Knight’s Foundry in Sutter Creek, California is the last remaining water powered foundry and machine shop in the United States. It was originally founded to produce equipment for the local gold mines. Due to the availability of water at high pressure coming from the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains, Samuel Knight developed an improved design of the impulse water wheels that existed at the time. The impulse water wheel is similar in design to turbines still used in hydroelectric power generation today. These are enclosed wheels with a series of buckets to catch the water flow, much smaller than a traditional wooden wheel you may see on the side of a mill. These small water motors were used in mining and other industries through out the state and country. They were also used to power the machine tools at the foundry.
The foundry produced the water motors and equipment for mining and other industries. They performed all the fabrication steps in house. They have the pattern shop where patterns where made and repaired for the casting process, the actual foundry where the iron was melted and cast, and a complete machine shop to perform all the finishing steps. They produced some very large parts, and had some very large machines to go along with them – such as a 12 foot diameter surface lathe! The machine shop is purely mechanical (no servo motors here), so all the feeds and stepping is done with cams and gears.
The foundry is only open for tours on the second Saturday of each month, so check their website before making a trip. If you are interested in old equipment and manufacturing techniques, it is certainly worth a visit. They have a good host of volunteers who explain everything about the equipment and processes. Many of the tools are in operation so you can see how they worked. They also have blacksmithing and casting exhibitions.
A trip up to the gold country always makes for a good time. A chance to see some old machinery in operation makes it all the better.