TUBALCAIN Takes Field Trip to a Screw Factory
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- Join me & my friend Dwight on a field trip thru a screw shop.
Josh Clark, owner of Rockford Secondaries Company invited me to tour & video tape his fascinating machining facility in Rockford, Il.
Please subscribe & click on the little bell. Thanks for watching.
Hi, Mr Pete!
Thanks for taking us along on your tour. It really brought back some old memories.
Many years ago, I got a job at The John J Steuby Company, in St Louis, Missouri. I don’t know if they do tours, but if they did it would be worth the trip.
I went there to pick up an application, after moving to the area from Ohio. I didn’t realize at the time that the application process consisted of completing a mechanical aptitude test. I watched a number of applicants hand their test to the receptionist, and be sent on their way with a “We’ll give you a call.” I expected to get the same answer, but instead was handed an even more challenging mechanical aptitude test. After handing that one in, I was instructed where to wait for an interview. My interview was with none other than Jack Steuby himself. Mr Steuby took me on a slightly terrifying full-speed golf cart tour of the factory, showing me the different areas and departments, and telling me a little bit about some of the older machinery, and what kind of parts they produce. He explained how they take people with promising scores on the mechanical aptitude test, and train them on everything else. He explained that after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, there would be a class on how to operate a metal lathe, and every Saturday morning there was a class on the hows and whys of cutting threads (which was taught by Mr Steuby himself). He explained about how they had a very convenient payroll deduction plan to get us guys set up with the basic tools we would need to get started, and for any subsequent tools that we would need in the future. When the tour was finally over, the following conversation took place:
He: “So, do you have any questions?”
Me: “Yes sir... When do I start?”
He: “When do you want to start?”
Me: “I can start tomorrow.”
He: “See you at 8:00”
I had walked in looking for an application, but walked out with a job!
I liked working there, and I learned a lot from Mr Steuby. For the Saturday morning threading classes, I would take a prized possession, my dad’s 1962 Machinist’s Handbook (my dad had been a tool & die layout man for International Harvester back in the 1960s). I soon found out that Mr Steuby was terribly impressed by me having this book, lol.
Sadly, though, my time there was short as I wound up having to move again. I worked there for about 4 months before moving across the state. I still have fond memories of working with the pre-WWII machinery, and the numerous scars that came with it. Maybe some day, I’ll finally be successful convincing my wife to let me buy a metal lathe! 😂
Very interesting. Would love to see a tear down of one of those machines. The cams are analogous to programming in computers, but all mechanical. Thanks to Mr. Clark for letting Lyle tour and share it with us.
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What a wonderful tour of a superb facility! Gotta love made in the USA! Thanks, Mr. Pete! :-)
This is amazing to see. Thank you Mr Clarke for letting use see these machines at work.
I grew up in Rockford, and they started teaching the trades in the 8th grade, if memory serves me correctly. We had metal shop, wood shop, drafting , printing, general shop, where we learned about electricity, gas engine, and things.
They also took us on field trips, one of which went to a lot of machine shops, like camcar, Woodward governor, and greenlee.
They were very noise, but the gentlemen enjoyed their work, and made me want work there.
Thanks for the video.
THANK YOU, Mr. Pete for a very informative trip. I could smell the cutting oil from here. It was a comfortable trip as we did not have to ride in the school bus!
As you said in the beginning, nobody wants to get their hands dirty any more. I worked in a newspaper pressroom. We hired a kid in the morning - broke for lunch - and he never came back! And it is rather sad there are no more IA classes any more.
Thank you Mr. Pete and Mr. Clark! I always marvel at the ingenuity of these mechanical machines. As an old engineer it's been a thrill to think and see the details of these designs and what it took from concept to manufacture, assembly and dial in testing. And likely the designs were done by hand on drafting tables on vellum. The sequence of ops, timing, and stops from input to output and to be able to produce millions of parts repeatedly for all these years, puts some real perspective on the quality and value of these designs. I particularly enjoyed seeing the various picking devices in operation. A real treasure in my book. Thanks Again for sharing this with us!! ~PJ
Even though some of those machines are 50 years old, they actually do the job just as good as a new machine,.. just take more time. I have set up and run them before. At 25:30 Pointer, basically a spinning head below with carbide turning inserts, usually two, a grip above it that grabs the part and lowers it down a pre set amount to contact the cutter, raise it back up, next part pushes it out of gripper, cycle repeats. Anything with a head is easy to set up on a bowl feeder. Sorting on a bowl feeder takes some creativity, you design parts that mechanically detect features, and if not there (or are there) they touch the part in that area causing the part to move just a little bit, past the tipping point, and it falls away off the track.
mrpete, you could figure out those shavers real easy I bet. They have several cams, but are easy to figure out for anybody who has skills like you have. Someone below mentions why not carbide tools, the pointers most likely have carbide inserts, but the shavers are much easier to tool using hss. This is because one must custom grind a particular special shape to fit, And Clear certain profiles. The cutting edges actually last a real long time before needing sharpening. I know because I have set up and run every kind of machine they have there. Not what I do now though, now I design and make inspection tooling and occasionally even small machines.
mrpete, now you need to go visit a shop that makes the blanks that Rockford Secondary gets in. You mention in beginning of video that you thought those parts were bade from bar stock. All the smaller parts are made from Coiled Rod, everything up to around two inch diameter shank. Over two inches, it is most difficult to get coiled rod, and so, the large stuff, over two inches is made from bar stock. Search yt for cold header and boltmaker to see how smaller stuff made. Search "Hatebur AMP 70", or 75 to see how larger parts are made. NOTE, fasteners are not made on hatebur, only short parts. But this shows the bar feed process.
Most over two inch diameter shank fasteners are made in a quite slow process using vertical punch presses. But this comment would never end if I try to explain that.
Or me making one on my lathe, takes about an hour.
Thank you Mr. Pete and Mr. Clark for this very interesting shop tour. I love seeing production machinery at work. Also enjoyed the drive up there and the commentary of the sights seen along the way!
Thanks Mr. Pete for taking us on this field trip, and thanks to Mr. Clarke for sharing his facility. Mechanical automation is so much more fascinating than CNC; it shows a real triumph of engineering.
I feel Mr. Clarke's pain on the employment side, people today do not have the will to work and pride in workmanship that previous generations had. It's really hard now to just find an "okay" worker; you nearly have to settle for a warm body that shows up.
This is where the "Tricks of the Trade" are used everyday. The genius of a swing away, cam driven steady rest is just one little piece of the puzzle.
Much thanks for the exclusive and indelible glimpse of these processes and machines.
Thanks Mr Pete, took me back some fourty odd years, can even smell it. I'm in England my 1st job between secondary & further education was in a nuts & bolts factory. A bit smaller & obviously not so modern but pictures in sounds & smells never change. Thanks again.
Very enjoyable and interesting tour.....
I had a Plymouth Belvadear with the push button transmission shift on the dash.
many years ago. Thank you Mr. Pete.
Analog Human
I'm so proud of you. You can spell. 😉
Thanks! I could watch manufacturing and machining videos all day...Oh wait, I have been!!
lol
Aren't you amazed by how much metal this planet of ours has? cars, railings, I beams, rebar, wire, electronics, housewares, military equipment, and armament, fences, fasteners...limetless objects we take for granted that are here for our use. Thanks for a fun video.
I have thought the same thing many times
Real nice tour my shop teacher. Have a great day too.
Thanks
Mr. Pete, I grew up in Rockford and did my tool and die apprenticeship there. Rockford has been known for many years as the tool and die capital of the world and also has been nicknamed "Screw City USA". Thank you for taking the time to visit this factory and so everyone what blue collar and hard work is. Rockford has long been a manufacturing town and unfortunately has fallen on hard times. Keep up the good work.
Want to tell you how much I appreciate this and all you do. As a cub, I cut my teeth on a B&S screw machine. In my school where I didn't think think things like this existed. CnC has deadened our brains. But technology continues. I'm 58 years old and a tool and die maker for life.
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When i was 15 yo in 1958 i worked for a while in a lathe shop making NUTS AND BOLTS on automatic turret lathes. Like a young fool i left that job BECAUSE it took me two bus journeys to get to that job.ive regretted that decision a few times in my life. But ive had a happy FULL life and like you am still working at 75 yo. Thanks Lyle for your great videos.I just love that cutting oil smell.
Good 'ol Josh keeping the Screw City alive. Way to go buddy.
Back in the seventies we had many shops like this in NJ . Very few are left one I think is still making dental tools using the old screw machines. The valve shop I served apprenticeship in running large turret lathes all WS work horses. Only thing I hated there was cleaning the sumps ,, stink like a sewer,, but hand cleaned . But I sure liked there ability to make parts quickly with no chatter or trouble even with large forming tools hand ground the profile . Yes sir were a great nation or are we now... love the video took my back 45 years ago. Vocational school graduate here. Earned title machinist , no button pushing in my time
If you think CNC machining is "Button Pushing." You are highly mistaken! This is coming from a machinist who started on manual machines and learned his way up to CNC. Let me tell you something. You still have to do the job soup to nuts. Read the drawing. Plan the process. Design and make the work holding. Tool selection. Program the repetitive process. Trial and error. Work until it comes out right. Repeat process. Inspect. Clean it. Box it, ship it. Start next nightmare job. Sound familiar? Everything is the same except the quality will be better than in your day. And you need to know G code and some basic math. Also, once you run a even semi modern CNC lathe, mill Etc. You will never go back. Like going back to a Model T Vs. A 2018 any-made-car today.
Remember when you went to the auction at the machine shop making small spacers and they had one machine still up? Reminds me of it. Your Josh give me hope for America that some skills...they are still passed on. Beautif may be in the eye of the beholder, that shop is pure Beauty.
When I was a manufacturing engineer we did lot of feeder bowl automation for plastic speedometer pointers (needles) to feed components with pick and place mechanisms to final assembly turntables. Most all the feeder bowls come from about a 50 mile radius around Indianapolis Indiana took many trips to Indy to debug and verify new feeder bowls for our in house automation. I looks like most of those cam operated machines date back to the 1940's and 1950's a full day set up sounds about right but once the are running correctly those cam machines ran very fast. Great video I love factory tours., I never once visited a factory where I didn't learn something I had not seen before.
At my first job, during the Vietnam war. On my first machinist jobs,One of the projects was to make a machine that loaded the primer tubes for grenade. The machine used five or six feed bowls. But the bowls were purchased from another supplier.
I really enjoy those trips, the drive to the place, and the place itself. Thanks Mr Pete for sharing the visit. Cheers
fantastic brings the real hard world of repetition manufacturing into our world - aways really good to see these highly committed entrepreneurs - its what keeps the west going -worried that the guy doesn't have a good succession plan he can't keep all the skill and knowledge in his head -if he's out of action the joint grinds to a halt - he needs to have two well trained lieutenants to take over if he has to be absent .
Great video, please do more of them! I admire both the business and technical abilities of a person who can keep an operation like this going.
Thanks for a great video it brought back lots of good memory's i use to work with machines like those Center lathes Capstan Lathes and my favorite of all the Turret Lathe the big 7D i must have made thousands of bolts nuts and screws of all types and i used the micrometer with a tolerance of + or - 1 thousand of a inch the were the tolerance
Thank you for watching. I just talk to the owner of the shop again two days ago
Went to a closeout auction Saturday for a local landscaping company that has been in business for probably 30 years if not more... I was talking to one of the owners about what finally made them give it up. "Can't get enough help" (let alone good help). They had half a million dollars in work scheduled for this spring and tried to "give" it to two other large landscapers in the area and neither was interested because they can't get help themselves. Another owner commented that "we can't even mow grass right some days." Makes you wonder about the future in this country.
That story saddens me
Enjoyed every minute of that from the guided tour along the road, and walking through the factory looking at the operations of each machine. I have to admit about 10 minutes after entering the machining area I started thinking about my ear muffs. That constant noise would get to me after a while. Can't imagine 20 or so years of hearing that on a daily basis. Amazing to think what the total amount of handling and treatment each of these tiny little parts must go through from raw stock to the finished assembled product like an ice cream scooper or BBQ grill. WOW.
Thank you for the interesting and educational tour. Also of great personal interest to me was the trip up Rte 39 and across I80. You see, my father was born and raised on a farm just north of Peru in 1914. One of my uncles retired from Westclox. Another operated a fuel oil delivery company in LaSalle. Another uncle continued as a farmer on the farm north of Peru. Although I have spent my life all over the world I attended LP High School in the early 1960's. My father graduated from LP.
I greatly appreciate your work in providing videos. I look forward to each one and I hope you will continue your efforts.
I used to watch cartoons on Sunday mornings as a kid. Now I watch Tubalcain.
Hey man, I just stumbled on your really old vid on tapping with a spring loaded centre. Thanks for being my tutor
Lyle, thank you for another great factory/ Machine shop tour. I watch as many all of them I can find. This one brought back fond memories of the late 60s early 70s in central Connecticut where my neighbor had a screw machine shop. It was full, maybe 20 New Britain Gridley screw machines all lined up perfectly with probably 20’ barfeeds that looked like Gatlin gun barrels rotating around. Like you said, the smell of cutting oil! Instantly recognizable. Even at around 10 years old, I was fascinated by the timing, mechanics and capabilities of these machines. They made parts for the auto industry, pretty much all of the gun manufacturers around New England and much more I’m sure. Thanks again 👍🏽
I've had a few temp jobs over the years in various manufacturing facilities and it always amazes me how much work is still done by hand on small parts.
Yes
I am always amazed at American machine manufacturing. Thanks for taking us there.
The look of those gears and cams on the shelves shows me a maintenance man who likely an old crud, set in his ways, yet VERY organized and particular, with hands that reflect a lifetime of hard, yet rewarding work.
I remember Belvedere, I had a red and white 1956 convertible as a matter of fact. My first car in 1965; it was a great one, Greg.
Pretty nice to see those old machines still running. Makes perfect sense, since they're bought and paid for and all you have to do is keep feeding parts and check the cutters every once in a while. When I was going to College of DuPage, we visited a factory making OEM auto parts, and they had a row of New Britain multi-spindle bar-chuckers rattling away, churning out parts, programmed by gears and cams.
My dad's family is from Rockford, his father was a mechanical engineer for Barnes Drill, and it's good to know they still make machine tools and plenty of other things in the city.
Wow! This trip took me back to 1974 when I went to work for the Charles O. Larsen Hardware Co.... yep, in Rockford, Illinois! Never saw so many screws, bolts, and and stamping machines. Great experience... but I soon decided I wanted to get my teaching degree and I became a Metal shop teacher two years later. Needless to say, I relate to Mr. Pete!
Awesome
I really appreciate your videos. You provide an education to all of your subscribers, and it's clear to see that you love what you do. I am grateful for your efforts.
Please let Josh Clark know, that was really kind of him to allow you the tour, and in turn, to show your fan base. This was really neat to see !! Thank you for taking the time out to travel and for showing this. I had now idea, how much the nation (likely the rest of the western world) loves their ICE CREAM.... lol... On a side note, I have some parts for those machines, not that they would need them, with all those donor machines stuffed in the back corner there.. I even have parts for a P&W bar feeder and several sets of the taper/wedge type gripper teeth or maybe they were called extractor jaws... I don't even know why I have that stuff, vs. just throwing them in the recycle bin, as I do not have a need for these new old stock / replacement surplus
You have parts for Townsend Shavers? If so let me know what you have I might be interested in them. Thanks for your comment.
THANK YOU...for sharing. Enjoyed the field trip. Thanks for taking me along.
Thanks for the video. As a tooling salesman I called on several screw machine shops. I tried to schedule them all in one day so that I could wear older clothes because I always ended up with oil stains on them. I can remember the look on the wife’s face when I got home . To me it seems like a lot of those secondary operations could have been done when the part was made. It is uncanny how your voice and comments sound like a dear friend of mine.
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As we drive on he left in .au, "gonzo" watching someone drive "on the wrong side of the road" makes me extremely jittery - even just sitting in front of my computer; and that parked Hinckley truck gave quite a bit of relief! (that's an observation on myself and not a complaint). Interestingly - you said there are no computers in the shop, and while this is true, I'd submit (having done a little embedded programming in my time) some of those camshaft stacks are as just about as much "PLC" as many microcontroller implementations. I was very surprised that there is an outsource market like this. I always love your videos, Mr Pete, and I appreciate Josh and his team letting us join you for this fascinating tour.
Well that brings back memories. My first exposure to a machine shop was when I got a job running Bechler screw machines. I came in as a "machine operator" aka start and stop button pusher, but the machinist saw we were interested and taught us how to set up the machines, make cutting tools, use small lathes, and by the end of my time there were were writing G code for the CNC lathe. I think we got paid $3.85 per hr but what I learned there was far more valuable than what I earned. Now 30 years later I have a little 7x14 mini lathe of my own and I use it for just about everything. Last night I hobbed a worm gear and I just made an indexing plate for making graduated dials in my mini CO2 laser. Soon I hope to get a mini mill to go with it but the lathe is by far my most useful tool.
Awesome, that’s a good story
Thanks for the tour! Man, I almost needed hearing protection watching it!! Nice to see a younger man with a passion for his job. Especially machining.
I had the chance to tour the repair shop at a refinery on Friday. Really well laid out. Their only mill was an old M Bridgeport with an ACER head on it. It was pretty small for what they wanted. The lathes were'nt too large, but had huge spindle holes. Lots of stainless stock laying around waiting to become fittings. The guys were a hoot. Said I could have anything I could put in one pocket. Nothing was that small in the whole shop!
Great Video! Thanks for sharing.
Thank You for another interesting road trip video.
I was very interested to see all those older model automated machines at work.
Most of those type of machines have gone from Australia now,.
I have watched them slowly disappear over the past few years.
I can think of two or three places just off the top of my head that have closed down, (a few years ago now), they all used those old type of machines and the men that ran the machines knew all their idiosyncrasies and were able to make an accurate product just the same.
I used to work for a foundry - as a driver,- and as we farmed out a lot of our machining, I used to go to different engineering places and I saw these type of machines being used every day.
Sadly the foundry closed (went offshore) and as a result, a lot of these secondary businesses closed down at the same time, or soon after.
We used to cast and assemble railway bogies and make the big dragline buckets for the open cut mines.
We also made big (14') ring gear castings.
It was my job to deliver then pick up the things we sent out for machining, as well as deliver the finished product to the railway workshops.
Used to see Rockford bolts all the time. I still watch for them but not finding them. I made aircraft screws for a company that came to Kansas City but for some reason they closed. We had to hold tolerances to 3 ten thousands. Gov tolerance was 5 tenths. The heading machines they had were made in the 1940s. Still cranking.
Thanks for the video, I do enjoy seeing mass production factory machines at work.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first 7 minutes of windshield time accompanied by well honed sarcasm. Your extensive experience always shines thru. :-)
Mrpete, looked through your videos and could not find anything on how 99% of all those fasteners were originally formed. Think it would be a real eye opener for your subscribers! I worked for 20 years making tooling for coldheaders and second operation machines. Miss the challenges but not the constant noise. Great video!!!
tom puckett we were scheduled to visit a nearby cold heading plant that very day. There was an incident at that factory with broken pipes and flooding. The visit had to be canceled. So this video was really only half of what I had intended.
Once again, a enjoyable video. And how I remember those roads. As I said before, I have outlaws living all over that area. So does my wife. Keep up the great job.
A friend of mine is part owner of a small screw machine shop. The audio in this video is exactly what he experiences every work day. Verbal communication is almost impossible and they have developed their own ways to signal each other from a distance. They have about a dozen B & S screw machines and the clinking and clanking volume blows my mind. The sound level in their shop may even be louder than being next to a rock crusher.
That is exactly why I have tinnitus, after 50 years of it!
JIM
Nice to still see old machinery pumping away parts..
One thing that I noticed on some other video's is they are using Argol?? with water for cutting fluid. When I use to machine plastic's and used it, it would reek havic on the machinery gibbs and bearings..
Interesting. Makes you have a little appreciation for what it takes to manufacture the fasteners you might purchase at your local hardware or big box store. Thanks for taking the time and effort to make the video.
Excellent video very enjoyable!!
I enjoyed so much, the factory, machines and the screws, some of them I never saw, and the trip I love to se USA's street, road and etc.
As a young kid in the early days of TV (early 50’s), I looked forward to my favorite Saturday show, “Industry On Parade”. I lived in South Mississippi. Who knows, these shows might have influenced my becoming an engineer. Keep up your road trip videos. Thanks, Earl
Very interesting, I worked at a screw machine shop and all of our machines were bar fed. I didn't ever see one that would grab a part and insert it into the collet. We may have had one but I never saw one running. I mostly did the tapping and slitting, the tedious work. I really enjoyed that job but had the opportunity to move up to a big company where I just pushed a button and occasionally made an adjustment. Thank goodness for the maint. shop where we could go and do real machining stuff.
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Thanks for the trip; the videos of the close-ups of the operations were very good.
This was a great tour. Cam operated machines are great to watch. They are even more impressive when you consider that they were all designed on paper with a slide rule. I too wish you had gotten more video of the vibratory feeders. The selectors that sort and orient the parts a fascinating to watch mostly because of how clever the methods often are. It's interesting that in the days of one stop shopping we live in now that the first-op heading/forming companies haven't invested in finishing. It also looks like a lot of these parts will go somewhere else for threading operations.
I love the ride alongs with all the history! Thanks for sharing!
Great seeing good old manufacturing. Thanks for the tour.
Wow Lyle, this brings me back to a field trip from college. Our class (all four of us) went on a tour of the Star Expansion plant along the Through Way on the way to Newburg, NY. We really didn't get a good idea of how big the building was until you got inside and could not see the walls, the floor space just seemed to go on forever, with rows and rows of machines. I remember the vibratory feeders bringing the un-threaded stock up spiral ramps to supply the roll threading machines. Thanks for the memories, thumbs up.
That must’ve been quite a sight
Thank you for taking us along.I would love to work at a place like this. It seems alot of kids these days strive to be ignorant about any kind of tool humans use from cars to computers. I think its part or has cause this generation to just to throw away most things instead of repairing them or what few things that do get repaired, they get taken advantage of. I have 2 sons, one is arrogant, knows everything and is scared of hard work, the other is completely opposite. Had a relative that took his car for a tuneup when they had inspections here. The car failed the emission part, when he took his car to the tuneup place they told him it would be 1500 to fix it. He asked me to look at it. The car was carborated and they stuff a rag into the snorkel of the air cleaner housing causing it to run rich.
Thanks mrpete for bring us to the field trip you can tell it's a well run factory
amazeing and totally mind blowing the amount of machines that shop has. the thought and persision and expence to build these machines boggles the mind.very interesting video mr pete thanks for making this video much enjoyed.
Thanks for the tour. Very interesting. Watched the full video.
Thanks for taking us along on another interesting field trip. They’re always entertaining.
Interesting visit Mr Pete having worked in the industry for many years like Rockford Secondaries Company the company I worked for did not produce fasteners we plated them and then added various thread locking, sealants and optical sorting along with specialist induction hardening. So the equipment in your video took me back some years !
AWESOME...thank you...mind boggling if you look past the finish part and think about the design and build of the machines
looks like they make high quality fastenings unlike one's you get in the hardware store. i have to buy online to get decent ones.
Great video very much enjoyed.
have a good week
DIY TEK NUT In order to get quality items or tooling, internet is my go to source as well, right to the manufacturer.
Most shops sell substandard rubbish nowadays and of course mostly Chinese rubbish.
Amazing! Thanks to you all for having us along.
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These machines are fascinating :) At my job, I run the old Brown & Sharpe screw machines. We've also go a couple of old Davenport screw machines and a few Traub screw machines. I've never seen ones like in this video. This is awesome :) Thanks so much for posting this :)
Mr. Pete, Thanks to Mr. Clark and you for the tour and BTW I had a 66 Plymouth Belvedere HP 2, there are a few of us who remember the Mayflower Brand.
I'm glad you like the tour
Great old American company, good to see business is good. Very cool machines. My 12" Atlas is identical to yours and his. Enjoyed ~ Richard
amazing tour around the plant mr pete really enjoyed it very interesting
I remember selling Rockford fasteners at the Napa store that I worked at here in Tonasket, WA back in the 70s and 80s. Top quality nuts and bolts. Not sure if Napa still sells them or not. Thanks for the videos. They help shake some of those old memories loose from the cobwebs.
Cool operation! It's interesting to see the modular nature of those screw machines, variation from one to the other. Like how nearly each workpiece is only held with a small grasp and keeps in place through use of a steady rest bushing. Hey can't argue with the results!
I still do a little part time on INDEX screw machines and love the way the cams work. Loved the video.
Great videos...wish I could have been in your classes.keep them coming.
Well I followed your trip on Google Earth, and unfortunately I did not see a handicap permit at Rockford Secondaries, but the rest was great, outstanding video and works by the Rockford.
Hi Mr. Pete. My Dad was born in 1940 in Morrison, IL. He's familiar with the Rockford area but didn't know there was a screw plant there. He came out to So Cal in the early 60's when joined the Marines.
Very cool video. Rockford used to be such a big manufacturing area. Sad to see its decline
I find these kind of videos so interesting.
They also kind of make me sad that Ying purple are not keen hard workers anymore.
I am grim Australia so did not know they got rid of the industrial assets from your schools. That is criminal to me.
They think that's s great idea on the short term until they realise all of a sudden years later no one had skills or enough people with the passion.
I am a boatbuilder/shipwright and horticulturist so that is why I love these videos.
I love lathes. They are probably my favourite lever off machinery although i hardly every get to use them now mm
I am actually very sick and housebound wondering if an operation might fix me.
I think you are a great man with a great channel and a great attitude.
Honestly not one of your better vids but still interesting to see how the variety of fasteners are produced regardless of the lack of audible audio.
I have attempted this kind of tour in the past. hats off to you for an amazing edit of a difficult location. really enjoyed that, reminds me of manufacturing shops my dad took me when i was small. those tin pans with soldered corners and wired edges must be universal all over.
Wow those machines must take ages to set up but imagine how long it would've taken to make the machine. Very complex operations great video
Thanks
Cool video and I enjoyed it too. Thanks Mr. Pete
Back in the 1980's did some electrical work in a automatic screw shop. One machine was making cheap screwdriver handles 24/7 for several weeks. Took less then 5 seconds to drill a hole chamber edge and cut it. They did not have any smog hogs to pick up oil mist so they shut down for a week every year to wipe everything down from steel beams light fixtures etc. Had to be money makers in that depending on material & job 1 operator could run 4 machines at once. They always had trouble hiring & keeping workers for third shift. Would use left hand drill bits on some jobs because they did not have to waste a second or two to stop then change direction.
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Enjoyed very much sir. Thanks for taking us along....
What great video just the job i had at 15 yo i had to drill a 1/8 hole in thousands of bushes. I just loved the noise of the rattling lathes.
Thats why i,m deaf at 75 yo.
I also have a graveyard of washing machines a industrial driers .one day i,ll need those spare parts.cheers
Chinese would love to take over n steal his intellectual property.i dont use internet to run my business .walls have eyes and ears.
Good to know there are still some quality, Made in USA, fasteners. - Well maintained, quality built machines, can last two or three lifetimes. - Thought I saw some DUTTON-LAINSON USA made Golden Rod oil cans in there. - Great video.
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Most important machine in the shop is the baler, that makes the swarf into nice compact bales of metal. This is the money that pays for the plant, from all the swarf that is removed, the actual cost of the part is almost the same as the cost of the length of wire or rod that was originally used for forming the part. I probably have used fixtures that came from that plant, as i used to service machinery made in the USA, that had idlers and other small turned parts that look awfully similar to those parts there, and which were probably made on some of those machines.
Very revealing how products may move from one factory to secondaries and clearly further on to other factories before finish. How minute the processes were before shipping on. Many thanks.
Great field trip, no one wants to do real work anymore - or they just dont know mechanics. We lived in Chicago when I was just a little twit - I had an uncle Harvey who, after getting out of WWII worked at the Detroit nut and bolt factory for some 30 years before retiring, I still have his retirement pics with his co-workers etc. he told me about automatic screw machines so loud that hearing protection didnt even prevent the old timers from losing their hearing.
We had a Belvidere when I was 5. I left my bicycle on the driveway behind it and my mom ran over my bike, I was sad. It was that turquoise color. Ill never forget.
Too bad you couldn't have gotten into one of the header factories (Rockford Fastener had some parts in the video) but I cut my teeth at Elco and Rockford Products (now simply a shell of their former selves!) I think you would find the cold-forming manufacturing process amazing. Better to understand why all those cold-formed parts have to be processed by to Rockford secondaries or an in-house secondary process for the cutting, pointing or threading. GREAT video, brings back a LOT of memories! I am thinking Mr. Clark (Josh's dad, might have come from Elco, but I am not sure...)
I worked at Tacoma Screw years ago in Tacoma, WA. Fascinating place to work. Learnt a lot about thread gauge and pitch. Thanks for sharing this rich and interesting history Pete
Edit: It looks damn near identical to the inner factory workings of Tacoma Screw. Very cool.
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