Not bike related per se but I love tools and I'm sure most of you all do to.
This pic blows my mind. If this was a modern mill we would say "impressive" but not give it a much a thought.
But in the time era of this pic it amazes me what these guys could do.
We have a couple bad ass machine shops near me that were built in the late 1800's. General Electric has a gas turbine manufacturing plant that makes turbine generators for power plants. They are off grid and generate their own electricity. And what gets me, is they use an electric oven to melt the iron/steel to cast the huge housings. Then there is a US military shop that makes cannon barrels, right up to the 16" X 66' long battleship one. They have a broach that handles that length.
Wow that is huge. Is that a milling machine...ok I'm pretty sure it is. Wonder what is was made to make? btw God Bless America for such ingenuity of the times. :patriot:
I would think something along the line of a turning gear for a large battleship gun turret or the very large ship diesel engine blocks. I have seen some almost that large doing the horizontal joint on the large land-based gas turbine cases used for power generation. The next building over they probably have a vertical lath around the same size.
Machines making machines.