Trickymissfit
Well-Known Member
Hi Gary,
Your Journeymans ticket is very similar to our Indentured Apprenticeships which alas are no more here in the UK, all so called "apprenticeships" now are basically government trainings schemes, which as far as i am concerned are worthless.
i was taken on by an engineering company at 17 to do a 4 1/2 year apprenticeship. i was an employee and the company payed for all of my training but they did get government support
For the first part i did a years off the job training at a technical college to learn basic bench and machining skills, you know the stuff, fitting tests and turning and milling tests which had to reach a certain standard.
The other 3 1/2 years was spent in the training area back at work with one day a week at college studiying maths, physics and engineering technology.
After which there was a sort of graduation ceremoney where i was presented with all my certificates and all my indenture papers.
I then became an Improver and went to work in the toolroom.
After an initial apprenticeship there is no longer any encouragement to better yourself from my employer, they now wanted their monies worth of work out of me.
Anymore qualifications you wanted would have to be done off your own back, i did certificates in Welding and QC. but i enjoyed machining so much thats what i kept on doing.
I joined my last company in 1983 eventually taking over as No1 machinist after 17years, having my own section where i had a Colchester Bantam 5 1/2 x20, a Colchester Student 1800 6 1/2x40 with Ainjest high speed screw cutting attachment and a Bridgeport.
I did all the one offs and developement work and was not timed i also set up and did all the electron beam welding as well as sectioning, etching and testing samples of all the welds i did, like i said previously i get huge job satisfaction from what i do.
I can see from the way that you enthusiasticly put into words, that like me you truly enjoy what you do, it makes a change to correspond with someone with this frame of mind.
Many thanks for the insight into getting my machine trued up and possibly curing my drop, i will aslo keep a sharp eye out for the book you mentioned.
Levelling machinery at work has only ever been a hap hazzard affair, time to do it weighed up against production time lost, hence it was never "allowed" to be done properly.
I am two minds whether to level my lathe in my garage that precisely as in the next few years, i intend to go into rifle-smithing fulltime and set up my own business.
I shall be purchasing better more modern machinery because i intend to build BR, Target and Varmint rifles with the occaisional traditional hunting rifle.
To get the best results i will want to get the straightest machinery i can afford but be sure that i will take all the time needed to level my new machinery properly.
Ian.
Oh BOY!! Electron beam welding!! What brand of machines did you use? I had one electron beam welder, and hope to never ever see another again! The one we had was used for a single operation and was fully automated. Welded a steel hub to a hydroformed plate (kinda looked like half of a torque convertor) that had gear teeth cut on it. There was a hydraulic press in the system that pressed the steel hub into the plate. Then sent it strait to the welder. The welder was purely robotic in nature, and used a rotorary table so the orfice was lined up exactly right with part. It would spin the part to check to see it it was strait, and then weld the hub with a weld that was about 12mm wide with very deep penitration. This took about 20 seconds from the time the hub entered the box till everything retracted. When I first went out there I asked them what all those grey stickers were that they had stuck up all over the place (you know the answer). They were the same stickers they use in nuclear subs to detect radiation leakage!! Now I ready to get outta there in a hurry. They assured me all was OK (I never did believe them), and even went so far as to bring out a gieger counter to prove it. There were lead shields all around the box, and it looked like whoever built the thing did it upside down. The problem (as usual) was lack of vacume in the orfice. That machine was the single most expensive machine to keep running in the entire corporation, and a good week for it was seven days strait without going belly up! They sold the machine to a sub contractor, and I built a wire welding complex that used several banks of Miller welders. A welder was junk after about ten days, and there were four of them. I thought they were nuts, but they showed me the paper work, and they were a half million dollars ahead in twelve months.
I leveled all my machine centers with a Federal electronic level after roughing them in with 12" machine levels to where they were within .0005" a foot. On a Devlieg Jig Mill the spec for the x axis was was .000020 max in 12 feet. I thought they were nuts, but found out that the currunt draw for the motors was about 25% of what it was at .0005". Bad thing about doing an axis that close is that things change over night, and you have to keep tweeking the leveling pads till the frame quits changing. You can't get there with a laser, but an autocolumator will also work. After a year of setting those beasts up you get a real good education on machine tool alignments. Ever get to play with Tyco Way Bearings on a slide? Or do any work with ceramic super precision ball bearing sets? That's a whole new education in itself!
gary