Guest Post by Machinist
My story is a little different.
I worked a a machinist programmer after College (Colleges, all of which I hated. Three different colleges, three different degrees in five years. Long boring story….)
I have always loved machines. I especially liked milling machines and lathes and metal work. I bought my first lathe when I was twelve. It was a smelly old thing, it made all kinds of ozone smells when I flipped the switch. It had a brushed armature where I could see the sparks. These two machines are the essence of machine work. Sure, there are surface grinders, cylindrical grinders, ID/OD grinders, Famous names come to mind, Brown and Sharp, Blanchard or a old Herald for instance. There are Sunnen hones, Pacific brakes, shears of all kinds,OBI presses, etc. But give me a Clausing/Colchester lathe or a Monarch, and a Bridgeport and I can make about anything.
Rode a ’51 H-D to HS, excepting cold snowy/ice days. In bad weather I drove an IH Scout on the snowy days
I paid $250.00 for the Harley just before HS. The Scout I borrowed from Dad.
My Father was a Pharmacist licensed in NC and FL, Graduate of Pharmacy School, Chapel Hill NC.
I loved him dearly. He was my greatest mentor; listened closely and commented slowly. He entertained a lot of my ideas. I still miss him. He taught me how to work.
I was/am a rogue at heart. He knew that, and to this day I believe he was a rogue as well, but he just couldn’t show it. I’ll not go into this subject now, except to say that dad was a kind and endearing man who had a wealth of knowledge and technical knowledge. He was a Mechanical Engineer before becoming a Pharmacist.
Last two plus years college:
The Long Haul. Two years in Mass. College; little town north of Bean town on da Nawth Shawe, pure, absolute hell. Gloucester,Ma. Year and a half in NC. Fuck me dead. These people… well what can I say?
Good Gosh, I was passing Histology and Embryology ( I was a Pre-med). course with 98% . And now I an sitting next the a behemoth 300+ lb. Bee- atch complaining about how she has to go to (tax-payer Funded) summer school.
Med. Was Dead.
I knew it as well as my compatriots.
Ended up in NOLA, trying to get on as a roustabout or diving attendant. (F*** Jimmy Carter) , and his Petroleum program. “I coulda’ been a contenda.” Spent a month there living an’ dyin’ in ¾ time,sleepin’ on a blanket on a floor on “Hillary St.” and had little dinero. I had garnered a few pesos working on cars in a driveway that I didn’t own and usually drank enough beers to exhaust my labor. Oh well. And Oh Hell. $15 in my pocket. I had a full tank and another tank would cost $8 at most.
Back to SC.
I bought a Toyota sedan. It was efficient for the day and age. Worked for various machine shops, etc.In four years others came to me to work maff/trig problems, by then I had 10K worth of tools in my roll around box. Me and my little TI calculator… I could do all the calculations long-hand, logs and tables, but by gosh the calculator was a nice tool.I told dad that I had had it… enough, I knew more than the people I had been working for and I knew more about running the shop, with one exception. My former employers were “people persons”; ‘ha ha ha, shake hands, go out for dinner/drinks’. “Hey, you boys carry on, I’ll be back in a couple weeks. Any problems just talk to the foreman, he knows what to do and he is in charge.”
I did not have the “people are wonderful” persona.
‘Cuse my French,,, shit from shinola.;
Ta Damn!
Cripes A’mighty, the foreman didn’t know a sine from a tangent and couldn’t read a print. This company was soon to be bust, I walked, Sure ’nuff, two weeks they were COD only, only worse, the last week or so they had to pre-pay, zero credit, That was unheard of at that time.
I was hired as as Machinist Programmer at another business and learned a lot about sheet metal forming/punching/welding/spinning/drawing. I loved this company. The Pres. noticed me liked and me and sometimes would buy the beer when I was working over-time, The entire conveyor ended under my management. I praised my guys and begged pleaded for their raises in pay, Success! They were paid $2-3 dollars more an hour, I received a whopping $0.25 per hr. raise
I started my own business. There was a meager $200 in my pocket, an old unheated/un-plumbed bldg. With a new lathe and an old mill, I rolled my tool box from my Toyota into a “shop” and called an electrician. There was no three-phase service. That was an easy $1000 tab. Porta-Jon was a life saver for a couple/three years. Before that I sat on a metal milk-crate lined with news print with a ready shovel at hand. Bury the mess and continue the day. I worked solo at the time if you were wondering.
There was a time when machine tools (old and dilapidated) were collected if only to pad my equipment list. But, day after day, week after week, time was taken to visit those in the business. Cold calls…
“Hi, my name is… now you can tell me to f*** off.”…
Yeah, Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, burned it.”I didn’t quit, I believed I could do better.
One day These two guys called from a large manufacturer, they were technical buyers, (Fer cryin’ out loud, I didn’t even have a driveway, I hadda tell ’em to park on the street and follow me through a pasture.), After some discussion (and believe me when I tell you that I was surprised at their response), Mr. Ross asked me to “quote these five prints”, I did quote them, and won four out of the five.
I did business all over the world. I had to learn technical German, French. Spanish (I was surprised), Swedish… ISO and DIN specks and that gosh awful 9001 Blather. Nobody wanted my jobs, none.
The next thing I know is that all kinds of people are knocking on my door.
“Do you have a business license?”
“Have you seen about a tax certificate”?
“Are you registered with the County Tax Orifice?”
“Hello, I’m from OSHA”
“We’re from the property tax orifice do you have a listing of your equipment?”
etc.
I was told by a “County Agent” that I (me not the company) was to be sued because rain fell on my steel stock and polluted the waters. Later, I thought to myself that I’d bet a hundred dollars that her or her Grammy still cooked on cast iron or stainless.
I got a call one time from a neighboring County. He/she/it called to say that I owed taxes in that county for an aircraft, I asked as to the serial no. or the “tail Number,”(aka reg, number) so that I could retrieve it and fly away. She/he told me that they didn’t have that info. The next year they called again… I told him/her to first call 86 country code…Or she could tell me the plane was that I was supposed to own and that I would see to it that it would be flown away today! There was no response.
So, I persevered (don’t we all?). The business became a success, “MY GUYS” (as I refer to them) were the greatest! Sure, I had to fire a few here and there. Some just plain quit. Many that came and tried didn’t ,”make it”. If you could take a piece of metal/steel (various alloys), brass, bronze, copper, aluminum or others like UHMP, Teflon, Plexiglas, and make a part to print, well…one out of fifteen could do the work.
Fourteen hours was a normal day, eighteen hours were becoming common for me, “My Guys” were normally pulling forty-eight hour weeks. They loved the OT and I was glad to pay it, Sometimes we had “Bust a Gut” days. That was when I asked them to come in and knock and rock a job that HAD to be out the door by a certain date. When we got “Bust a Gut” weeks I paid them a 1K or 1.5K or 2K on top, one-time bonus. No promises. No questions were asked and no answers were given. The job got done.
I don’t know how, but sometimes I still get calls, that was twenty some years ago. “Hey, long time, where are you now? You still machining?” No, those days are gone. I make stuff for myself and friends.
Sometimes I get a call from My Guys, and I’ll meet a couple of ’em to have a cold-one or three. We’ll reminisce about ol’ Yancy (now deceased) and how he never had a clean set of drawers when he went home, and how Kent couldn’t tell the difference between a course and a fine pitch thread. They’ll tell me stuff that happened when I was out of the shop!?!?! Mostly, they’ll tell me what a son-of-a-bitch I was and what a tyrant I was and am, but that they are sure glad that they worked for me and that their new job was no fun at all. But they all sure had fun then and they always tell me so, and so did I.
I’m not quite seventy now, but I just could not feed the Monster state no more.
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Frickin’ awesome. I love how I disappear for a few days and then come back to something like this.
“I coulda’ been a contenda.” Yeah, I’ve had a few moments like that. This Fed/Empire death-wish has been going on longer than most want to admit.
I still get an occasional request for mechanicing, or A/C work, or checking out someone’s electrical/electronic stuff, too. I seldom agree, except for a few friends.
Thanks, Machinist. Nice start to the morning.
Cool story. I spend a few years in machining then started doing the electronics for NC machines. Did international sales and now I hate even dealing with the dumbassery that is in the world now. I’m fast getting to the place you are now.
Perseverance. Your story is exemplary of a work ethic that is rare these days, and even harder to find. A young fellow down the road, at 19, is getting some college hours and taking welding. To fund his endeavors he works at a fabrication business here in South Ga, and puts in about a 40 hr week. Living at home currently, he is an anomaly in the present time; makes good money while still living with his folks, has good ethics, quite informed about the state of the world and aspires to better himself. Rogue— a badge of distinction.
Rogue— a badge of distinction. Another name for a set of balls.
I told my nephew once, when he was in his early teens, that he needed a set of balls if he wanted to get anything done in life, but it came with a heavy price.
That same nephew worked a full-time job as a welder at GEM canopies while he worked his way through college on a full load. He went for an Electronics degree and now is one of the top people at EWEB (can’t remember, maybe SUB?), doing high-level sub-station work. Beaucoup bucks and one of the top 3 or 4 experts in this region.
Quite a difference from what is becoming so prevalent these days.
Machinist – Nice ramble through history. When you speak of the various gubment agents who called and visited, I am reminded about the biggest lie ever told – “I’m from the government and here to help.” I dealt with a bunch of them over the years and found very few who knew enough to pour piss out of a boot and even fewer who really wanted to help.
Well, that was a fabulously fantastic read! I’m not going out on a limb guessing that your story is the best best thing I’ll come across all day. Very nicely done, Machinist.
My own father was a machine operator at a Tool & Die Company. So, your story made me think of him. I miss him so much.
Me….25 years in the Machining business 9 4 years working for Defense Contractors) most for large corps supplying the heavy duty truck industry . I’m a QA Engineer .
My first machining job was making the stainless capsules on the end of a cable whip so Iridium pellets could be loaded into them and tig welded. They were then cranked into a depleted uranium cask and locked in.
Those things were then used for xraying welds or concrete.
I continued working at valve companies and job shops till the 1982 oil glut shut everything down
That taught me not to put all the eggs in one basket.
I was a carpenter, roofer, mechanic, and wound up apprenticing as a building engineer.
I am now the chief engineer of a Houston office tower along Beltway 8 and this is my last job.
Dang, you need to buy some filters from me 🙂
Great story, and what you wrote below is word for word about my ole dad:
[I loved him dearly. He was my greatest mentor; listened closely and commented slowly. He entertained a lot of my ideas. I still miss him. He taught me how to work.
I was/am a rogue at heart. He knew that, and to this day I believe he was a rogue as well, but he just couldn’t show it. I’ll not go into this subject now, except to say that dad was a kind and endearing man]
Add in TN Pat’s ‘not smart enough to pour piss out of boot’……….and I was back home again!
My older brother graduated HS and walked two blocks down to the flour mill, and spent the next 44 yrs. there in maintenance………(if ADM was considering purchase of another mill, they would send him to ‘look it over’ for recommendations)
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—-===
Thanks for memory
Nice!
Brings up fond memories when, in prep for my EE studies, I had to do a 7 week machining internship –
ended up at Honeywell in a division that was manufacturing gyro-sensors for the Tornado fighter plane…
After first 2 weeks where I had to make a handsaw all by hand and file (which their electroplating dep. then nickel-plated, for me to keep),
they let me work on lathes and surface grinding machines they called “worn out”, because their precision was down to o.1 mm, not 0.01 mm anymore 😎
Good times, and super fun…
Great story! Thank you!
Feeding the monster, that says it all.
Thanks for sharing.
Machinist
Could you shoot me an email at [email protected]? I’d like to ask you a few questions.
Robert Gore
e-mailed to you.
Thanks Robert
That was fun to read. One of my older buddies is a T & D dinosaur now almost extinct cuz he chose not to delve into printing. Still in business tho. Barely, before another one bites the dust. Schumpeter’s Creative Destruction strikes again.
In my last article, I, too, mentioned my TI calculator that I owned as a young man What I didn’t mention was how I still use it near every day. It’s sitting on my desk as I type this comment: A circa 1980’s solar-powered rig that’s so sensitive I’ll be able to use it by candlelight when the lights go dark once and for all. I’m a dinosaur too.
Still use the Picketts I had in skool. My HP-35 is next to me, running off the repaired original wall cube (a Sprague ‘lytic dried out and smoked at ~ the40 year mark). And sometimes I just do the numbers on an old napkin. Once in a while I’ll drag out the old CRC Handbook (6th edition, I think) and same for Machinery’s Handbook.
Knew an old boy who grew up in Neosho, Mo. who was a T&D guy-one of the best in the area. I doubt he had much need for Machinery’s Handbook. Anyone from around there probably knew him: WA Combs, though he hardly ever told anyone what ‘WA’ stood for and much preferred being called Lefty. (It was William Alliousous, or some such strange name). He would often get a call from the people over at Rocketdyne in Tulsa with a big problem on their hands. He’d drive over there, take care of their problem, then send them a well padded bill, which they always were glad to pay. He never smoked, but managed to drink himself to death. Truly one of a kind. We miss you, Lefty.
What? No race, culture or gender hires to deal with?
Yes, let me tell you of two of them. This one guy had curly dark hair and arrived with a few tools ( like calipers, a 0-1 mic., misc. hex wrenches,… a 12″ adj. wrench, etc). He filled out he employment form, kinda. It was mostly illegible. He said his name was Dray although he spelled it Dree.
Okay, I said, well here’s the print and all I want you to do is cut pieces to length plus 100 thousandths of an inch. Then I’ll put you on a lathe to bare cleanup one face and pull an OD to print tolerance back seven hundred thousandths from the machined face. “You’ll not even need the top jaws on the chuck, I sez.” “Call me when you get eighty pieces cut.”
I never had an office, just a table for QC, invoicing etc. I stood most of the time so I was not hard to find.
“Dray” said he just needed to get the rest of his tools out of the car. So, he went out the door. That was the last time any of us ever saw him.
I hired a female once, I put her on a ganged drill press. She couldn’t seem to find the on/off switch, so she sat down and waited for instruction (again). I let her sit for thirty minutes or so, thinking that looking around might give an idea about working in a machine shop. By the time I got back to her, she informed me that she didn’t understand what the heck we were doing or making. She didn’t think she was “cut out for this work”. I told he I’d pay her for her time, she said “forgit it” and she walked.
I never had to fire but one guy, he kept coming in late, very late by two to three hours late. Usually he was either hung over or had a few drinks for breakfast. He was a fair machinist at one time, but his parts production declined severely and were often faulty. I had his roll-around box sitting by the door (away from the machines) when he finally showed. He saw it sitting there and started to say something. He didn’t. He just backed up his truck, loaded the box and was gone. Last time I ever saw him he was selling cars. He’d lost weight and has eyes as red as a rabbit. I never told him so, but I kinda felt sorry for him, the man had wasted talents.
I almost forgot about the guy in a wheel chair… but when he saw what kind of work we did he expressed that he thought we worked on vacuums, washers, dryers,toasters and other household machines.
I still have the TI-55 and the original box and owner’s manual that came with it. The buttons are a little loose now (they rock and roll from side to side). It doesn’t hold a charge very well, guess I need to be looking for new Ni-Cads.
Thanks for all the comments so far. I appreciate it as I wasn’t sure Admin. would even consider it and I wasn’t sure that anybody would care to read what is basically a small personal story.
Sometimes I ask myself why I visit TBP especially when I know I can find the “news” in other places like maybe 0.0 hedge. But the answer always remains the same. It’s because I feel comfortable here. It’s like visiting with “my guys”, best in the world.
“Small personal stories” are what gives this joint life, makes things real, puts “faces” to the names we see, makes us feel we “belong”.
You did great. Cuz you are great.
That means a lot.
Thanks Stucky.
Would have advised you to have bought an HP calc-the early models hold up well and seem not to wear out. Plus, the red led readouts (custom made by HP’s old Opto-Electronics Division in San Jose) are as bright as ever. But, I’m biased; worked there for decades.
TI-35 over here. But the manual and the box are gone like Biden’s memory
When I worked for Federal Mogul they decided that teams were to be used for hiring . Sifting through the resume’s and employment applications was scary stuff ,especially the employment applications. Almost all of the applications had High School degree checked off but geez,the writing was in many cases 4th grade at best. I guess the rural High Schools were just Social Promotion machines.
I interviewed one guy,his name was Michael jackson..yah’ can’t forget that name can yah’ ? I asked him what happened at his last job,why he wasn’t there anymore. He told me he punched out a co-worker . He was a pretty good sized black dude . I asked him why he punched the guy . He said the guy kept messing with him,coming to his work station and saying BS to him. He said he complained to his supervisor and HR but the dude was in good with both.
So one day the guy is messing with him and well….he laid him out .
I thought about it when we were reviewing the candidates. He was honest and he could have just said “I wasn’t happy there ” and we’d have never known because we only confirmed employment dates . I recommended that we hire him.
He turned out to be a great employee. Always on time, met production/quality goals and eventually was promoted to set-up man .
He never did do the moon walk .
Fun read! Thanks for banging it out.
My dad has a clausing lathe in his basement. Wish he had a bridgeport down there as well…
I’m in a fab/machine shop now. Four Haas mills (one is 5 axis), and one lathe. Most of what we cut/weld is non-ferrous, mainly stainless, which is surprisingly tough on end mills and inserts. Some gov work, but mainly medical industry.
Wondering if you would mind emailing so that I could run an idea past you; an idea for an item that would need to be stamped/progressive die.
I’m Chris at [email protected]
cz , (CZ motorcycles were Czech made, pretty good stuff. They made a lot of dirt-bikes, usually “wing-dings”. You know, because when you cranked one up and revved the throttle it made a wiiiiiiing ding-ding-ding sound. They were mostly two-stroke engines.)
Also don’t forget that stainless usually does have significant amounts of iron, but Austenitic stainless steels are non-magnetic as opposed to the Martensitic types. When nickel is added to stainless steel in sufficient amounts the crystal structure changes to “austenite”. The basic composition of austenitic stainless steels is 18% chromium and 8% nickel. This enhances their corrosion resistance and modifies the structure from ferritic to austenitic. Austenitic grades are the most commonly used stainless steels accounting for more than 70% of production (type 304 is the most commonly specified grade by far). They are not hardenable by heat treatment.
I sent you an email. Thanks.
Depending on size and complexity, progressive dies can be very expensive, as can be the press and feeder.
That can be true Llpoh, but I saw the design. Looks to me like he can have blanks stamped out on one side and have the shape formed in a cavity on the other. I haven’t worked out all of the details yet, but an older OBI with the purchase of a decent set of die plates, and the punch form could be die-rubber as the shape is all in the cavity. Coil feed can be really simple with a pneumatic advance or even an electric solenoid advance, no index holes required. I’m guessing about 3-4K for a 20 ton Rousselle press with double palm buttons and cage (mandatory).
A blank die-set for 2K max. I’m not sure about coil feeder and spool. Then of course, he’d need to know the stock coil gauge intended and the alloy. I think cz could do it all for 10K or less, even including the blanking die and a forming die.
Might be a consideration to use pre-cut blanks and hand feed to get started. Is side by side an option, blank on one side form on the other, volume dependent? Cavities can get tricky depending on depth of draw, and depending on whether pressure plate resistance is needed to allow the metal to slide as it is formed, so it is great if rubber forming can be used.
A twenty ton press is a baby! There are some beasts out there.
“A twenty ton press is a baby!” Yes it is, though it can still remove fingers and such. That’s why I mentioned palm buttons and a cage.
The design according to what I saw did not require deep drawing into a cavity. Blanks could be made first, then the dies exchanged to press the blank into a cavity. However, it looks like a blank and the cavity could occupy the same die set shoes. There are no sharp angles or rolled edges, the material looked to me to be approx. 20 thou. aluminum or so. Die rubber as has been used to make screw threads for light bulbs (just to note an example) and appears to me to be more than adequate for the job. I think a steel cavity with a custom rubber punch would work perfectly. D-2 would be more than adequate for the tooling.
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What a beautiful read … My two biggest takeaways:
1) The nature of the evil and nefarious government that PRODUCES NOTHING, sits back and enforces codes/laws on an arbitrary basis; and
2) The esprit de corps between you and your guys … including the OT paid without hesitation and ‘unannounced’ bonuses paid when tough jobs were completed.
Way to go, bro … That is what this country SHOULD BE all about … LOVE IT!!.
Thanks Machinist. Nice read.
People who have never run a business have no real understanding of the regs and laws and taxes and personal liabilities and cashflow issues that attach to the endeavour. It is a very big part of why so many businesses fail.
Machine sops have changed radically over the years. Robots, CNC, etc have done away with a lot of the skilled labor. Some pimply computer geek can now program parts that used to be the realm of highly skilled tradesmen. Auto feeders, etc. have eliminated a lot of general hands.
I have a friend that runs a shop. Where he used to have dozens of tradesmen and general hands, he now has only a few. One guy manages up to ten auto machines, and each machine does the work of multiple machinists. They never stop. They do on occasion break down or need servicing, but no coffee breaks, sick days, holidays, social security, etc, and they go 24/7. Of course, the govt has decided they will try and tax the machines given they can’t tax the workers and the employer.
You are right on the money with that comment Llpoh. I could read the writing on the wall back when Clinton was in office. My days were numbered.
Sometimes, in dreams, I would see myself walking into a spotless shop with CNCs humming all across a spotless white floor as soon as the light switch was flipped. There was nothing to be seen except huge multi-pallet mills and multi-spindle lathes (all of which were 4th and fifth axis). No people, just a vast expanse of single and double robot arms and machine tools. The HVAC system made sure that I couldn’t even smell coolant. R2D2 carried around a cache of inserts and other cutters and replaced the tooling where needed by wireless contact.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Wow – I loved your story – and all of the follow-ups in the comments. I am a self-taught machinist, and over the past 25 years have built myself a pretty complete little shop. I have a South Bend 9″ model C with the quick change gearbox, and a SB Heavy 10 tool room lathe with the 2-1/4 x 8 spindle that takes 5C collets and the taper attachment. A German Prazi benchtop lathe and Prazi bench mill as well as a Rockwell free standing vertical mill (takes R8 collets). The oddball piece is an Ammco 7″ shaper (circa WWII). It’s all backed by a literal ton of instrumentation and tooling of the Starrett and Brown & Sharpe moniker to name a few.
I work for an R&D Engineering company in the Electronics Department and am also the Chemistry Lab manager. I personally built parts of the vacuum pump for the sample analyzer aboard the Curiosity rover on Mars. I am the only one of the 20 something people in my department allowed in the machine shop and have been granted permission to use the machines in there. It’s mostly a courtesy to me since I really don’t have many machining tasks. One of the biggest areas my company excels in is making cryocoolers. These are refrigeration systems that work down into the cyrogenic temperatures. Spindle speeds on gas bearings of our own design is 650,000 rpm. The coldest we have ever gotten is 2 Kelvin. We have made slush Hydrogen! The guys in our shop routinely work to 50 millionths (the best I can do is to tenths).
I got started in machining as a ham radio operator. When I started to get involved with building microwave parts for amateur satellite communications, I had no other way to obtain the parts as a hobbyist. I learned how to fabricate filters and resonant cavities from plumbing pieces and scrap by brazing them together and machining them to tolerance. Something that could cost me $600 I could make out of $2 worth of materials and some sweat equity.
Whenever I see photos or images of someones workshop, I study them. I’ve always been fascinated to see how others set up their shop and hope that I might learn a new trick or two. There is just something about being able to build things from “whole cloth”. I am a bit of a perfectionist, and everything I make has to be clean and polished with nary a sharp edge. Crisp yes, sharp no.
Thanks again for sharing. Despite the fact that I never worked a day in the trade, I truly appreciate the fact that the machinists in my company accept me into the fold.
I poster above mentioned progressive dies. I have a story about a hugely expensive progressive die installation. Progressive dies, for those who do not know, are dies run in a press, hydraulic or flywheel, that are multi-stage, where flat sheet metal is fed through the die, and more than one operation is done to it progressively, by the same die. Chrystal clear? It is a bit hard to explain.
Anyway, the plant I was running was commissioning a new, very large, $250,000 progressive die. It was installed in a very large press, and was being first trialled. The toolmaker gradually adjusted the press so that the gaps of the top part of the die matched the bottom part of the die plus the metal sheet. So far so good, all going according to plan. The toolmaker then made a serious mistake and instead of adjusting the ram up, adjusted it down significantly. The next stroke of the several hundred ton flywheel ram came down and hit the top die against the bottom die very hard. The entire plant shook from the shock of the hit.
The long and short of it was that a $250,ooo die was destroyed. That was almost 40 years ago, so you can imagine the fallout. The toolmaker and the chief engineer were tossed. Those kind of mistakes were career ending. The engineer was really an innocent bystander, but heads were called for, and so heads rolled.
My major learning experience there was to not make big mistakes. The rest of my career I avoided big mistakes, the biggest being a $25,000 screw up I made by not running sufficient trials of a new material. It still pisses me off, as it was entirely avoidable. At least it was my money and not someone else’s.
My biggest FUBAR story also involved a press. Although, this press was a hydraulic monster standing twenty plus feet vertically.
There was a special broach the company had had made. The broach was about 12 feet long and was square in cross-section. The small end was round and acted as a pilot for the round holes that had been drilled and bored on a large horizontal mill into a stainless plate. These stainless plates were machined extensively to hold all kinds of rollers and cooling water jets with many large through holes and many other tapped holes. They were parts of frames used in “continuous cast” steel production.
Well, gee whiz, the print called for 4.33″ (110mm) square holes at various places. Thus the broach they ordered. The day came, the broach was here, and what a beautiful piece of work it was. I have no idea what they must have paid for it. They hoisted it into place using a gantry crane, let the pilot gently enter the hole and then the hydraulic pressure was gently applied. I hid. I mean I didn’t want to watch. I left the building. I had no faith that this broach would go through 4.5″ thick stainless plate. Not even with 50 pounds of KY Jelly was this going to be a success.
Ka-boom, I could hear it and feel it all the way outside, the earth shook.
The press was probably ruined. The broach looked like a wind ripped pine tree trunk with all kinds of shattered tool steel littering the floor in a large circle.
Later, the word got out that the Pres.’s son had ordered the broach. I just shook my head and went back to work.
I know of a case where a hugely expensive glass lined pressure vessel was built. Heavy steel vessel, lined god knows how with glass.
They were showing it off to the buyers. The engineeer in charge opened the top hatch to shine a light into the perfect glass lined vessel. Out of his shirt pocket dropped a set of verniers. Ping went the glass, and fractured. An enormous amount of money instantly blown up.
The engineer climbed down, and exited the facility, and was never seen again.
Murphy’s law: shit happens.
The corollary: and at the worst possible time.
“Ping”
I know the word. I also know the feeling. “Ping, your tap just broke off in the hole.” “Ping, your part just left the vice on the mill.” “Ping, your un-drawn tooling just fractured.” “Ping, you just snapped your brand new Interapid indicator carbide point.”, etc.
Second corollary: Shit flows downhill.
I love reading you guys sharing these stories. I never worked in that area (at least not even close to that level), but I’ve been around enough in many different areas that I understand at least the basics of what you’re saying.
My own personal high (low?) point of failure was a learning experience that has lasted me to this day. It ended up costing somewhere in the area of $270,000, give or take. In 1977 dollars. It was USN dollars, so I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing – it is what it is, to plagiarize Uncola.
I was involved in the first use and continuing development of the first digital inertial navigation for the navy. The test station was a hybrid of analog and digital, about 6′ x 4′ x 2′, with all kinds of drawers and gauges and fine wires. Daunting if you didn’t know what you were doing.
It had a pedestal that the Inertial Measuring Unit (IMU, used in A-6Es and F-14s) was mounted on for diagnosis and repair. It was a massive solid column that was topped by a piece of gear that was spec.ed to the point of insanity. It could hold the IMU to tolerances that were at the edge of limits detectable by the digital sensors of that time; it had to be in order to keep the IMU itself within its own required parameters. That pedestal could move the IMU through all of the axis positions that an aircraft could; pitch, roll, yaw. At pico-micro tolerances. A spendy piece of hardware.
The IMU itself was roughly about 16″ square, with some of the world’s first IC boards and incredibly sensitive sensors and an innovative new gimbal package. The IMU itself cost about $250,ooo.
So, I’m training a young woman, fresh out of school. She’s smart, pays attention and seems to be coming along quite nicely. I was standing back supervising, letting her go through her stuff solo for the first time. The shop supervisor called me away for a couple of minutes. When I came back, the IMU was mounted and the cables all hooked up. Everything looked good so I told her to fire it up. Everything looked fine until it came to the first roll test. As soon as she spun the wheels and tipped the mount over, the IMU fell off and started flopping around like a demented possessed chicken with its head chopped off. She had forgotten to tighten the mount bolts after putting the cables on. Got the procedures mixed up.
Words can’t describe that unit’s gyrations; the gyros were wound up at about 640,000 rpms and the precession was enormous. Needless to say the IMU was completely destroyed, the pedestal was damaged, the station was battered pretty extensively and the pedestal mounting hardware needed replaced. One high point; no one got hurt, which was a miracle all on it’s own.
That one made it all the way to the admiral. The young woman was completely overwhelmed but I took the heat – I was the one who should’ve verified that everything was set; I was the one responsible. The tech rep and my whole chain of command supported me so I came out of it fine. But the admiral told me years later that he almost did me in.
She went on to become a really good tech, and life went on. I have never, ever, to this day ever failed to double check everything, and I always refuse to take my attention off until the final procedure is done. If for some reason it does happen, I recheck everything from first to last.
Check twice (at least!) and cut once.
Great story/history that took me back to my apprentice days in the 60s as a tool-maker in a machine shop of a brass founders owned by the Delta Metal Co in Birmingham UK. They were great days and I learned so much and love machining and metal work which later came in handy at home as a hobby.
It wasn’t long before the company offered me to train as a company secretary and I moved to the office – not nearly so much fun, but it sealed my career for which I am grateful.
Tool making is a special art. And it is dying out, giving way to tech. I employed tool and pattern makers, and they were almost impossible to come by in the end. And what they demanded as wages got so out of hand I had to begin outsourcing work to specialist high tech companies. For a while, toolmakers were demanding, and getting, a full year’s pay for six month’s work. They thought it was a gravy train without end. Then it ended.
Yes, Tech will always impact many skills. Even our corporate legal work was taken over by WP in the 70s/80s and now AI etc. Time moves on and those wanting to survive will need to adapt. Thankfully it’s not my problem anymore and my kids are surviving the onslaught.
yes China now has hundreds of thousands if not millions of tool and die makers!
“I’m not quite seventy now, but I just could not feed the Monster state no more.”
I’m sixty now decided at the young age of forty two, I could no longer feed the monster state.
I never went to college, quit school when I was sixteen, just because I was lucky enough to grow up during desegregation, and sent to 95% black school with 4% puerto ricans, and 1% white, so I laugh today, at all the white
people who live in the burbs, and know all about black people, but never lived with them.
When I was 18 my first job, was setup on Davenports, what a noisy,oily, piece of crap only made for low tolerance machined parts, at 19 I applied and was hired for setup on Tornos, this was in 1979 for a fortune 500 company, cutting cams, making all my own tooling from blank carbide., etc. buy 1983 they brought in their first CNC screw machine, so much easier to program a lathe then cutting cams that do the same things, what I did notice right away was the mechanical machines Tornos with cams was more efficient, cycle time were were 20% faster.
After I trained myself for about a year on the CNC, I applied for a Industrial Engineer in a union shop with all NC’s and CNC ‘s the NC’s were from the 60’s, so long story short, I went on to hold 5 more engineering titles in manufacturing both machining and fabricating, at the age of 39 I was promoted to operations manager, and I started researching what money was, at that time I realized all through history paper currency had a 70 year average life span before it hyperinflated away, so I made a decision to put 100% of my life savings into what the definition of money was and had a 5000 history as money and never once failed, as Greenspan called it the payment of last resort. Most here if not all know what that is, it is something that out performed the DOW and S&P but only if you look at a 20 year or 50 year chart.
I have so much more to say, but I like the machinist didnt have the persona “people persons”; ‘ha ha ha, shake hands, go out for dinner/drinks’.
I hope everyone forgives my grammar, I always received C’s and D’s in english and A’s in science and math, I live in Pennsylvania less then two hours from the Administrator, you guys s are good people, what else to say, we think alike, and would love to meet sometime.
Posted twice had to delete one post-ughhhhhh
Machinist,
Great story! I thought this was on par with Admin, Uncola, HardFarmer, Llpoh, and even Stuckey! Exalted company indeed.
I’m of similar age, and though never a machinist, I spent the better part of three decades working with them, and one of my best life-long friends is a good one.
After a fairly successful run as a carpenter, and building a few houses, for reasons unclear to me at the time, I got a BSME from a good midwestern state school.
Not much of a TI user, I always used the HP Reverse Polish Notation calculators, and was quite happy with their performance.
Your comments about the ISO 9001 and DIN blather particularly hit home, as I led the efforts of two companies to get certifiied to the nonsense.
I spent the lion’s share of my career as a rotating machinery specialist, primarily in design. I studied rotordynamic analysis with the guy who made the primary fuel pumps on the space shuttle work, and later in my working life did a fair amount of CFD, computational fluid dynamics…expensive software and fairly high powered PC’s.
I was always accepted in the machine shop, being somewhat of an anomoly in the design engineering offfices; a guy with common sense who was handy as hell!
Some of the best memories and experiences I have are of field service jobs around the world, in oilfields, refineries, on islands and ships, and huge factories. I got to party, eat and drink with an amazing bunch of machinists and welders over the years, and how many times I wished my woodworking skills were as good in metal.
I think the most important thing I learned in school was the 2nd law of thermodynamics, entropy; everything goes to shit unless you input energy to prevent it. Thus my handle. Presently happily retired in rural flyover country, I would love to have a drink with you anytime! Thanks and hope to see you write more in the future.
You are very kind, NtroP.
Right now I am a little more interested in @troP and how not to achieve it.
If we were to meet, I’m buying.
Thanks.