Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines
The Regular Stuff: Chat, Buy, Sell, Off Topic, etc. => General Discussion - Model & Toy Steam Engines – Stirling Cycle – Flame Lickers – Small Antique Originals => Topic started by: RedRyder on April 07, 2023, 07:59:30 pm
-
I don't post often but I'm glad I stopped in tonight. :)
Nice Knowles duplex pump and a very interesting place doing what they do!
Thanks for showing us.
-
What a cool adventure you had .... on the road home, less taken!!!
.
Reminds me of Robert Frost.
It was supposed to!
-
What a cool adventure you had .... on the road home, less taken!!!
.
Reminds me of Robert Frost.
-
Well spotted Gil!
Will be looking forward to updates, once you get back to shoot more pics.
Hopefully this will be soon. Thank you!
-
Nice, but how'd you get it in the van?
Hi Tommy, No van... just a 21 years old Yukon XL which is not a contender to carry something that heavy.
If anyone were to make a deal on it, they have a half dozen large fork lifts to load it with.
-
Well spotted Gil!
Will be looking forward to updates, once you get back to shoot more pics.
-
Nice, but how'd you get it in the van?
-
What a cool adventure you had .... on the road home, less taken!!!
-
What a nice side adventure & neat story, these folks might be very handy to befriend for future projects...seems your well on your way.
-
This afternoon I took a longer route home from a nearby hardware store.
It turned into a great experience.
As I drove up Winsted Road, to the north for a few miles in a much less populated area, still just 10 minutes from home (under 6 miles), I saw this large duplex steam pump just laying there on the outside of this fence in front of an industrial looking business.
I hit the brakes and turned around around to stop and take the below pictures.
I could not see enough through the fence and trees to learn the name of this place. I looked down the road and thought I saw a side street that would allow me to drive in next to the property. When I got there, no side street, just the entrance to the business, AVI International. I pulled in just far enough to turn around and leave when it was clear no one was there. As I began to pull out, a fellow in a pick-up truck pulled in and blocked my exit. He then pulled up next to me and asked if he could help me. By now it was quite clear he was protecting the property.
After I explained seeing his duplex steam pump out front, I was just looking for the name of the place so I could call or return another day to ask of they had any more steam hardware and that I am a big fan of all things steam and antique engine related. In that case, he says, park your truck and I'll show you some more stuff. I did not take any pictures inside the building because his partner and brother wasn't there to OK it. His brother has small collection of full sized steam engine governors. I got a tour of the place. They are rebuilding electric boiler feed pumps. Big ones. He showed me one ready to ship that had an internal sealed 700 HP motor direct driving a very large and stout impeller. I will have to get back there when they are both there and allow some photos. I saw his son's race car. This pump will be supplying make up water to the boilers at an electric company power plant.
Then he showed me the machine shops. First room were the lathes in various sizes that could turn a 4 foot long (smaller) piece up to a monster that had a 26" chuck, has a 51" swing and could turn a piece 16 feet long between centers. There were also a couple of huge vertical turret lathes. Then on to the equally impressive milling room. One had about a 36 inch rotary table and another mill had a 5' x 10' table that could move about 10 feet on both axis. Then it was on to the grinding area which had several of the largest surface grinders I have ever seen.
Here is a link to the machine shop description on their website:
https://avipumps.com/machine-shop.html
Here are the few pictures I took outside.
Gil
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]