2011 SkillsUSA Washington Precision Machining Contest

[Rapidparts]

Nice.. Its all about the tricks of the trade if the secrets are not passed down now some will be lost for ever ;) conventional machining is the backbone of everthing. Dont make parts just cause you want to make money.. make it cause you can create anything in the end;)

[joshuapunks]

Where are the chuck guards?? Man I wish my shop had clean machines like these haha...

[mechmotion]

It's great to see new machinists working hard in such a clean and well kept shop! There are only a handful of training centers around my area and they are all either churning out button pushers or suffering from very low enrollment. Keep up the stellar work!

[heriberto2271]

Agradesco mucho tu contestacion .

Saludos desde mexico feliz navidad y prospero año nuevo!!!!!

[TheMastermechanic13]

to all of you guys saying "oh ive been a machinist for this amount of time" good i hope you and your apprentices are better, with that kind of experience under your belt you damn well better be good or you should be embarrassed of yourself, but cut these kids some slack, these kids have less experience than a part timer in the field within a year and you cant tell me that when you were their age and starting out you didnt make some of the same mistakes yourselves.

[tomclemans]

@TheMastermechanic13

Thanks for your kind comment. Half of these boys had been in a school machine shop for less than 150 hours, and each kid had less than half of that time actually practicing on the machines. On top of that, they were on a short time-schedule with parts that were more complex than they had time to complete.

Many mistakes resulted from the pressure.

Afterwards, the judges gave a good critique to compliment what the kids did right and to point out what they were doing wrong.

[TheMastermechanic13]

@tomclemans Absolutely! its frustrating to see and hear those comments, when that was me only a few years ago. I myself took part in the skills USA competition in 2007 and know first hand the projects given to us were fairly complex for our skill set at the time. another point to be made is that there is no hand holding, these kids are left to build there skill and techniques on their own with instructors there to be a GUIDE not a CRUTCH.

[IBLOWN]

@TheMastermechanic13 Listen, machining is not a game, you'll get killed. Its not something a lesser experienced kid should be tackling on his own (75hrs) especially with some of the stupidity ive seen in this video. Even 1st year apprentices here are rarely let loose on a machine unless supervised 24/7. I mean the guy running it says ''The drill would break before throwing the vice''. Is it really something you would take a risk with? Clamp it on the table and be safe!

[IBLOWN]

@TheMastermechanic13 No we were tought properly from the start...

[TheMastermechanic13]

@IBLOWN and what im saying is that its a game? WRONG! because yes im WELL aware of the danger of the job, i blow up on people at work when ive got my head in the machine and they drop a pallet or a 55 gal. drum on the floor cuz theyre too lazy to set it down. all im saying is is for all the people being extreme assholes to cut these guys some slack other than the skills USA comp. they are supervised 24/7. and you cant tell me you never made a mistake when you were a noob either!

[IBLOWN]

Jesus. I hope they werent the best!

[IvicaIfe]

@IBLOWN The guy at 02:10 is their "Top Gun" :D

[IBLOWN]

@IvicaIfe Hahahaha, but seriously, watching these boys makes me think how good my apprentices are.

The kid milling with the quill down is a big no no.

Whoever let them drill with the vices not clamped down needs to be shot!

The kid turning with the compound slide on an angle is asking for trouble when he bumps the handle.

My personal favourite is the tolerance being +-0.005'', i mean i expect my second year apprentices to be within 0.02mm.

I might fly my boys over lol.

[IvicaIfe]

@IBLOWN Yes i know that drilling was quite something to see :)

It's a real miracle no one got hurt.

I am CNC operator and have never worked on manual machine but this...seriously.

I just have to show this to my older colleagues who work on this things for 25+ years at company where i work

[IBLOWN]

@IvicaIfe Ive been a fitter machinist for 15+ years, i manage a machine shop in Australia. Just goes to show how the U.S is renouned for their bad quality. I dont know how many times ive had to fix up parts that came from the U.S because the customer thought he could save a few dollars...

[tomclemans]

@IBLOWN

Thanks for your comments. These kids can't be compared to your apprentices. Many had less than 75 hours of actual hands-on practice in their school machine shops, which is is less than 2 weeks of work in a real shop. None of them saw the drawings before beginning work on a part. The parts were more complex than could be completed within the time allowed. With the size drill used, the drill would break before throwing a vise. All things considered, they didn't do too bad.

[mechmotion]

@IBLOWN Us in the USA seem to blame china for all our poorly made parts. I'm with you, I love seeing our local boys make the parts we need. The only thing I know of that comes from Australia is The Pontiac GTO, a re-badged Holden. I've never heard of a single failure on one of those!

[tomclemans]

@IvicaIfe

Thanks for your comment. If the drills grabbed a part, the drills were small enough that they would break before throwing a vise. Safety wasn't compromised. Feed and work pressure is far lighter on manual drill presses and manual milling machines than on a CNC, so parts and fixtures don't require the same rigidity that CNC setups do.

[heriberto2271]

En verdad esas competencias hacen falta en mexico .

los felicito en verdad hacen un gran trabajo,

Best regards fromo mexico

[tomclemans]

@heriberto2271

Saludos desde Seattle. Gracias por tu comentario tan amable. Antes de tomar mi clase, uno de mis mejores estudiantes tomaba un año de taller máquina en la escuela secundaria en la ciudad de México

[JS1433]

Hi Tom,

I competed in 2005. Mike Frick was my instructor. Had a great time, and learned a lot. great to see this video. I know a couple of the people in it. Thanks for sharing!

Jeremy