Buffalo(NY) Fire Department's Carpenters' Shop

Sean Wright

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Messages
902
Location
WNY, Buffalo Area
Today, my Dad (a Lt. on the Buffalo Fire Department) took my son and me on a tour of the fire department headquarters and support buildings. This included reserve fire engine storage, the mechanics' shop, some office areas, and the department carpenters' shop.

Unfortunatly there was no one in the carpenters' shop when we went through, but I snapped a bunch of pictures. This shop handles all of the wood working and carpentry needs for the Buffalo Fire Department. Back in the days of wooden ladders, they performed all of the maintence on the ladders in this shop. There was a set of doors on the floor of the shop (it is on the 2nd floor of the building), where they used to haul the ladders up off of the fire trucks using block and tackle. The rail where the block and tackle were hung is still there.

For all of you old iron tool fans, I'm sure there will be a few tools of interest here.:wave:

The 1st picture is the entire shop, as best as I could fit it in.
The 2nd picture is their massive band saw
The 3rd picture is a large disc sander/drumsander?
The 4th picture is a mortice machine
The 5th picture is a planer
The 6th picture is a large jointer
The 7th picture is a Delta cabinet saw
The 8th picture is an older table saw that had what appeared to be about a 14in blade
The 9th picture is a shaper and a DeWalt radial arm saw
The 10th picture is a large belt/disc sander

(Part1)
 

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Buffalo(NY) Fire Department's Carpenters' Shop - Part2

(Part 2)

In this one you can see a beefy grinder and part of their D-C set up.
 

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Wow that is some old arn:eek: I can see a big need back in the day with ladder making and the sort, but what woodworking needs does a large FD have nowadays? :dunno: I would hope that all the firefighters have access to the shop? I also think that quite a few fire fighters from around the country would be jealous of that shop. I know I am, but I'm not a FF. Wish I could have taken the tour with you! Looks like you had a great time!
 
Wow that is some old arn:eek: I can see a big need back in the day with ladder making and the sort, but what woodworking needs does a large FD have nowadays? :dunno: I would hope that all the firefighters have access to the shop? I also think that quite a few fire fighters from around the country would be jealous of that shop. I know I am, but I'm not a FF. Wish I could have taken the tour with you! Looks like you had a great time!

Jeff,

Now a days it is mostly repairs. There are still a fair number of fire houses in the city that date back to the days when horses were used by the BFD. These old fire houses have alot of wood work in them. Over the years things break, glues dry out and things pop apart. This shop handles all of these things. also if a fire house needs a wall, door, or window put in they go out an do it, so its not just woodwork, a decent amount of carpentry too.

Unfortunatly only the carpenters (who work for the FD, but are not actually fire fighters) can use the shop. But I'm sure if you could get in good with one of them, they might let you in to use the tools on your off time.
 
WOW! What a neat shop with a lot of history. I'd be curious when the dust collection went in, and what it is comprised of. That 14" TS and big BS look serious!!! Appears to be a smaller BS in the foreground of the big BS...a Powermatic possibly? Thanks for the picture tour! Jim.
 
WOW! What a neat shop with a lot of history. I'd be curious when the dust collection went in, and what it is comprised of. That 14" TS and big BS look serious!!! Appears to be a smaller BS in the foreground of the big BS...a Powermatic possibly? Thanks for the picture tour! Jim.

The smaller bandsaw in the foreground of the picture is actually a little 10in Delta bench top model. They also had a 10in Hitachi sliding compound mitre saw too, that I didn't get a picture of.
 
Boy, that Big Tannewitz table saw must really be old, as it looks like it is a "Tilting Table" model, vs a Tilting Arbor saw. (probably why they also have the newer Delta TS).:D

Great tour, Sean, and some very serious machinery there. (looks like someone needs there to learn not to store stuff on the jointer though, (as is evidenced by the box on the left end, AND the Rust on the infeed table on the right end where something obvoiusly was left laying on it).
 
That's some great old stuff. The thing that really caught my eye though was that light "fixture" on the big bandsaw. Seems like an odd setup in a firehouse. I can't imagine that would pass a fire inspection in any business.
 
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