Inside the History: Machine Shop on USS Massachusetts BB-59 

I love that OCS Mids come and help out. It's good to know they get a hands-on connection to their professional heritage.

Nice video - thanks! On one special tour I took of the New Jersey we had the pleasure of talking to a volunteer machinist on board who had served on her when she was active. Great to hear the stories he told like having to make a necessary gear in a short period of time

Not a bender, that is a set of slip rolls. Those old generator welders are a treat to use, so much smoother than a transformer machine.

As someone that does machining as a hobby and cares deeply about older manual machines as I have several very old machines I have restored, I winced a bit every time he called a machine the wrong name.😂 Also, you have to cover all non-painted surfaces with oil. Normally this happens just from use but I don't see any oil anywhere. Buy some way oil and start applying it everywhere. You need to run every feature on each machine to their limits, up, down, left, right, back, and forward at least every 6 months and make sure you oil them up with today's equivalent of the manufacturer's recommend oil before use. For all the small tooling spray them liberally with Boeshield. This is what prevents rust.

Been working in machine shops for 25 years last November ! But on a stable concrete floor... Mad respect to those sailors working in such a chaotic environment !! When a critical component failed, I don't think you would have to wait for calm seas to keep the ship operationnal!

Thank You Tom, for a great tour.....

Great tour Tom, thanks.

In my thirty + years of machining found that if one applies 30 Wt. oil at least once a month, the rust will be kept away. Do keep all oil soaked oily rags used in a steel container to prevent possible spontaneous fire. Worked mostly in wet cold PNW conditions in shops that at best were glorified barns with no heat in temps above 100F to well below 20F, with machining machines from 1890 thru brand new 2000s. Most of the time in cold weather the only heat were personal portable propane catalytic heaters, and that type of heater releases a lot of water vapor. WD-40 will evaporate all too easily too soon. After all, it is a penetrating oil meant to work its way into tight areas that have gotten rusty, and is only to loosen up the area. As a level five machinist I've seen rust happen with WD-40 in the USAF over just a weekend on a dual tracer mill used for the B-1 bomber repairs, in the near desert conditions of N. Texas. Do also work the carriages on the lathes and mills back and forth some to work the oil under them and any water out. Tight spaces make for good capillary action to suck in water, so oil has to be worked into those areas to keep out the water. Thanks for the tour of the shop!!

That was excellent. When I came to visit, I had to stay behind the plexiglas. The different camera views in this video give a great view of the state of the machines and their different functions. That frame with the holes in it the cameraperson was showing is an H-frame for a hydraulic press. You just need to get a hydraulic cylinder and a cross beam. The cross beam is held in place by round rods that go through the holes. You all do an excellent job there. I really enjoyed my visit. Thanks for the video about the USS Salem. That is a great ship, too. They let you go down into the engine room.

Great job on the video, and on preserving history.

At 1:43, that’s a *shaper,* not a milling machine. Note that it says what it is on the side - “9 inch shaper,” which is a little bigger than what someone I know has. They can be *hypnotic* to watch when they are cutting metal.

Great video!! Thank you for sharing!!

Looks great. Awesome work on keeping everything in shape

I've toured BB-55's machine shop since I was a child. I've been an machinist for almost 40 years and learned on some machine tools of 40's vintage.

by the way, your Cincinnati 'Milling machine' is a Radial Drill.... a very fine piece of equipment to have for drilling big holes.... I personally have drilled 4 inch holes in 4 inch thick steel with the one in the old shop I worked in......love those machines...

Thank you sir, great job explaining .

My grandfather was on the Massachusetts when she was taken to Portsmouth Va for decommissioning. All I can find are Muster rolls where he was a S2 then a S1. Nov 1946-Apr 1947 best I can tell. He never talked about it because he said he didn't help the war effort and never wanted credit for anything. I enjoy these videos so much and would love to make it up and visit the ship sometime.

Hi Tom, Your tour reminded me of when after college I worked in a small Machine Shop in Lebanon, Ct. repairing parts for Textile machinery from American Thread Corporation formerly of Willimantic, Ct.. Hope you can find some local retired machinists to man your shop as it could be of great value to the fleet at Battleship Cove. Happy New Year to all at the cove.

That's pretty cool that you have a working machine shop! Have you done any videos of actually making anything for any of the ships?

Kano labs aka Kroil, makes a clear product that protects machined surfaces for about a year. Wipes on easy and does not interfere with the machine tools. Oily hands are no problem. I use this on chucks, ways etc.

Awesome video👍👍 if you want to stop the flash rust use atf automatic transmission fluid wipe all bare cast iron down with it and it won’t rust again it soaks in and protects.

Have a machinist give us a tour!

There's some of these machines still in use today. My monarch 20"by 120" lathe came from Anderws airforce base to Alcoa mining and on to me.

Actually that welder can do TIG welding besides stick welding.....love your shop, I have a 1942 13" South Bend lathe in my welding shop along with a very similar milling machine like yours. of course , I would love to have a Hendy or Lodge and Shipley like yours..... I wish I had gotten to see all this when I was on the ship in 1980.....my father is from New Bedford and was a WWII veteran who served in the South West Pacific with the Army......he also worked at Morse Tools in New Bedford before the war.....got to love Morse, who invented the twist drill and the Morse Taper like your lathes are designed for, like even most modern lathes.....best wishes from an old codger in Florida, Paul and you are correct in saying the machines can be dangerous.....with all those hand wheels to turn, any kid or adult would want to be spinning them.....a good coat of a water displacement lube like WD-40 might be a good idea to keep the flash rust down when you go from a cold day to a warm day real fast,,,,we even have that in our shop...... and it is not on the water in the depths of a steel hull......Cheers

Calls a shaper a milling machine

To all the dedicated people who look out for the Historic US Battle Fleet much thanks .

A light coating of WD-40 will do wonders on preventing the flash rust.

I love these old ship shops. Mighty Mo has several machines identical to mine including a 36 in Rockford planer. The removed two Sydney metal lathes and replaced them with a monarch 10EE. How the heck was that done. Isn’t the only way in thru Broadway?

Nice as a wiper my favorite 😎

OCS. Not just a job but an adventure.

Its a real shame that MN Jean Bart could not be preserved,

Nice stuff. Looks ready to rumble too. Nice shop too.. what a waste to be sitting there. Those machine tools are work horses.. accurate as the operator/set up man using them..

Boelube stick will stop the flash rust at bay.

The first machine you pointed out is a shaper not a milling machine

What's the most common thing that needs to be repaired still?

1 of my friends worked at a shop that had a mill frome a ww2 ship and this is in GR MI they sold them to anyone that had the money after the war for far less than what the historical value was

No machine shop like that on a submarine...

Thats a shaper,sport,not a mill