# Us Navy Course



## lawman (Dec 8, 2015)

Hi All,
New here.  I have no metal working tools or experience, but I am interested.  I built cabinets in a past life and turned a lot of writing pens.  So, while waiting on permission from the captain to get a lathe or such, I thought I would at least read up on things.  I have the US Navy Machinist's course in pdf.  Is it worth the read?

TIA
-mark


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## lawman (Dec 8, 2015)

Wow.  Okay so this course has nothing to do with metal work.   Guess I'll be moving along then.

-mark


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## higgite (Dec 8, 2015)

Patience, Grasshopper. Rome wasn't built in an hour and a half.

Tom


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## CluelessNewB (Dec 8, 2015)

<-- This Navy Guys says try the Army one!    (I'm not sure what Navy course you have but there probably is some Navy course out there that might be useful) 

Army Stuff:

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/us-army-machining-course.24599/


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## lawman (Dec 8, 2015)

Rich, Thank you so much!  I will take a look.
and Tom you are so right.

-mark


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## kingmt01 (Dec 8, 2015)

Welcome to the forum & addiction. Warning: The machine is just the start of it. You'll linked spend more in tooling & stock then the machine.

We have some members from Texas. Maybe hook up with one & watch them turn the dials.


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## 51cub (Dec 8, 2015)

Yea, it's kind of misleading. Mac Mates don't do the machine work the name would have you believe. Look for a Machinery Repairman 3&2 course. It's probably still worth reading through, though.


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## planeflyer21 (Dec 8, 2015)

lawman said:


> Hi All,
> New here.  I have no metal working tools or experience, but I am interested.  I built cabinets in a past life and turned a lot of writing pens.  So, while waiting on permission from the captain to get a lathe or such, I thought I would at least read up on things.  I have the US Navy Machinist's course in pdf.  Is it worth the read?
> 
> TIA
> -mark



Hi Mark!

If it is the PDF for the actual machinist rating, then YES, it is well worth your time!  After having the shop on ship make us a pump impeller shaft for a water brake, I was wishing I had gone into that rating instead of AB-E.

In the years since then I've spoken with two other military machinists, one Army and one Air Force.  When I told both I was a machinist, both puffed up a bit and said "I'm a machinist in the Army/Air Force."  I replied "Wish I'd done that when I was in the Navy."

BOTH of them said "Those Navy machinists really know what they're doing!"


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## Paul in OKC (Dec 8, 2015)

Well, if you survived the pen turning habit, you may do okay here! (I am also a penturner)  Same things apply, and it is just as slippery a slope


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## CluelessNewB (Dec 9, 2015)

Here is the Navy "Machinery Repairman  NAVEDTRA 12204-A"  in pdf format


A large collection of US Military publications can be found here:
http://www.maritime.org/doc/#neets


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## lawman (Dec 9, 2015)

Thanks Rich


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## gi_984 (Dec 9, 2015)

Welcome.  Not sure if you're aware of a few folks on You Tube that do excellent videos for new and aspiring HSMs.  I like Mr Pete 222, and Tom's Techniques.  Very good basic a s well as more advanced techniques to get you making good parts & projects.  Videos by Keith Fenner  and OX Tools are also good.
    I also recommend getting to your local community college.  Most have Machine tool programs that offer continuing education courses.  I've taken multiple classes at mine.  I call it grown up shop class.  Nothing like having a real machinist instructor teaching you the basics.


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## Richard White (richardsrelics) (Feb 26, 2016)

Being a Navy machinist, and now a Journeyman Toolmaker, I have the Machinery Repairman book, well I did, just have to remember where I put it.  MR "A" school in San Diego California took me from not even knowing how to turn a lathe on to, well here I am 32 + years later still turning and burning.  I always wondered what it would be like to do the same job for 40+ years and retire. When I finally get to retire, I should be right close to 50 years machining.  I just hope someone comes along that wants to learn what I have so the trade can be continued.


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## Steve Shannon (Feb 26, 2016)

Richardsrelics,
There are quite a few people here, myself included, who would like to learn from you.


 Steve Shannon, P.E.


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## Scruffy (Feb 27, 2016)

Wish I lived closer to Richard
Thanks ron


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## gi_984 (Mar 1, 2016)

Richardsrelics,
    Turning & Burning!  I saw a short story about the Navy Machinists on National Geographic or Discovery channel.  It was very good.  Showed the shop onboard a  ship and the interview with the crew.  Saw them wrestling a big pump casting or similar onto a lathe to clean up. 
I've visited several floating museums (US Navy aircraft carrier, battleship, and a submarine).  Was fascinating to experience all the history first hand.  And I always took a keen interest in the machine shops/tools on board.


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## Richard White (richardsrelics) (Mar 1, 2016)

I was fortunate to be on a Repair ship, USS Cape Cod AD-43 stationed in San Diego California. Our machine shop was very well equipped, 20 lathes from a small threading Hardinge to 2 VERY large lathes with 6 foot chucks, We also had 2 VTL's, Vertical Turret Lathes, with 8 foot OD chucks,  1 Horizontal Boring Mill, 8 Knee mills, our own grinding shop with a cylindrical grinder that could grind a 6 foot pump shaft, taper grinding as well, and even had our own plating shop.  And the tool crib was to die for, oh those were the days...LOL  We spent 4 months in Yokuska Japan repairing ported ships., big project was to replace ALL the Fuel transfer valves within the USS Midway. If memory serves there were 42 of them?  We had our own mold shop that cast the valve bodies and our machine shop we machined valves, stems caps, nuts and hand wheels. We machined the valve bodies, then ground them so then the Machinist Mates, 
(valve guru's) would lap the valves to ensure a good seal.  I have a picture somewhere of the last one going out the "Sally Doors" to end the project.
Workday's were 12 hours for 3 days, then one 24 hour shift, then back to 12 hours for 3 day, and continue this for 4 months straight, no days off.. oh and to add more fun, when our ship connected to shore power, it failed to supply us with enough electricity to run so we were forced to run our power plant, read boiler plant for four months.  It averaged 120 degrees in the shop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week...Builds character ya know...LOL


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## gi_984 (Mar 1, 2016)

Very impressive.  Would love to see pictures of the mold/foundry as well as your machine shop.  Do you know of any repair ships that have been set up as a museum for the public to visit? 
I've visited the USS North Carolina (when I was stationed at Ft. Bragg).  Was a short trip to Wilmington, N.C., where she is berthed.  Visited the USS Lexington down in Corpus Christie, TX.  Don't remember the name of the submarine off hand.  Was a WWII class diesel/electric close to where she was built.  She has a small Sheldon lathe and a drill press only if I remember right.


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## uncle harry (Mar 3, 2016)

gi_984 said:


> Very impressive.  Would love to see pictures of the mold/foundry as well as your machine shop.  Do you know of any repair ships that have been set up as a museum for the public to visit?
> I've visited the USS North Carolina (when I was stationed at Ft. Bragg).  Was a short trip to Wilmington, N.C., where she is berthed.  Visited the USS Lexington down in Corpus Christie, TX.  Don't remember the name of the submarine off hand.  Was a WWII class diesel/electric close to where she was built.  She has a small Sheldon lathe and a drill press only if I remember right.



I was a  civilian guest of the Navy way back in '58.  We were science fair winners as  high school students during  the Sputnik scare era.  They exposed us to "war games" at sea off of San Diego.  That  included being submerged in a WW II diesel electric sub. For some time we  had a free run of the boat. This one didn't have a machine shop. There is a maritime museum nearby me in Manitowoc WI with the USS Cobia sub open for tours. (One of the few submarines with a screen door LOL). This one didn't have a  machine shop either.  Just wondering why subs  would or wouldn't have a machine shop.


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## Richard White (richardsrelics) (Mar 4, 2016)

I toured a sub up in that state up north of me, I am in Indiana and a HUGE Ohio State fan, so you can guess which state I am referring to.  Anywho, they had one 10 inch lathe and a drill press in their "shop". If memory serves it was in the engine room.  I do not remember the name nor the class of the sub...


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## Fabrickator (Mar 4, 2016)

I worked with a retired Navy Machinist (E9) for many years in a prototype machine shop in the 80's and he taught me most everything I know. The guy was a genius in machining and fabrication.


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## Richard White (richardsrelics) (Mar 4, 2016)

Larry Davenport was our shops Senior Chief, very knowledgeable, I recall he had a shop in southern California, but not sure where.


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## gjmontll (Mar 4, 2016)

I served on 594-class nuclear attack subs in the 70's. We too had a lathe and drill press in the Engine Room. I can't remember them actually being used, but then, I worked in the Control Room, I'm sure they were occasionally used for something. I'll ask on our "594 Tough" Facebook group, someone should know more.
Our crews had no Machinery Repairmen, but perhaps a dozen Machinist Mates (MMs) between M-Div (the nuclear powerplant machinists) and A-Gang (auxiliary machists). As may have been already mentioned, Navy MMs focus on maintenance and operation of machinery, not the machining operations involved in fabrication and repair.
    Greg ex-FTG1(SS)

    Saturday 5 Mar update:  After asking the question on the FB group for us 594-class guys, I got several replies. Here are some of the tasks they've told me about:

making a shaft for a teletype machine
turning threads for zinc anodes
making a shaft for high pressure brine pump for the freshwater still
making a valve for use in the powerplant
making a shaft for the dead reckoning trace (plotting table)

making a gear for a sonar chart recorder display
Nobody has yet answered on the make and size  of our lathes.  We'll see....


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## 51cub (Mar 6, 2016)

I'm going back a long ways, memory-wise. I seem to remember on a tour of the USS Drum, in Mobile, AL, that what that submarine called a machine shop was a passageway between a small lathe, and a small drill press. It seems like it was part of another compartment, rather than a shop. What stands out the most is even that young and small, is the little room in diesel boats


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## bfd (Oct 17, 2016)

the old aircraft carrier decks used really good wood on the landing deck get a piece of that will make some good pen bodies bill


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## CluelessNewB (Oct 18, 2016)

On Big John CV-67 there was a machine shop that I visited once (I was air wing, an aviation electronics technician).   One day we had a part that had two broken off 1/4-28 screws we needed to be removed.  Our electronics shop didn't have any way to remove them.  I volunteered (should have know better NAVY = Never Again Volunteer Yourself) to try and find someone to help us.   It only took me a few minutes to find the machine shop and most of the day to get the correct paper work to get the work done.  It took the actual machinist about 5 minutes to do the job.   IIRC he used a left hand drill bit in the Bridgeport.


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