Mobile Army Machine Shop- then and today

[churchjw]

The thing I get a kick out of in this picture is the cabinets on the left.



Here is the same cabinet in my shop.



It was painted blue when I got it and I added the wheels and a new top. I had never seen one in original use. Very cool to see.

Jeff

 

[4GSR]

and today, an 8' x 8' x 20' custom portable CNC machine shop was built for the U.S. Army to house a sophisticated, computer controlled manufacturing facility meeting stringent size, weight, and operational constraints; self-contained, air (C-130), ground (PLS/trailer) or rail transportable, easy to deploy and re-deploy, controlled user friendly work environment.


Special Features of portable CNC machine shop Include:

7-ton Mazak Lathe
Two-Way Satellite

All thumbs,

This portable machine shop was built down here where I live by a company called Clegg Industries. I can throw rocks at their building from my house! They build speciality portable mobile equipment for the military, postal service, medical industry, but mainly for our Government.

Everytime they move that Mazak lathe, they have to call in to get the new GPS coordants valudated!

 

[4GSR]

Just for grins, here's a picture of a corner of the machine shop onboard the USS Midway, a late/post WWII aircraft carrier, now docked as a historical display for the GAP (Great American Public) in San Diego harbor. Looks like the Navy got to carry heavier iron

Mike

[attachimg=1]

I'm rebuilding a Lodge & Shipley lathe just like this one but with a longer bed and has a gap in the bed.

That's a 1950's model L & S lathe, it's not WWII vintage.

 

[rock_breaker]

The men working in the moble shop in the first picture reminded me of the Phillipines then I saw the chains on the truck tires, of course it could have been the monsoon season but I never saw chains at Cubi Point, Luzon 1956-1957.

Ray

 

[Terrywerm]

The thing I get a kick out of in this picture is the cabinets on the left.

View attachment 32462

Here is the same cabinet in my shop.

View attachment 32463

It was painted blue when I got it and I added the wheels and a new top. I had never seen one in original use. Very cool to see.

Jeff

I've got that exact same cabinet!!! Mine was not blue, but was/is mostly olive drab, but primer red where the paint is scratched or wore off. I got it with my Logan 210 lathe mounted on top of it. It has an added top on it that extends to the right and supports the tailstock end of the lathe. Not the most sturdy setup, but I am working on making some changes there. When I got it, it was pretty shaky, I had to apply some short welds in a few strategic places to firm it up. The two large drawers at the very bottom open and close really hard, so I have to look into that also. I suppose I will have to snap a pic and post it here one of these days.

 

[Dave Smith]

The thing I get a kick out of in this picture is the cabinets on the left.

View attachment 32462

Here is the same cabinet in my shop.

View attachment 32463

It was painted blue when I got it and I added the wheels and a new top. I had never seen one in original use. Very cool to see.

Jeff

Jeff--I also have two cabinets just like them in my shop--very heavy duty--one is green and the other is light grey---I have a lot of heavy items in the drawers and they were hard to pull open and push shut until I pulled them out and put heavy grease on the bottom edges and the support guides.--Dave

 

[Jimsehr]

This is my machine shop truck with me in the doorway.
jimsehr

 

[ddmunroe]

Hi Jimsehr,
Your pic looks like it could tell a thousand words with it, would you be kind enough to tell us what you mostly did with your mobi-shop and maybe some memorable jobs as well. You would have to be a pretty self sufficient person to do this kind of work.
Thank You
dd

 

[ddmunroe]

This is a most remarkable machine.
If you look to the far left on the floor ... you will see the powering electric motor then follow this to the line shaft then drive belts built into the roof ! You can just see the shaper head above the mill table.
Now this is machine built to go mobile.
dd

 

[Marco Bernardini]

This is a most remarkable machine.
If you look to the far left on the floor ... you will see the powering electric motor then follow this to the line shaft then drive belts built into the roof ! You can just see the shaper head above the mill table.
Now this is machine built to go mobile.
dd

Nice!
I think these mobile shops could be useful not just for warfare operations, but also in case of disasters (quakes, etc.) involving thousands of civilians.
A similar solution, but in the data management, was proposed some years ago by Sun Microsystems with their cool "Project Blackbox":



(Image from Wikimedia Commons)