Thread: My 1930's Farm Shop

Tweet

Originally Posted by Mike P

"....the bell is a close 2nd IMO!!!!!!......"

Thanks Dave

Well heck, somebody had to say it!!!

I finally got things caught up enough to get back getting the lineshaft up. I had a couple of offers for help on getting the thing up in the air, but in the end schedules didn’t work out and I put it in myself. In spite of having to rearrange the shop and all the trips up and down the ladder, it was worth the effort.



The old adage we use when building cars that “it will take twice as long and cost twice as much as you expect” applied equally well to this little project. I thought I had majority of the stuff collected when I had the shaft, pulleys, bearings and belt gathered. By the time it was in the air and turning I had gone thru 60 feet of angle iron, 35 feet of flat stock and 40 feet of lumber, not counting copper tubing, fittings, wire etc.

The jackshaft and belt tensioner was pretty straight forward, but I had to build the exhaust twice. The first attempt I used 1 ¾” exhaust pipe and it caused the engine to load up badly. For the second attempt I used 2 1/2” pipe I had laying around, which worked out great. You might have noticed the 1” nipple and pipe cap at the 90 degree bend. I put that in so I could see and hear the exhaust when I fine tune the mixture on the carburator.



The Motsinger Autosparker (DC generator) draws a surprising amount of power. By turning the governor spring almost all the way in I can get a bit more than 12 volts out of it. I dialed it back to around 6 volts though so it not working all that hard. I also built a handle with a wedge on the end so I can disengage it completely from the pulley if I don’t want to run it at all. I put a 6V light in the old railroad lantern and also wired up a goose neck work light that can be used with either the grinder or drill.



The grinder was pretty straight forward. I did built a movable belt guide to slide the belt from the loose to tight pulley rather than just use a stick as was common when these were in general use.




The compressor is the newest piece of equipment, it’s only about 50 years old. Rather than belt it directly to the line shaft, the power goes thru a smaller belt and pulley setup and is activated by applying a belt tensioner. The adjustable pop off valve is set to 50 PSI and once the pressure is achieved it can be shut down by manually by releasing the belt tensioner. An old 30 pound Freon tank is used as pressure tank.




The post drill had also been set up for a V Belt and is activated by a spring loaded belt tensioner. I used a countershaft similar to the one on the compressor and it’s also activated by a spring loaded tensioner pulley. On the drill it allows the pulleys to be changed easily to change the speed. Spindle speed is currently about 140 RPM which is slow enough to engage the auto feed (which I really don’t use when I’m actually drilling anything but it is neat to watch work occasionally). I’ve drilled a few ½” holes on some 3/8 flat stock and the drill barely loads the engine.



I didn’t want to have to loosen the lineshaft (and realign it) every time I needed change a V belt, so I bit the bullet and ordered some Flexco V Belt splices. They work well but are very expensive.




Here is a link to the shaft working, you might want to turn the volume down a bit. The actual noise level when the line shaft is running is really quite reasonable by the way.

V Line 1 - YouTube

Enjoy.



.

That's so cool! I had a smile on my face the whole video!!! Thanks for the show!

Yep, very cool! Thanks for posting, and for keeping us informed as you made progress.

Way kewl Mike!!! When I was very young the blacksmith shop in Larchwood still ran with the belt system, complete with Lathe, drill press, etc. Wasn't really old enough to understand all of it then, would be a blast to maybe someday track some of the equipment down!!! Friend of mine has one of the old massive drill presses that was converted to an electric motor, still works like a charm!!!!!

Would be fun to bring a bunch of students from a machine shop or other such school their for a visit!!!!

".....Would be fun to bring a bunch of students from a machine shop or other such school their for a visit!!!! ...."

Your right Dave it would, but our local High School doesn't even offer Shop or automotive classes anymore due to liability issues. It's a shame. Kids haven't changed, my grandkids are fascinated with it and it's MY responsibility to teach them about safety.



.

I enjoyed your video as it brought back memories of days gone by, thank you. On a side note, the furniture shop at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo. runs a set up very similar to yours and is quite fascinating to watch.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

I enjoyed your video as it brought back memories of days gone by, thank you. On a side note, the furniture shop at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo. runs a set up very similar to yours and is quite fascinating to watch.

Ken,
I talked to one of the fellows in that shop several years ago when they were just getting it going, and he shared that they found the shop, basically as it is today, sitting in an old building which housed the W.O. Perkins Lumber Company. They basically diagrammed the layout, then took it apart, labeling pieces as they went, and then built the new shop based on the dimensions of the old shop building. If you're going to take in SDC anyway it's definitely worth spending some time to look at their furniture shop - table saw, drill presses, band saw, shaper, jointer, and maybe more, all belt driven from a main shaft like Mike's, but about two or three times longer. It's an amazing shop, and they make most of the furniture they sell in their Heartland Home Furnishings store on site.

AWSUME I have been in shoe repair shops that ran the same way. But that was a long time ago. Your grandkids are fortunate.

Thank you Mike for your ability to keep a small part of history going and congratulations on teaching your grand kids the love of old machinery and more importantly, the safety of being around and working along side of moving parts like belts etc. well done sir.

That's very cool. Thanks for sharing it and congratulations for doing such a great job putting it together, and also teaching the youngins about it.


It reminds me of a few old mills around the N.E. U.S. that I've been in that still had the water wheel driven shafts and belts in place but by the time I was there the machines were running on motors.

Such a cool setup. It appeals to the antique lover in me. You've got all the cool elements from the generated lamp, to the compressor and grinder and drill press. Just think when you guys have your next power outage, and all the neighbors are bundled up by their fireplaces, you can be having a good time out in the shop! Having it power the lights was very clever and usefull!

Kool stuff,Mike..We have a few old shops like that here,,set up for display only,,and it's possible to stand in one place,almost for about a half hour,,just soaking up the details that go into a setup like that..Absolutely brilliant..

Originally Posted by Mike P

".....Would be fun to bring a bunch of students from a machine shop or other such school their for a visit!!!! ...."

Your right Dave it would, but our local High School doesn't even offer Shop or automotive classes anymore due to liability issues. It's a shame. Kids haven't changed, my grandkids are fascinated with it and it's MY responsibility to teach them about safety.

When I started college, every ME student took classes on Casting & Welding, Machine Processes (lathe, drill press, band saw, etc), and two semesters of Mechanical Drawing. Went away for four years of USN and a couple of years messing around before going back. All of the hands on classes were gone, the machinery was stored away in a basement, and the story was that only the theory was of value to an engineer. Bull Hockey!! I got more out of the hands on classes I had in those first two years than any book could have shown me! You remember getting your hands dirty, and investing some sweat equity. Those classes were the first time some of the kids had ever even SEEN a wrench, much less had to use it!!

Know what ya mean, Mike! No shop classes here anymore either. I guess all the kids are either going to be professional athletes or own a computer company like Microsoft, right???