# Old navy tools



## Chicken lights (Apr 6, 2019)

Hard to give the vise scale. Roughly a small microwave for size

Toured a WW2 battleship today in the USA


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## Chicken lights (Apr 6, 2019)




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## Chicken lights (Apr 6, 2019)




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## YYCHM (Apr 6, 2019)

What ship and where?


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## Chicken lights (Apr 6, 2019)

YYCHobbyMachinist said:


> What ship and where?


Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington NC


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## YYCHM (Apr 6, 2019)

Cool.  Didn't see anything like that on the USS Midway, but then again I don't think we saw the whole thing and we spent a good 3 hours exploring.


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## Chicken lights (Apr 6, 2019)

YYCHobbyMachinist said:


> Cool.  Didn't see anything like that on the USS Midway, but then again I don't think we saw the whole thing and we spent a good 3 hours exploring.


I spent almost three hours crawling around it and it was tiring. I think I saw everything but honestly I’d go again it was that neat 

Literally a floating city


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## CalgaryPT (Apr 6, 2019)

Love how organized, neat and clean everything is. Thanks for the pics.


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## kevin.decelles (Apr 7, 2019)

Hopefully it still smelled like a tool room..... gotta love that smell of oil and steel


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## PeterT (Apr 7, 2019)

YYCHobbyMachinist said:


> Cool.  Didn't see anything like that on the USS Midway, but then again I don't think we saw the whole thing and we spent a good 3 hours exploring.



Midway has pretty cool machine shop(s). I have similar pics in my album where everything is painted & some stand up manikin sailor machinists. Its amazing what they must have made/repaired on board.
https://www.midwaysailor.com/clintgriffin/machineshop.html


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## CalgaryPT (Apr 7, 2019)

Just noticed how on the top of the machine room runs a curved I-beam. I've seen similar ones on submarines. If I am not mistaken it's a dolly trolly (rail) used to transport heavy parts to the machine room. Cool enough in the foresight that needs to go into the design and routing of the cables, pipes, etc. But the bending force to curve an I-beam must be amazing. I saw one bent once when I was a kid, long before CNC was a thing. Now it looks like child's play, but imagine the thought that went into this when the ship you toured was built. Few appreciate the design guys who have to imagine this stuff in their heads long before the sexy stuff of engines and guns get installed.


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## YYCHM (Apr 7, 2019)

PeterT said:


> Midway has pretty cool machine shop(s). I have similar pics in my album where everything is painted & some stand up manikin sailor machinists. Its amazing what they must have made/repaired on board.
> https://www.midwaysailor.com/clintgriffin/machineshop.html



Nope.... didn't see anything like that.  Some of the exhibits were closed when we were there, maybe that was one of them?

Would be interesting to see a list of what metal stock they maintained.  Could they make/machine a propeller shaft if needed?


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## historicalarms (Apr 8, 2019)

CalgaryPT said:


> Just noticed how on the top of the machine room runs a curved I-beam. I've seen similar ones on submarines. If I am not mistaken it's a dolly trolly (rail) used to transport heavy parts to the machine room. *Cool enough in the foresight *that needs to go into the design and routing of the cables, pipes, etc. But the bending force to curve an I-beam must be amazing. I saw one bent once when I was a kid, long before CNC was a thing. Now it looks like child's play, but imagine the thought that went into this when the ship you toured was built. Few appreciate the design guys who have to imagine this stuff in their heads long before the sexy stuff of engines and guns get installed.



    I have a book somewhere in my library that is dedicated to the preparations the "Mericans" went thru to prepare for a war footing. It is mindboggling the minute detail they went thru and the absolute inane stuff that I wouldn't even begin to think about until the "shtf". Some of the smallest detail stuff was in the works 2 or 3 years before Dec.7th.  and after that date there was nothing that took precedence over war production & design.  Two of the most memorable topics tell of an aircraft factory in California that was completely covered over with a camouflage tent that had a urban residential sub-division printed on it ( I think it covered over 200 acres). The second was that Henry Ford had a truck assembly line taken over by the war dept. to build transport trucks. It seems ol'e Henry thought he was going to tell the military how to build their trucks (he was a very belligerent fellow I guess) and Franklin D  sent a couple of secret service to remove Henry and escort him home & to make sure he stayed there ( supposedly he refused to get out of his chair so they carried him & chair out)...and he did for the rest of the war under a sort of house arrest.


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## CalgaryPT (Apr 8, 2019)

When analytical minds turn to inventing and building machines, the results are amazing. I certainly respect people who learn by experience over "winging it," but people who think up solutions for problems that have yet to present themselves or have to be anticipated, are on a whole other level.

My understanding is that MIG welding was invented to solve the production time issues ahead of time on the Polaris submarine project at a time when the "Mericans" were in a rush to rule the ocean's depths. As horrible as war and arms races are, they accelerate technology and force people to think ahead of the problem they are trying to solve. Ford was a fascinating man, you're right.


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## Chicken lights (Apr 8, 2019)

historicalarms said:


> I have a book somewhere in my library that is dedicated to the preparations the "Mericans" went thru to prepare for a war footing. It is mindboggling the minute detail they went thru and the absolute inane stuff that I wouldn't even begin to think about until the "shtf". Some of the smallest detail stuff was in the works 2 or 3 years before Dec.7th.  and after that date there was nothing that took precedence over war production & design.  Two of the most memorable topics tell of an aircraft factory in California that was completely covered over with a camouflage tent that had a urban residential sub-division printed on it ( I think it covered over 200 acres). The second was that Henry Ford had a truck assembly line taken over by the war dept. to build transport trucks. It seems ol'e Henry thought he was going to tell the military how to build their trucks (he was a very belligerent fellow I guess) and Franklin D  sent a couple of secret service to remove Henry and escort him home & to make sure he stayed there ( supposedly he refused to get out of his chair so they carried him & chair out)...and he did for the rest of the war under a sort of house arrest.


Sounds like a good book


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## historicalarms (Apr 9, 2019)

CalgaryPT said:


> When analytical minds turn to inventing and building machines, the results are amazing. I certainly respect people who learn by experience over "winging it," but people who think up solutions for problems that have yet to present themselves or have to be anticipated, are on a whole other level.
> 
> My understanding is that MIG welding was invented to solve the production time issues ahead of time on the Polaris submarine project at a time when the "Mericans" were in a rush to rule the ocean's depths. As horrible as war and arms races are, they accelerate technology and force people to think ahead of the problem they are trying to solve. Ford was a fascinating man, you're right.


   Besides the fact that modern war machines are astronomical priced...ever wonder why the "defense budget" down south is out of this world by our meager Canadian standard... and this speaks to their "forethought to preparedness", The entire U.S interstate highway system is built and maintained by the U.S, army engineers...so they have the immediate capability to use that system for whatever reason suits them best in time of emergency need. The Army doesn't need any "prior" permission from anybody but the president  (C.I.C.) ...need a runway or tank road anywhere in the US and its there.


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