Photos Of Old Workshop 100 Years Ago

Guess OSHA wasn't even a dream back then. Amazing thinking of how things were made and with limited equipment back then.
 
I don't know. It looks like they had a lot of tooling on those shelves on the left in that one photo. I bet those belts made quite a ruckus.

Master of unfinished projects
 
Wow, great pictures......thanks for sharing

doug
 
You can almost smell the grease, cutting oil, and cigarette smoke. :)

Ballsy of those guys working that close to cast iron without much protection. Some big honkin' cores in those castings, too. Wonder if they were sodium silicate bonded or what method was used to bind them.
Hi Ogberi
It is amazing the "advancements" we have made since those photographs were taken, In fact I think on the so called advancements made in the foundry trade in my time scale over the last 58 years And my take on the matter is I would rather be back in the foundries I worked in then, than the similar apologies for foundries of today
It is a horrifying thought these guys were casting metal with no eye protection, In my young day's we had safety goggles and asbestos gloves!, As regards the hot metal , We were careful but not afraid, The core sands used then for the big cores was usually a mixture of a natural rock sand some silica sand, and additional binding materials to hold the sand grains together during forming the cores and casting the metal into the moulds, where they had to withstand the wash of the molten metal
The supplementary binders were numerous, We used a clay /water wash, starch powder , & sometimes some dried horse manure! For the tiny cores we used oil binders, Usually a linseed oil base, When making small cores this was pleasant stuff to work with.
In those days there was a lot of skill involved, the old moulders were a happy go lucky bunch of guys, One just jogged along at a reasonable pace, Unlike today with its zero hours contracts, folks in charge who haven't a clue etc.. !
Well I guess I had then youth on my side + enthusiasm, & did not mind getting my face & hands grimy with the graphite powder, Would I do it all again or some other occupation?
 
Thanks for taking me back into yester year (& some ).
I liked the heavy machine leveling ramps , that's not something I've seen for over 49 years when they were used to level & true up a big capstan lathe capable of turning a six foot internal diameter at The Ruston Bucryus Works of Lincoln England .
 
Absolutely amazing. I see some old Giddings and Lewis horizontal boring mills in a couple photos. I worked for them for almost 12 years. Some of those old machines are still running. I have worked on a couple. Some have been retrofitted with slightly newer technology.
 
Wonder what the lever action rifle on the wall is for. :cautious:
 
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