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Mighty Big Machining Tools

Don Sipes

Don Sipes

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Someone was asking in another thread what could be done on a shaper that could not be done on a milling machine. This video is of a planer first cousin to the shaper. Can't think of any milling machine that can handle a 30 foot long work.


Check out the lathe in the background when the camera moves to the other size. It's a big baby too.
 
Wow! Watching that planer/shaper is kinda soothing! I wonder what a shop like that makes on a daily basis with such huge machinery.
 
ducdon said:
Someone was asking in another thread what could be done on a shaper that could not be done on a milling machine. This video is of a planer first cousin to the shaper. Can't think of any milling machine that can handle a 30 foot long work.


Check out the lathe in the background when the camera moves to the other size. It's a big baby too.
Click to expand...

Actually there is one right here in Ab., Blackfalds to be exact. I'm going from memory here as its been 5 or 6 yrs since I was in his shop, Has a rotary table that must be 20 ft wide and a head travel 20 or 30 ft up & down from the table and the column/head can travers 40 or 50 ft from the table. The table has a small movement ability if I remember right but most of the adjustable movement to accommodate very large work pieces is accomplished by moving the column...That's his "big mill", he has 2 of what he calls his "small mills" as well...One of them had a complete D8 track frame (rollers & front idler complete) mounted on the table the day I was there.
Now for his "biggest machine". He has lathe that the bed is about 65 ft long, the chuck is 8-10 ft in dia., the tailstock is 8 ft high & wide & the "center" is 3 ft in dia., Kerry told me the HP of the electic motor but I for get now what it was but size-wise it was a least 6 ft in dia and at least that long (hate to even pay the "start-up power bill" for it). The day I was there he had a turbine shaft from some power generating station chucked up in it. It was about 40 ft long & at least 36 " in dia ( I think he said it weighed 180,000 lbs.).

He imported both machines "used" from Germany ( the company there was having "bigger" machines installed). He knows of two other shops in N.A. that have as big machines, one in Cincinnati and the other in California.
 
historicalarms said:
Actually there is one right here in Ab., Blackfalds to be exact. I'm going from memory here as its been 5 or 6 yrs since I was in his shop, Has a rotary table that must be 20 ft wide and a head travel 20 or 30 ft up & down from the table and the column/head can travers 40 or 50 ft from the table. The table has a small movement ability if I remember right but most of the adjustable movement to accommodate very large work pieces is accomplished by moving the column...That's his "big mill", he has 2 of what he calls his "small mills" as well...One of them had a complete D8 track frame (rollers & front idler complete) mounted on the table the day I was there.
Now for his "biggest machine". He has lathe that the bed is about 65 ft long, the chuck is 8-10 ft in dia., the tailstock is 8 ft high & wide & the "center" is 3 ft in dia., Kerry told me the HP of the electic motor but I for get now what it was but size-wise it was a least 6 ft in dia and at least that long (hate to even pay the "start-up power bill" for it). The day I was there he had a turbine shaft from some power generating station chucked up in it. It was about 40 ft long & at least 36 " in dia ( I think he said it weighed 180,000 lbs.).

He imported both machines "used" from Germany ( the company there was having "bigger" machines installed). He knows of two other shops in N.A. that have as big machines, one in Cincinnati and the other in California.
Click to expand...
Hmmm! That sounds like a place that might be worthy of a shop tour???
 
I had heard there was a big Planer on a farm near Cochrane. Guy apparently bought it for near scrap value and installed it in an equipment shed. Once in a blue moon when he got a job for it he would hire one of the instructors from SAIT to go out and run the job.
 
like I said in the other post, when I get mine going, lawn chair, beer, eyes closed, smelling the chips.........
 
I will ask in the spring...he likes to shoot geese on my land in the fall so I might have an inside chance LOL. Ive known him for over 40 yrs but he will be down in Phoenix for the winter and I know he wouldn't want to have his "crew" interrupted without him being there.
 
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