[fkaCarel]

When I first looked at all the polls you started, I thought you were planning a break-in. But it is a good disguised and performed anthropological research! Now get in your shelter for all the stones and sticks that will be thrown.

Carel

[widgitmaster]

When I first looked at all the polls you started, I thought you were planning a break-in. But it is a good disguised and performed anthropological research! Now get in your shelter for all the stones and sticks that will be thrown.

Carel

Actually, I was trying to put the Machinist back in the picture, most people don't realize that it was the Machinist who opened the doors to CNC machining.

Today, a CNC machine's skills are only as good as the software you program!
Yesterday, a machine's skills were only as good as the opperator running it!

Unfortunately, as the CNC machines have evolved, the machinist's trade has devolved! There is such a void of training as the result of CNC automation, the old skills are no longer in demand!

Foruunately, I'm retired now and it longer effects my livelyhood. Today I just tinker, and have fun in my shop! But cutting metal was my first love, and it still is!

Eric

[vacpress]

Actually, I was trying to put the Machinist back in the picture, most people don't realize that it was the Machinist who opened the doors to CNC machining.


Eric

I thought the egg-heads at MIT came up with NC....

Them, and, i am sure, the warmongers in govt...

[Geof]

If you take the term Machinist at its widest definition, Machinists came up with everything because they made the machines that made everything possible.

But I suppose the comment about warmongers is accurate because the impetus behind the development of the first lathes and boring machines was to bore cannon barrels. James Watt adapted techniques from cannon manufacture to the boring of the cylinders for his steam engines.

[Cal Blacksmith]

Actually, I was trying to put the Machinist back in the picture, most people don't realize that it was the Machinist who opened the doors to CNC machining.

Today, a CNC machine's skills are only as good as the software you program!
Yesterday, a machine's skills were only as good as the opperator running it!

Unfortunately, as the CNC machines have evolved, the machinist's trade has devolved! There is such a void of training as the result of CNC automation, the old skills are no longer in demand!

Foruunately, I'm retired now and it longer effects my livelyhood. Today I just tinker, and have fun in my shop! But cutting metal was my first love, and it still is!

Eric

Please indulge me for a moment to let me make my point by way of a very short story.

King of all trades.

Long long ago, there was a large argument amongst the craftsmen as to who was the king of all trades. They took the argument to the king to settle things once and for all. The king thought it might be interesting to find out for himself who had the most important skills so he agreed to take the case.

He first called the stonemason and asked him why he was important. The mason replied that his trade was the one that built the castle and without them, the king would be homeless! True enough the king thought but asked one more question: Where do you get your tools? The mason replied, the blacksmith.

Next he called the carpenter and asked him why he was important. The carpenter replied that his trade made the framework for the houses of the town and that without them there would not be any furniture to sit on or even a table to have meals on. True enough the king answered and also asked him where he got his tools. The carpenter replied; the blacksmith of course.

The king called on all the different trades that had gathered and asked the same questions and though the reasons were all different as to why they were important, the thing they had in common was that they got their tools from the blacksmith.

The king then summoned the blacksmith who was hard at work at his smithy, ignoring the entire ruckus and when the blacksmith came before the king, he was asked only one question. Where do you get YOUR tools? The blacksmith replied I make them for myself as no one else can do it.

It was settled; the Blacksmith was the KING OF ALL TRADES!


This little story is more true than not. Everything we have today came from the fire and anvil of the blacksmith. He is the one who invented the first machines for working metal. He is the one that had a way to weld metal, long before anyone else had come up with another way to do it. We have many trades in metal working today and they can ALL be traced back to the blacksmith

So if you are running a CNC machine today, thank a blacksmith

I first started machining in Jr High school and have loved it ever since. I have also expanded into blacksmithing, can you tell??:P :P

[Geof]

......................
It was settled; the Blacksmith was the KING OF ALL TRADES!

Okay; I cry Uncle, I concede, I admit defeat. I might have bashed around hot metal at times but the closest I got to a true Blacksmith was cranking the blower on an open coke forge while he was shoeing horses on the farm I grew up on.

[Cal Blacksmith]

Okay; I cry Uncle, I concede, I admit defeat. I might have bashed around hot metal at times but the closest I got to a true Blacksmith was cranking the blower on an open coke forge while he was shoeing horses on the farm I grew up on.

You qualify for sure I am sure you are a much better machinest than I am.

Time changes all things and what is possible today in the average home shop blows away anything that was possible in the forge for the preciding several thousand years.

So as 200 years ago, it may have been the blacksmith, it is now the computer age and blacksmiths are mostly only making handrails, gates and trinkets now.

I intended my first post to be light hearted, if it came across any other way, I ask for your forgiveness. I am still trying to learn the culture of this board. Thanks

[dertsap]

Actually, I was trying to put the Machinist back in the picture, most people don't realize that it was the Machinist who opened the doors to CNC machining.

Today, a CNC machine's skills are only as good as the software you program!
Yesterday, a machine's skills were only as good as the opperator running it!

Unfortunately, as the CNC machines have evolved, the machinist's trade has devolved! There is such a void of training as the result of CNC automation, the old skills are no longer in demand!


Eric

sorry but i have to pick this apart !
Today, a CNC machine's skills are only as good as the software you program

WRONG , unless it is a monkey shop (Production)
the program is only the beginning ,being a seasoned machinist such as yourself , you must remember theory means JACK! we have to make that program work to the tooling the material and the fixturing that we use , and if it s a one or two off , fixturing is usually crude


Yesterday, a machine's skills were only as good as the opperator running it!

i agree , but so are todays , there are a lot of guys out there that know how to push the lil green button , and the big red one is for when something goes bad
but it takes true skill to make a lot of this work in a jobbing shop


Unfortunately, as the CNC machines have evolved, the machinist's trade has devolved! There is such a void of training as the result of CNC automation, the old skills are no longer in demand!

sorry but wrong again , while most of the young guys are learning cnc ,a lot of the older manual guys are gearing up for retirement , which means that there is in no doubt going to be a massive demand for manual machinists , NAME YOUR PRICE ! those machines aren t destined for the china metal scrap heap for a long time to come , someone needs to keep them running


manual guys i ve worked with always called me a premadonna and i always called them dinosaurs , but when we punch out at the end of the day we have always looked at each other with the same mutual respect to each others capabilities

[widgitmaster]

At least I know someone is reading my thoughts!
Like I have said before, I'm not happy unless I'm cutting metal!

I wasted the 1st 5yr of my retirement, even sold some of my tools, BIG mistake!
Then I bought some machines, now I'm back in action, having a blast!

Eric

[Bloy2004]

Hi Eric,
...just wanted to let you know...not only am I reading your thoughts, but all your threads.

You must be thrilled to be gearing up your shop again!

John (bloy)

[dxxx]

I served part of an apprenticeship, mostly as a "slave". Learned the name of the tools, how to drill a hole, just basic stuff. got layed off, went to another shop,got fired for not knowing anything. Went to another shop learned alittle more. Finally got a job because I was vetran. Was there 28 yrs. Still learning.

if it had not been for my dad I would have not have had the opprotunity.

doug

[nmgross]

In 1948 I was on the rifle team at my high school, and had a knife sharpening business. I graduated high school in 1949.
a friend of mine told me he knew of a colt revolver that needed some repair, and that he thought that I had enough tools to fix it.
well, I did fix it and he then brought me a shotgun that I repaired.
he told me that he hated doing what we were doing, and I realized that more than anything I wanted to be a gunsmith, so I managed to find a master gunsmith to serve a formal apprenticeship with.
he didnt want me using his lathe until I had some practice on some other machine first, so I signed up for a machine shop class at los angeles trade technical college (at the time it was still called "frank wiggins trade school", and became a college around the time I was ready to graduate).
the master gunsmith that I served my apprentceship with worked mostly seasonally, and at that time I needed some income because my dad found out, the hard way, that he had heart problems.
anyway after almost 2 full years of apprenticeship and also graduating trade
school I took a job in a machine shop-I have been a job shop machinist for over 55 yrs.

[chrisryn]

I have only been maching for two years but I learned at a well known votech here and oklahoma. The teacher required us to pass exams written and projects on manual machines before we could move onto cnc. He also encouraged to get NIMS certified. So not all schools are doing away with manual. Just thought I would make that note after reading this thread.

I'm still a chip sweeper since this is my first post.