Builder saw me coming.

[Decades]

I was a young man when I had this house built. New nothing about construction at that time and feel I was really taken advantage of. To my surprise it's still standing after 35 years. Have recently retired and am trying to fix all the things that were done incorrectly. Have to remember as long as you have your health that's everything.

 

[bud16415]

Welcome to the forum. I just live down the road from you in Cambridge Springs.

 

[Decades]

wow, small world...was down your way a month ago to have my truck oiled at Strite's Undercoating

 

[bud16415]

wow, small world...was down your way a month ago to have my truck oiled at Strite's Undercoating

Yep I lived on the west side for many years up by the lake, and worked over at the Generous Electric for 44 year. Retired right before the Wabtec mess. Now I'm hanging out on French Creek in my canoe when the weather is nice and on here keeping the peace when its not.

Will comment on your other thread in the morning.

 

[Decades]

We lost a lot of guys to GE , almost came over myself. Had 40 years in at Eriez. Am about 10 minutes from Presque isle so down there a lot now in the summer.

 

[bud16415]

Back about 30 some years ago I did a bunch of work for Eriez. You guys were just getting into CNC machining and I had a little freelance business doing Tool Design and I designed all the fixtures to get you started down that road. Worked with a guy on second shift named Gene. Taught him a lot about programming also.



It is a small world. Hope you like it here nice bunch of folks.

 

[Decades]

Gene was actually my boss on 2nd for a long time. Running CNC machining centers, am sure I used every one of those fixtures you designed. You did nice work. Some of those fixtures are still being used today 40 years later. I had to convert all those g code programs over to conversational about 20 years ago. I can't remember you but am sure we were there at the same time. lol

 

[bud16415]

That’s pretty cool. I remember when they got the first machine going in and the guys were trying to build table setups like they were used to on the manual machines and carbide supplier wanted to sell his tools but the setups wouldn’t take the aggressive tools. Plus some of those parts had a dozen setups and lots of layout work as it was important to equalize the stock on the parts. There was an old guy that was gene’s boss that wanted nothing to do with me saying we have always done it that way. I told him if he didn’t save more than my fee on the first job in time savings in the first few weeks he didn’t have to pay me. I forget the details now but most of the cycle times went from hours to minutes and from 10 fixtures to 2 and he said ok keep going. After that I never saw him again.



Good to hear the tools are still being used millions of dollars were made with them I’m sure.



For those reading along Eriez Magnetics started as a small company in Erie and turned into a major player on the world market with all things magnetic. The parts we are talking about were ether used in separating iron materials out of other stuff even food products, and they also make vibrating units that move products along a chute. Could be cornflakes to coal. From my time working for them they seemed like a really great place to work.

 

[Decades]

That’s pretty cool. I remember when they got the first machine going in and the guys were trying to build table setups like they were used to on the manual machines and carbide supplier wanted to sell his tools but the setups wouldn’t take the aggressive tools. Plus some of those parts had a dozen setups and lots of layout work as it was important to equalize the stock on the parts. There was an old guy that was gene’s boss that wanted nothing to do with me saying we have always done it that way. I told him if he didn’t save more than my fee on the first job in time savings in the first few weeks he didn’t have to pay me. I forget the details now but most of the cycle times went from hours to minutes and from 10 fixtures to 2 and he said ok keep going. After that I never saw him again.



Good to hear the tools are still being used millions of dollars were made with them I’m sure.



For those reading along Eriez Magnetics started as a small company in Erie and turned into a major player on the world market with all things magnetic. The parts we are talking about were ether used in separating iron materials out of other stuff even food products, and they also make vibrating units that move products along a chute. Could be cornflakes to coal. From my time working for them they seemed like a really great place to work.

 

[Decades]

You were the unsung hero that got the CNC ball rolling at Eriez ! CNC is a totally different animal than what we had been doing. Need to come up with a process that doesn't require pre machining. you want to just clamp the part on to a dedicated fixture and press start. To get to that point however requires a lot of expertise. You may have designed the fixtures to do the big vibratory bodies, am thinking. There were also some pretty cool self-centering fixtures making use of left-handed threaded bolts you may have been involved in. We copied your machining process and fixture concepts into the entire product line.

That old guy was Bill Corson, a.k.a. bow tie Billy.

 

[Flyover]

Hah what are the odds. This was a very entertaining exchange!

 

[bud16415]

You were the unsung hero that got the CNC ball rolling at Eriez ! CNC is a totally different animal than what we had been doing. Need to come up with a process that doesn't require pre machining. you want to just clamp the part on to a dedicated fixture and press start. To get to that point however requires a lot of expertise. You may have designed the fixtures to do the big vibratory bodies, am thinking. There were also some pretty cool self-centering fixtures making use of left-handed threaded bolts you may have been involved in. We copied your machining process and fixture concepts into the entire product line.

That old guy was Bill Corson, a.k.a. bow tie Billy.

Yep all that self-centering stuff with right and left handed screws was mine and I did the whole series of those cast iron vibe-bodies. I remember a huge stainless ring that was larger than the machine could take so we made it index. There was so much machining on it when it that when it came off it was light as a feather.



Yep that was the old guy, lol, haven’t thought about Billy.



You guys learned fast and within a couple years they were able to take over designing most of the stuff. Gene would call me in once in a while for a tough one.



The funny part was at the same time GE was way along the CNC curve and we were having trouble cost justifying a new machine as the bean counters had us on a 5 year payback. Your place was paying off a machine in 6 months with savings going from manual to CNC. We were limping along with old worn out machines and you guys were one brand new machine after another for a while.



It is sad to see so much of what we used to do in this country fade away. I always tell people I worked for the greatest company in the world for 24 years and the last 20 not so much.



We were building 1000 diesel electric locomotives a year and they kept the world moving bringing a better quality of life with it. The fuel required to move a ton of goods compared to over the road trucking was so much less. I was just one little cog in this massive machine that all worked together so well. I don’t think many people get this concept like they once did.

Has been great catching up.

 

[68bucks]

We used a number on Eriez magnets for metal detection and removal from a food grade product we produced. I used a few of their vibratory feeders on some applications too. Always had good luck with their stuff. Welcome.

 

[BuzzLOL]

Yep I lived on the west side for many years up by the lake, and worked over at the Generous Electric for 44 year.

I worked for two of the 4 'big Generals', General Motors (aka Generous Motors) and then General Telephone, missed General Electric and General Dynamics...
General Electric, the manufacturing arm of Nikolai Tesla, seemed to make good, really long lasting products... my parents and I bought a lot of them... appliances, radios, clocks, etc...
I got a laugh when GE got into higher end stereo components. As a consumer oriented company, they knew people expected something physically bigger when paying more, so their GE component AM/FM receiver was like 3 or 4 feet wide! LOL!
( My other big laugh was "Harley Davidson" brand VCRs! )
My girlfriend about 22 years ago was from Erie, PA... it was funny, New Years Eve 1999 I got rid of the old one from Lima and after midnight, start of New Years Day 2000, I met the new one from Erie at the end of the dance party to start the new century... I toured around Erie one day along the coast reading the plaques about War of 1812 lucky happenings and seeing the airport named for a Congressman... there was a B-17 Strato Fortress sitting there that day as I recall...