Mesta Machine Company near Pittsburgh, PA

Mesta used to make the machines used in steel mills and forging companies. To make their big forging presses and rolling mill stacks, Mesta itself had to have big machine tools. I have noticed the Mesta brand on some of the pictures I have already published.

Historic Pittsburgh photo collection

George Mesta founded the company in 1898 by merging a couple of machine shop companies. His wife, Perle Mesata, was "the hostess with the mostest" in Washington, D.C. [Oklahoman]

Andrew Stewart shared a Jackson-Township historical preservation post [photo]
Mesta Machine Works in the community of West Homestead, Allegheny County.
[There are comments about working there until it shutdown. But no one gave a date of the shutdown.[Update, 1983 is when it went bankrupt.] One did indicate that US Steel had switched to foreign suppliers.]

 

Mesta's extensive product line included such items as gas and steam engines for blast furnaces and forging presses. In the latter category is The Fifty, a 50,000 ton press that was built in 1954-55 and for decades was one of the two largest presses in the world. Owned by Alcoa, it is still used in producing parts for aircraft, aerospace, gas turbines, and more. An article in "The Atlantic" provides more details.

Information Sources

• A library of photographs related to this firm is available online, courtesy of the Historic Pittsburgh Image Collections of the University of Pittsburgh. Some of the history given above was extracted from the company history provided by Historic Pittsburgh.
• A 1919 Mesta brochure is available through archive.org.
• An "Atlantic" article on the Iron Giant press made by Mesta is well worth reading, as is a companion article from boingboing.net.
• YouTube video that discusses the motivation and results of the US Air Force Heavy Press program, which resulted in the Mesta 50,000 ton press. The press and some of its components are shown.

[VintageMachine]

Raymond Boothe posted
Mesta Machine Company: View of a Mesta 45"-90" Universal Slabbing Mill (Mesta photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe collection).

Dave Cavanaugh posted three pictures with the comment: "Mesta Machine."

1

2

3

Dave Cavanaugh http://m.newsok.com/article/2053061 Interesting link about Mesta machine's history.
Dave Cavanaugh I think it's that the steel industry was too slow to keep up with modernization and the rest of the world took over the market. In the 1980s the US lost a lot of steel making capacity to continuous caster type mills.
Rex Whinery My employer used to make a lot of hydraulic and air cylinders for Mesta machine back in the day.

Update: Dave Cavanaugh posted five more pictures.
Bruce Weinzetl I used to work for Tippins machinery in Etna Pa . They tore out rolling mills and rebuilt them. I had the fortune to drive a truck and bring all the smaller machines back to the shop. I was lucky enough to see a lot of interesting equipment in my time. Love looking at all the machines and equipment. We brought some gears back from Fairmount W. Va that had to be put on rail cars sideways and tilted with empty cars on either side to clear turning. Had a 100 ton gantry crane to unload with 5 " braided cables. It was great !!!!!!

1  Double helical gear planer

2  vertical boring mill

3  Turning Flywheel in Pitt Lathe
ca. 1905-1925

4  Bryan Koskela Tool post grinding at its finest

5  Mesta Gear Cutting Department
ca. 1905-1925

John Abbott posted

Willie Brantingham I've work on quite a few mill housings like this at E.W.Bliss/Bliss Salem. Lots of gravy cutting, work was done on a 14ft Ingersoll 3 head planer mill!Loyd Boydigan Mesta Machine.

The Vintage News posted
“ Double Helical Cut Tooth Mill Pinions. Mesta Machine Co. Circa 1920-25 ”

John Abbott posted
Mesta Machine ...Old Pittsburgh

John Abbott posted
Mesta 50K
[Please access the "posted" link for long comments by Steve OConner.]

John Abbott posted
Matt Dostou I have issues believing that's an 18 inch machine.... 18 foot maybe...Michael D. Callahan 18" spindle!!Matt Dostou Oh... Thru? Never heard a spindle call out on a mill before...(mill guy 25 yr)Michael D. Callahan Matt Dostou, HBMs are usually called by spindle diameter. A 6" HBM is considered BIG.

Bob Gaston commented on the above posting

John Abbott posted
Mesta Machine, Pittsburgh
Mick Martin Homestead! Not pittsburgh!Flyin Lazyboy Correct. They did it all, womb to tomb.

John Abbott posted
Mesta Machine
Chris Austin What a shop that must have been. A time machine would be nice.

John Abbott posted

Imagine not only the machine that made these, but the machines that use them.

John Abbott posted

John Abbott posted
3 Speed
[I don't think it is three speed because the offset between the teeth does not vary.]
Some comments on this posting discussed this gear:
Tim Mckenrick The gear in the picture is called a anti back lash gear, puts equal pressure on both sides of mating gear teeth.
Dan Adamchick You are incorrect. The 3 rows of teeth are offset for strength. It is to spread the mesh of each row of 3 teeth so that each individual tooth is timed 1/3 from another in regard to the degree of engagement mesh starting points. This way, one tooth of the 3 is always fully seated in mesh between the driver and the driven gear. And in theory, two gears set to mesh at intersecting pitch circles should not experience cogging harmonics, the offset rows also help prevent this.
Tim Mckenrick This is how the gear shop I worked at made anti back lash gears, on this picture you can see the adjusters around the perimeter, just under the out side row of teeth. The gears I worked on the Jack screws are at the hub area. When these gears reverse there is very little lag or back lash, thay also tend to ware out pretty quick. Gears were for card board lines and other paper products.

John Abbott posted
[Note they are machining inside the hub.]

John Abbott posted
Chris Austin Mesta machine.

Update:

John Abbott posted
Phil Pia Mesta! Those are the same mills i work on, nice pic

Steel Plant Museum of Western New York posted, cropped
We are sharing an image from the Bethlehem Steel Lacakwanna Plant. The back of the image has this description: "Strip mill- Hot mill roughing stand- looking S.W." Photo is dated 3/1/56.

James Torgeson shared
Aaron Barnes I worked on mesta mills in the 160" plate mill in burns harbor. Giant beasts.

Lonnie Ferrell posted, cropped
New Castle Stainless
Ryan Tapper: On occasion I'll roll New Castle stainless at the 160 Plate Mill Cleveland Cliffs Burns Harbor.
Mike Maddog Madigan: My back hurts just looking a those bearing caps.. LOL
[A comment indicates these are being preserved. But no one provided a location.]

Jay Rupert posted
My Mesta contribution.
Mark Boarts: 4 stand cold roll, photo from top of bridge of 36 crane , West Leechburg works of AL Steel.
David Pochiba: Never saw the mill turn a coil. But the day that they were showing it to a potential buyer. Pete Arner and a few electricians used the jib to set rolls into the mill to run it for the buyer. All the years I walked past that mill and jib in that pit/holder finally got to work one last time. That mill fired right up and ran great. It didn’t sell because of cracks in the hold down cylinders and was cut up for scrap. The split stands est weight of 90 tons were cut up into single blocks to be hauled out. Was in that mill yesterday…it still smells the same….the history of that place is just amazing!

Mike Theisler posted
Pulled one from the Mesta glass slide collection. I enjoy looking through these photos, and especially like to zoom very far into each photo as the glass slide provides almost endless resolution.
Anthony Letnich: Split-gear [At first, I thought split-gear was another term for herringbone. But then I noticed it means that it was built in two parts that are fastened together.]
Steven Myrick: That's a huge herringbone gear. Bet that took a couple hours to cut.
Karol F. Domitrovich: I wonder if that herring bone gear was made by FAULK, Milwaukee, Wisconsin?
Noah Landvatter: Karol F. Domitrovich good chance!
David Pochiba: Wonder how old that kid is?
Michael J. Cieslak: David Pochiba 14 maybe.
Phil Vaclavik: Holy Smokes Bullwinkles I’ve never seen a gear that HUGE.
Art Wright: Phil Vaclavik I have 4 of them twice as big drove the first 4 mill stands in a blooming mill. The spare always sat by the bearing storage building. The building was two story and the top of the gear towered over it. It took all the 75 ton hoist could do to lift it.
I was 18 Years old worked in one of the first mills in Gary. It was literally at the north end where Broadway stopped. Old design everything was momentum. A 2000 hp synchronous motor with an 18 inch wide couterweight, designed so if power was dropped the momentum would take the ingot through the mill stand. The gears were for rpm reduction to the mill stand rolls and added momentum. There were 3 position pistolgrips on the contool panel. At shut down a motor tender would induce reverse current excitation to the motor field coils to slow them to a stop. Still took 7 minutes to stop the mill stand motor. Without reverse excitation they would coast to a stop in about 20 minutes. Not like the mill stand drives of today.
Phil Vaclavik: Art Wright I worked at Verson Press in Chicago and we made gears at 10-12 feet in diameter at most. Nothing any where near this size or what you have in the blooming mill.

Steve Heavyside commented on Mike's post, cropped
#1 intermediate stand in the rail mill at CF&I Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel stamped 1908 Mesta.

Michael Ray Watkins provided four photos as comments on Mikes post:

1,cropped

2, cropped
Gear staging area

3
Under cover

4

Doug Majka commented on Mike's post
The size of pinion that would drive that large gear.

Dennis Barker commented on Mike's post
Changing out a Mesta Roughing Mill Bull Gear GCW....

Gregory Wolf posted
Examining sheets of steel after rolling. Pittsburgh, 1938.
Hunter Jones: It looks like the old 3 stand mill at USS Irvin Works.

 

Don Cassata posted

Don Cassata posted

Brian Olson posted 41 images of a book about Mesta. His comments:

One of the American greats.

Interesting side note. The MAAG gear grinder shown in one of the pictures was sold for more money than the entire West Homestead facility cost Park Corporation to buy. Remember vultures don't kill. Vultures clean up.

It was a combination of management and workers that killed the company. I walked through the old West Homestead facility (Whemco) a week ago. It is a shell of what was there in 1983. I was told seventy two people work there now.

 Did you know that Mesta Machine had a contract for a complete aluminum hot mill in 1981 that would have sustain it for a couple years. The customer was Anaconda Aluminum in Kentucky. Today they are called Logan Aluminum. What happened was the local union in West Homestead went on strike in 1981 and Anadonda pulled the contract because Mesta Machine could not make delivery commitments. The contract was given to Blawknox. That was the straw that broke the camels bad.

If the union made demands that are uneconomical you have to counter them. That is managements job. The other big cause of the bankruptcy was Mesta Machine lost their rear end on the Weber Metals press that had just been installed in LA. That was purely management mistake.

Mesta Machine would have gone down eventually anyways, I agree with that statement. I was told Mesta last profitable year was 1978. So they had four losing years before they went down. Mesta's long term failure had more to do with not taking the lead in the emerging continuous casting technology. Mesta Machine didn't have to go down when it did, like it did. I was told Mesta's machinist were making higher than standard wages for the time. Mesta's union most certainly did make a bad decision when they went on strike against a company they knew was in trouble in 1981 and refused to accept economic reality. That decision cost everyone their job. When the vultures landed they picked the bones to what it is today, seventy two people working in West Homestead. That is a simply fact. I'm not defending Mesta Machine's management or plutocrats. The bigger point is every company I've ever worked for cut wages of people when the survival of the company is in jeopardy. I never complained because "any port in a storm". My philosophy is if you can make more money working somewhere else then go work for them. Here the a perfect example to make my point. There is a reason Nucor steel is the largest steel producer in the USA today. I remember Nucor people took a 50% pay cut in the early 2000 when the industry collapsed. The company kept its head above water. Many others who refused to adjust did not stay open. There is a long list of them. Nucor's people got their standard pay back when the industry eventually recovered. The mills that refused to change closed forever.

10 photos of a 50th anniversary (1948) publication  They made armor plating and forging presses as well as steel mill equipment. There are more photos in the comments. This post has lots of interesting comments such as:

Michael Maitland: Not familiar with what they did at the Pittsburg plant - where did they get their hot steel- dont think they had a blast. Appears they forge and produce all kinds of machinery and rolls for the mills. Did read that they forged Huge Naval Guns and were preparing to make the 18 " for the Montana class, to match the Yamato/Musashi, but the class was cancelled.

Michael Matisko: Michael Maitland Mesta had on-site open-hearth furnaces of increasing size throughout its history, from which it produced hot metal for their castings from cold charges.

Mark Gallik: Michael Maitland If you look at the birds eye view of Mesta that Mr. Jasinski posted, at the bottom right hand corner is a tall square flat roofed structure. My father (who worked at Mesta for a short time) told me that it was built for pouring the big inch gun barrels.