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a big old arn

Frank Fusco

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
While visiting this old, nearby town, I went by what used to be a hardwood floor manufacturing factory. I once knew the guy that owned it, a real character. Enneyhow, place is abandoned. His main building still have quite a few tons of bundled wood. Some in finished flooring but much in strips. I saw lotsa oak, some pine and some cherry. In the building is the biggest honkin' forklift I have ever seen and the machine shown below. Not sure what it is but surmise it probably is/was his molding machine for turning wood strips into tongue and groove flooring. It is nearly 12 feet long, about seven feet high. The guy is still alive, I can contact if someone wants this monster. BTW, the brand is Yates-American.
 

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That's quite a piece of arn, Frank. Don't let Jeff Horton see that...he'll be trying to figure out a way to Rucker it to the Kudzu Patch. :D
 
I knew before I scrolled down someone would say something like that! Vaughn. :rolleyes:

Frank I suspect your right. Even though I am just guessing, I bet you put in the a ripped plank on one one side and the ready to finish plank came out the other end. Yates_American made lots of really neat big machines like that. What a monster! I see $500+ in flat belts on that sucker alone.

I would love to see all the wood behind it though! That interests me more.
 
Jeff Horton said:
I knew before I scrolled down someone would say something like that! Vaughn. :rolleyes:

Frank I suspect your right. Even though I am just guessing, I bet you put in the a ripped plank on one one side and the ready to finish plank came out the other end. Yates_American made lots of really neat big machines like that. What a monster! I see $500+ in flat belts on that sucker alone.

I would love to see all the wood behind it though! That interests me more.
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What wood shows in the picture is only a fraction of the total. If I get back down there, I'll take more pictures.
 
I will get hold of the steam and antique group and see if they might be intrested in it. If so I will get the contact if from you. That would look great along side the 100 year old sawmill they have set up.
 
For the record, folks. I am not a tool broker and am not selling the hunka arn posted above. I posted that as simply a curiosity. For fun. But, there have been inquiries about buying it, one serious. I'll contact the owner and put in touch with prospective buyer(s). I once knew the owner fairly well but haven't seen him in 15 years, there is no business relationship. But, as a matter of fun and camaraderie, if a deal is made via FW, I'll try to be there the day this huge hunka arn is loaded and meet the buyer, a fellow FW'er, in person and take pictures.
 
Frank,
I wish I was closer. I'd love to get a close up look at that machine. I checked the YA catalog, but couldn't find any info on this planer. That machine probably weighs around 8,000 lbs. Double surfacers are hard to come by in the Northeast. Even older machines like this are still bringing decent prices. But then, there's always the moving and rigging, and then you need to find the space to put the thing. Anyway, thanks for posting the photos.
 
I sure do hate to see old machines like that get sold off by the pound for scrap. I hope this one does not suffer such a fate.

Arthur, welcome to the Family! :wave:
 
Glad to you here Arthur!

Guys, if you want to talk about or buy BIG old arn. This is the man to talk too. Famous (on OWWM anyway) for having so many machines he has to stack them on top of each other. ;)
 
Arthur, Stu, the machine weighs closer to 12,000 pounds. It has been fitted with all ball bearings and worked fine until the shop shut down. It has eight different cutters in it and takes a whole whoop of power to run. One of our California members is interested. The owners son-in-law is in heavy equipment moving and trucking business, a lucky coincidence. He can load it and, if necessary, truck it to Cal.
Sad story of why the business shut down. I hate knocking my state, but facts are facts. The county where this machine is, is pretty rugged Ozarks. Lots of people buy land in remote areas in the mountains just for the seclusion. Sadly, some (many?) are low-lifes of the worst kind. Historically, it has been that way since about 1800. Some of these low-lifes are druggies and/or drug dealers. One night someone (druggies?) simply pulled all the copper electrical wire on the several buildings this business occupied. It was a couple hundred thousand dollars worth and not fully covered by insurance. The business closed and about thirty people were put out of jobs.
The surfacer ran until that day.
 
Frank,

The problem isn't just the Ozarks, it's everywhere. Especially in very rural areas where the meth labs abound. Around here they find a "crackhead" crispy critter about once a month where they tried to cut 480v 3 phase lines and just happen to cut the wrong one. If the scrap dealers had to be certified, this would come to almost a complete stop...
 
Frank,
That's pretty sad to hear that people are going out of business from meth-head copper thefts.

Sometimes the thieves get what they deserve. I recently read a story out of Berlin, Germany where the crooks had cut one large copper line from a closed business. The crook went to cut the next power line that just happened to be energized. All that was left of the thief was his charred hands still holding the wire cutters. When the owner of the building arrived and began to investigate the power outage he was in for quite a surprise.

Around here they steal copper baseboard heating, plumbing right out of the walls, and various appliances. Obviously the scrap yards need to operate with more stringent regulations if this is continuing to happen.

Hopefully this machine will have a grand second life!
 
Last year we had the same thing going on. People would steal the big copper wires right out of the locomotives. These were locomotives idling on the tracks, obviously in service hauling freight. Because around here it gets so cold, and because most locomotives can't start from battery power alone, we never shut them down. The thieves would though then steal the thick copper wires.

Sorry to hear about the business shutting down. 30 people does not sound like much but it probably was a good job to those 30 people.
 
Travis Johnson said:
Last year we had the same thing going on. People would steal the big copper wires right out of the locomotives. These were locomotives idling on the tracks, obviously in service hauling freight. Because around here it gets so cold, and because most locomotives can't start from battery power alone, we never shut them down. The thieves would though then steal the thick copper wires.

Sorry to hear about the business shutting down. 30 people does not sound like much but it probably was a good job to those 30 people.
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The population of the town is only a few hundred and the county is sparsly populated. It was a major impact.
 
Jeff Horton said:
Glad to you here Arthur!

Guys, if you want to talk about or buy BIG old arn. This is the man to talk too. Famous (on OWWM anyway) for having so many machines he has to stack them on top of each other. ;)
Click to expand...

Jeff,
That whole stacking thing is just a vicious rumor someone has been spreading around. I might occasionally put two or three machines on top of another, but I only do it because I have 28 table saws, 8 jointers, 3 planers, 5 moulders, 7 sanders, 3 tenoners, two mortisers, a core box machine, 3 lathes, a pattern mill, 2 shapers, 3 Unipoints, and a whole bunch of other junk in a 1500 sq ft space.

The scrap metal problem is widespread. There was a recent local news story about a teenager that was taking bullets apart for brass scrap. He had one clamped in a vise and the round exploded, hitting him in the head. He was very lucky to only receive minor injuries. I've also seen alot of theft of copper wire going on after auctions. It used to be that you would get the disconnect with a machine you bought. Lately, every disconnect and starter box has been stripped of all the brass and copper, not to mention that the wire is missing all the way back to the panel. The scrap yards in Jersey have no accounting for who they get scrap from. When I take cast iron or steel into the yard, they just pay me cash without asking for any sort of ID including a name.
 
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