Thread: youtube video manual machining business

Was watching this video of this US machining business and their large array of all manual machines. Rows of lathes and borers and even a planer, numerous key seaters, a slotter. It was taken by one of the machinists.

Video is a bit shaky, but not the sort of shop you expect to see when this was taken in 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYEyaY3wl_Q

"A bit shaky"? By half way through I thought I was going to get motion sickness. I gave up before my head started spinning like the camera and I fell over.

Ken

So, where are all the operators? Perhaps it was meal break time?

In some respects, if you have a big shop full of old machines (i.e. not exactly a gold mine to sell off) doing the job, there will be a big cost in upgrading even 25% to CNC along with re-skilling your workforce to use them. Some of the jobs on the floor are a fair size so the CNC machinery is likely pretty expensive.

I'm of the understanding that CNC is great for a long parts run. It's advantage is less for lots of one offs. I just went back and checked a few of her other videos. In one series she is setting up a large crane hook (as in 350 tonnes size crane). There is a lot of setup time involved, possibly the longest part of the entire job. The gains of going to CNC are likely outweighed by the costs involved. Also the tolerances in a crane hook are not probably that tight. There is an extensive system of overhead crane rails for materials handling. I'm thinking the shop is well setup for the range of work it does.

However, as you say, it is not what comes to mind when thinking of a modern machine shop.

Cheers

The Beryl Bloke

Originally Posted by Theberylbloke

So, where are all the operators? Perhaps it was meal break time?...

Most likely shot at breaks or after work. That would be the conditions I'd put on an employee fluffing about shooting video's.

Originally Posted by Theberylbloke

I'm of the understanding that CNC is great for a long parts run. It's advantage is less for lots of one offs.

I think once upon a time that was the case less likely these days with controller software more user friendly for ones and two's.

unwatchable

Ken

I reckon we've witnessed a bit of industrial espionage in the making..how it got onto Youtube is a mystery. Some bloke probably thought he was going to get the sack so he video'd the place to sell the secrets to the opposition to ensure getting a job with them. What a surprise he got! The Yanks tend to think they have 'state of the art' wherever they're at.

Interesting video. Some nice old machines. I am surprised there are any all manual shops that big over there. When I started my apprenticeship in 2007, we were pretty much all manual except for 2 1980's vintage CNC lathes that were only good for batches or complicated parts. Now 99.5% of our milling is done on CNC and about 50% of tuning <500mm dia. Having worked in both worlds CNC is much quicker and easier than doing it manually for most things. Modern CNC controllers are pretty easy to program for one offs, and while it's machining I can go and do something else. We can turn up to 2M dia, and on there larger parts manual machining is more cost effective provided the part has a simple profile.

Good to see a female(pretty one too) in that line of work bit of a rarity now days