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John D


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Flashback to '80 - Machine Shop
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Back in the day... for me it was Mr. Epley's "Machine Shop II" class, sophomore year in HS. Our project was to make a tap wrench - starting with raw bar & roundstock, do the taper cuts, knurling and cut all threads using the lathe & tool bits we made/ground from raw tool-steel stock.

34 years later it's still doing great service!

 

(35 years ago (freshman yr) the project was a screwdriver. Starting with drill-rod, we forged the end flat, ground it to shape, then turned a hunk of handle material on the lathe. Pressed the two together and we have achieved screwdriver! - Still have this one in my drawer)



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John D. - St. Louis Park, MN.

1965 El Camino - LT-1, 4L60e, 4wh discs, SC&C susp.
2013 F-150 Platinum - Twin Turbo 3.5

2018 Factory Five MkIV Roadster build thread
Lost in the 60s


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That's dang cool that you made those from scratch...tiphat

We didn't have a machine shop in school but I took every metal shop course I could.

You were still in school in 1980 ???  By that year, I had been married for 8 years, was moving into my second house and had a 3 year old daughter.....geeeez I feel old.



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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

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1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1967 Camaro SS/RS 350 M20
Dave Seitz


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John nice job on the tape handle and to still have it does say something. Question on the video, HOW MANY films did that guy do the voice over on? Holy crap every other info movie from 1970 and prior must have been done by that guy.

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John D


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I was fortunate to live where I did for HS.

My HS was the 1st of the 4 Maine Township schools, built in '29, later dubbed "Maine East" (when South, West, and North ((site of Breakfast Club film) were built.

The area administrators must have seen the writing on the wall, and in the very late '30s built a huge Industrial Arts wing. Now remember this is HS... we had:
- Electronics shop
- Print shop (kids did all the print material for the District - flyers, theatre programs, everything)
- Woodworking I (basic stuff)
- Woodworking II (cabinetry)
- Machine Shop (4yr commitment, all machine tools, foundry, & welding)
- Automotive Service I & II (labs & theory, w/ engines, chassis, and axles on stands for hands-on)
-Automotive Service III & IV (actual servicing of vehicles... 10-bay shop, 3 lifts, Binks paint booth)

The brunt of this was for the war-effort in the early 40's - while the guys were overseas, this place was buzzing during the day & into the night training the gals into the trades.

Kids in machine shop had their normal curriculum projects, but the Machine III & IV guys were often assigned "repair" jobs. Wood or Print shop would break something, and we'd have to make new parts for the 50+ year old machines - from scratch - including gears, taper shafts, cast & machine new pulleys, whatever it took!

Maybe I'm old and biased... none of this 3D printing crap or CAD/CAM (it didn't exist yet) - we took a hunk of raw material, used MATH, measuring instruments, and our hands & smarts to carve a part from a block of whatever. I've got nothing against modern CAD/CAM/Automated machining, BUT... the so-called "machinist" had better know how to make a part "old-school"! Being a machinist is knowing tooling, feed rates, sequence of operations, finishing... not loading a blank into the chuck and pressing "RUN" - especially when the computer takes a dump!



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John D. - St. Louis Park, MN.

1965 El Camino - LT-1, 4L60e, 4wh discs, SC&C susp.
2013 F-150 Platinum - Twin Turbo 3.5

2018 Factory Five MkIV Roadster build thread
Lost in the 60s


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When the computer takes a dump, there IS no machining to be done. Nothing can be done manually on a CNC machine.
The machinist still has to know how to interpret the blueprint to make the part but he/she punches the data into the computer, rather than making the part themselves.

The art of machining a part such as you did is near gone.

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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

Lifetime member of the "Cars apart Club"

1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1967 Camaro SS/RS 350 M20
John D


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While there'll be scores of "Machine Operators" in the shops, my hope is there'll still be ONE old, curmudgeon/cantankerous SOB... who grabs the squirt can & fills the drip-oilers, chucks up a piece of stock, and can teach the young-bucks/doe's the ART of being a Craftsman/Tradesman.

"Apprenticeship" is a (unfortunately) lost essential in the trades. Not very long ago a youngster signed an agreement with a tradesman. The agreement basically said you would willingly take whatever sh*t job assigned to you, do it well, LEARN, take the next job, LEARN, get sh*t for pay, and over the course of 4 or so years your Master would impart his lifetime of skills & experience to YOU - and you would be his/her equivalent. Then you could claim the title of master/journeyman. It wasn't about money or prestige - it was about perpetuating the craft to the next generation. Your work will outlive you.

("Artisan"... a word that rankles my hackles!! Artisan Bread... Artisan Sandwiches... Artisan this/that. An Artisan is a person who crafts their particular specialty from SCRATCH, one at a time, not in a factory, not for mass-merchandising, ONE unit - for ONE customer... friggin' buzzwords belittling the TRUE masters of a given craft.)

I'm ranting... but there are skills and talents that are being lost.







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John D. - St. Louis Park, MN.

1965 El Camino - LT-1, 4L60e, 4wh discs, SC&C susp.
2013 F-150 Platinum - Twin Turbo 3.5

2018 Factory Five MkIV Roadster build thread
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