THE TOOLMAKER'S ART

bye [Music] this is a timepiece precise sophisticated complex in construction yet capable of being duplicated exactly in quantity quickly and economically [Music] this too is a time piece a work of art uniquely beautiful but one of a kind impossible to duplicate exactly with the making of each additional clock or replacement part just as time consuming just as expensive as the first how did we get from an age of slow and laborious handcrafting to the highly efficient mass production of today's technology a great deal of this advancement has come through the achievements of our nation's tool makers in their constant development revision and refinement of the tool makers art [Music] one of the first americans to link the skill of the old-time artisans with new faster methods of production was eli whitney of cotton gin fame in 1798 whitney contracted with the united states government to produce 10 000 muskets to speed delivery and lower costs he developed a series of simple jigs fixtures and gauges that made it possible to turn out thousands of uniform interchangeable musket parts whitney's work laid the foundation for the world's tool dye and precision machining industry an essential part of today's mass production system [Music] with the increased availability of steel and new forms of power the machine age arrived regional manufacturers turned out such an array of new machines and new products that at one point late in the 19th century it was actually suggested that the patent office be closed everything that could be invented had been invented or so it seemed [Music] but that theory was quickly exploded by the development of the automobile suddenly everyone wanted to trade in his horse for a car [Music] to meet the demand and to reduce costs so that an even greater demand was created henry ford and his contemporaries began to turn out automobiles for the national market on a scale far beyond anything eli whitney could have envisioned the mass production of identical interchangeable automobile parts depended upon a whole new family of production tools fixtures and holding devices tooling up became a part of our vocabulary and tool making became an industry in its own right along with the allied arts of precision machining and special machine development these specialties have grown to serve not only the auto manufacturers but all the other industries who followed their lead [Music] today most of the products which are so familiar to us consist of many parts sometimes thousands and each part depending on its complexity requires a variety of operations in its manufacture such as forming cutting machining drilling each of these steps is performed by a tool or combination of tools the word tool in this sense means any device that is used in holding forming or shaping a material to the specific size and configuration required by the product design the design of a modern day product is most often an evolutionary process combining the experience and talent of many people designers engineers tool makers for instance the performance of an experimental engine in a racing car can provide valuable data for design improvements in standard production automobiles special attention is given to components like the carburetor which must deliver just the right quantity and blend of fuel and air for maximum engine performance this determination helps the design crew in the development of standard production carburetors which are duplicated by the millions for today's passenger cars each of the hundreds of separate components in a standard carburetor is the result of a particular mass production technique made possible by the tool maker skills major parts like the throttle body carburetor bowl and air horn are dye castings and received their shape from precision molds that were painstakingly created to exact specifications by a mold maker a tool maker who specializes in making molds to form the cavity into which molten metal is poured the top and bottom halves of the mold are locked into a die casting machine and repeatedly filled with an aluminum charge under pressure producing an endless quantity of precisely identical throttle bodies the carburetor bowl produced by a similar die cast mold then undergoes a series of metal removal processes in the grip of this special machine itself a product of the tooling and machining industry as the die casting travels from station to station surfaces are machined holes drilled and tapped and dimensions monitored all in an uninterrupted flow of automatic precision the tool maker's art is in evidence everywhere as in the positioning device at station 14 which assures just the right angle and depth for the drilling operation punch presses convert strips of raw metal into small carburetor parts such as valves brackets and linkage members the heart of this operation is the two-part die that acts as hammer and anvil applying a series of cuts and bends to each piece as it travels through the sessions a tool maker spent many hours cutting and shaping each progressive segment of the dye to the precise contour required even carburetor assembly and inspection operations are largely automatic shafts springs and sub-assemblies are positioned and fastened to the body castings by special tools and fixtures and in the final test operation a maze of automatic devices are directed by computer to fine-tune the adjustments on each carburetor then monitor its performance under actual flow conditions of fuel and air each holding turning and positioning device is another example of the tool maker's work the entire testing process is controlled from an adjoining computer room where printouts record the test performance of every completed carburetor before shipment before any of this high-speed production was possible a tool maker had to interpret the engineering requirements for each mass-produced part then build the special tooling needed to reproduce that part in large quantities for instance the dye that made the carburetor throttle lever began as a solid block of tool steel and using his own special equipment like this milling machine the tool maker progressively rough sizes and squares the black then proceeds to grind and contour each surface to exact dimension measuring the accuracy of his work at every stage a special jig borer is used to create the various alignment holes with extreme accuracy finally he test runs his work on a punch press to ensure that every part of the finished die is doing its job correctly all this takes hundreds of hours and requires a degree of precision that leaves no room for error obviously this is a job for a skilled craftsman the foundation of all tool die and precision machining is measurement and the accuracy of these measurements is a critical factor it must be absolutely certain unbelievably precise one of the basic instruments used by the tool maker is the micrometer but today many other sophisticated instruments are necessary when working to tolerances of a few ten thousandths of an inch this accuracy is the equivalent of splitting a human hair lengthwise into as many as 10 or 15 equal parts producing work to this degree of accuracy requires standards of reference that are even more precise the standard for all measurement in the industry is the gauge block some of which are accurate to within four millionths of an inch the equivalent of splitting that same hair into 750 equal parts large manufacturers maintain their own internal tool rooms for repair and maintenance but most of the nation's manufacturers including the industrial giants depend upon independent companies for the largest part of their original tooling and precision machining much of the demand comes from manufacturers in such fields as aerospace electronics automotive appliance recreational and agricultural equipment production tooling and machining companies undertake a wide range of work from the making of basic tools and dyes and the precision machining of production parts to the designing building and installation of special new machines for their customers production lines this special machine being tested here before shipment makes hydraulic pumps for automobile power steering systems designed and built by a tool company the machine automatically feeds and assembles hundreds of individual components turning out twelve hundred completed pumps per hour with minimum human attention [Music] precision machining is a large and growing area of industry service when the space age dictated standards of precision beyond normal manufacturing capabilities many independent tool and die companies were called upon to undertake actual short-run precision machining of special parts some have since specialized in this kind of production machining often to the exclusion of tooling and they make up a large segment of the industry today's precision machinist has access to a great variety of complex equipment to speed and simplify his work many of the machines he uses are taped or numerically controlled they automatically direct the desired cutting or contouring operation according to a predetermined program which may have been created with the aid of a computer another widely used tool-making technique is electrical discharge machining or edm this electrical erosion process permits the machining of tool and dye components in an oil submersion bath after they've been hardened by heat treatment all this means that the tool maker's job is never dull there's always a wide range of challenging projects requiring the many skills learned during apprenticeship most apprentices come into the training program with a high school diploma a reasonable mechanical aptitude and a strong interest in the technology of the field i'm in my second year of apprentice training now i went into this field because i've always liked to work with my hands and it offers more challenge more responsibility than just working on an assembly line or you know just running one machine all day every day in addition to on-the-job training we get some classroom instruction we have a regional school here in town for the classroom work i go twice a week the courses cover well math blueprint reading tool technology metallurgy the formal classroom portion of an apprenticeship supplements the basic craft knowledge obtained on the job requirements vary somewhat from state to state but generally four years of on-the-job training are needed plus several hundred additional hours of classroom study many states operate regional training programs and there are also a number of schools throughout the country sponsored by the national tool dye and precision machining association when i started the four-year apprenticeship seemed like a long time but i'm nearly through it now and it's been worth it you know for a lot of us it's a lot better than going to college because you have a chance to learn while you learn and talk about money you know i know some jobs may pay higher hourly wages but if you really look into it you'll find you may only have work for maybe eight or nine months out of the year so your total income isn't all that good i know i'll have a steady job in clean safe surroundings and i always be able to find a job anywhere in the country thank you now that my apprenticeship is over and um i have my journeyman papers things are working out even better than i'd hoped i make good money and i have the time to enjoy it but best of all my work is always changing it's always something different i get to work out my own assignments there's a lot of creativity involved and to me that's an important part of any job i'm doing what i like the future is wide open i started out as an apprentice 18 years ago today i own a tool and die company with 26 employees we belong to the national tool die and precision machining association it's a professional organization helps to maintain industry standards you know it's a good source too for management and training information matter of fact we use the association's training materials in our company's apprentice program we're always looking for good reliable people who like to work with their hands and their heads [Applause] that last part is very important precision is the name of the game it's no longer a purely mechanical field now that we're getting into electronic instrumentation tape control and computer programmed equipment so to all young people still in school who think they might be interested in a career in tool and die making or precision machining i'd suggest you take all the technical classes you can get proficiency in technical subjects and a good mechanical aptitude are important for any young person entering apprenticeship and so is the ability to stick with it it takes determination to get through the many facets of the apprentice program but the variety and intensity of the training make the time go by quickly since most tool and die companies are comparatively small averaging 20 to 30 employees their apprentices have the chance to participate directly in many different types of work without experiencing that feeling of being lost in the crowd the payoff comes of course in the wide range of career opportunities open to the journeyman tool maker many become managers of their own companies others pursue rewarding careers in such specialties as tool and die design production and quality control model making machine building engraving metallurgy and many many others wherever his work leads him the tool maker has the satisfaction that he's contributing directly to the industrial progress of our nation it's his craftsmanship his expertise that makes things happen in the world of manufacturing as our technology advances we'll see the development of new products new processes even new industries and tool making skills will be in even greater demand skilled professionals will always be needed to create the machinery of the new technology to translate theoretical concepts into working tools the new tools of our continuing progress [Music] you