Weekend Cinema - making a crankshaft..
By: after the next big conflagration who do you think will be up n running before anyone else with 'machine shops' springing up everywhere they can find a place to do it. To watch something like a crankshaft which has to have some tight tolerances being made by men with open-toed sandals is quite something - and enlightening. To an ethnographer this is really quite something...most of the lathes they are using are about a 100 years old and probably accurate to a few thou... as an aside, one time I was 'out that way' when I had an unexpected mechanical failure in my VW Bus (Westphalia conversion) the worst possible thing happened - damage at #3 piston.. threw a conrod. I knew this would be a bastad of a job and expensive but within 30 minutes 2 15 year old lads had dropped the engine for the old man to fix - I was well impressed - and he was really fair with his price.