Pictures From The Past

Given the large footings and heavy tonnage of those machines and parts, stability and rigidity would be much greater than the machines most of us run.
This equates to better accuracy and finish.
Hens: Big is Better
 
I remember seeing a lathe that had a 6' dia. chuck and a 20' bed on it. It had a fold out seat on the saddle for the operator to ride along. That was the largest lathe I have ever seen in person. It was at a place where I went to pick up a bridgeport head back in the mid 70's.
 
I remember seeing a lathe that had a 6' dia. chuck and a 20' bed on it. It had a fold out seat on the saddle for the operator to ride along. That was the largest lathe I have ever seen in person. It was at a place where I went to pick up a bridgeport head back in the mid 70's.
I ran one like that but bed was I think 60' long, it came from the Philadelphia ship yard. She would peel chips 1" x 1/16 and more all day and night for one cut. They told me it made the prop shafts for the ships in ww11.
 
I'm thinking of the machines that MAKE the big machines- whoa- where do they hide those? o_O
Also wondering if there are Guiness records for biggest lathes, mills, etc.
 
I wonder if any of these machines are still in use or even exist anymore. Do we in the U.S.A. still do machining on that scale?

Yes , we do big machining like that today. When I was working as a service engineer for a machine tool manufacturer , I often serviced a new horizontal milling machine with a 120 foot long bed, the column was 22 feet high. The headstock spindle was 12 inches in diameter with a second 7 inch spindle inside it. The reach of the spindle was 7 feet. The tolerances for this machine was .0002"/ft.
Before I retired, they were building a large planer machine, 100 feet long , 40 feet wide and twenty feet high.
So , yes we still make and use very large machines today. These are also CNC machines and they are awesome to run or watch them run.
 
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