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This topic has 18 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 12 January 2018 at 23:22 by David Lindquist.

Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)

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11 January 2018 at 00:58 #336273
David Lindquist
Participant
@davidlindquist71920
I found this site while looking for some information on the threading tool holder for the MultiFix/Multiquick pattern tool post. I am retired and live in Sutter Creek, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. One of my main activities here is helping with the preservation of Knight Foundry, a water powered machine shop and foundry started in the early 1870's and which did not modernize much beyond the early 20th century. In addition to my interest in industrial preservation and industrial archeology I do photography the old fashioned way with film and darkroom printing. In my home shop I have a lathe, a turret mill, a band saw and a drill press. I've made a Stuart Turner No. 7A with reverse gear and a Tiny Power H-10; two of those actually to give to my two bosses when I retired. Otherwise I make parts for our restoration projects here and various fittings for my photographic equipment. I look forward to contributing to this forum.
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11 January 2018 at 00:58 #40247
David Lindquist
Participant
@davidlindquist71920
11 January 2018 at 07:44 #336286
Brian H
Participant
@brianh50089
Welcome David, sounds like you lead an interesting life!

I'm sure you will find lots to interest you on here and help if you need answers to particular questions.

Is there a website with pictures of the Knight Foundry?

Brian (in a cold and wet England)
11 January 2018 at 08:20 #336288
Ian S C
Participant
@iansc
Pictures please, I like old engineering sites. Welcome aboard David,

Ian S C
11 January 2018 at 08:56 #336290
Don Cox
Participant
@doncox80133
Try this for a start:

Don Cox
11 January 2018 at 10:19 #336306
Chris Evans 6
Participant
@chrisevans6
Welcome along, I to look forward to some pictures. When I started work a couple of the shops still ran overhead belt drives. Scary to see today !
11 January 2018 at 10:32 #336307
colin hawes
Participant
@colinhawes85982
Hello David and welcome,

I find these early workshops fascinating Colin
11 January 2018 at 11:03 #336310
Rik Shaw
Participant
@rikshaw
Hello David and welcome. Sounds like you have a busy and enjoyable retirement all planned out., hope its a long one. I popped over to Sutter Creek via Google Earth for a quick nose. It all looks so different from here in the UK but I could live there anytime. Love the Cheese Shoppe.

Rik
11 January 2018 at 11:19 #336311
mechman48
Participant
@mechman48
Welcome David; like you I once did photography the old fashioned way but with the digital age happening along I decided to forego that hobby, plus not having the room for the dark room set up any more & now my equipment has gone the journey.

George.
11 January 2018 at 14:22 #336328
David Lindquist
Participant
@davidlindquist71920
Thank you all for the warm welcome! Here's the foundry's website: http://knightfoundry.com They also are on Facebook. More photos there. I'm not on Facebook nor do I understand it but I'm glad to see one can alsolook at the foundry there without joining. I can't take credit for any of these fine photographs but I'm probably in some of them.

Posted by Brian Hutchings on 11/01/2018 07:44:48:

Welcome David, sounds like you lead an interesting life!

I'm sure you will find lots to interest you on here and help if you need answers to particular questions.

Is there a website with pictures of the Knight Foundry?

Brian (in a cold and wet England)
11 January 2018 at 14:24 #336329
David Lindquist
Participant
@davidlindquist71920
Posted by Rik Shaw on 11/01/2018 11:03:32:

Hello David and welcome. Sounds like you have a busy and enjoyable retirement all planned out., hope its a long one. I popped over to Sutter Creek via Google Earth for a quick nose. It all looks so different from here in the UK but I could live there anytime. Love the Cheese Shoppe.

Rik

Yes the Cheese Shoppe is very good, as is Andrae's Bakery , two miles up the road in Amador City.
11 January 2018 at 14:27 #336330
David Lindquist
Participant
@davidlindquist71920
Posted by mechman48 on 11/01/2018 11:19:12:

Welcome David; like you I once did photography the old fashioned way but with the digital age happening along I decided to forego that hobby, plus not having the room for the dark room set up any more & now my equipment has gone the journey.

George.

I have no conviction or proof that one technology is better than the other, it's more that I just like the older technologies. (I do have a digital camera too but mostly do large format black and white)

David
11 January 2018 at 17:39 #336343
David Lindquist
Participant
@davidlindquist71920
In addition to the video posted by Don Cox there's this more recent one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE0qmAl2zqw It was done last summer; my wife and I were in France at the time or else I would have been in it. It lacks the glitzy production values of the History Channel piece (that might be a good thing) but shows the machines in more detail. The large face plate lathe shown at the beginning was made at the foundry; in fact there are two of these. The foundry has two planers. The first one shown is a G.A. Gray, the second one, seen at about 9:30 was made at the foundry. There's some thought that some of the machining done in building this was done elsewhere. The radial arm drill press was made at the foundry also. The shaper is a Smith & Mills. Like G.A, Gray, they were a Cincinnati Ohio machine tool builder.

David
12 January 2018 at 06:57 #336396
robjon44
Participant
@robjon44
Welcome David & thanks for the link to the videos, despite spending the majority of my career as a machinist at the leading edge of modern technology I am completely hung up on the industrial heritage of the 18th, 19th & early 20th centuries, in retirement I am now free to indulge big time! Already ploughed through your offerings of yesterday & thanks again.

Bob H (in UK)
12 January 2018 at 10:38 #336413
Ian S C
Participant
@iansc
Was/is the foundry driven directly from a turbine, or is it hydro-electric, what type of turbine is used, a Pelton wheel, or a Francis type?

Ian S C
12 January 2018 at 17:54 #336477
David Lindquist
Participant
@davidlindquist71920
Posted by Ian S C on 12/01/2018 10:38:06:

Was/is the foundry driven directly from a turbine, or is it hydro-electric, what type of turbine is used, a Pelton wheel, or a Francis type?

Ian S C

The main power for the shop is a Knight water wheel, 42 inch diameter, rated at 35 H.P. It's belted to the lineshafts. The Knight wheel is similar to the Pelton (which it preceded). The main difference is its cups lack the central septum that Pelton's cups have. Water to the wheel comes from a reservoir 400 feet up in elevation. It's regulated to about 120-140 PSI. Samuel Knight designed his wheel in the early 1870's. He had it cast by Campbell & Hall foundry in Sutter Creek and in 1875 bought the foundry and renamed it Knight Foundry.

A common product of the foundry was the Knight Water Motor which consisted of a Knight wheel inside a cast housing. I think there's one shown in the video I posted. Knight designed and built a Knight wheel powered mine hoist. It had two water motors run in opposite directions with a mechanism to give forward and reverse motion to the hoist. Knight also developed a regulating mechanism so that the Knight wheel could be used to generate A.C. power. There was a power plant in the state of Utah that used the Knight wheel.

The Pelton wheel was more efficient than the Knight and eventually supplanted it in the marketplace. There's some thought that if the Knight wheel had prevailed it would have been necessary to move production to a larger plant in a more industrialized city and we would not have been left with this nearly intact late 19th-early 20th century industrial site. Looks like I'm out of room… David

Edited By David Lindquist on 12/01/2018 18:01:37
12 January 2018 at 18:00 #336479
David Lindquist
Participant
@davidlindquist71920
Just to wind this up. We currently do not have the water supply available to us to power the shop so we rigged up a 10 HP 3 phase motor to run the lineshafts. We hope someday to get the water power restored. We also hope someday to restore the cupolas and pour cast iron. These goals are seen as difficult but not impossible.

David
12 January 2018 at 20:17 #336498
Meunier
Participant
@meunier
David, in that youtube clip of the foundry tour, which was interesting, was the tour guide Steve 'whatshisname' from This Old House back in the day ?
DaveD
12 January 2018 at 23:22 #336521
David Lindquist
Participant
@davidlindquist71920
Posted by Meunier on 12/01/2018 20:17:22:

David, in that youtube clip of the foundry tour, which was interesting, was the tour guide Steve 'whatshisname' from This Old House back in the day ?
DaveD

I don't know. Maybe someone more familiar with the series (I've only watched a little) can answer that.

David
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