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Arnfest 2015

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Arnfest 2015

Postby kirkpoore1 » 30 Sep 2015, 03:16

I've talked before (on the previous forum) about Arnfest, which is a yearly gathering of members of the OWWM.org woodworking group. It is held at the Illinois Railway Museum, which is a large place with several hundred locomotives and cars and 10 miles of track. It also has a full woodworking shop and at least two large metalworking shops, all needed to restore old rolling stock. A lot of machines get shipped across country and get transferred at Arnfest, and there is a big swap meet to buy tools and stuff. I went again this year, and got some more pictures to dangle in front of you:

For my part, I dragged a Hutchison shaper up with me, which I then transferred to another guy to take to Ohio:
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I didn't get any other pictures, but here is what a much cleaner version looks like:
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A four foot cube of paper pulleys, from a closed supply house in Minnesota:
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Old style flat belt pulleys were often made of pressed paper. They are very durable, don't rust, and also don't dry out and split like wood pulleys can.

A nice 6" jointer (planer to y'all)
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This is a Crescent direct drive machine, and probably weighed 300 lbs.

A 20" bandsaw in the back of a truck:
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The bandsaw's little brother:
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Both of these were made by the same company (Yates-American), and date from the '50's or '60's.

Need a hand plane?
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How about a drill press?
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Grinder and 12" disk sander:
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There were lots of grinders to be had if one was so inclined.

Probably the heaviest machine I saw at the swap meet:
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This is a Greenlee 495 table saw, 16". Not sure if it was a slider, but some were. The owner wanted $500, but no takers. This saw weighed upwards of 1500 pounds.

Now some tour pictures.

This is a Bullard vertical turret lathe. I think the table was about 30" across:
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A large lathe with two 90"--yes, 9-0--faceplates. This is used to turn steam locomotive driving wheels so that the steel tires can be resurfaced:
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This thing had a hoist rated for 20,000 lbs to lift the wheels into position.

This is the museum's only operating steam locomotive. They are restoring two others:
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I took a ride on a restored Chicago street car. This one was in service from (IIRC) 1923-1954, and was restored about 10 years ago:
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The original motors on this car had been scrapped when it was removed from service, because it was used as a storage shed and work car. However, somebody located a set of the same motors in, of all places, Alexandria, Egypt on a clapped out streetcar there. They were brought back the US, and then General Electric employees donated their time (and GE donated materials and facilities) to restore the motors.

Here's Bob's power planer again:
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I've since learned that these use a special cutter, not a router bit, and this particular tool is quite operational despite the looks.

My haul:
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Four handscrew clamps (3 American, one Chinese, $20), a 5/16" mortising chisel & bit set ($10), an excellent 3/4" gouge (which, alas, matches one I already have, $15), a Jacobs 14N chuck (already installed on my drill press, $30), a 3ph plug (gotta have a spare on hand, $5), and on the right a 1/3 hp motor that I'll use to start my rotary phase converter ($10).

Oh, and this little beauty:
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This is a M & M molder-planer. It has a 6" square cutter head that can hold up to 4 knives. By all accounts, it is a real professional machine despite it's diminutive size (12" wide, 16" tall) and hand-fed operation. It weighs 68 lbs. This was $200.

I need to scrape the paint off the table and a few other spots, get a 2 hp motor, build a stand, add a starter, get some knife profiles, and I'm in business. This machine is capable of running curved molding. It is missing the original dust chute on the infeed end, but it will be easy to rig up something that I can attach a hose to.

Kirk
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Re: Arnfest 2015

Postby Phil » 30 Sep 2015, 07:16

Looks like a very interresting visit!

Running steam loco - hmmmmmmmmmmmm, yes! I would even shovel the coal just to have a ride.

The tram - eldest heir brought me back two small plastic models of San Francisco trams to add to my train collection.

Cheers
Phil
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Re: Arnfest 2015

Postby Rod » 30 Sep 2015, 09:09

I used to go to school on a tram, in most areas they went out of fashion along with TrolleyBuses but now reintroduced by a few cities.

A school friend used to be able to get hold of Train Fog Warning Detonators.
One tram route went through the middle of a wood - the detonators were laid with us hiding in the undergrowth. When run over by the wheels they let off a loud explosion scaring the wits out of the unsuspecting passengers. For some reason we used to find that very funny - oh foolish youth!

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Re: Arnfest 2015

Postby Robert » 30 Sep 2015, 09:10

I think I'd enjoy a visit to somewhere like that - just to look at the engineering.

Almost makes me wish I had space for lumps of old cast iron... almost.
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Re: Arnfest 2015

Postby 9fingers » 30 Sep 2015, 11:04

A nice selection of machine tool porn Kirk. Thanks for posting the pics.

Bob
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