Originally Posted by TrojanHorse

I'm sure 99% of your wait is just backlog and people walking into the LBS to have their inner tubes changed.

OK, the navy doesn't have artillery (fine, I'm a hair-splitter) and it's highly unlikely they turned shells, those are probably pressed anyway - larger ships, tenders & shore repair facilities did maintain machine shops on board for repairing the 9 million mechanical parts that seem to break whenever they're exposed to salt water. Motor shafts and that sort of thing were the likely items, but it's also highly likely the machine was used for unauthorized things like baseball bats, personal car parts and whatever else they felt like doing when there were no officers or chiefs around.

I tell you what though, it doesn't seem like they build machinery like they used to - those old things were monsters and last FOREVER.