Old machine tools are cool

[Cumminsman76]

Originally Posted by bigsnowdog

A real machinist is to be admired and that person will never starve and will always bring value to his company and this country.

How many still know how to hand scrape ways?

These are things for you to ponder.

Good job.

At the moment all that seems to be available are low paying machine operator positions.

And I've never understood why way scraping always comes up. Unless of course you work in a building machines or in machine repair.

[bigsnowdog]

Originally Posted by Cumminsman76

At the moment all that seems to be available are low paying machine operator positions.

And I've never understood why way scraping always comes up. Unless of course you work in a building machines or in machine repair.

It is an art from an era.

[PunkinHead]

Originally Posted by bigsnowdog

A real machinist is to be admired and that person will never starve and will always bring value to his company and this country.

Amen. A good friend and coworker of mine was recently forced into an early retirement then his pension turned over to the PBGC, which really fucked him good. He started out as a toolmaker many decades ago and went to night school and became an engineer which is what he's done for the past 25 years. Now he's returning to his toolmaking roots. He's always kept in practice by having a simple non-CNC Bridgeport and a lathe in his garage for making odds and ends. Now he's acquired a few more tools (a grinder older than I am and a very nice larger lathe) and is setting himself up to service the local factories who have all severely downsized their in-house machining capabilities because they're buying most of their tooling from China. Good toolmakers are becoming scarce so I'm sure he'll do just fine.

Plus I've now got access to great equipment for making motorycle doo-dads.

[GTomic]

Dagwood:

Have you been in the Vanc, WA area long enough to have
visited Weber Machine, located at the south end of Main Street?

When I last visited, they still had the leather belt driven line shafts(?).

The old guy with the worst palsy fit right in with brazing duty.

Now the 'Weber Building' hosts office space, I think.




.

[Shocktower]

By 2016 there will be little if no manufacturing in this country

[RedRocker]

I'm a manual machinist, do prototype work for a medical diagnostic machine
manufacturer. We have no CNC machines, dinosaur in a dying trade.

[dagwood]

Originally Posted by GTomic

Dagwood:

Have you been in the Vanc, WA area long enough to have
visited Weber Machine, located at the south end of Main Street?

When I last visited, they still had the leather belt driven line shafts(?).

The old guy with the worst palsy fit right in with brazing duty.

Now the 'Weber Building' hosts office space, I think.




.

been here since 95' I think around 2000 they vacated the building and it sat for some time. not sure if the same place but I think it is.
I would have liked to have seen that. sucks.

[dagwood]

Originally Posted by Cumminsman76

At the moment all that seems to be available are low paying machine operator positions.

And I've never understood why way scraping always comes up. Unless of course you work in a building machines or in machine repair.

try job shops. they are running out of warm bodies at a terrible rate. even with all the shops closing most of the machinist are in there 60-70's and just retire.

my age is what i have going for me. at 44 I'm the kid by a good 20 years for most of these guys. even at three other shops I've been in I was always pretty much the kid.
when we were really busy we kept trying to find younger even decent machinist and nobody under 60 had much manual experience anymore. the schools and trades pushed CNC for so many years as that was "the revolution" that a lot of the skills needed just dropped by the way. and then the market dropped out of "manufacturing" as everything went over sea's. seem's trickle down trickled away. OUR JOBS.


and it's a mill that can replicate itself.
and you can travel lap and grind a large lathe ways. it's about the only way anymore unless you have a big planer mill available. there are still a few around.
I know where there are a couple in town.

[Anorak]

Originally Posted by dagwood

my first attempt at video a while back. the Springfield is mothballed now.

if i remember right it was a 5000lb old sand cast iron rod from a press. there were two of them and the they had a six in core down the middle with chunks floating around and huge sand pits full of glass. notice how out of balance it was.

if this works

Is that you in the video? Awesome shot taking a drag off a smoke near the beginning. That makes it more authentic. It's got to be a good shop if the machinists smoke on the job.

Where are the shaper pictures?

[dagwood]

Originally Posted by RedRocker

I'm a manual machinist, do prototype work for a medical diagnostic machine
manufacturer. We have no CNC machines, dinosaur in a dying trade.

.

we are whats gonna keep the trades here. CNC is always gonna be a few programmers and a shitload of $10.00 an hour "operators"
and even that is going over seas and Mexico.

I see job shops close all the time but not nearly at the rate of the CNC shops.

I'm lucky my boss is made and loves buying up shops that folded. sucks but with just a few guys we keep growing even when treading water. he puts back into the shop were others take. we need it we get it. he gets a job way to big, he goes and buys Bigger. one job might pay for that bigger. then it's money in the bank. even if it sits six months at a time.

doesn't hurt i really dig working for him. he's a pusher hard ass with an oldrep for firing two at a time just to make a point. but in the end he's mellowed over the years and is a fuckin hoot once you're in.

"First one?" glare...
"yup" walk away. i'm on break...
"blank stare as he looks at his watch"
even when i'm done I'll tell him yup, first one. just to get a rise.

he knows i push to make Time and make it right. he doesn't say much so when he does i know he's fucking with me. or teaching me. either way. it's a good thing. I like doing something new all the time. and he knows it so he likes to share his skills with me.

[dagwood]

Originally Posted by Anorak

Is that you in the video? Awesome shot taking a drag off a smoke near the beginning. That makes it more authentic. It's got to be a good shop if the machinists smoke on the job.

Where are the shaper pictures?

i so want a little one like that.

I'll go find the shaper pics. I used it the other day pushing 1.5" key 16" long.
next time I'll try and remember to take the camera for video.

and we only smoke in the back shop (the dark side) or on OT. that was OT.
and not around the bosses wife. egad.
shit the moly D puts out more smoke and cancer than a pack a day habit...not to mention the welding.

short story;

on the dark side the mechanic is at the solvent tank washing up some bearings or something...with a smoke in his mouth.....so the boss walks by with a suit as is sorta common. customers like to get the tour. well it turns out to be the fire marshel.

.

boss shuts down the fire marshal. whats gonna kill him first? the smoking or working with tenteen different things every day that cause cancer.?!


it's cold solvent. fucken hella hard to get that lit much less keep it burning.

then the mechanic got an ass chewing...

[dagwood]

the dark side.



1942' or 43' vert shaper.


50's monarch E' they didn't get it right until the 10EE. gad this thing pisses me off. older monarchs newer monarchs. this one is a bear.



4.0 x 12 tpi as an idea of size. this was a 15 hour day and this was about 7 pm. we had that piece a bronze cast as it was a breakdown and couldn't get the material next day. it was still fuckin warm.
$1k don't fuck it up. yeah that helps...

[UncleDude]

Craftsman "Commercial" (made by Atlas) from the late 50s.

[Laconic]

Originally Posted by RedRocker

I'm a manual machinist, do prototype work for a medical diagnostic machine
manufacturer. We have no CNC machines, dinosaur in a dying trade.

Guys like you will wind up saving this country, when the time comes.

[Bake]

Originally Posted by 257bob

Guys like you will wind up saving this country, when the time comes.

I have to save myself, first.
Turn a bad situation into a positive. If I design and make it, someone else gets a piece of it. Hell, a dozen people get a piece of it.
Updating my skills is part of it, but doing things I love to do is most of it.