News and NotesCabin Fever Expo Jan 15-17 2010For the second year, Tuckahoe had a booth at the Cabin Fever Expo in York, PA. Cabin Fever is the premier model engineering event in the country. The major attraction is metal (and some wood) models of boats, railroad equipment, engines, pretty much anything you can imagine building a model for. Also a variety of tool vendors and a consignment auction. The Tuckahoe booth provides exposure to thousands of potential visitors. This year we demonstrated the newly-restored Boynton & Plummer traveling-head shaper:
and Pat Harvey's Almon drive - a flat-belt right-angle drive device with a remarkable sliding/twisting/turning/ rotating/translating link motion, patented in 1881. Visitors were suitably fascinated, and many hundreds of cards were handed out. A small lathe, donated by the event organizer, was raffled, bringing the club over $300 in ticket sales.
Activities 24 Oct 2009In addition to a "pull", there was considerable activity at Tuckahoe this Saturday. In the Machine Shop Museum, the extension of the main lineshaft was completed. The main shaft now extends to the "fence" at the south end of the building. The hangers were snugged up, and aligned vertically, first with a transit and then a final check was made with a laser level. After alignment, Dave and Andy made up the coupling.
Dick continued work on the facing machine, using the Weaver screw press to insert one big piece of steel into another - sorry to be a bit vague here. Ask Dick how this all fits together. Several Chesapeake Area Metalworking Society (CAMS) members have volunteered to make some of the smaller parts for this machine. Those who have followed the evolution of our machine tool activities will remember that it was a group of CAMS members who did our first restorations. The picture below left illustrates just a bit of the 100-year-old swarf that Luther is dealing with in the restoration of the Boynton & Plummer shaper. The ugly silver paint is now gone, and the legs got a coat of primer.
Archie, assisted by Greg, continued scraping on the Lucas table. This follows Archie's succesful planing on the table ways on our 1920 Rockford planer. More pictures of the planing operation are here. Greg also got a finish coat of paint on the radial drill gearbox. Tom Booze was present in the steam building, measuring for concrete work around the Watts, Campbell engine. Retrieving Lineshaft & Pulleys from the Millington MillA small group from Tuckahoe spent a recent Saturday in the basement of the old Millington grist mill, removing lineshafting, bearings, and pulleys. Thanks to Mary (the owner) for this donation, and to her neighbor Russel for his assistance. We got the shaft in the upper right and most of the one in the far corner. The large gear against the left wall is attached to the water wheel shaft.
Video of the DeLaverne Engine in operationSteam Building RennovationDave Welser has undertaken to lead in the restoration of our stationary steam building and its contents. Much of the clutter has been transferred to a trailer, and work is now underway to clean and lubricate the Skinner engine, and painting is progressing on the Watts Campbell Corliss engine. Earlier in the year, Alvin Sanger did a beautiful job repainting the Ames horizontal engine. The upright "coke bottle" engine that once stood outside the steam building has been transferred (some might say kidnapped) to the engine room in the Machine Shop Museum. This engine once powered the Seacrist/Evans machine shop in Easton and we hope it will one day power the museum's lineshaft. Machine Shop MuseumThe Machine Shop Museum has a number of recent acquisitions:
Several projects are underway:
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