Bob McCarty wrote:.....ready to remount a front tire (on my Shaw) and accidentally tip over the margarine tub that has the freshly greased axle bearing in it. Bob
Is this the kind of Shaw you're referring to? This is a picture of one setting on the factory floor up there in Galesburg Ks.
I worked in that building when it was still Bush Hog, and after it had been closed down and another company bought the place I worked in it again. They used it til last year."
Every now and then (early 1990's) the new company that's was in there'd still get telephone calls from people wanting to know if parts were available for DuAll tractors and such!
When Bush Hog went out of business there, they had a big auction. I bought 4 n.o.s. transmissions that fit on the pictured tractors. I kept them for years and finally junked all but one....the guy across the street wanted it to use for some project.
You should have seen this big punch press in that building. About 2 stories tall above the floor and about 6 foot of the base was in a pit below floor level. Brought in in pieces on railroad flatcars.
You know what a "stump jumper" on a brush cutter is, right? They'd stomp stump jumpers out of 3/8" steel by the ton on that big press- in 1 stroke. 2 guys would throw a big 4 foot square sheet of 3/8" thick steel onto the die, get their hands out of the way, hit the button, and "WHAM"- it would stomp out a round, dish shape and punch all 3 holes in 1 stroke of the press. It was impressive to watch it work.
They also formed grader blades (like your average 3 point grader for your tractors) on that press out of the same thick steel. It didn't sell in the auction, and when the new biz went in there years later, it went to scrap....it was so big, no one would pay to buy it and pay the shipping on it....
When I worked for BH, I started out welding on their big disc cultivator frames, and after they figured out I was not your average mindless welding robot (like half the other dopeheads in that department)- I got drafted to work in the machine shop- first running a turret lathe, then on to bigger and better stuff.
Everything in there was ancient- machinery wise.... In earlier times Shaw made single cylinder engines (similar to Harley Davidson singles) that were used to motorize bicycles...
I have a friend who has 3 or 4 of those.....