Saw a really old lathe at the museum in Rockford

I took my kid to the Discovery Center Museum there last weekend. They have this whole section on old factory tools. There was a belt-driven lathe from the 1920s, just sitting there. It made me think about how far our machines have come, from that to the 5-axis we run now. Anyone know if places like that ever let people run the old stuff for demos?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaelnguyen9d ago

Doubt they'd let you run it, that old iron is probably just for show lol.

troy9969d ago

Just for show" is a big assumption. I've been to a lot of living history farms and they almost always fire up the old tractors for demos. They keep them in running shape on purpose. Saw a 1930s John Deere plowing a field last fall. If it's in a museum, maybe it's static, but if it's on a working historic site, they usually want to show you how it worked.