Large Lathe – 16 feet diameter faceplate.

This topic has 10 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 3 March 2018 at 11:09 by Ian S C.

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1 March 2018 at 16:04 #25848
Billy Bean
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@billybean67480
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1 March 2018 at 16:04 #343840
Billy Bean
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@billybean67480
Seeing the large lathe thread prompted a bit of research

Circa 1840, the Perran Foundry in Cornwall built in house what was the largest lathe in the world at that time.

The faceplate was 16 feet diameter and it was used to turn the12 foot diameter pistons for the three engines for the Haarlemmermeer drainage scheme in Holland.

BB
1 March 2018 at 16:44 #343847
Jez
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@jez
Are these the engines one of which is preserved at Cruquius? Excellent museum and well worth a visit…
1 March 2018 at 17:04 #343850
Billy Bean
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@billybean67480
Posted by Jez on 01/03/2018 16:44:14:

Are these the engines one of which is preserved at Cruquius? Excellent museum and well worth a visit…

Jez. I believe they are but have only just found out about it today.

Posted the info just out of interest as did not know pistons had been made that size and a 16 foot diameter faceplate must be one of he largest made – but if any member knows of a larger one it would be good to hear about.
1 March 2018 at 18:14 #343864
Muzzer
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@muzzer
If the pistons were 12' dia, what did they machine the cylinders on? An even massiver boring machine presumably!

Murray
1 March 2018 at 18:49 #343872
Billy Bean
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@billybean67480
Posted by Muzzer on 01/03/2018 18:14:55:

If the pistons were 12' dia, what did they machine the cylinders on? An even massiver boring machine presumably!

Murray

I do not know – I am not an engineer. I had been hoping one of our members with engineering knowledge in this area would be able to add to the thread.

I am assuming that a 16 foot diameter faceplate accomodated the cylinder as well as the piston.

Would be interested to hear from other members on this point you have raised.
1 March 2018 at 18:55 #343874
vintagengineer
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@vintagengineer
Boring mills are much larger in diameter than the height. They are basically lathes standing on end. Very larger ones ar sunk into the floor so the face plate is level with the floor.
2 March 2018 at 15:56 #344019
mechman48
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@mechman48
Nearly as big as this one ?… Preston park museum/

George.
2 March 2018 at 16:12 #344022
Bob Rodgerson
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@bobrodgerson97362
I can remember seeing lathes with impressively large face plates when I worked for The Wallsend Slipway And Engineering Company in the early 60's. There was one particularly large on that had open gearing with wire mesh guards around it that was used to machine the steam turbine blade tips that were fitted to RMS Mauritania in the early 1900's. These turbines were single reduction geared and the rotors were 15 ft in diameter Here is a link to a picture of them https://goo.gl/images/WpnVr1.

At the time I was there the lathe was still in use and was used for machining mixing paddles that were of a spiral type that obviously ran inside a cylindrical drum.
3 March 2018 at 04:46 #344116
Hopper
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@hopper
Great old pics of the Mauritania's turbines there. They look a similar size to today's power station turbines. These days they have mobile lathes for them: basically a headstock, tailstock and toolpost that bolt to the power station floor to allow remachining of the turbine rotor on site rather than shipping it across the world for reblading etc.

A handy little PORTABLE lathe for overhauling turbines:

Edited By Hopper on 03/03/2018 04:50:13

Edited By Hopper on 03/03/2018 04:56:10
3 March 2018 at 11:09 #344148
Ian S C
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@iansc
There was an article in ME many years back (it would take hours to find it), about old machinery, one was a face plate lathe with a diameter over 20ft, the date was early to mid 19th century. With carbon steel tools, I wonder how many revs did they get per tool sharpening, it was used for turning flywheels.

Ian S C
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