Recession and Manufacturing

The current recession is hitting the manufacturing sector hard. I am now seeing in my own place of employment the effects this recession is causing. There have been four weeks of layoffs at my plant. I have been fortunate so far as I'm still employed. I see fellow co-workers worry about their own jobs and what effect that has on their lives. I on the other hand haven't a care in the world because of some friends I came across on the internet called The Global Information Network. If you see yourself in a position of having to worry about your current employment I strongly advise you check out www.globalinformationnetwork.com today for a little peace of mind. Tell them Eric sent you.

The Global Information Network

The Global Information Network

I would like to introduce a brand new,member only, ground floor organization designed to allow businesses, investors and the average person have access to information and wealth creation that the social elite employ.
Back in my parents generation (WW2 generation) it took one breadwinner in the family to pay bills and have enough money left over to provide for their families. In my generation it took two people working to make ends meet. Now what I see today with my own kid's and their families is the constant struggle to make ends meet with both parents working. The finer things in life for families are disappearing.
Now with over 30 people from around the world. Together they have launched a brand new program..The Global Information Network. For the first time in history, a program is being launched simultaneously. Membership is by invitation only. I am a member and believe millionares will be made faster than any other program..Ever.
The Global Information Network is a non profit organization designed to educate businesess, investors and the general public on ways to improve your quality of life, make and create business deals easier, and virtually teach you methods on how to have, be, or do anything in your life that you desire. This organization is global and you can develop social circles worldwide.
I've been a member of the group for a short time and their primary focus is to add value back to society. I want to personally thank them for that. Once you become a member of GIN you are automatically enrolled in Natural Cures.com. This site has a wealth of information designed to help cure disease without drugs and surgery. You are among the very first people hearing about this.
Go to the Global Information Network website today and form your own opinion. They have a 30 minute introduction message on the first page of the site that will give you more information on what they are about. Once you join as a member you can access the GIN site and listen to the archived communiques. This program is simple, powerful,and works. I would also encourage you to visit www.ktradionetwork.com. This radio show is broadcast out of Chicago and is picked up worldwide. The topics and discussions on this show are very powerful and eye opening. If you don't do anything else just give this radio show a listen to. This guy is writing the book on adding value back to society and I applaud his efforts. He has added so much value to my own life in such a short period of time that there wouldn't be enough space on my computer to thank him . Thank you GIN and thank you KT.
Go to www.globalinformationnetwork.com today to sign up as a member. I am personally inviting you to join and become a member. Use my affiliate code 1500334 to join. Join now and start making all of your dreams come true.

Decline in Manufacturing

The steady decline in manufacturing in the U.S. has been going on since the early 80's. With manufacturing and finished machined parts being done cheaper overseas , employee's of US based manufacturing companies have steadily seen there wages stagnate. The products that I have come across that were manufactured from China have quality issues that should not be ignored. Some of these issues are so severe that the US buyer of these products should consider the quality of the part verses the cost of keeping that part in the US to be manufactured. US manufactured products are far superior in quality in my opinion. I think the individual employee in the US takes far more pride in his work and work ethic standards. So if you are an American company please consider the next time you need something done to take a closer look at the American worker.

Measuring Instruments

Not only in today's machine shops have the machine tools advanced in technology and ease of use but the measuring instruments and inspection machines have also kept pace. They now have equipment in the inspection departments of some shops that you can virtually take a finished part and lay it on the table of this inspection machine. With a scope that is built on the machine it looks at the part and tells you after pushing a few buttons the dimensions of that certain part and whether or not it meets it's specifications. From start to finish the whole process is completed in a matter of minutes. It wasn't all that long ago when the inspection machines had to be programmed to the finish specifications of the part and the part had to be setup on the machine and then a stylus went around the part and touched it in certain places to take measurement readings. This process from the start of programming to complete checking the part could take hours. Just another example of how fast technology is propelling us into the future.

Steel chips

Today's CNC machines have built in chip removal systems that allow the operators freedom from having to deal with the nuisance of removing them by hand. A chip conveyor is installed in all the new equipment and removes chips out of the machine into what ever you use to catch these chips. Back in the old days the machines were not equipped with these conveyors. The operators had to use brooms and shovels to clean off the machines and shovel the chips into a hopper. I remember when ever I ran a horizontal boring mill there would be times I had to stand on a pile of chips to operate the machine. When the pile got so high I would start shoveling them into the hopper.Of course back in those days it would be common place to buy a new pair of shoes every other month. Fortunately the company I worked for at the time helped with purchasing new shoes. The more I look back on how things used to be in the machine shops and how things are now makes we wonder where technology will be at in the next 50 years.

CNC

Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines have been around the machining industry since the 1970's. They were first created in the USA and were basically ignored by the US manufactures. Japan got ahold of this technology and took the lead in the development and implementation of these machine tools. The most common cnc machines you see in machine shops today are the Mori-Seki machines. CNC machines operate from a program that is loaded into the machine telling the machine what to do with a series of codes and numbers. They read blocks of information one line at a time. The control panels on these machines can allow the operator to do various functions such as stop the machine from moving at any time, rapid traverse overrides allows you to slow down or speed up the movements of rapid travel. They make manufacturing of machined parts faster and more accurate.

Safety

Safety in the machine shops today in a large part is being overlooked. When I first started in this trade some years ago it was mandatory to wear protective eyeglasses and steel toed shoes. Of course back then the equipment and machines you had to run were not safe. No protective guards were covering the workpiece and hence keeping the chips from flying towards the operator and striking him. But even in today's machining world ,foreign objects from deburring a part to the operator standing next to you can cause chips or foreign objects to fly in the air striking a person on the face or worse ,getting something in your eye. So to the young people out there that think that not wearing safety glasses or steel toed shoes is no big deal ,work in a shop for a few years and witness some accidents and then maybe you will see things in a different light .

Virgil

Have you ever worked with one of those guys that can be annoying,funny and make a lasting impression on you. I have worked with several over the years and without mentioning anyone in particular I'll simply call these guys Virgil. Let's paint a portrait of Virgil. Virgil's in his mid twenties. He has blond hair that's never combed. As a matter of fact some days he'll come in with hair sticking up on his head. He walks with a gimp. He kind of slobbers when he talks. Sometimes he gets you wet with spit.Sometimes the clothes he wears has so many holes in it that it makes you wonder how it all stays together. Now I wouldn't classify the kid as homely but he has been up in the ugly tree and has broken a few limbs on the way down. I'm sure you have all worked with practical jokers in the past and some of their antics can be quite funny. But I noticed with Virgil's generation the decline in our public school systems and what they are not teaching today's youth. It just seems like the public schools are pushing the kids through school and giving them the answers to tests just to get them out of there hair. One of my purposes in life is to attempt to educate the Virgil's out there and get them to use there own brains. One thing that does impress me with Virgil's generation is their ability to question people's motives and actions. They do not take advice freely. If and old man gives them advice that is basically sound advice they will still question it until they get it in their own minds that it logical and sound advice. So to all the Virgil's out there in the world keep doing what makes you the happiest.

Speeds and Feeds

If you are one of those old time machinist's you can remember the type of tooling we used back in the old days and fast you could run with them. The older tooling, particularly high speed steel and carbide tooling had to be run at slower feeds and speeds than today's technologically advanced insertable tooling. High speed tooling for the lathes is basically a blank piece of steel that measured in different sizes like 1 inch by 1 inch square or so on. You took that piece of steel or carbide and hand ground the shape you desired on the tool. When running this type of tooling in the manual machines you could only run it so fast as to keep the tool sharp and not have to continually take it out of the machine and resharpen it. That is the advantage indexable inserts have in today's machining world. If an edge of an insert gets dull you simply rotate the insert . There are basically hundreds of designs of inserts that anyone can choose from today. From cutting soft steels to hard steels. Aluminum or stainless. In today's cnc world you can push the feeds and speeds of these indexable inserts up to ten times faster than the way us old timers did back in the stone ages.

Steel and Forgings

When I started this trade back in the 1970's the quality of steel was never an issue with machining it. When you got forgings or castings from a foundry to machine ,there was never an issue with sand pits or defects in the material. In today's world of machining, steel and forgings have a distinct drop in the quality of the steels and metals being machined. A lot of the steel and forgings are coming out of China and it just does not have the quality that Americans once produced. The forgings can sometimes be so hard ,brittle, and full of sand pockets it makes you wonder how anyone can sell products like this. It just concerns me so much that a finished machine product will go out into the world with known defects in the material .Sooner or later these parts will wear out with the defects in them and I only hope it does not injure anyone in the process. It's obvious that the main motivator in buying junk steel is money. Let's move back in time when Pittsburgh was the steel capital of the world. They should be proud of the products they produced. China should start looking at the quality of there products and ask themselves the question; If I was a customer would I be happy with this product?

Trials and tribulations of starting as a green machinist.

The trials and tribulations of a machinist just starting out with out any experience. This can be an overwhelming time for anyone. First thing is never trust a programmer or another machinist to tell you something is right. God gave you a set of eyes and a brain to use! So use them and check for yourself. Keep your rapid overrides on crawl till you know the program and moves are correct. Always pick up your tools, sounds simple well it is there is no magic here. Touch off the insert to either a part setter or the part in the z move which is horizontal. If there is a difference in length simply face the part till it cleans up measure the lenght then subtract to the length you need and type in z (whatever the difference ie:z.05). X is about the same get the part to clean up measure the id or od and put it in your work offset. When all tools are done back them off and run slowly watch your moves. Don't get me wrong there is alot more to machining than that but so not to confuse or scare you i'm keeping it simple. You have to have good math skills or be able to use a calculator and measuring skills. Learn the feeds and speeds of the tools and parts you are running and look at the print to see what finish you need and learn to adjust accordingly. As far as boring a new set of jaws learn to write and use can cycles makes it simple from starting size to finish size. As far as setting jaws already bored try to use the MDI and write a simple program. Make sure on a lathe you are on the head you want to use keep your overrides on crawl. The program is got0101 then the x move of the outside diameter of the part. (ie:x3.144).
Go is a rapid move and t0101 is the tool and offset you wish to use. no magic there either. Then put it on hand mode in z and move in to where the jaw sits barely off the inset tighten them up then to bore you already have the size you need so put in a chucking ring and bore them.
From Chris Hartman

CNC verses Manual Machines

I remember one of my first jobs I did on a manual engine lathe. The part was called a test bar. The rough stock was cast iron. Basically all it was is a part that was 8 inches in length and had threads on either end. To the best of my recollection the thread size was 1 inch 8 threads per inch. In the middle of the part the diameter was around 3/4 of an inch. This diameter had to be polished and free of toolmarks. All they really did with this part was to screw it into some type of part to test the strength of it. When the test bar broke they would record how much pressure it took to break that bar. Anyhow back to the point I'm trying to make,the test bar itself took nearly 2 1/2 hours to make from rough stock to finish. It also had some fancy radius designed on it. To achieve making that radius on the part you had to take a tool and hand grind the tool to the shape you wanted to achieve. You could spend an hour just making the tool itself to achieve what they were asking for on the blueprint. In today's world the CNC machines, by the way CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control,could take that same part that took 2 1/2 hours to make manually and virtually produce a more accurate part in 5 minutes. CNC technology has advanced the world of machining tremendously. In the next post I will share some insight on some of the history of the CNC machines that I have witnessed throughout my career in machining.

Employers

Back in the old days of machining a machinist had to take years to become a master at this trade. They were well thought of by an employer and treated with respect for all their knowledge and wisdom. In today's world a machinist is thought of with little or no respect from the employers. Granted I haven't worked in every machine shop in the country,so for those employers out there that do treat their employees with respect you have my admiration. I contribute the downturn in respect for the machinist primarily on the advancements that the CNC machines have brought to this trade. With the CNC machines you can basically take a person who has no knowledge of machining and in a short time after some training you can place this person on the job and he or she can immediately start making profits for his company. That is what I see happening today. You can take an inexperienced person and pay him little or no money and immediately start generating profits with them. That in turn drives down the wages of the people who have been in this trade for awhile. Either by very small wage increases or deductions in benefits. More on this rant later . Write into this blog and feel free to express your opinions. I would like to hear from you. More on the topic of CNC machining on the next post.

Old Timers

I started in this trade when I was still in high school. I remember when I got my first job in a machine shop. The first thing I noticed was a lot of the old guys that were machinists had fingers missing from there hands. Back in the 1970's before the CNCmachines were established in the factories,all of the machines at that time were manual machines. Some of the machines in this shop had tags on them dating back pre WW2. Unfortunately these older machines did not have the protective covers on them as we see today on the newer equipment. Therefore you would have pulleys and belts exposed in the open and sooner or later someone would get to close to the moving parts and lose a body part. I've personally witnessed quite a few major accidents in this trade. OSHA Regulations have helped a lot over the years to improve the safety of some of these dangerous machines. In future posts I'll bring up several topics discussing the new CNC machines and the old manual machines. Tooling is another example that has evolved over the years right along with the machines. So if your just starting out and want to become a machinist or if are a machinist and get stuck on certain things I'm here to try to help.

I have created this blog for the purpose of helping anyone out there in the machining industry. In my current job I oversee the operations of 2ND shift in a general machine shop. There are about a dozen employees on this shift. I've been employed with this company for about seven years. Previous to this I was employed in the tool and die industry .I have around 30 years of experience in the tool and die trade. If you are interested in becoming a machinist or if you are just starting out in the machine shop trade I'm here to help. I will try to post often and more than willing to answer any questions that you may have.