Machine Shop Work No. 4, Drilling Boring and Reaming

A tutorial on basic machine shop practice: "Drilling, Boring and Reaming, Work Held In Chuck". This is our own digital video production made directly from a surviving 16mm movie film. Circa 1944.
The Jam Handy Organization produced an amazing number of information and education films in it's time. This "tutorial" introduces the viewer to important basic skills in machine shop practice which are still relevant today.

[@daveg1208]

I am an old manual machinist and I love these videos. The machine operators weren't paid much by today's standards but ladies and gentlemen, without the old-time machinists, there wouldn't be anything that we have today. Loved the video and Thank you.

[@thespiritof76..]

Dave G Mr Dave, it’s all coming back

[@thespiritof76..]

Not factory, but back to the home

[@oron61]

It's okay if they aren't paid much, so long as the cost of living isn't much either. I'd work 75¢ a day if I could comfortably live on 70¢ and had a stable enough psyche to work.

[@rollinrat4850]

These were the sort of guys who trained me. I went from manuals to CNC. You could make a lot more money as a contractor. But I still prefer manual machining and do it when I can. It was fun!

[@1995dresser]

The same here I am an old Manual Machinist been doing it for 42yrs I remember some of these old films from my Technical school Machine shop course back in the 1970s now it takes ten minutes on a CNC to make that Gear lol its funny most kids today have no interest in this Trade

[@rock3tcatU233]

Those lathes themselves are works of art.

[@jonathanmobley8033]

Absolutely

[@bryanrawlins5237]

I love these old school machines! I feel there is nothing wrong being old school!

[@pheenix42]

Things mignt be CNC oriented today, but this is still useful for any machinist, manual or automatic. Some information never gets old.

[@jaewok5G]

WAY TO GO ROY!!!! … Roy would be about 90 now … Roy may have served in Korea … Roy was a kid during the Depression and WW2 … Roy was of a generation of Americans that accomplished an incredible amount of success … Roy's 'boomer' kids then screwed it all up … Good effort, Roy, you couldn't have known.

[@petemclinc]

I'm impressed with Roy's tapered hole....

[@kisspeteristvan]

Indicating with a chalk , never seen that before . Nice 👍

[@timhofstetter5654]

Sharpie works well, too.

[@samhouston1673]

Out of all the documentary and educational films of that entire era, Jam Handy productions are my absolute favorites!

[@bwood454]

Thank you for your work to preserve and digitize this important part of our Industrial past. I enjoyed watching this.

[@angurabagua1059]

The old school is still our best reference to the future.

[@cornbobrimlove7892]

.....and then Roy's boss gives the plug gauge a big "turn" right after the video indicated to never ever turn the plug gauge in the work piece......hahaha

[@edmundooliver7584]

when working on the piece yes ,but after its done and clean and oiled you have to turn it because of the suction or vacuum.

[@johnnyjames7139]

A friend of mine owns a machine shop and dreams of building a locomotive but wants to do it cnc. I bought a chinese toy 9" lathe and built a locomotive the old way while my friend still dreams. cnc is great for large production. The old way works fine for one off.

[@billyhood6334]

I had one year of high school machine shop in 1959 and Mr Simmonds used the chalk trick to get the stock close in a 4 jaw and then used indicator to complete if needed. I had forgotten about using blackboard chalk. Of course, that is not all I have forgotten.

[@55chevytruck]

I use to have a 17" Leblond in my shop,but sold it thinking I was not going to need it when I retired. Wish I still had it!

[@steelcannibal]

This is amazing! I love it! ❤ learning CNC is cool and all, but man do i love using old manual machines! Its a dying art!

[@tkzsfen]

Roy's boss doesn't care about the narrator and turns that gauge...like a boss :D

[@mikewalton5469]

i love the old training films. i even saw a technique i never saw before, using a lathe bit to drill the pilot hole. thanks for sharing these videos

[@Mentorcase]

I have done that before, thinking it was rough way of doing things, because after I drilled out the centre hole the bit started walking of centre so I put a blank piece of steel against the side of the drill to keep it centred. Good to see I'm not the only one that does it.

[@clist9406]

I would love to have some of these early 1920s lathes and heavy machines. No Chineseium metal here. I dont know how they moved them without forklifts. These were real men.

[@obfuscated3090]

They are easy to move with forklifts but the better machines are from the WWII era which you see in the film. Forklifts existed in WWII but they suck for most machine tool movement. Machinery skates and rollers were used to position them. It's not difficult to move large machine tools if you think first, so that's what (good) riggers do. I'm a hobbyist and have moved many machine tools for self and friends. If you want a home machine shop, go for it!

[@johnbattista9519]

Ob Fuscated , a walking bar is handy... mover my milling machine around in my garage with that.. simple leverage techniques. Old school.

[@gregfeneis609]

Nice work on the restoration. I liked the rough 4 jaw centering technique using chalk.

[@copasetic216]

Roy has done a good job... 👏

[@davidm4160]

They don't make cutting oil like that anymore.

[@meleeaguilera5896]

Thank you for uploading

[@TLervis]

Good job Roy!

[@samhouston1673]

If you come across any WWII Rosie the Riveters in action on the machine tooling, that would be much appreciated. My Step Mom was a Rosie working on the Consolidated B-24 Liberator at the Consolidated Plant at Carswell Army Airfield.

[@ashokbahule3767]

Respected Sir, learning Method very skillful Thanks sir ji.

[@theonlybuzz1969]

Good job Roy, have a cold one on me.

[@CuriousEarthMan]

Love these films, thank you for posting! Did anybody else see the supervisor turn the plug gauge when removing it from the gear blank? oops!

[@ollimakkonen6481]

Jep, he did turn it.

[@CuriousEarthMan]

@@ollimakkonen6481 They need to show him the instructional video, to educate him :)

[@dillardhayes3612]

Yeah... I did

[@newstart49]

I saw nutin- nutin I tell ya!

[@notomatoesbbq]

Thats why he's a supervisor!

[@moonryder203]

So cool!😁

[@copasetic216]

Who needs a tenth indicator when you have chalk? Awesome video

[@neilbrown3359]

Let your foreman see you with your arm propped up by a spinning chuck with a piece of soapstone to indicate the work piece in nowadays!!! You'll be the first one out the door when its cuttin time!!!

[@Matbloodguts]

All right, now we're machining!

[@mr1jon1smith]

Interesting! I've seen someone nowdays doing on an old lathe the chalk thing and drill bit help with another tool.. and think.. is that done how is suppose to be done? Thanks to this video now I know the answer. Also the chalk thing it's quite a dangerous thing to do.. I didn't think they will show such a thing in a instructional video. But that's the best confirmation that this is actually how things where done backthen.

[@SekTauBand]

how is chalking it dangerous? just keep your hands clear of the chuck jaws.

[@Lanesplitter]

Spent years stood working a turret lathe - got the varicose veins to prove it (like a map of the London Underground)

[@thespiritof76..]

Roy did a good job👉🏻👍🏻

[@MuseumofOurIndustrialHeritage]

Say, who is Roy? Another earlier comment mentions him. Please explain..

[@thespiritof76..]

Museum of Our Industrial Heritage them machinist in the video

[@RinksRides]

aaand how! That lathe he's using is new and fancy. Got me a worn out Sheldon from '37 era. Does the job in the garage alright, but needs TLC to be back in tip-top shape.

[@tom7601]

Probably lots of sulphur in that cutting oil!

[@rollinrat4850]

tom7601 I thought the same thing. My wife used to make me take off my clothes in the garage and take a shower. She always said I smelled like a machinist!!

[@steve20664]

I’d love to see young guys trying to sharpen those tools properly, or using a copy attachment, some can’t even sharpen a drill these days.

[@lwilton]

In general in a large production shop in those days the tools would have been sharpened by tool room workers, especially the reamer. The production floor workers like Roy checked out tools from the tool crib, and checked them (or the broken pieces) back into the crib at the end of the shift, or when the tool became dull. Roy most likely knew how to sharpen the lathe tools and possibly the drill bits, but he would not have done it on a production run. Someone else with specialized training and equipment would have done the tool sharpening in a large factory. In a small shop Roy likely would have been able to sharpen most of the tools, but the reamer would have been done on a tool and cutter grinder, and possibly sent to another shop to do that.

[@Zkkr429]

I'd love to see these guys program a 5 axis with cam..... apples and oranges mate. Oh and by the way I can do both.

[@steve20664]

Will Will I thought you millennials were born knowing everything already. Follow your own path grasshopper....

[@newstart49]

@@Zkkr429 Those guys would laugh and call you a button pusher - whose job takes a short time to learn vs years to learn to run a lathe and get .0002" tolerances by hand and skill. But neither is more important than the other- it's just that times are different. Never belittle the other guys skills- you may need him one day.

[@Zkkr429]

Yeah, I've come across these machinists who think it's easy. So easy I wonder why they don't do it themselves? I mean a CAM programmer will earn about 50% more than a machinist ..... and obviously when you're programming you don't have to worry about tolerances at all 🙄

[@ShakespeareCafe]

Roy is the model employee

[@juanvalentinduenasmaroto119]

💚💛💜

[@MandeepSingh-iv7zy]

Nice

[@supercleanone8038]

So, Roy’s boss was able to issue a task without threat, ultimatum, or grievance. What utopia was this filmed.

[@MuseumofOurIndustrialHeritage]

Why, in a perfect world! Actually, I have had a few great bosses in my career, but the job leaned more towards engineering rather than production. The working world might also have been a lot different during wartime. Check out GTD's wartime newsletter, "Leads and Angles" on our website.

[@rollinrat4850]

The best bosses I had knew how to do every task in the shop and were willing to do it if need be. Even sweep the floor! They led by example! I had plenty of bad ones too. Usually they were the type who couldn’t hack it in the shop, then bullshitted or kissed ass to get a better position and make life miserable for people.

[@keithammleter3824]

Compared to the first 2 films (rules and micrometers) this is pretty good. While the actor at the end did turn the plug gauge, the instructor that would have shown the film back then would have exploited this - by asking the class if they saw anything wrong. This sort of simple error is quite different to Film 2 that continually showed an operator using a micrometer incorrectly and never mentioned the ratchet. It's worth noting that the depiction of the machinist (Roy) working direct from the drawing is what would have been done in prototyping by a master machinist. For production runs, the machinist would work from a printed and laminated list of process steps, each step giving the tool to use, the depth of cut, RPM, feed etc. Typically, the master machinist writes these lists - that's what happened in the places I worked anyway.

[@MuseumofOurIndustrialHeritage]

The Micrometer film was part of a series produced by the film maker Loucks and Norling. This film was produced by the renown Jam Handy Organization. The reasons for the difference in accuracy and presentation may partly lie there. Personally, I will just plead ignorance and only claim responsibility for digitizing the history and making it available here.

[@tanzwut7416]

Толком не понял что говорят ,но смотреть было интересно )

[@rollinrat4850]

Its a boring job, then you get reamed!

[@dave-in-nj9393]

thumbs up #640 Dec 1 2018

[@verpauly]

Bring there; done that, and yea, I am old.

[@DuncanMaguire]

no indicating?

[@Daledavispratt]

no need, with stock with that rough of a finish..everything to follow will reference off of the tapered hole good ol' Roy cut. :-)

[@ke6gwf]

Abom would not be pleased lol

[@CuriousEarthMan]

I'm thinking indicating would be wise depending on how oversize the rough blank is (unspecified in the film) Without indicating, I'd sooner trust a scribe of some kind (soapstone?) held on a steady piece resting on the machine than chalk in hand held on a forearm. But I trust they know their craft for their application.

[@samueltoler7796]

Did you not the handheld chalk indicator?

[@CuriousEarthMan]

@@samueltoler7796 I'd be looking for something better than hand-held chalk, personally. Maybe I didn't understand what you meant?

[@robertpartsmade5832]

Happy days , sadly lost now 🙁

[@MuseumofOurIndustrialHeritage]

Young people should take note of the care, verification and accuracy the machinist/craftsman applies in his work.

[@neilmcdonald3473]

josh hanson......more like a lemon.

[@jacksutherland846]

Run for the hills children. Get an education so you don't have to do this slavery. It finally drove me to college at 40. I love the skills I have. Truly a blessing. But I can't stand the time clocks, the bosses that don't know what they're doing, and the small petty thinking. It didn't take long till it felt like prison. Some like it, and God bless them. No more. I'm done! I'll have my bachelor's in media technology next year. No more chips, oil, noise, or miserable shops. The smart guys sell you the tools and make these movies. They don't stand there running these damn machines day in day out till they die. But I have a my lathe and Bridgeport in my garage for when I need to make virtually anything. Like I said, the skills are a blessing, but a terrible career.

[@MuseumofOurIndustrialHeritage]

Isn't the skills required to create and the way they are employed two different things?

[@mikepotter5071]

I take insult to your comment. You run for the hills college boy. I’m fine in my shop. How dare you demonize the blue collar tradesman. Media boy

[@newstart49]

You have much to learn. You are entering the matrix even deeper now. You will be owned and not even know it.