Random old picture

Look at that row of Hendey lathes!

Those lathes are not under power... they are either in storage or awaiting transport.

The picture of the Hendeys was from 1907 or later... earlier Hendeys didn't have the tie-bar on the headstock...

-Bear

Edit: the second picture must have been taken in the Hendey factory in Torrington, CT... those lathes are in the process of being assembled. The bull gear guards are laying on top of the quick change gear boxes and they are all missing the compound rests.

I can also tell that they are all 14" swing or larger... the 12" lathes all came standard with chip pans.

Edit#2: The 5th and 6th lathes from the front do not appear to have headstocks or tailstocks... the ones all the way to the rear don't, either.

Edit #3: The horizontal mills in the first picture look a lot like Hendey mills, also...

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Love old machinery. Nice pictures. Shows what made our country great. And those old machines can still be found. The new Chineese lathe I bought won't be around in one hundred years.
 
The new Chineese lathe I bought won't be around in one hundred years.
Why not?
I have no reason to believe that my Taiwanese lathe won't be around, other than the possibility that no one will know how to run it in 100 years.
 
Why not?
I have no reason to believe that my Taiwanese lathe won't be around, other than the possibility that no one will know how to run it in 100 years.
I agree. My Asian lathe will surely be around in 100 years. Of course there will be Hendeys and Monarchs that will then be 200 years old and likely still running just fine.
 
it's a 300 lb stamped metal. The gears are 1/2 the size and thickness of an old SB, Atlas or Monarch. The motor 1/4 of the HP. The ways are 1/2 as thick and beefed up. Maybe you have one of the big Taiwanese machines. Mine is a large hobby size from PM. It works. I got what I paid for. It vibrates like hell on any heavy or slow speed cut. I think it will shake itself to pieces in 10-20 years where as the big ol' USA iron is still going strong 50- 100 years old.
I bought it because at the time I had no way to restore an older machine. Now I do. I have started looking at old machines for a project.
It is also like comparing my 1950 cast iron Sears table saw to the ones sold in the bug box stores today.
 
This is from a textbook published in 1919.
one thing these old photos have in common is nobody is wearing safety glasses.
The mirror on the inside lid of their Gerstner tool box was for picking chips out of their eyes.
(BTDT)
EDIT; I still use this textbook.
 

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I’m more struck by how many individuals would have been required to run all that equipment compared to rows and rows of cnc machines cranking out parts these days.

3 or 4 guys could probably do the work on cnc machines that the 20 or 30 guys required to run all those old manual machines could do.

Gone are the days when you could find easy labor work at most nearly any place….
 
Let alone find ten people who can work a bench vise, like in the first picture. You couldn't let monkeys loose in a shop like that.
 
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