new shed! Very well built but information is like hens teeth. Have a look at http://www.lathes.co.uk/
I got a manual from Tony. Big site and may have some information.
Camel back drills are worth having just to look at! I managed to pick up a Denbigh No.1 24" and love it.
I hope you get to re-home some of that machinery.
 
If you wouldn’t mind, where exactly is the shop?
I am north of you and about an hour west of Ft. Worth.
Might be interested in some of the tooling.
 
That is an amazing multi-machine. Never seen anything like it before.
 
Worked in an engineering college in Loughborough in the 80s. The Adcock and Shipley big horizontal mill was widely used in production engineering shops and had a reputation as a machine that could be driven hard.

I remember that the college ran frequent short courses on it's use mostly aimed at semi skilled worker on piecework.
 
Well, I made it back to the shop yesterday for a look around. I found out that the original owner had a wreck on July 4, 2002, and that was the last day the shop was open. He passed away about three years ago, but his health never let him operate the shop after the wreck. So this equipment has been sitting there nearly 17 years.

We figured out the make of the lathe, but I forgot my tape measure, so I'm guessing at the size. It's a Mysore Enterprise L. It looks like around a 12 inch swing and around 48 inches between centers. It has a DRO, 3 jaw, steady rest, Aloris style tool post, and tailstock on it. There is some surface rust on the ways, but I honestly don't see any damage such as pitting. I think it would clean up real nice.

I found around 100 brazed carbide turning tools along with a small amount of HSS in a tool box. There are hundreds of unused taps from around 10-32 up to over 1 inch all over the shop in boxes. The majority of them are in great condition, some have a touch of rust on them. There were a number of Morse taper drill bits and reamers laying around, but most of them were apparently under a drip in the roof and are pretty heavily rusted. I also found a number of dial indicators, many Starretts. Most are in pretty good shape, but a few of them are a little sticky. They would probably free up with a drop or two of oil.

Outside under a shed is a Little Giant trip hammer. It's a 50 pounder and looks to be in decent shape, though I know next to nothing about a trip hammer. There is a fairly large pedestal grinder, too. There is no brand visible anywhere on the machine, there isn't even a tag on the motor. It has one long shaft on the left side and a short shaft on the right. It still has the water bowls on each side. There is another grinder there that looks like it was a combination of a factory arbor mounted to a frame that he built. It has the largest stone I have ever seen on a grinder mounted on one side. It is at least 2 1/2 inches thick. Next to this grinder is a camel-back drill press. It's over 7 feet tall. I'm not sure of the make and I think it's missing a couple of parts up on the top end, but it looks restorable to me.

I need to go back again to do some more digging in the building. There are a lot of things literally in piles in there that I didn't get to go through and boxes under other boxes that didn't get looked at. As I can work it into my schedule and do more digging, I'll try to keep this thread updated.

The family is a little unsure on how to go about selling most of this stuff, and I'm just trying to help them out. Yes, I've made a deal on a couple of things there myself, but I'm really not in the position to buy an entire shop out at this time. If any of you have an interest in anything I've mentioned let me know and I'll pass it on to the family. I don't think they expect to make a killing off anything in there, but they also don't want to just give it away, so I've tried to make offers that are reasonable both to me and them. I'm not making a single cent off anything I don't buy myself, and what I do buy I intend to keep for my own use, just so you know. Remember, I'm just a go-between here.

For those interested, this shop is located in central Texas in San Saba county. For the large items, I would assume this would limit a potential buyer to somebody that could drive to the shop to pick up anything they might buy.
 
Edit to above post:

If you watched Abom 79's video of the Florida Flywheel visit, the Enterprise L lathe in his video looks to be identical to the one in this shop.
 
If the taper shank drills are not costly I'd like a batch even rusted. I use to get any size taper drill for $5. Each . Two and three Morse shanks are my useable sizes. Then I'd need shipping oh well let me know.
 
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