Before this turns into another flame war, lets return to metal working... please!
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From: gingery_machines@yahoogroups.com [mailto:gingery_machines@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jose Luis
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 7:46 AM
To: gingery_machines@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [gingery_machines] the-starrett-book-for-machinists-apprentices
Those were the days when "knowledge" had a real meaning.
Now we're stuck with engineers and politicians and unions along with a bunch of stupid organizations that want to convince us of what's best for us.
But it's good to know that in some places there's still love for craftmanship.
José.
From: Jim Ash
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 2:07 PM
To: gingery_machines@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [gingery_machines] the-starrett-book-for-machinists-apprentices
Maybe five years ago, I had a day to kill in Petersham, Mass and started roaming the area. Just to the north is Athol, home of Starrett, which I just happened to trip over. I stopped in and was offered a tour, which I accepted. I was expecting the basic public-safe, 50-cent tour for the machine-tool ignorant.
What I got was a guy in maybe his early 30's working on an apprenticeship. Apparently tours are one of their responsibilities. The apprenticeship program ran for several years. They spend at least 2-3 weeks in each of the areas (some a little longer), which takes a year or two. After that they pick an area in which they would like to work and finish their apprenticeship in that specialty.
He asked me what I wanted to see, and I pretty much said 'everything', which is pretty close to what we saw. We were all over the place, right next to operating equipment. I was probably with him for 3-4 hours. We saw just about every machining, heat-treating, and finishing operation they had (there was one area in which they mark/engrave measuring tools which is off-limits to the public, because it's a proprietary process that they guard). They also have a little museum mock-up of line-shaft-driven equipment they used to use; it was amazing to see how unsafe it had to have been with big flat belts spinning everywhere and virtually no guards on anything.
One of the noteworthy aspects of the tour was that everywhere we went, the people were busy and happy. It was like a throwback to the 50's when we actually had a strong manufacturing economy; the land that time forgot. My guide had friends everywhere. We stopped and chat with a few, including a lady assembling Last Word DTI's. A friend of my guide who was running a couple surface grinders dragged him aside to discuss a process-improvement idea he had, and he wanted my guy to help him make up some kind of fixture. The level of cooperation and camaraderie was pretty cool to see. I stood aside and waited, 3 feet from one of the grinding operations, but my guide was comfortable enough with me I guess he wasn't worried. ... and they didn't have me sign a liability waiver, either. It was refreshing to see someplace still existed where liability lawyers haven't trumped common sense and personal responsibility.
I haven't looked at it yet, but if what I witnessed is a result of the practices in this book, I'd consider it a must-read.
Jim Ash
-----Original Message-----
From: Jose Luis
Sent: Mar 4, 2011 2:54 AM
To: gingery_machines@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [gingery_machines] the-starrett-book-for-machinists-apprentices
Hello, you might like going to the source of this book, it's from the archive.org website.
Have a look at this link:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=machinist%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts
Good reading.
José.
From: Matthew
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 3:33 AM
To: gingery_machines@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [gingery_machines] the-starrett-book-for-machinists-apprentices
I was looking around for machinist tool chest plans and came accros the following free download:-
http://www.craftsmanspace.com/free-books/the-starrett-book-for-machinists-apprentices.html
Quite a lot of use full things.
regards, Matthew
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