The Machine Shop Museum

Starting in April of 2000, volunteers from the Chesapeake Area Metalworking Society (CAMS) joined in a cooperative effort with the Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Association (TSGA) to restore several antique machine tools housed in Tuckahoe's Rural Life Museum.  Many are originally from machine shops, factories and boatyards from the Baltimore area and the eastern shore of Maryland.  From that beginning, our scope has evolved. In keeping with the overall objectives of TS&GA, our mission is to preserve, restore, and display early 20th-century lineshaft-driven machine tools, and to provide machining services for the restoration of Tuckahoe's other collections of antique steam and internal combustion engines and tractors.

The "machine shop" was originally located in a corner of the Rural Life Museum (as shown below) and several trailers.

With the acquisition of most of the machine tools from the Joe Suydam estate, we recognized the need for a larger facility dedicated to machine tool restoration and display. Our 4000 square foot Machine Shop Museum opened in July 2008. We are currently working on restoring and powering additional machines including a 1912 Lucas horizontal boring machine, our Garvin horizontal mill, and a power hack saw.  

Construction of the Machine Shop Museum building

The Machine Tool Gallery pages document some of the most interesting machines in our collection.