Large Lathe Work 

I was a machinist for 45 years then I retired three years ago and your work is exactly what I did. I also got to train some guys that wanted to learn. I really enjoyed watching this. You are doing a great job explaining what you are doing too. I realise how much I miss that work. Thank you.

Well without guys like you, I wouldnt have anyone to show these videos to. So I say, thanks again for watching!!

I love this kind of stuff too, thats why I stuck with it after my dad talked me into coming to work for him. I'm glad I did. Not everyone gets to work on jobs or machines like this.

Adam, I am a metal worker as well. I just learned of your loss from Tom. My heart goes out to you and your family. Your dad must have been a wonderful father and workman. He obviously was an inspiration to you in many ways. I am sure you will always cherish what he taught you and I hope you continue to share with the rest of us. Mike

I haven't done any metal machining in a long time but when I saw the smoke coming form the tool in the video I swore I could smell the oil burning! Thanks for posting this video.

I first watched this video about a year ago, from the moment I saw it I wanted a lathe.I finally got myself an old myford ML7 in pretty good condition, I don't want to sound like a stalker or anything but I have watched all your videos and look forward to each new installment.Thank you for sharing your skills with us allJoelNew Zealand

Thanks! I try hard to shoot some interesting footage of the machine work I do. Its not too bad, yea sometimes the camera gets in the way, but its worth it in the end to be able to share with all of you!

I enjoy doing Lathe work I've be doing this for 47 years I was a Toolmaker at a pipe shop made all types of reamers and cutting tools for the machine shop to use. My grandfather and uncle were machinist, I guess I inherited this trait. I operated tool grinders and cutter machine all manual stuff I'm old school no CNC stuff. What your doing is grate not many machinist that can do that work. I've done similar things also.

Awesome! Your vids are still being enjoyed years after they were made. Thank you!

An Absolute CRAFTSMAN, knows his bizz, and does remarkable work..!! Being in the trades myself..( electronics hardware repair etc.)......this man is truly a master at his craft, this is something that CNC is making men like him obsolete......(CHINA has made my trade become a throw away bizz )... Guys like him will eventually become a dieing breed as well....It's a shame all that skill can't be passed on to other generations, lord knows, we'll need this craft..!!!!

The clutches on these old lathes are really sweet! My Monarch reacts the same way. Its nice when you just want to "bump" the workpiece around just a little bit.

I am a recent follower . Comments on feeling "satisfied or impressed" stems from admiration for a person ,whose skills, make a difficult task seem simple .

I like seeing you and other machining video makers stressing safety- you always wear safety glasses. May all your viewers do the same.

I'm currently an apprentice training to become a journeyman. Thanks for posting your videos! I've learned a lot from watching them. It's nice to see an actual machinist plying his trade on RU-vid. Most of the folks posting machining videos don't have a clue what their doing. Again, thank you sir!

Ahhh, the sweet scent of roasting hydraulic oil... Good video, brings back workshop memories, thanks!

Indeed nothing compares to the machines of that era. I have a rare, pristine South Bend 9 that was built in 1942. The motor even must be oiled. But it is an absolute joy to operate, runs like a top. I've read that many of these machines in home shops produced small parts for the war effort. A fascinating thought.

I used to work for Wendt Corporation in Tonawanda NY near Buffalo. we built giant machines to crush cars and shred them. The hydraulics are huge on those. On occasion while crushing steel or whatever it will get a piece of steel stuck between the cylinder and the piston and gouge the hell out of the cylinders. after pulling the pistons out I as a welder would have to climb inside and weld over all the gouges so the machinist could machine it and make the bore smooth again. the cylinders were so big I could sit up inside them comfortably lol. But what a smoky job

Its been many years since I've done any lathe work. We made brass pump impellers and various other pump parts because the generating station I worked at had pumps that required we make our own replacement parts. Thanks for a great video about a huge lathe. It brought back many good memories.

I'd much rather watch this than reality TV any day.

My name is frank i used to work many years as a gernaman machinest. Your vidio brings back great memories. Thank you

Adam, I just heard about your dad from Tom. I am very sorry for your loss. I lost my dad a number of years ago and my mom in 2011. Loosing a parent is not fun -- I've been there. Please take all the time you need to cherish your dad's memory. Be with your family and use them to lean on and for support. I am truly sorry. Take care, my friend. Dave

I spent 16+ years working for a Hydraulics Engineering Company. We serviced the offshore oil and gas industry. I cannot tell you how many times I've been involved in the same operation as being shown. I enjoyed my work so much that I'm looking to return as soon as I get past all the bad side effects of chemo and radiation treatment left over from Beating stage three lung cancer.

hey nice work!I'm a machinist too, but on the other end of the spectrum. I make medical device prototypes. I have a Hardinge tool room lathe with a microscope mounted on it. most of my parts are 0.070" diameter or less. sometimes even down to 0.005" diameter,tiny stuff!it was really cool to watch this process. thanks for uploading it!

my great grand father was a large lath machinist during WW2. He made gun barrels for the Bismark, Gaff Spree. and 88mm tanks and artillery. So i am fascinated with stuff like this.

Thanks for sharing this, very interesting. Years ago we would never have dreamed of personal video cameras, and youtube for workaday skills.... Very good. From Scotland.

Watching your videos reminds me of watch my grandfather in his personal machine shop as a kid. He retired from Seneca Fall Machine Co. (aka Seneca falls manufacturing) where I saw a huge shaper in action. It was almost as long as your shop. I have an old Pratt&Whitney lathe he had I want to resurrect. Thanks for the videos. Keep up the good work.

WOW! man thats what you call heavy engineering! thanks for posting.

Never even been in a machine shop but I just love learning. Period. Thank you Abom for sharing your knowledge with all of us. Been I fan for a couple of years. Keep up the great work. And thanks again.

John I'm glad you were able to watch this one with a little more ease. I havn't forgot about your "more lighting" request.

my Dad was a fitter and turner in NZ and i loved watchign him work. I used small lathes and enjoyed the work so much in my early twenties. Your videos i can watch these for hours! Thanks for making interesting and informative videos!

Wow even at work you do large stuff Its in your blood Brother Keep on doing like you do just dont get hurt especially your back like I did Never the same ever!!! Thanks so much for sharing the peojects at your home shop Nice large green lathe I love it At school I loved the large leBlond others thought it was too big but it cut our projects so easy. Manny la Puente, CA

after being away from a decent size machine shop for some 50 years I found myself wishing that I was still on the machines great stuff , enjoy your job

Before I started rolling it on the steady rest I use my grinder and ground the paint off in one spot to for the steady to sit. Then I began the process of finding center, then center drilling it. Once its center drilled, hold the part with a live center and it will be centered and square. Then "machine" a true spot on the barrel for the steady to roll. Its all in the video.

Amazing work you and your brethren do. Unsung heroes of the modern age.

I can hear the "How It's Made" narrator's voice in my head while watching this.

I have never seen anything like this in my life. I am 50 and ordered a big lathe but its only bigger than my mini lathe that could not turn a two and a half inch piece of thrust bearing sleeve from a BMW. Thank you for sharing this I enjoyed watching this. I am learning about lathes and how they work.

Very cool! And yes I do love the smell of cutting oil in the shop!

Hi Adam. Interesting video. My dad had a machine shop back in the 40's called otsego machine. . Did work mainly for the papermill industry in Mich. Repairing large rolls, spray welding, etc. Still have a few of his tools. He died in 1947 when I was a year old. I was inspired to go into t&d myself. This reminded me of him. Thx mike

Good work drilling that center. Very easy to break the tip off the center drill at 25 RPM.

Im glad to noticed the press, I wanted to point it out because I have used it in a previous video. Thanks for watching!

Good stuff man! I make tiny medical implants so I love watching huge workpieces like this. Pretty badass.

Setting up a machine, with a workpiece that size, machining it, while simultaneously being a cameraman, narrator, and director. My hat is off to you.

Holy Cylinders Batman, that's a lot of work ! I know I've seen it before but I'm impressed.

In this age of high tech cnc machinery it's good to see that there are people who are still doing things the old fashioned way. Before the company that I spent 25 years with was bought out and shut down I used to do this kind of work on a LeBlonde lathe that was larger than this one. That lathe was shipped to one of their plants in New York by those nice folks at Albany International.

looks like the average day for a maintenance machinist. Nice old lathes in your shop, enjoy!

You are a true artist. I got my undergrad in Aviation Maintenance and while in college I did my Air Frame & Power Plant Engineer License. My biggest complaint was we did nothing in a machine shop. Oh sure, we spent 4 hours a day in the welding lab........... In Daytona Beach Florida....................... in JULY & AUGUST!!!! But I would've traded all of that for your knowledge in machining. I'm a management puke now, but I'd give it up if I could apprentice under you.

Whe I was 18 i got a job at Whemco in West Homestead Pittsburgh and we used to get rolls of steel in sometimes that were 900K pound+. They were so big that they had to be bought in by train because no truck could transport them. The lathes they turned them on were GIANT ass ancient machines probably from the 1920s. My job as a chainmen consisted of rigging these up to massive overhead cranes on tracks so the could move them. We'd put wooden wedges under them to stabilize them but the scary thing is if the roll shifted onto a wedge it would shoot the wedge out like a bullet. Nerve racking work for an 18 year old kid tbh.

here in the company I work, we notice many of these cylinders ... manufacture various types of cylinders and parts for paper mills, oil, and timber harvesting !!! are cpmplexas parts !!! Congratulations, your techniques are helping me here in Brazil too !!! thank you !!!

Nice video; very rare to see this type of work. Thank you.

I'm a Limey born 72 years ago where it all started 'The Black Country' - Wolverhapton, Birmingham and so many other cities. It was called The Black Country as the soot and filth from the factories had made it that way. All gone, it's been changed into grassland, parks, all very tidy and clean. No more steel works belching out like volcanoes, all the pottery kilns gone, just a few cold ones for tourists, all the heavy machine shops shipped off to India. Mom and dad had moved down south when I was 2 years old, I didn't see the end. I'm sure people live longer there now but something is missing. Abom79 thank you for reminding me - you don't happen to have a blast furnace tucked away somewhere do you ? Maybe the odd drop hammer ? Great video as always.

Wow! It is really great to see a really expert machinist at work on some great gear, taking things slowly and carefully. Many thanks. As a child I was always interested in how those spherical bearings were got into the lifting arms on the back of a Fordson tractor. I'm probably not using the right terms here, but I mean the same kind of massive bearing which was embedded in the end of the tube you are working on here (which moves freely in 360 degrees of rotation). I could not see how it could be got in there except by making the lifting arms in two parts (lengthwise), placing the bearing in place and then welding up the two halves with it held captive in place. But I could see no sign of welds in the arms on this Fordson. I just can't imagine it being done by forging in situ as this would just trap the bearing. I was only a kid of about eight years old and now I'm fifty-nine and still don't know for sure how it is done. Would you mind explaining?

What i admired was the skill and professionalism of a master craftsman You didnt waste time,run off at the mouth to promote a video and got the job done..

I dont know what it is about the work you do i find so relaxing. Maybe its the precision . either way . Ive been following your channel for a while and while i do little more than tinker in the garage i have learned a lot and wanted to say thanks for taking the time to share your work with us out here in you tube land

Great video,memories of my machining classes in vocational school (became a carpenter instead😔)and the patience it takes to set up and run,thanks for the share !

great to see such skill and craftsmanship

I use to work as a truck mechanic for years, later on as a ship's mechanic, and since 5 years I work in the field service as hydraulic engineer. Hydraulics is such a cool business to work in...Nice job Adam!

I hope heaven has a machine shop and I instantly become as good as Abom79.

Not sure what exact specs you want to know, but its a 20x192. American generously oversized the swing as advertised though, as it will swing 25" over the ways. But Ive had several jobs that still wouldn't fit.

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing! What dude could possibly dislike this video???

Great Job. I used to rebuild these when I worked as a machinist. We did it a little different. I would take the covers off the front of each stage, then take the packing out, then take clip out and pull each cylinder out. Those were a pain in my ass.

this was oddly satisfying to watch

Seeing this video brings back pleasant memories. A while ago I performed large lathe jobs when I worked for Oncor Drilling Company where we made Oil tools for the drilling industry. Great Video. I can really relate to what you were doing.

I give you a thumbs up before I watch each of your videos, because I know it's going to be awesome. Thanks

Thanks Caleb! Just seeing such a big heavy part rotate on the lathe can give you a big pucker factor! Ive had a few like that where the other guys stood back and watched in awe. You just have to be very carefull and know what your doing so that things dont go south!

That's a big lathe, but they have one in Michaud that turns the shuttle tank, I think that's the biggest in the world, as the tank is 154 feet length, 28 feet diameter. I've heard he Wright brothers first flight could have taken place inside the tank, altitude (height), width, and length, but should probably verify this. The tank, in skin thickness to overall size, is on the scale order of a soda can....and people wonder why the things blow up occasionally. Sorry for the one-up, but thought you might be interested. Great vid, enjoyed the large machining. You really get to check out the weld quality first hand while sectioning it. I'm sure the welder would appreciate and feedback you could give him on any weld inconsistencies ;-).

Great video. I'm a Machinist and worked similar sized jobs. Not an easy task but nice when it's all completed. Thank you for sharing

Thanks, I've never seen that large of lathe work before. Would have enjoyed seeing the weld process too. (Not complaining, just sayin :-) )

That is awesome! My mother and dad worked at the "Gun Plant" (Hughes Tool) in Galveston, Texas during WWII. My mom ran one of the centrifugal casting machines that cast the barrels for the big cannons on battleships, and my dad ran a lathe that turned the castings down. I never could quite imagine a lathe big enough to turn one of those huge cannons, but now I can. Thanks! Richard

My Wife walks into the room." What is that?" "I don't know." I said. "Why have you been watching it for the last 15 minutes?" she asks? Chicks !!!

Man, I've got a lot of respect for guys that can do big stuff to such a fine tolerance. Awesome work.

Cool! Please tell work Thanks for allowing you to share that with us! i learned a trick or two! Best Wishes!

Nice to see someone with head NOT in ass using a lathe on utube. I appreciate the part-off through the weld. I had a pucker level of 8.5 when you started that tool into that interrupted cut. Sweet work.

Really cool...stuff us hobbyist never get to see.

Yet to watch a video from you where I haven’t learned something.....always enjoyable watching your machining skills and sharing your knowledge.

Nice, makes me miss the old work, not! LOL but like the memories anyhow. thanks for the post and enjoyed a break from my usual. ;{)-----

Just here to share some knowledge that I picked up. When I need to adjust a steady rest in, I mount an indicator to the bar and sweep the tailstock ram. Also could mount an indicator to the live center and sweep the O.D. of the bar. Adjust the steady until the indicator reads zero at all 3 steady rest roller points. The only downfall is, the tailstock has to adjusted on center first and can't be offset. You probably already know this, just incase you didn't, maybe you would like that idea better. I noticed it's easier on center drill points. You do great work. Brian

It is obvious that you truly love your work and take pride in your skills. You must have millions invested in all your tools. What is a hydraulic telescopic cylinder like used for? I really like your videos.

I like to see where people come from. You have come so far. It's an enjoyment to watch you work.

What did you do with the forklift, let it idle against the cylinder while it was expanding so that the different cylinders didn't randomly push out? I've never dealt with multi-cylinder hydraulics

Dude, I love watching you work. Was a welder for Babcock & Wilcox in the early 70's used to weld large scale work for boilers and such. Your videos bring back some great memories. You're an artist...

That's one big cylinder!

Great Job !!! I used to work on these same cylinders when I was a machinist. I enjoyed working on them. I used to take these apart from the front by taking the spiral rings out and slide cylinders out the front. Keep up the great work.

That is cool stuff. And I thought the tools in your home shop were industrial-sized. Thanks for sharing!

in times past I ran engine lathes and hones to make polished bore receptacles for oilfield tooling. miss that work a lots. I enjoy your videos and admire the skills you showcase. thanks.

fantastic loved it so much i did subscribe thank you for videoing your work

My name is Robert Noel, i really like your videos. I'ts great to find someone who takes as much pride in their work as you do. I have always been that way also in my field which is woodworking and after so long it seems that's disappearing. It is inspiring to see other craftsman still caring about their work. Thanks and i hope to gain some skills from you

Great video Adam Big heavy bastard thing

That was awesome. It's good to see a professional at work. I've always admired people who can use lathes. I'm just a welder.

I know this is an old video, but, is this a hydraulic cylinder? Sorry, guys, woodturner here and saw the huge lathe.

You sir are a pleasure to watch , i just hope you pass on your immense wealth of knowledge to someone who won`t squander it.

Do you ever lose that remote control for the overhead crane in the couch or anything???

i would have really loved to see the end of that video.this guy is a fine engineer.i love his videos

they will still be using lathes like this in one hundred year's time.

He who has the right machines and know how always stays busy. Nice video.

i was really hoping there would be candy inside.

This is a joy to watch this guy is such a pro and he speaks in terms we can all understand.

it's that a cylinder for an elevator?

I used to make cylinders , not that big though. We always used to leave a trued area on the outer that had been indicated off the bore. That was with the pre honed cylinder outers anyway. We made a lot of the ends too, and done the welding, interesting work for the first few months anyway. Most places are cnc for a lot of that stuff now. Good work, and good on you fow bringing it to viewers who wouldn't normally see this stuff.

Now THAT'S heavy metal! \m/

LOL, well Im trying to keep you guys entertained with the special work like in this video. I always have my camera handy!