What is the oddest machine you have worked on or operated

[Little Red Tractor]

My dad repaired farm equipment from his own shop in the rural upper Hudson Valley farm country. There was a lot of old farm equipement he either had on his shop or repaired in the field. Old Cletrac crawlers, early Farmalls with steel wheels, all dating back to the early 30s maybe into the late 20s were not uncommon. Oh, I wish we had pictures.

 

[nysumrwind]

Used to take road trips to fix steam machines. They were used to press cloths on a pulley system. Machine quit and upon inspection, found a bad switch which I didn’t have with me. His downtime would have been costly. I asked him for a ballpoint pen and used the spring to fix the switch. He was amazed. So much knowledge in the above post, I only hope it’s passed along. Sometimes I doubt it when I see a young man on the side of the road with a flat tire. I pull over and ask what he needs. He has no clue how to change the tire and has to be led by the hand. God bless us

 

[MoKelly]

Here is a unique response. I operated this machine for several years as a new accountant with Price Waterhouse.

When I first started, I had to sit in an office and a partner gave me a page from the phone book.

I had to add all the phone numbers on the page. Using this calculator. No adding machine tape. I only had an hour.

When I thought I had the answer, I had to go to the partner with the answer.

I needed 4 times to get the right answer —- or at least that is what the partner told me. Who really knows?

 

[paulsharvey]

Does a 1893 'C' stamped hex receiver M1891 Mosin count? I believe this was the last year of manufacture in France, as the factory was getting rolling in Tula/Ishevsk. As a note, for anyone who hates 'garbage rods' the US was still using single shot trap door 45-70 Springfields at that time.

 

[Frxdy]

I owned a 1946 Allis-Chalmer tractor. It might have been a 1944. Even though I had the serial number, the factory couldn't tell me. They said they didn't keep that close a record....they were the same so who cared? It was a crank start, and took a trick to start it quickly. No one wanted to crank it 7 or 8 times, so you learned exactly what kept it happy. I hayed 12 acres with it for 4 or 5 years and it never failed me.

 

[paulsharvey]

I Swear I read the thread title as "the Oldest" and now, I see it says "Oddest"....

 

[Williy]

I learned how to use a comptometer similar to this
one but you could put 999,999,999.99 in this one
don't have all the keys and yes you don't look at the
keys when adding

willy

 

[MossRoad]

Never got to operate one, but there were plenty of remnants of these machines, fonts, and lead pigs around the newspaper when I was hired back in 1987.

It really could be the 8th wonder of the world. I hope you find it interesting.

 

[MossRoad]

Never got to operate one, but there were plenty of remnants of these machines, fonts, and lead pigs around the newspaper when I was hired back in 1987.

It really could be the 8th wonder of the world. I hope you find it interesting.

I helped convert the last of 18 press units at our newspaper from lead plates to flexi plates (thin aluminum plates with plastic type) the first month I worked there.

 

[old and tired]

This is a research plot planter... As it drives, we were able to spray or apply different granular in-furrow insecticides and/or plant different varieties of seeds. The unit is GPS equipped, so it will start planting 40 foot plots then stops planting to leave us a 7 foot alley. During that alley, the unit clears itself by vacuum out seeds from the lines and planters so a different variety of seeds and/or different insecticides could be applied to the next plot.