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Old school

scottmi

Aluminum
Joined
Nov 3, 2006
Location
Port Huron
Just thought I would throw some pics of our Navy's basic machine school in. We still teach horizontal mills and indexing. For those of you who thought CNC has completly taken over. Off hand grinding your HSS lathe tools and sharpening drill bits by hand is also taught.
mills1.jpg
mills2.jpg
kandt.jpg
bands.jpg
lathes1.jpg
 
Very nice. Thanks for sharing!

Oh, seeing that every mill as the same tooling, vice, head, etc. sitting on the cart next to it without any chips/oil around is very reminiscent every military training facility I've seen.
 
Sailors using their minds while performing the corresponding work with their hands without the crutch of artifical intelligence doing the thinking or the machining. Our Sailors are lucky to have the opportunity to hone these rare skills. It is wonderful our young American Sailors still have the skills and know-how...Thank You
 
Wow look at all those 2MI's Just like mine (except cleaner
) Mine is an ex Air Force machine, and I am Retired ARMY. Just cut down a Model A Ford transmission shaft to fit an old Oliver OC3 Aux tranny. Cut 10 new splines in the shaft with a freehand ground flycutter and the dividing head. Almost a ground finish on the splines, nothing like 5,500 pounds of vibration dampening. I'm lucky I got to cut gears (on a Van Norman) in High School shop in the late 70's........... As an ex E-7 I do see a pool of oil and a rag laying down on one machine
 
As an ex E-7 I do see a pool of oil and a rag laying down on one machine....

From the Chief... They were in the middle of cleanup when the pics were taken LOL.

These old mills are like a Harley if they are leaking you know they have oil.
 
What with all the guff that the government gets over outrageous overpayment for aquisitions, it's gratifying to see that the NAVY has equipment as old as sixty or more, no doubt originally purchased by the government, if not the NAVY for this very shop.

Looks kinda' like my dream shop, nary a digital readout nor computer monitor in sight and you can't have too many horizontal mills.


Actually, I did buy a cheap X axis DRO for a vertical but I'm really ashamed.

Bob
Edit, Oops went back and found some DROs in the photos. Guess that's OK.
 
As the machines go in for rebuild over the years they come back with 3 axis DRO's installled. But the student do not use them. They are demonstrated by the instructor and that is it. Of course the instructors use them if needed.
 
Navy facility in Wisconsin?

For the life of me I can't think of the large Navy base on the lakes I went to for a flight physical a while back. But isn't this the big Naval base where most of the Navy's basic training is conducted? I asked why a Navy base in Illinois as opposed to Florida, California, etc. and the answer was: We've got the most secure and stable water to train on, the Great Lakes. I understand there's a lot of navy training planes sitting around the bottom of those lakes.
 
The base is called Great Lakes Training Center. It is about 40 miles north of Chicago on the lake. The Navy used to have three bootcamps and their corresponding training areas. San Diego, Orlando and Chicago. Now that the cold war is over Chicago is the only bootcamp left for the Navy, there are no ships there, just bootcamp and basic trade schools. There used to be a Naval Air station on the north side of Chicago but that is all houses and condos now.
 
Great Lakes Training Center has been there a while, my dad started there in 1932. Became a Machinists Mate 1st class, USS Nevada.

I believe it was '52 when as an engineer at the Terminal Island Navy yard, SoCal, his job was to prep the USS Nevada for the Hydrogen bomb test, Bikini. Broke his heart, loved that old boat, attended most of the Western states reunions.

Came back from the South Pacific, buttons poping off his shirt. "The Japanese couldn't sink her at Pearl and the mighty H bomb couldn't do it either."

She was the "target ship" in the center of dozens of galant fighting ships, painted bright orange. I got a tour just before she set sail, one last voyage, to her funeral.

Mushroom cloud and billions of gallons of sea water cleared and there she was, staunchly still afloat. Navy spent some hours shelling her to send her down. Too contaminated to do anything else. She must have wondered what she'd done wrong.

Relating that to his kids caused a break in his voice and glisten of the eye but chin firm with great pride. His two brothers served with him on the Nevada, some solemn nodding with downcast eyes as he relayed the details to them.

Bob
 








 
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