When a tool maker builds a 1911

[CPJ 2.0]

Adam the machinist of YouTube fame decided he wanted a 1911. His main work is tool and die, built with stupid precision. So he built a 1911. Worth the watch if you like seeing how things are built. It was on YouTube, but since making guns are scary it got removed and he had to just it elsewhere.


Here’s the link, you don’t have to join Patreon to watch. At least not on a smart phone.


https://www.patreon.com/AdamTheMachinist

[Justsomedude]

Thanks for posting that. I'll have to watch it later when I get home. Tool and die makers are a different breed of machinist. I wish my dad would have done a project like that because everything he made looked like it belonged in a museum.

It's pretty cool because every now and again I'll work on someone's gun that worked with my dad and they tell me that he would have been proud of the work I do.

[Zorba]

Works on a computer too.

[GrapeApe]

Pretty cool

[CPJ 2.0]

Thanks for posting that. I'll have to watch it later when I get home. Tool and die makers are a different breed of machinist. I wish my dad would have done a project like that because everything he made looked like it belonged in a museum.

It's pretty cool because every now and again I'll work on someone's gun that worked with my dad and they tell me that he would have been proud of the work I do.

The way he holds it for machining is BRILLIANT.

[Justsomedude]

Dammit, thought he was a manual machinist. Not that there's anything wrong with CNC but it bores me.

[CPJ 2.0]

Dammit, thought he was a manual machinist. Not that there's anything wrong with CNC but it bores me.

He is, by trade. And a lot of his paying work is on the surface grinder.

I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE to see how they were done in the early 1900s.

[Justsomedude]

Absolutely. I'd especially love to see how they do the magwell.

[CPJ 2.0]

But peep the way he turned a surface grinder into a shaper.

[Justsomedude]

I've never worked on a surface grinder but I would have never thought that one would have the rigidity to act as a shaper. I've used my lathe to cut keyways the same way but damn does it take some time. I remember figuring out when I was younger that ingenious fixturing is what separates a machinist and a tool and die maker. That dudes fixtruing is top notch.

[CPJ 2.0]

He used to build stamping dies that pumped out bazillions of parts.

[Justsomedude]

Looks like he has a nice home shop.

[Bigslug]

I've never worked on a surface grinder but I would have never thought that one would have the rigidity to act as a shaper. I've used my lathe to cut keyways the same way but damn does it take some time. I remember figuring out when I was younger that ingenious fixturing is what separates a machinist and a tool and die maker. That dudes fixtruing is top notch.

That three-point frame fixture - bad ass! By the time he got to cutting those lugs off, there are plenty of anchor points in the fully machined opposite side to work from. Slick!

Now imagine guys like Browning, Mauser, and Maxim working all that stuff out in their noggins with sketch pads and 2D cardboard models. BRAAAAAAAINSSSSS!

[CPJ 2.0]

Yes. That fixture is genius. And this is what separates machinists. Most anyone can make a cut on a machine. Not everyone knows how to HOLD the part to make the cut.

[CPJ 2.0]

He re as a shop tour from where he used to work. It’s a long video, but they show some pretty cool stamping operations. It’s honestly mind blowing how fast parts can be stamped.

[12th Man]

Incredible work, love his workmanship! I'd take one!

[Japhy]

After watching that no way I recover from machinist talent or shop envy.
No scratch built 1911 under my tree.

[CPJ 2.0]

He re as a shop tour from where he used to work. It’s a long video, but they show some pretty cool stamping operations. It’s honestly mind blowing how fast parts can be stamped.

Maybe I should put a link….


https://youtu.be/sm8w0YU4qOg?si=sxqfSvnfGSzFuHSG

[Justsomedude]

One of these days I'll have to do the same but all manual, just to test myself.

[Bigslug]

One of these days I'll have to do the same but all manual, just to test myself.

Maybe a Mauser action (or to satisfy my own selfish interest, an M1917 Enfield done up as an earless porter). While part of me is saying "Damn! That's cool!", another part of me is saying "All that NASA-grade work is wasted on a pistol"

[jbp-ohio]

He re as a shop tour from where he used to work. It’s a long video, but they show some pretty cool stamping operations. It’s honestly mind blowing how fast parts can be stamped.

That is what I do. Not the tool & die part (we have a tool and die shop though). The running/fixing/adjusting to spec part. My line has a blanker press that makes the lid out of a coil of aluminum. Each stroke makes two lids. Then it uses air to move them out of the die into a curler that curls the edges to be seamed to a can. Then they go through a compound liner that puts 55 grams (+-10) sealant in the curl. An oven cures the compound so it doesn't get on any of the next tooling. Next is the conversion press that forms the lid, adds lettering, makes a score where the lid tear upon opening, and attaches a tab. After a lid is completed it goes thru an air tester (big lazy susan with 30 pockets that clamp down on each lid and put 10# of air on top to see if any leaks thru). Last is the packing station where a packer puts 450 lids into a bag then put those on a skid.

Tolerances are in the .001's. The score has to be parallel within .0005. The lids go thru 6 stations to form and the tab goes thru 10. Our speed is 360 strokes per minute. Six per second. You can't see what is happening. You have to guess from what is happening to the lid what the cause is. With scheduled and unscheduled cleaning and coil changes, we average 200,000 strokes a 12 hour shift.

800,000 lids a day x 7 days a weeks x say 44 weeks a year (holidays, maintenance shutdowns and overhauls) = 460,000,000 a year?

If you are in an Advanced Auto, look for a California Scents in a can....



Or look at 3oz cans of Blue Buffalo cat food. If the lid says '74' or '75' in the middle. That is my line...

20240111_132517.jpg (3.78 MiB) Viewed 3047 times

Most of our lines make 13 lids per stroke @ 150 stokes per minute. Our 'big' line makes 27 steel lids with every stroke. It runs about 115 strokes per minute.

27 x 115 strokes = 3150 per min
3150 x 60 min = 186,300 per hour
186,300 x 22 hr = 4,098,600 per day
4,098,600 x 7 days= 28,690,200 per week
28,690,200 x 44 weeks= 1,262,368,800 per year.

The problem with speed is if someone isn't doing their QA checks, BAM you have 12 skids on hold.

[jbp-ohio]

They are planning to build a line that makes 32 lids per stroke at 180 (?) strokes per minute.

[CPJ 2.0]

Stamping is an absolutely mind numbing process to watch. Even videos I’ve seen with things in slow motion, I can’t wrap my head around the operation.

[jbp-ohio]

Stamping is an absolutely mind numbing process to watch. Even videos I’ve seen with things in slow motion, I can’t wrap my head around the operation.

The ones that cornfuse me is the can side. I hope I never have to go to that building. Most cans are rolled, welded and an end seamed on both ends. We have a salmon can draw redraw press that takes a flat piece of steel with a special coating on it and stretches it into an 8'' deep can with a bottom with no seams and the coating stays in place. It's like a fluid. The coating is very specific to salmon and can't be scratched in the tinyest or you risk botulism (?).

[CPJ 2.0]

And your parts are ginormous to the ones he used to make dies for. They made electrical connectors that go inside the wiring harness of cars. By the brazillions.