Comment by teilo

7 years ago

My brother, who lives in rural Michigan and is surrounded by Amish, took me to one of their wood shops.

These Amish were allowed to run diesel engines, provided they started them with a fly-wheel and clutch system.

In this case, the diesel engine was in a shed at the side of the building, and was connected to a drive shaft that, through a series of transfer cases, belt and pulleys, secondary drive shafts, etc., powered everything you can imagine in a professional wood shop: planers, table saws, routers, etc., and a large population of battery-powered hand tools that had been converted to direct drive and were attached to flexible speedometer-like cables.

It was extraordinary.

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teilo

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Accujack  7 years ago

This is exactly how such shops were powered in the late 1800-early 1900s, before electricity was everywhere. The belt systems (sometimes in large factories there were thousands of machines running) were driven by water power, steam engines, and eventually electric motors.

You can still pretty easily buy antique tools with belt inputs, including heavy machine tools like lathes and milling machines.

  • aphextim  7 years ago

    I just recently saw a steam and gas engine show where they had a ton of still working washing machines and other household amenities that worked off a belt system and mini 1.5-2.5 hp steam engine.

    They had larger lumber mill type saws and other industrial sized stuff that still worked too.

    Was pretty crazy seeing vehicles still driving around the fairgrounds that were made so long ago.

    It was very neat to realize how much our society is more of a throwaway society in terms of the honor in being able to repair/fix your own stuff and make it last for generations. I thought to myself, "There is no way in 100 years a Tesla would still be in working condition like these old steam engine vehicles."

  • catalogia  7 years ago

    For a few years after the introduction of electric motors they were still designing shops around line shafts with belt drives to every machine, because the electric motors were large and expensive enough that it didn't yet make sense to give each tool its own motor.

    For instance the USS Olympia (C-6), commissioned in 1895 and now a museum ship in Philadelphia, was electrified but had a (very compact) line shaft machine shop on board.