Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work.

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Default Twin cities

I'm going there from Sep. 14 t0 21.for a reunion. Can anyone tell me
about
places or events within a radius of about 200 mi. that would be
interesting to
someone who's into machinery, machining, etc? I'm familiar with the
science and
railroad museums. Thanx, Engineman.

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Default Twin cities

There's a really great apple orchard about 50 miles west VBG

Have you been to the RR museum in Duluth?

Taconite mines.

North Shore of Lake Superior. Most beautiful place on earth.

Ford used to have tour of their assembly plant, may be shut down.

go see the used equipment jockeys in Hopkins, several other places.

See a Twins game.

If you got big bucks, buy a scalp ticket to a Wild game.

Go fishing on Mille Laks lake. There's launches to just rent a ride. They're
killing 'em but hard to get around the slot limit.

Visit the Indians (casino) and give them your hard earned money.

Take a drive on Hiway 61 south of the Twin Cities.


karl




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One more. Go shopping all day at Mall of America. (I'd rather clean out a
sewer)

Karl


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Mid Continent Railway Museum - www.midcontinent.org
North Freedom, WI
This is near Wisconsin Dells - Circus World museum is also nearby.

Lake Superior Railway Museum - www.lsrm.org
Duluth, MN
There is also the Northshore Inline Marathon from Two Harbors to Duluth on
the morning of the 15th. www.northshoreinline.com This is the largest
inline skating race in the US with the top pro teams from around the world.
The finish line is next to their Omni Theater, not far from the Lake
Superior Railway Museum.

St. Croix Railroad Inc. - www.stcroixrr.org
Hudson, WI
Large scale model club on 9 acres.

AxMan Surplus - www.ax-man.com
St. Paul, MN
the St Paul store has more mechanical stuff than the others. Not as much as
it used to. They used to have large amounts of electronic test equipment
but that has mostly disappeared.

Mall of America
Bloomington, MN
The amusement park in it has two rollercoasters.
Has more interesting stores than other malls, because it has more stores.

I-35W Bridge Collapse site
Minneapolis, MN
The 10th Ave / Cedar Ave bridge has a new bike/walk/spectating lane that has
a great view of the work being done. The parking ramp behind the Holiday
Inn Metrodome is within a short walk. There is also Town Hall Brewery (brew
pub) next door, that has very good beer and very good food.

The Stone Arch bridge (Great Northern, converted to walking bridge) just up
the river has a great view of the lock, dam, and falls on the Mississippi.
In the same area, there is the Mill City Museum (www.millcitymuseum.org/)
with information about flour milling in Minneapolis and the Mill Ruins Park
that has various displays about the mills that were at the dam.
The Gutherie Theater has public viewing areas with great views of the
Mississippi.


--
Bill Fuhrmann

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ups.com...
I'm going there from Sep. 14 t0 21.for a reunion. Can anyone tell me
about
places or events within a radius of about 200 mi. that would be
interesting to
someone who's into machinery, machining, etc? I'm familiar with the
science and
railroad museums. Thanx, Engineman.




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Default Twin cities

On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 15:53:39 -0500, Karl Townsend wrote:

There's a really great apple orchard about 50 miles west VBG

Have you been to the RR museum in Duluth?

Taconite mines.

North Shore of Lake Superior. Most beautiful place on earth.

Ford used to have tour of their assembly plant, may be shut down.

go see the used equipment jockeys in Hopkins, several other places.

See a Twins game.

If you got big bucks, buy a scalp ticket to a Wild game.


No, no, no! It's Vikings season! And Green Bay isn't that far, I
don't know if it's less than 200 mi., but it's less than a day's
drive. :-)


Go fishing on Mille Laks lake. There's launches to just rent a ride. They're
killing 'em but hard to get around the slot limit.

Visit the Indians (casino) and give them your hard earned money.

Take a drive on Hiway 61 south of the Twin Cities.


Isn't that the one that goes through St. Peter, and into the Valley
of the Jolly Green Giant? I have relatives in the Mankato area.

The Hormel plant is in Austin, a few hours' drive, but I don't know
if they still have tours - I went on one about 50 years ago, and it
was fascinating, if a bit smelly. ;-) But at least you can see where
they make the "real" Spam. ;-)

Have Fun!
Rich

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On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:50:46 -0500, B Fuhrmann wrote:

The Stone Arch bridge (Great Northern, converted to walking bridge) just
up the river has a great view of the lock, dam, and falls on the
Mississippi.


This reminds me -
anecdote
Once, a few years ago, I was watching the locks a few miles downstream
of downtown, and as I watched them line up the boats and pump the water
out, (or just let it flow out), I guesstimated distances (well, there
were big numbers "50 100 150 200" and so on painted alongside the length
of the lock, which I took to be feet), and did some calculations in my
head, and came up with something like 6,000,000 gallons of water that
they move in about two minutes.

After watching the boats go through the lock (there was even a rowboat
in there along with a couple of river yachts), I walked through the
visitor center, and they have a placard, where they run the numbers, and
the lock moves 6,000,000 gallons of water when it does its thing.

I was way too proud of myself for getting the number dead nuts by
a visual estimate. ;-D
/anecdote

Speaking of the Mississippi, Lake Itasca is only a few hours away;
you can literally walk across the Missippi river on stepping stones!
And it's absolutely gorgeous country, especially this time of year.

Cheers!
Rich

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Default Twin cities

On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 12:27:05 -0700, "
wrote:

I'm going there from Sep. 14 t0 21.for a reunion. Can anyone tell me
about
places or events within a radius of about 200 mi. that would be
interesting to
someone who's into machinery, machining, etc? I'm familiar with the
science and
railroad museums. Thanx, Engineman.


Within 200 miles? I'd give Hutchinson Technologies in Eau Claire, WI
a call and see if they're doing any tours in that time frame. The
assembly bay is quite an amazing bit of manufacturing technology- they
make all the machines in house, with the exception of the UTA and
Adept robots, and the automated lines are able to hold tolerances
measured in millionths (I know there are grinders that do this, but
this is the only mechanical forming equipment I've ever seen with that
kind of accuracy.) They've got a building up in Hutchinson, MN as
well where they do the prototyping, but I don't know if they let
vistors in there.

It's basically a glorified sheet metal shop (they make disk-drive
suspensions,) but it is really something to see if you get the
opportunity- while it may be a glorified sheet metal shop, it is that
in the same way that a supercomputer is a glorifed pocket calculator.
The machines do have computers on them, and the robots obviously are
computer controlled, but the bulk of the equipment is actually
mechanical, with series of forming dies that open and close using a
cam shaft- which makes them quite a bit more interesting to look at
than your average CNC equipment.

Far as I know there are only three places in the world to see that job
being done, and the other two are in Asia.

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Default Twin cities

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:11:46 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

The Hormel plant is in Austin, a few hours' drive, but I don't know
if they still have tours - I went on one about 50 years ago, and it
was fascinating, if a bit smelly. ;-) But at least you can see where
they make the "real" Spam. ;-)


If you like that one, there's also the Bush's bean factory in Augusta.
There's actually a lot of manufacturing in the Eau Claire area, it
just depends on what you like. Many of them have reasonably tight
security, so it would pay to call ahead.
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Default Twin cities

As long as people are thinking of plant tours, there are the two local craft
breweries.
Summit is larger and in St Paul. www.summitbrewing.com/

Surly is very small, you can stand in one spot and turn around to see the
entire brewing area. It is in Brooklyn Center, just north of Minneapolis on
Hwy 100. Unfortunately they only have tours about once a month. Looks like
you would have to save this one for another trip.
www.surlybrewing.com/tours.php

--
Bill Fuhrmann


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