"I've always marveled at what a real machinest can do."
I was always facinated with machinery, and after graduation from high school back in 1964 and after a little hiatius, my dad got me a job in the plant where he worked. I went to the machine shop, actually it was a model-prototype shop and handed out tools to the machinists. I had done some lathe work and the foreman used to give me some lathe and small milling jobs to do. Each person had his own bench with a granite surface plate, height gage, and all the micrometers and dial vernier calipers, and tooling you needed. All the machines were set up in metric, along with the mics and the prints were also in metric with the decimal equivilent also.
Everything made went to the inspection department, and everything was measured using an optical comparator, if hardened, was tested on a RC scale. All the technicians in the climate controlled room wore cotton gloves, so as not to change the temperature of the piece/s. Some of the tolorences were as low as .0005 most were within +/-.002.
Because I was no threat to them, they would let me see some of the work in progress, and it was amazing to see a block of steel 8"x8"x8" cut in half and hollowed out with a mirror finish. The part was formed into it and was used in a plastic injection machine, incredible work.
Later in life I worked in a power plant and many times made parts on lathes, milling machines, shapers. In our one nuclear plant there was a lathe there that could held one of the generator rotors, you rode the carriage form one end to the other.
Now afer retiring, I have a small lathe and make screws, firing pins, bore gages., etc.
So when I see something that was made 80-100+ years ago, I always marvel at the way it was made and can respect those that did the work.
