Awesome Factory Tour, Starrett Measuring Tools

[Racey]

Saunders Machine Works has a series of really cool videos on his channel, this one of Starrett in Athol Massachusetts is pretty awesome, The factory still resides on the original property and uses a lot of legacy equipment to manufacture what are considered some of the finest analog measuring tools in the world.

 

[RiverDave]

I’m gonna be watching that after lunch!!

 

[Racey]

I’m gonna be watching that after lunch!!

Also check out the Berkeley National Lab tour, and the Hermle factory in Germany

 

[Spudsbud]

LOVE Starrett !

 

[poncho]

When i was in my 20's I was a hard chrome plater, when I made journeyman i bought a Starrett set, the box they came in was as nice as the tools, that was a proud day.

 

[thetub]

Racey do they still make vises ? or is it the same company that does?

started collecting older vises...

Athol vise was a company also...

looks like they were all made back in the northeast around that area during the industrial revolution...

 

[Carlson-jet]

Racey do they still make vises ? or is it the same company that does?

started collecting older vises...

Athol vise was a company also...

looks like they were all made back in the northeast around that area during the industrial revolution...

I have a 4" Wilton Bullet Vise Machinist, 4" Bench Vise with brass Jaws I made up along with the originals. Made in USA
Open to offers.

 

[thetub]

i wouldnt know how to use half that stuff but would love to take a tour ...

old original factories of the country

 

[thetub]

I have a 4" Wilton Bullet Vise Machinist, 4" Bench Vise with brass Jaws I made up along with the originals. Made in USA
Open to offers.

just picked me up a Wilton... an old 90s from the old Mcdonnell Douglas plant that closed in Long Beach..

its got 6 inch jaws and weighs about 150 pounds.. its my pride and joy

but you cant have too many ... how much would you want ?

 

[rrrr]

Saunders Machine Works has a series of really cool videos on his channel, this one of Starrett in Athol Massachusetts is pretty awesome, The factory still resides on the original property and uses a lot of legacy equipment to manufacture what are considered some of the finest analog measuring tools in the world.

I've been in those buildings! It was in 1990 I think. Near one building that had been preserved there was work pond retained by a stacked slate dam, and the water was sluiced into a water wheel inside the building walls driving a line shaft. The line shaft had powered a lineup of machine tools beginning in the 1880s. My guide told me the water wheel produced 25 horsepower.

I didn't see the water wheel in the video, but it looks like some of the machine tools in their museum are the same ones I saw.

The CEO of the company is Douglas Starrett, a sixth generation direct decendent of founder L. S. Starrett. Even though Starrett is a public company, upper management is still in the family.

L. S. Starrett invented and patented the combination square. At the time his competitors thought grinding the straightedge accurately enough to maintain a true 90° angle on the square head impossible. Starrett found a way.

If you're ever in New England, visiting the American Precision Museum in Windsor, VT is required. It tells the stories of machine tool pioneers like Winthrop Ingersoll, Francis Pratt, Eli Whitney, Joseph Brown, Henry Sharpe, and many others. Their mastery of measurement spawned the American Industrial Revolution. Without accurate measurements, mass production and interchangeable parts would have been impossible. I wandered through the exhibits for hours.

Main page - APM

americanprecision.org

This company history document was produced by Starrett in 2016. It's very interesting.

https://www.starrett.com/docs/defau...dable-resources/the-starrett-story-(1216).pdf

 

[Rajobigguy]

I have a very large assortment of Starrett tools including O.D. mics up to 28” and I.D. Mics up to 48” I have no idea what I’m going to use some of this stuff for after I retire but it’s cool that I have it.

 

[rrrr]

I have a very large assortment of Starrett tools including O.D. mics up to 28” and I.D. Mics up to 48” I have no idea what I’m going to use some of this stuff for after I retire but it’s cool that I have it.

You could fabricate a triple expansion steam engine!

 

[RiverDave]

I have a 4" Wilton Bullet Vise Machinist, 4" Bench Vise with brass Jaws I made up along with the originals. Made in USA
Open to offers.

post a pic.. I might buy it for random stuff. I am a vice nerd.. lol

 

[RiverDave]

I have a very large assortment of Starrett tools including O.D. mics up to 28” and I.D. Mics up to 48” I have no idea what I’m going to use some of this stuff for after I retire but it’s cool that I have it.

I will buy em if the price is right.. I run TESA mainly but only up to 12. Any of it certified still? Have you checked them?

 

[Carlson-jet]

post a pic.. I might buy it for random stuff. I am a vice nerd.. lol

Check your PM's
That was a task. I forgot how heavy those damn things are.

 

[RiverDave]

3:00 am and I'm finally doing something for me, trying to watch this thing..

RD

 

[kurtis500]

Ive been in a number of factories in the north east. They all look pretty similar. Really coold places.

 

[lenmann]

Really cool video and great to see that an old line American industrial company has survived and prospered as long as they have. Having been a young machinist back in the 70's I remember a number of other US precision tool brands (Brown and Sharp, Pratt/Whitney, Lufkin) that didn't rise to the challenge of off shore competition (Mitutoyo) and faded away or were bought up for brand value.

I was also surprised by the age of some of the equipment they still operate, I expected more automation, modern production methods, etc.

Seeing the Acme-Gridley bar machine brought back a little PTSD moment for me. In 1978 I had just started my first job with benefits as a lathe machinist at big defense company in SoCal working second shift. I was about a week in, overwhelmed, and still trying to find my way around what was the biggest machine shop I had ever seen. My foreman tells me that he has a special job for me over in the screw machine department. I reminded him that I didn't really know anything about screw machines but he said that was OK, that I seemed like a quick study, and it pretty much ran itself. It seems that the guy that normally ran this job had some kind of emergency and wouldn't be at work that night but this job needed to keep running 24-7 until the graveyard shift guy came in at midnight. So I'm thinking, ok, it's just one shift and my dad's machine shop had a little 3/4" Traub cam type screw machine that I had sat next to picking parts when I was a kid, so no big deal.

I grab my roll away tool box and we head over to the screw machine department on the other side of the building, walking past rows 20 plus deep, of every size Brown and Sharp screw machine there is, all humming away with a couple of guys keeping an eye on things and refilling the bar feeders. Past all the little machines are these two dark gray behemoths called Conomatics manufactured by, you guessed it, the Cone Machine Tool company. These things were huge and looked like sleeping dinosaurs. They each had six spindles and bar feeders that could handle up to 4" stock that looked like a damn gatling gun hanging off the back. They were running two versions of an output shaft for an air to air missile guidance section from 3 1/2" 17-4 stainless bar. The day shift guy had stayed over to help get me started and he was covered in cutting oil and looked beat. I could barely hear him over the incredible noise coming from the beasts. Basically he told me that he had just done a tool refresh earlier in the day and that all I needed to do watch the coolant lines (3 on each spindle) " 'cause sometimes the big ol' spiral chips coming off the tools will knock em out of place and without oil there would be a melt down, and melt downs are bad. Refill the bar feeder using that hoist over there and pick the parts as they are cut off". About that time the cycle finished, the tools retracted, it got quiet, and then ALL SIX spindles rotated. If I thought it was loud before, holy shit the ground shook as basically half of the machine and all that bar stock rotated 30 degrees. He ran me through a couple of important dimensions to keep an eye on, told me were to stack the parts, and then BAM, the damn thing rotated again. I turned back away from the machine and he was hanging up his apron and headed to clock out. My boss had long since disappeared and I was scared shitless. The guys over on the Brownies were snickering...

Well I needed this job so I pushed down my fear, tied my machinist apron on tight, and lost some hearing that night. Fortunately the day shift guy, Norm, was an incredibly talented guy and he had been running big multi-spindle machines since WWII. He had designed the set-up, developed the cutting tools, cut the cams, and had the beasts running like giant lumbering swiss watches. The evening was uneventful and I survived my trial by fire and smoke with just a few minor lacerations from said hot spiral chips. Within a couple of weeks another new guy had started, so I wasn't the low guy on the pole anymore. My days as a back-up multi-spindle operator had come to an end.

Great to see some of the old stuff still in action at Starrett.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Check your PM's
That was a task. I forgot how heavy those damn things are.

If Dave doesn't take it, I'd be interested... And no shipping...

 

[Desert Whaler]

Thanks for sharing . . . I showed that to my Dad who is 89 and has worked on machinery all his life . . . he loved it!
Thanks again for making his day !

 

[Rajobigguy]

You could fabricate a triple expansion steam engine!

Actually I could or a monstrous air compressor.

I will buy em if the price is right.. I run TESA mainly but only up to 12. Any of it certified still? Have you checked them?

I check them against the stds. every time I use them and they have been to Wilmington instruments a couple of times for check-up.

 

[Carlson-jet]

If Dave doesn't take it, I'd be interested... And no shipping...

Some reason I can't send you a PM.
If Dave passes you are up. PM me a number and I will send pics or Dave can post them.

I hate to use this thread but I want to say everything I own is going down the road. I basically gave away my 70 C-10, 77 GMC 4x4, 79' Southwind tunnel, many welders. I have to clear this stuff out. I have a thread on a 2 ton Ametek digital scale. I will run with what I'm almost giving away.
The 78' XR 75 went for 75 bucks. My Haro all original I grabbed up in 88 went for $250. Any one who wants a Nice 10-EE Monarch Lathe, get it the fock out of my shop.

 

[Racer56]

That was a very cool video! Thanks for posting!

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Some reason I can't send you a PM.
If Dave passes you are up. PM me a number and I will send pics or Dave can post them.

I hate to use this thread but I want to say everything I own is going down the road. I basically gave away my 70 C-10, 77 GMC 4x4, 79' Southwind tunnel, many welders. I have to clear this stuff out. I have a thread on a 2 ton Ametek digital scale. I will run with what I'm almost giving away.
The 78' XR 75 went for 75 bucks. My Haro all original I grabbed up in 88 went for $250. Any one who wants a Nice 10-EE Monarch Lathe, get it the fock out of my shop.

PM scent...