That's not a drill press...

[Malcolm Schweizer]

(In the voice of Crocodile Dundee) ...THIS is a drill press!

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Here red is the power for it-
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This is the Creque Marine Railway on Hassel Island, which I am involved with the care of as president of the St. Thomas Historical Trust. It was used to haul ships out in the 1840's and much of the equipment is preserved today despite past years of neglect. We are now piece by piece trying to preserve it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creque_Marine_Railway

there is a much larger steam engine that was used to haul ships out of the water on rails. The building has one of my favorite doorways in all the islands.
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I just thought you gear heads would like to see some of the old machinery, like this massive steam powered lathe.

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...or this massive steam powered winch which ran off an engine the size of a locomotive. That closest gear is 10 feet in diameter.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for sharing.

Glad to hear someone is saving parts of human history.

jtk

[Roger Feeley]

My father in law worked at a natural gas compressor plant. They had Cooper Bessemer engines that ran off of some of the gas. Things had 3' diameter cylinders. He got me a valve from one of the engines. It's about 80lbs. I don't know what I'm going to do with it.

[Rich Riddle]

You sort of remind me of Dave when someone talks about having a big bandsaw. His is bigger. You have an interesting drill press. Hope all the parts work and function properly.

[daryl moses]

Interesting stuff. I bet with a little TLC everything would still be operational. Good to see that it is being preserved. Good for you!!
Love the door as well.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Sadly, the equipment has been left outside for many years, and the goal is to preserve them but not to get them running. Except for the big green lathe, they are all rusted together.

Hassel Island also has a well-preserved example of a Danish fort. Cowell's Battery still has water in the cistern and the Garrison House still has the copper cladding on her shutters. Being a difficult landing for most boats, it is a site that sees little foot traffic. It's one of my favorite spots to get away.

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[Marty Gulseth]

Fun to look at - thanks!

Regards, Marty

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Sorry, the boat pic was a misclick and I replaced it with the right picture (very small iPhone, large fingers). I didn't realize it still showed up in the post. That's my little friend. She takes me anywhere I want to go. We've been through a lot together and she's never let me down. One memorable occasion was heading to Jost in 12' seas and close intervals. I actually turned back that day, but not because of the boat- because I realized that my wife was praying over and over "Dear God, please don't let us die, please don't let us die. I want to see my child again..." I turned around. I should have never gone out that day. Very poor judgement call on my behalf. Down here it can be dead flat on the south, and all heck on the north (or vise versa).

[Terry Hatfield]

I love the old iron. Never saw steam powered power tools before. Thanks for posting!!