Handwork

[Highpower]

That was one of our first tasks in high school metal shop. Way back when....
Although our block didn't have to be a particular size, it did have to be square after draw filing.

I do quite a bit of hand fitting (gunsmithing) for myself, so I consider working with your hands just as important (if not more so) than working with the machines.

 

[brucer]

the story you heard is probably true, i read somewhere this is one reason why America surpassed Germany in productivity in the 40's, might have seen it on television.... America made and refined precision equipment for the soul purpose of precision productivity, most German manufacturing didnt and wanted to stay with hand fitting, which slowed their productivity. it seems like American productivity was greater compared to German productivity and this is was one reason Germany was defeated in ww2... America was supplying, Britain, Soviet Union and ourselves and we out produced german tank and air plane productivity like 4 to 1....

in mold work, hand fitting is still somewhat done to a point.. when we assemble molds, you have to blue off the cores and cavities so they seal off on certain surfaces,parting lines, cams and corepins and such.. you use high spot blue and use pencil grinders, files and polishing stones to remove metal until the surfaces blue off..


my machine shop teacher in high school gave us all rusty blocks, looked like they had been sitting out side for years... we had to file them square and polish them... we didnt have to hit any size, just had to be square and shiney with no pitting..... then we got to put them in a mill and cut them up for our first project, which was a 1-2-3 block..

i dont center punch if i'm doing mill work. i always spot drill with the machine so center punching isnt needed... if i'm using a drill press or hand drilling i will center punch...

 

[Tony Wells]

In the 3 hr two year high school vocational program I was in, the first project after a couple of weeks of dull classroom was a drift key. We were given a piece of metal and a drawing. We has access to a toolroom and given 2 hours. I used that thing for about 20 years. If we had used a tool steel rather than mild steel, I'd still use it. It was correct, with a radius on one edge and a taper per spec. All edges were properly broken and corners rounded per drawing. It wasn't difficult, but had to be right, and all done by hand.

 

[Magnum]

Guess I am lucky getting into metalworking when CNC machines are more abundant. I really do not have to do much setup work or hole marking or much handwork on the finished parts at all. I setup the machine and it does the work. Only thing may be cleanup from tabs with a grinder. Now I do plan on grinding my own lathe tools, so perhaps that counts as handwork

And yes, I do most everything through CNC even simple machining tasks as its easier than trying to machine manual with the CNC. Facing or blocking is about the only manual operations I do.

 

[george wilson]

I had no way other than filing or hack sawing to form metal when I was young. I must have spent thousands of hours filing. I agree,for my type of work,hand work is more important than machine work.