Shop Tour: The Vintage Machinist 

Incredible!! Martin you have the working shop that I am working towards. I went to school most of my life to get my PhD in Chemical engineering but I found out that I disliked working in that field and the people there were not to my liking as well. I was run over by a Ford F350 a little over 18 months ago while riding my 1957 Harley Panhead. Almost losing my life and my leg really made me rethink what I am doing. I decided I am starting a small engine repair business as well as welding and fabrication. With the supply chain problems and most of my work is on vintage garden tractors I get the wrong parts , get them late or not at all. I am building a machine shop that is populated with 1800's machines run by belts and powered by steam and hot air. I have already restored several lathes and a Camelback Drill press and I am looking for more equipment. My motto is yesterday's machinery with modern results. Most of the parts are obsolete so it is great to be able to make my own parts. You will have to stop by sometime. By the way I am in Northeastern Pa. I just finished completely restoring the same valve machine that you have. It is beautiful but it was a basket case before.

Awesome shop. Great engine work ! I LOVED seeing the Clausing Colchester. I served my toolmaker apprenticeship in 1968 and used one of those. Lathe work became my speciality and boy the stuff I made on there. Soon I was the only guy in the shop who made the high tolerance military parts we made. Today the lathe is still my favorite machine. I have a used 13 inch tooled with DRO and everything else you can imagine. The next machine I loved seeing was the pantograph . My dad had a Gorton P2 ( I think it was) in the basement. He did lots of aircraft handles ,commemorative fire truck plates along with a host of other pieces. Only a part time thing aside his real job. I’ll never forget watching him engraving while looking at me and talking. It was like the stylus was just an extension of him. I soon learned how to operate it when I was in my teens. I grew to have a real appreciation for that machine and my dads talents. Sadly after he passed we ended up having to pay someone just to haul it away. Perfect condition , had a tool and cutter grinder as well for it. There were tons of templates , Masters of all sorts of letters and numbers. Was so kool how you could change the size of the engraving from the master just by adjusting the ratio on the stylus arms. Fond memories but so sad that now CNC has taken all the craftsmanship away. Young ppl wouldn’t have a clue about that machine. Don’t get me wrong, I built up a nice CNC shop that has now been passed to my sons. The engraving we could do on a machining center was awesome. Just try to imagine what type of shop You Tubes we’ll be watching 20 , 30 years from now . Thx for the tour and keep up the great work.

Hi CBS. Martin is so laid back about his skill level. What an amazing workshop full of vintage machinery, of which is only as good as the machinist in charge of it. I was mesmorized watching machine after machine along with Martins commentary. Unfortunately, I sold all my vintage British motorcycles long ago. What a fantastic video. Thank you for posting. Tony

That was a really cool tour. To see a shop is one thing, but to see a show where so much is actually done....makes me marvel over the precison that goes into all the things I take for granted.

so many vintage machines..

I love Martin's easy knowledge of all that old equipment. I really like his T-shirt since I lived one block from the LeBlond factory on Madison Road in Cincinnati (Technically Norwood OH) for the last years of the company before Makino took them over. A friend of mine trained there on the specialized lathes Leblond made for turning crankshafts. The site is a shopping=restaurant mall now with only the power house and smokestack left as a landmark.

Glad to meet Martin. Wow, what a beautiful machine shop. I love vintage machines and this was a treasure trove tour. Thank you very much.

That optical comparitor is just like the one our shop had for many years. It worked fine for what it was intended to do - check parts for flatness, squareness and other quick checks of your small parts. I sure do miss all that equipment.

Thank you for sharing.👍

Awesome vid!!!

Very interesting tour! Thanks.

Theres a lot of cool stuff squeezed in to a small space, great tour.

Just a great tour! I have gathered 5 WW2 vintage outstanding quality machines for very little money but a lot of effort to clean up, some was out in the weather. Getting into the older equipment from WW2 is less half the price of later "good used" import machines and twice the quality!

Awesome! Thankfully, there are a few guys still willing to do the one-off jobs. Price isn’t even the object any more - it’s getting someone to do it and to get it done in your lifetime! Inspirational for sure!

Fantastic! Thank you

It is so nice to know you are in the area.

I just picked up an identical south bend lathe, all the way over here in Ireland

Beautiful collection of vintage machinery ! ... old iron is good iron !

The model cars on the wall behind the 1342......Added a great workshop feel.

Really well organized shop

Very cool. Beautiful shop.

you've got a complete shop there!

LeBlond lathes are awesome!!!

Very interesting I didn’t understand too much of it I can see it was very interesting so I’ll be watching when I see your videos God bless

Check out “ Our Museum of Industrial Heritage “ in Greenfield,Mass which has the early American machinist tools that were made in that area like Starrett, Greenfield Tap and Die and a host of others. Thanks for the video was very informative.

Great shop! Damn I bet that place is toasty in the summer.

I’d love to know what he does with all those lathes! Love that horizontal mill, I need to get me one of those!

I was in the area buying some parts and tried to look you up. I did not succeed. I am a Machinist out of Inyokern, up the road a bit .

Does Martin have a channel? Dude is legit! I grew up around old machinery like this!

the clausing mk1 roundhead with the suicide power fed a 3 minutes. i had one it is a good machine but dang they are scary if anything goes wrong.

Where did he get the leblonde shirt!

Does anyone know of a shop that could make a drive shift with gear for leblond 14" lathe .it says regal 14". Guys I got the lathe for free 3 years ago . Or if any could has blue print. I have contacted leblond they didn't have

No Beaver mill

Almost as cluttered as my shop.

Great tour but the audio is off by a few seconds. Looks dubbed. I know it's not but that's how it looks. Why do people edit like this???

Had to bail sorry, was getting sea sick, interesting stuff but poor camera work spoils it.

helped build america ask my hole NO people built america and most were migrants at one time in there family

A South Bend lathe just like that belt driven headstock model is the 1st lathe I got to operate in vocational shop class jr year, 30 years as a machinist/tool maker later I still have the first double lead Acme thread I ever cut, and it was on a SB just like that one, also still got my V-block too, shop class was 3 hrs, back then it probably took a month for me to make, bet I could make that same V-block in 4 hrs, conventionally, with a 1/2 hr lunch LOL.

What with the mohawk??