A friend asked what was the most important thing in my life. We are talking history here. A weird question, but in about ten seconds the answer was "serving a machinist apprenticeship at Erie GE". Most of this was in the Locomotive department. A lot was in the bldg 20 tool room.
Learning was at the max and harassment was very little. We worked with mature guys, who pushed us, but didn't try to tear us down. I'll never forget how fast to turn a milling cutter or how Gill showed me how to be positive and not to analyze things to death. Some of the things we machined weighed maybe half a ton.
Naturally I got pissed ten years later and left, but never had a better job.
You guys don't go for GE, but it was great for me. Night school after 8 hrs was not great fun tho'.............................Wes
---Erie snow was a bitch, but we didn't know any better
Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Brown and Sharp and Bridgeport. Mostly vertical. The B and S was horizontal. Cutter or lathe rpm would be about 400 rpm for mild steel, using a 1inch cutter or work piece in a lathe. Carbide tools will run much faster.
Never got to run Uke's favorite--the wheel machine.
Good to learn a little more about you Wes. Have to say all the trains I hear in the distance
have a distinctive "GE-chug" vs 25 years ago when it was the "EMD throbbing hum".
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If you are in a horror movie, you make bad decisions, its what you do.
Yep, 400rpm is the go to speed for 1 inch. I still remember that after 40 years...... If you ever get a chance, go to a machine tool show like they have at McCormick Place in Chicago... It will blow your mind with what they can do now.
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I started ophph with nuthin, and I can safely say I have most of it left.... <img
I worked at the engineering center in Hinsdale, made the prototypes for farm equipment. Best job in the world. No production, tight tolerances... but done with machines that still had the war stamp on them..... Lathes, mills, then weld set up... Then the depression hit.... early 80's.. beginning of the rust belt....
Lay offs... enlisted in the Air Force since I was still young enough..... Rich man's war.... Poor man's fight...
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I started ophph with nuthin, and I can safely say I have most of it left.... <img
More on wes' story about GE's decision ta move loco producrion to Texas. Pennsylvania has/had a strong labor unionist tradition of good wages, working conditions, home ownership at 'company towns' and a 'cradle to grave' working class culture.
After joining the internationalist elite manufacturers, GE outsourced more and more production, reducing costs, and boosting sales of their products, at lower prices. Hence, higher profits!
