Water Powered Machine Shop of the Dupont GUNPOWDER Factory 1870's

The water powered machine shop of the Dupont gunpowder factory was a real special treat. As many of you know by now, i work in a modern machine shop and while some of our equipment dates back to WWII nothing is as old as the machinery of the Hagley Museum water powered machine shop.
Some of the equipment in the shop: Lathe, Milling machine, planer, shaper, indexer, drill press, gear hobber (sort of), and assorted hand tools....and of course plenty of gears and pulleys...and you know how much i like gears!
the shop and musem is located on the banks of the brandywine river in Wilmington DE. if you would like to know more i have provided some links below.
what was most impressive about the shop is that many of the tools have remained basically unchanged to this day. the basic operation and techniques are the same, except the modern equipment is faster and more efficient but otherwise it is pretty much the same way we do things today.
it was impressive to see the power of the river being transferred up the hill, from the river, hundreds of feet, through gears, ropes, shafts and belts and then put to work cutting metal to produce finished parts!!
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[@lilblackduc7312]

Very good! Seeing those metal working machines was like checking back with old friends. Thank you...

[@RayMAKES]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@bill-chichi9701]

Amazing how quit those machines were. The gear machine was unbelievable. No electricity either, just the river, man that's cool.

[@RayMAKES]

Yeah, I hoping you guys would find it as interesting as I did

[@danthemakerman]

The cone for the variable speed on the drill press was pretty cool. Its wild how much has changed and how much has stayed the same.

[@RayMAKES]

+Dan The Maker Man yeah the cone drive is the same as in the cvt transmissions! Just imagine the shop was there to support gunpowder manufacturing...they had over 240 fatal explosions!

[@danthemakerman]

That's crazy man 240!!!!

[@RayMAKES]

yeah it is actually just a little bit more than 240 but i could not remember the exact number

[@pvtimberfaller]

Modern flour mils still use line shaft drive to reduce the explosion hazards related to electric motors. I bought an old line shaft machine shop right out of high school but never got to set up & run the machines & ended up losing them over time. I wish I had them back.

[@RayMAKES]

that would have been great to set up... but not to use on a daily basis.

[@theshauny]

@@RayMAKES it would be lovely to use on a daily basis especially if you used todays coolants and brazed carbide tools

[@pvtimberfaller]

@@theshauny You can't run carbide on non roller bearing machines, not sure why they say that but I suspect the bearing clearance will destroy the carbide like an interrupted cut not to mention they require a lot more horsepower than HSS. No coolant tray/pump either.

[@theshauny]

@@pvtimberfaller very interesting points, easy enough to sort a coolant tray and smell pump (a small DC motor that plugs into the old line shaft powered “lighting” dynamo’s would be cool) Speed might be the main concern for carbide on a plain bearings machine tool 🤷🏻‍♂️ old chucks where very low speed rated compared to todays “high speed chuck” so that might be a issue aswell. I would think a 5 or 10hp line shaft should be enough to power a lathe that would be today’s equivalent of 4kw electric motor(must remember that line shafts and especially steam power has torque curve closer to a electric motor than a petrol or diesel engine

[@pvtimberfaller]

The shop I bought out used old single phase motors the size of oil drum, reversible by shifting a timing quadrant. Both lathes had shop built chip trays, the 24” one consisted of half barrels welded together with wheels so you could trundle it outside to empty it. There was a 14(?)/24”x60-96? lathe, can’t remember the make just now. A 14x40 Reed prentice. A 20(?)” Camelback drill that shared a motor with a Davis keyseater. A 24” rack drive shaper. All the tooling except the big drill bits which the owner sold without telling me plus a Hossfield bender, welder etc. It was a dream at the time. Sure wish I had just bought a 12” Jet & a Bridgeport like dad said, I would still have them.

[@boatbuilder1954]

I love old Machine Shops, the first lathe I had in my shop was a Hendy Lathe that had been converted from the Jackshaft and replace with a truck transmission and electric motor. Ray if you ever get a chance to travel to Michigan you will have to visit Henry Ford Museum Now called the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village. There are several machine shops complete as they were in the day. I think you can do a tour as well on the internet. You can spend a full day there for sure. It is located in Dearborn Michigan.

[@RayMAKES]

i will definitely have to do that if and when I'm in Michigan! thanks for letting me know about it!

[@ShogunJimi]

gears - old tools - crazy water powered lathe = Ray was in heaven. as a side note - you don't want to cross the river.

[@RayMAKES]

definitely not this river!! we saw at least a dozen water snakes... the unfriendly kind!

[@ShogunJimi]

I once saw a doc on a dupont factory just like that - "Crossing the river" menat that there was an explosion and the person died.

[@RayMAKES]

ah, okay...as in the river styx? or maybe the grave yard was on the other side? since this is actually next to a river, and it was FULLY FULL of snakes...i just went there.

[@RayMAKES]

+Barry Manilowa yes, the Brandywine River in Wilmington, De.

[@ilyaivanov1745]

Great video! An interesting excursion to the past!

[@RayMAKES]

+BUK thank you. It certainly was.

[@batch5626]

Awesome video!! So cool how the old timers did it!

[@RayMAKES]

yes indeed!

[@EmmaRitson]

wow very awesome. love the variable speed pulley. need one of these.lol thanks for taking the time to show us

[@RayMAKES]

Hi Emma, than you. it was a very interesting thing to see, machine work with water power!!

[@ESCAGEDOWOODWORKING]

Dude, I love the history, awesome and inspiring..Thanks for sharing dude!!

[@RayMAKES]

can you imagine running all your tools on water!!

[@matthewdonoghue321]

I am a Machinist and I loved this video, I have just inherited my grandfathers lathe which is overhead belt driven so this was cool to see. However one point I would like to mention is that when he said the lathes were 4 speeds, I don't think that is technically true. Most lathes from that era were back geared, which means a lathe that appears to be 4 speed is actually 8 speed.

[@RayMAKES]

Yes, off camera I told him that as well, didn't want to show him up on his tour

[@calebsvlogs346]

I like those youtubers that reply to people

[@RayMAKES]

+Caleb's VLOG'S lol, I'm one of those.

[@calebsvlogs346]

Ray Pena yup same with me

[@calebsvlogs346]

Ray Pena and also I came here from evantubehd

[@RayMAKES]

+Caleb's VLOG'S I noticed a lot of traffic from them!!

[@pacowang283]

That is awesome. Thanks for sharing this

[@RayMAKES]

+PacoWang glad you enjoyed it

[@Creativity_Garage]

The real wealth they have is their minds

[@RayMAKES]

Truth

[@robertevans6481]

I bet you was like a kid in a candy store.....lol....now that is some sweet lathes...but the other guy on the tour with you looks familiar, the the one doing the tour. Looks like a nice day and place to visit...

[@RayMAKES]

+Robert Evans it was great!! I didn't know DuPont made gunpowder (not anymore)

[@sameeknowsitall]

AWESOME I LOVE THE HISTORY OF THIS

[@RayMAKES]

Glad you liked it

[@sameeknowsitall]

@@RayMAKES wait i thought you were gone your still here :)

[@kc03300]

awesome I want a shop lie that

[@RayMAKES]

it was a nice little shop

[@ericlakota1847]

Dopont got wealthy from gun powder i live in massacusets and we stil have gorgious old mills built back then and most are darelect or used for somthing else but alot of masive old buildings still their every town with river had a factory you go inside and their gorgious with the huge oak beams and such over in holeyoke they have the old turbines on desplay from one paper mill we had a huge paper and silk industry that is where are jippsey catapilers came from.

[@quinn860]

You could still ise this as a machine shop, id love to have a setup like that no electricty needed,

[@RayMAKES]

It is impressive

[@erickdupont4503]

My family built this initially in 1799

[@RayMAKES]

thats awesome

[@jackiebiskan4748]

what are you using to record the way it sounds when you zoom im things a flip phone but its like 480 p

[@TRUMPLocalWallBuildersUnion]

pretty cool ray .. i bet you can still hold tolerance on those old machines haha

[@RayMAKES]

+TRUMP2016 Local187 WallBuilders Union I'm pretty sure you could

[@theshauny]

If the equipment was levelled correctly and you where using good quality measuring equipment you would be fine if you where using today dial indicators and micrometers along with brazed carbide cutting tools it would be rather easy stuff was made very well back then

[@greenleafyman1028]

I already that water powered machines existed but what I don't know is that it is actually possible to transmit the mechanical energy for long distances using ropes and belts for industrial purposes. I think this is more energy efficient than water powered electrical generator to power the machines since it is a directly mechanical to mechanical energy, no electrical conversion was involved from running water to machines.

[@RayMAKES]

its great, as long as there is water... and its not frozen

[@theshauny]

As amazing as it is I don’t think it would be as efficient as “AC” electric because off all the bearings and friction joints along the path(a engineer would have to conduct a study to say for sure), it’s still a great achievement and infrastructure though

[@theshauny]

That machine shop is amazing but I think old mate is over cooking how long it would take to make a gear, I believe that I would be able to make a gear in that shop in less than 2 days… the indexing head he called a computer is way is a inaccurate term it is a positioning tool,(the way it works is it’s a 40:1 gearbox and you can get other divisions with “indexing plates” you still do the math in your head.also the first lathe he said was a 4 speed is actually a 8 speed because it has a back gear there is plenty more that is some what inaccurate in his tour but it was still great to see thank you for sharing

[@RayMAKES]

Keep in kind he was a tour guide, not a machinist

[@neerajkandpal9784]

Hii Ray I am the big fan of yours...you always impress me ,by your pricious hard work ! I like your work , you are a genius n I also follow you in Insta.. , I have a request "Can you please teach ..or make a BOW ... ? " it's a request if you have time then please go for it ... there will be much thankful to you... Hey ray ! m waiting

[@RayMAKES]

+Saaj Sharma thank you...that would be an interesting project....something to consider

[@RayMAKES]

+Saaj Sharma how about a cross bow

[@neerajkandpal9784]

Ray Pena ..first of all thanks for your reply. wow ! yes yes you can it's more interesting , I am waiting for this project Love from INDIA ... may God bless you

[@RayMAKES]

+Saaj Sharma thank you!!! There is an idea I had for a cross now using spring steel....coud be very interesting

[@neerajkandpal9784]

Ray Pena yeah that would be interesting... and we can use wood for handle and I believe on you , you make it perfect

[@willemkossen]

What a great place. Lets ask them to make a spinner like in the old days...

[@RayMAKES]

+Willem Kossen ha! Yes, great idea!!

[@cobaltcreates6861]

what are you mean

[@cobaltcreates6861]

with +Joling crobat

[@RayMAKES]

+Joking Crobat what?

[@user-lo3im2sn6y]

Сейчас это музейные экспонаты а в будущем это рабочие станки работающие от водяной турбины в случае технологического апокалипсиса когда изчезнет электричество на всей планете

[@RayMAKES]

good for reference

[@cobaltcreates6861]

can you make a Transformers spinner

[@RayMAKES]

+Joking Crobat yes

[@user-wz8sx2tm9v]

В работе станочная мастерская не потребляет не одного келовата и не одного ватта электричества а освищение наверное на керосиновых лампах

[@RayMAKES]

You're probably right

[@francescomemoli1242]

tipo non se vede n cazzo in sto video, tengo pure l interrogazione domani su sta cosa e non se capisce na parola

[@RayMAKES]

Glad you liked it

[@dicksargent3582]

Very nice video of an old line shaft operated machine shop, but the museum has one of the worst intereptors ever for this exhibet. He made more misstatements about the machine trade than he made correct statements. If you'r not going to do it correctly then you shouldn't do it at all. This is especially true when it comes to history. If it is presented incorrectly then it is not history at all and only creates confusion and inaccuracy for future generations.

[@RayMAKES]

+Dick Sargent I agree! After his presentation, I waited for everyone to leave and "gently" explained some of his errors, showed him how the back gear on the lathe works, and a few other issues I could remember. Most visitors wouldn't know or care, but he was genuinely interested in correcting his errors.

[@aguilayserpiente]

Low carbon foot print with the use of water power.

[@RayMAKES]

Truth

[@ericlakota1847]

Made 3$ pr week and hade to rent room for 17$ dosent make sence