An Outright Exemplary Shop | Skillcraft Machine Shop Tour

We're talking 836 flame cut to Inconel, layout inspectors and remarkable company culture at this aircraft support equipment manufacturing company. Welcome to Skillcraft Machine Tool where leadership prioritizes the work culture and environment of their employees. Their objective is to ensure their machinists have everything they need to do a great job. That includes everything from hard and soft skills, to healthy communication styles and leading by motivating.
Like most in the metalworking industry these days, Skillcraft needs established machinists. With 30 employees and growing, their solution has been their started apprenticeship program. That's the future for Skillcraft, training up their employees through an in house apprenticeship program.
Alright now some technical, in this 20,000 square foot facility the focus is low volume parts. All programming is happening at the machine. Why? The volume is low and there isn't repeat work so it works best. Doesn't make sense to add upfront cost. Downside? Hard to find people who can make a part with only one try. They only get one shot. Machinists at Skillcraft might go from a chuck set up to a collet setup back to a collet setup all in one day.
Workflow and organization is huge at Skillcraft. Everything is standardized to be the most efficient they possibly can. From their station tooling, inspection equipment and even inside the machines.
We hit a lot of topics. Use the timestamps below to find what you're looking for!
00:00 Introduction
03:10 Material storage and organization, material tracking
04:34 Implementing an ERP system and challenges
06:31 Saw cutting
06:47 Lathe section
09:27 Inspection stations throughout the shop for toolmakers
10:15 Glenn, apprentice graduate working on a thread gauge on the Fryer Lathe.
11:40 Pratt and Whitney Lathe
12:23 1945 machine, oldest machine in shop
14:44 Mill line.
17:30 Tooling organization from carbide tooling to regrinds.
19:03 Wire EDM Machine
19:50 Deburring area to meet edge break requirements and micro finishes
20:24 Full time qualifying team and layout inspection
21:31 Finishing processes and assemblies
23:21 Secondary operations
26:37 In house made sine plate
29:13 Optimizing processes. (process improvement) Cutting half hour off of an hour long job.
Contact Skillcraft Machine Tool:
skillcraftmachine.com/
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[@iansandusky417]

What was YOUR favourite part of this tour?

[@jimrummy1300]

Great video Ian! Always wonderful to see such joy and high energy for the trade, and the appreciation for old and new equipment and methods. All very inspiring! And thank you for your efforts with showcasing these great machine shops. It’s awesome!

[@iansandusky417]

@@jimrummy1300 thank you very much, that means a lot! The PM team did a killer job - and Skillcraft were absolutely fantastic hosts. There are still more of these to come! Wait until you see the one with the screw machines - I’m sure it’ll blow your mind as it did mine!

[@reddnmilla]

Meeting Glenn and his answer to your question 👍

[@jameskerrigab7802]

I need more Glenn and Ian in this video! authentic.

[@MantismanTM]

"Our shop is completely conversational". This is VERY encouraging to hear! I'm a certified CNC machinist, I can hand code anything our company makes and I did for a time until we got a 2021 CNC Lathe with Live Tooling + C axis and FANUC MGi holy sh*t did it change my perspective...I basically would never go back to hand programming again... But SOOO many "gray nomads" (machinists with +40yrs) say "Stay away from conversational it's bad it can't be trusted!" I thoroughly believe it is because these gray nomads (all respect given) are just intimidated by what they haven't been doing for... +40yrs... if that makes sense? But to hear that this entire aerospace machine shop is run on conversational is just so.... inspiring! And as someone that is using FANUC MGi (Oi-Tf PLUS) everyday I can state that so far every single thing I have needed to do, it has been capable of doing, flawlessly.

[@reddnmilla]

Shout out to Glenn! Love to see another African American machinist, especially at an awesome shop like that! Fantastic video Ian, really good stuff 👌

[@iansandusky417]

Man, Glenn’s story was incredible, absolutely inspiring guy! Thanks for checking it out!

[@JohnBlaze505]

Glen seems cool AF! Glad he made it through the apprenticeship and he's successful. BTW those Hurcos are workhorse machines.

[@lvxleather]

I never get enough of shop tours, cool video.

[@iansandusky417]

Thank you very much for checking it out!

[@jash2622]

Really great insight here Ian. The shop I work at takes on the same kind of work with the same kind of quantity. Similar machinery too except only 3 VMCs and more knee mills. Day to day is always less efficient and more stressful than it should be, so I'm always looking for improvements. Would really appreciate more shop tours like this with shops that manage to successfully navigate this inherently inefficient and chaotic work. It's definitely one of the difficult gigs.

[@iansandusky417]

Thank you very much - these guys made it easy! We have some more of these coming for sure - I know of a couple that are In the pipe that are likely going to be right up your alley! Thanks for checking it out!

[@kenlemery2633]

Its really looks like a well put together shop.

[@ericbeauchamp7385]

Love this video! SO cool to see what makes a great machine shop.

[@mikehazenbosch5791]

The material storage and organization was really nice to see I’m glad you guys did a in depth walk through it something I’m personally working on. Also love P&W we have been Fortunate to make some parts for the PW100 series turboprops over the years. It has a reputation as being the best and being made in 🇨🇦 is pretty cool

[@iansandusky417]

Thank you very much sir! This kind of work is crazy - I’m glad to hear there are shops this side of the border doing it as well!

[@waronluke]

Love the videos👍

[@iansandusky417]

Thank you very much!

[@rodneykiemele4721]

Great video

[@iansandusky417]

Thank you very much sir!

[@markhorner4982]

that was a woops for a AS9100 shop saying they will change the program , as a new FIAR needs doing if it is . just saying . but looks a nice shop

[@matthewjudd5542]

Just to clarify NOT an AS9100 shop just ISO9001 and it is my job as the manufacturing manager to foster and keep the continuous improvement mindset alive and well in my shop. I'm glad we're not running AS9100 in a tooling jobshop environment with the majority of our work not being repeat orders and primarily 1 pc orders. I'm not so handcuffed by all the extra requirements that an AS environment brings. I have worked in those environments and yes there is a much larger process involved to make something like that happen. Thanks for the input and its a continual process that you never stop looking for opportunities to make yourself better, more organized and more efficient.

[@garyweber1724]

i'v used things made by this company music is to loud = annoying

[@jeanpaquette6259]

I suppose I'm to picky but for me it look like this shop is stuck in 1972.... really where is revolution 4.0?

[@12345NoNamesLeft]

I'd shorten up the intro and lose the music. The music is loud, repetitive, annoying, unneeded. If the transition is so long that it needs music, just shorten it - like a program.