A Letter From The Tool & Die Guy

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Phil Kerner

Well, here we go.

Age 20, running a Hydro-tel at Anson Tools and Gages in Erie, PA

The fact of the matter is that I’ve pretty much given my life to this trade…while at the same time working my ass off to get out of it!

Don’t get me wrong: I was born into this business, and decided after all of my clients left me for Mexico and China in 2003, I was going to find another line of work. I was sick and tired of David trying to fight Goliath.

The truth is that for most of my life, I was enamored by the smell of EDM oil and the sight of white-aproned toolmakers building and assembling masterpieces and wanted to someday command the respect that they had as a master toolmaker.

Unlike college – where your courses are scheduled for you – I laid out my own education which included not only my four-year apprenticeship, but taking every night class that was available: Machine Shop I, Machine Shop II, Jig and Fixture Design, Basic Welding, and Advanced Welding. Yep, welding…to this day, the “pros” at where I work are astonished that I can still lay down a pretty good bead of weld with mig, tig, and even a stick. Learning how to tig weld probably saved me many thousands of dollars after I started my own shop, as that’s the only way to fix errors on an expensive piece of steel that already had a few hundred hours of work in it before someone drilled a hole too deep or ran into it with an end mill.

I decided at the age of 19 that someday I would open my own shop. I also decided that I would never accept my employees ever – ever – second guessing my knowledge and being able to bullshit me about a problem. To that end, I was maniacal in my lust to be the best damn guy in town BEFORE I opened my own shop.

I was extremely fortunate that my path put me in a direct collision with a lot of talented guys who thought I was brash, cocky, and a little too smart for my own good. They eventually cut me down to size – I hated it – but I sucked it up, took their abuse…and harvested a gold-mine of knowledge from them that served me very, very well.

My story is really that of more of an entrepreneur than a toolmaker…while I loved the guys in the white aprons, I wanted to be the guy that had a shop that those guys worked for.

In the end, in all honesty I can say that I was a pretty good toolmaker…but I could never compete with a guy that did it day-in and day-out for 40 years. I was a complete freak of nature and crammed the best of 40 years of knowledge into about 10 years on the floor before I started my own shop.

I will say that my crazed thirst for knowledge served me very well. I made “top rate” just a few years after I finished my apprenticeship, and for the most part continued to generally irritate and piss off my senior peers in the trade as I could simply out-work them. I was young, hungry, and had a plan. In all fairness, these guys didn’t have my ambition to start their own shops, they were just trying to make a living every day.

Hanging the sign on the building...a very proud day.

At the age of just 31 – it seems SO long ago – I took on a partner and started the second Kerner Tool & Die Company. I already had three kids, and dumped my life savings into buying a few machines to get started. Within six years, we were a $2 million enterprise.

I had the company, the house in the ‘burbs, an in-ground pool, and a country club membership. Life was stressful, but life was good.

To make a very long story very short, things eventually went south with my partner. I walked away from my business in 1999 with absolutely nothing. I owned 49%, he owned 51%. Lesson learned: 51% = 99%. The controlling partner really owns everything, unless you want to spend $100,000 in court. No thanks.

I did start another tool shop immediately thereafter, but by then there was really no money in it. Stuff I used to build for $35,000 was being shipped to China for $3,000. I couldn’t even buy the steel for that much, let alone the labor.

I mucked around for about a year, and here I am today.

I work for a very good company, but the reality is that I use about 20% of my knowledge on any given day. Building molds is tough…I don’t build molds anymore.

I have to say that without any apprentices under me, I started to feel the urge to share what I know…so, I started to throw my stuff up on YouTube, and the response has been incredible and heart warming for me.

So, this site is a little bit of everything: skills, tips, rants, history and opinion.

It’s so much my pleasure to share what I know with you.

Thanks for visiting!

Share
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Gauge Blocks and Indicators: How I Use Both to Check My Work

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Phil Kerner

There used to be a day when gauge blocks were simply way too expensive to own your own set. Now – with Ebay and overseas manufacturers supplying them – they are pretty affordable for any machinist or tool and die maker to own their own set.

In this video, I explain what gauge blocks are, and how I use them almost every day to check my work. I’ll also be explaining some very good basics on who to use a dial indicator correctly.

One thing I did not mention in the video regarding gauge blocks is that they are most accurate when stored in a climate-controlled environment, which basically means don’t let them sit by a window where the sun will heat them up (they will grow slightly) or let them get too cold (or they will shrink slightly.) Optimum storage temperature is around 70 degrees.

I am working hard on a surprise gift for the Queen, so if you find this lesson at all informative, please don’t hesitate to buy the Tool and Die Guy a beer or two.

Here you go:

If you enjoyed this post…

Buy Me a Beer!



Share
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Just For Fun: Idiots at Work!

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Phil Kerner

We all make mistakes. These poor guys were unfortunate enough to have a video camera on them when they made theirs!

Enjoy!

Share
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What A Tool Shop Looked Like…1958

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Phil Kerner

In my last post, I shared some stories about my family’s background in the Tool & Die industry. I’ve been carrying around this tattered and well-worn brochure since I was a kid.

Due to the technology we have today, I was not only able to scan these in digitally, but was able to digitally enhance these pages to make them look like they were printed yesterday.

Hope you enjoy them.

This is the cover. If you've read my previous post, the dairy barn in the background should look familiar.

A well-written intro, one that I've paraphrased many times in my own businesses. Feel free to do so yourself.

Kerner Tool & Die Erie PA

A small Cincinnati Hydro-Tel. When I had my own shop, I owned a few of these this size, plus a few bigger ones. Besides being great for heavy-duty milling, they were used "back in the day" for duplicating work. Note the "riser" on the right side of the table, that's where the pattern goes. Notice the tracing stylus hanging over it.

A Deckel 3-D Pantograph. Unlike the Gorton pantographs, Deckels had a much heavier spindle and could do 1:1 tracing, and an attachment let you go all the way up to 8:1. Awesome and accurate, I kept 3 of these running 12 hours a day during the 90's before 3-D milling began the switch over to CAM systems. This fellow - Sam Schember - was the "King of the Deckels," who trained Dick Forbes as the next "King of the Deckels" who trained me...the last "King of the Deckels." I absolutely LOVED running these machines.

Love the hat, no safety glasses, and the way they "dubbed in" a nice clean floor around this guy!

Toolmakers running Bridgeport mills. My dad Fritz is running the third one on the right, wearing his nifty white shoes. Jeez.

The grinding room, before guards were added around the wheels. Note the wooden walls to the right, the original outside of the barn.

Finishing up a big die-casting die for Parker White Metal Company.

My Uncle Ed at his desk, and a shot of the crew below. Several of these guys went on to start their own tool and die shops.

The KTD equipment list.

Nice closing letter.

Share
Posted in Tool and Die Making History | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

My Three Sons: How My Grandfather Built an Empire He Never Saw.

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Phil Kerner

When you’re the youngest “cousin,” two things happen:

First, you do miss out on a lot of family history because everyone was ‘living it” while you were still in diapers. Second, you might feel some kind of “pull” sometime in your life to investigate your family tree.

In my case, I know just about enough to be dangerous. Officially, my legacy was snuffed out beginning at age 9, when both my Dad “Fritz,” and my Uncle Eddie passed away within 6 months of each other. My Dad – of course – was my DAD – but my Uncle Ed was Walt Disney with a slight drinking problem. My Uncle Ron was the saint, and my godfather. Three brothers trained in the home of their basement in how to run machinery by their father.

Let’s start off by saying that my Uncle Ed was just one cool dude. Even if you disapproved of his drinking, during that time – the 60′s – you just didn’t talk about it. But THIS guy just had “the touch.”

But, let’s start at the beginning, which is always a great place to start, right?

My Grandfather - who I never met - relaxing sometime during the 1940's.

My grandfather – as I am told – was a pattern maker and tool maker at the original Parker White Metal Company located now in Fairview, PA. It’s now called PHB Industries, and the CEO apprenticed under my father.

Somewhere during the 1940′s, my uncle Ed started some kind of machine shop in his neighborhood. After splicing wires together, the good news was that they could get machines to run. The bad news was that there were frequent blackouts in the neighborhood, which were traced back to his new garage enterprise. Time to move on.

He purchased a huge dairy barn about 3 miles outside of Erie – called Gospel Hill – which came with a few hundred acres of land, a beautiful farm house, and a really cool dairy barn. I don’t know much about farming, but I do know that “dairy barns” are usually a lot nicer than your run-of-the-mill barn that you store hay in.

After my Dad came out of World War II, he went to work for Ed and they started to cobble together one hell of a business up there on Gospel Hill. Eddie had good friends at Parker White, and the business quickly grew.

Kerner Tool & Die, started in a dairy barn sometime in the 1940's.

The original Kerner Tool & Die Company just might have been the single-most coolest tool and die shop in the history of the world. Imagine a huge dairy barn filled with 60 tool and die makers, sitting up on a hill overlooking both the rolling hills and the countryside, as well as a panoramic view of Lake Erie. Not too shabby.

My Uncle Ed just had the “Midas Touch.” It seemed as though anything he touched just turned to gold. As the shop grew, he built an amazing A-Frame home adjacent to it, and then decided to add his own 18-hole golf course to his portfolio on the same property.

My youth was spent hanging around the shop, hanging out at Uncle Eddie’s pool, and of course playing golf 15 hours a day. I remember playing an astonishing 63 holes in one single day. My hands bled for a week. You’d think I’d be a pretty good golfer…but I never took it too seriously as I was just having way too much fun.

As the years went by, Eddie developed the upstairs of the dairy barn into an amazing dance hall, complete with knotty-pine walls and hardwood floors. Many of my cousins had their wedding receptions held there during the 1960′s. The walls were adorned with the heads of antelope, deer, elk and the other trophies from his hunting expeditions.

My Uncle Ronnie – er, Ronald – was an extremely devout Catholic and went to Mass every single day. I know that for a fact due to when I was a new altar boy, they gave us 6:00 AM Mass every day to learn the ropes. He was the only one there.

Ronald went on to form the R.M. Kerner Company, which is still in business today. At it’s zenith, they employed about 600 people. Ronnie was never a tool and die maker, but he was a genius machinist. I’ve heard stories over the years that he worked with Eddie for a while, but the “machinist’ and the “tool and die maker” didn’t quite mix. No shock there. Ronnie was probably hell-bent to get things done fast, and Eddie was probably a bit more pragmatic in watching his toolmakers do things at the speed of watching grass grow.

Eddie was flashy: had the shop, the cool house, the cars, the golf course, and the carbonated soda dispenser in his kitchen. How cool is that?

Ronnie, on the other hand, was the most decent man on the planet. One “highball” after work, that was it. A modest home a few blocks from the factory, and he drove the most disgusting vehicles into the ground, as in buying one new car every 15 years or so.

Edward Kerner, somewhere in the 1960's.

I never got to work for my Uncle Ed, as I was just 9 years old when he died. I did, however get to work a few years for Uncle Ron as a draftsman during high school. It was a great experience, and I regret being so stupid as not to appreciate the genius that I was around every day with my Uncle Ron. It’s a shame that youth is wasted on the young!

The original Kerner Tool & Die Company was sold about a year after my Uncle Ed passed away in 1969. It burned to the ground a few years later. Between the EDM oil and the 55 gallon drums full of acetone, the flames could be seen for miles.

As the years went by, my Uncle Ed was my inspiration to start my own Tool & Die shop, which I did in 1991 at the age of 31. We had about 12 great years, but could never recover from the onslaught of China and Mexico, closing the doors in 2004.

Here’s some rare photos I was able to put together from some sources in the family. Enjoy!

The original Kerner Tool & Die during the 1960's. The dairy barn remained the center of the shop until the end. As they grew, my uncle just kept adding on to the barn.

As the business grew, Ed built this custom A-frame overlooking the shop, as well as the new golf course he was building.

It's 1960, the house is finished, and the front nine is underway. You can see the front of the shop all the way to the left.

This is me at about age 6 hanging out with Uncle Eddie. Between the golf carts, the pool, and the playing golf all day, I was a pretty happy camper. In fact, I was staying overnight there the night my Dad passed away. You can see the shop in the background.

Gospel Hill today. The A-Frame is surrounded by trees now, but you can still see the foundations of the original Kerner Tool & Die on the right.

Share
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Confessions of a Mold Maker

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Phil Kerner

What is tool and die making? What do tool and die makers do?

Are you interested in becoming a tool and die maker, or do you just want to learn new skills to use in your home-based machine shop?

What is the difference between a machinist and a tool and die maker?

A Tool and die maker usually describes a machinist who is not only responsible for making parts, but who also has been trained for several years on blueprint reading, measurement techniques, general machining practices, math, and assembly.
Tool and Die making usually falls into one of four categories: mold making, die making, fixture making, and specialty machine building.

A nice shot of two halves of a plastic injection mold sitting side by side.

Of these four disciplines, most would agree that mold making is usually the most difficult and demanding. The main reason for this is that molds are constructed with “draft” (i.e. angled walls) to ensure that the parts can be released when the mold is opened. Working on intricate cavities for molds means the mold maker – or tool maker – must know how to check his work using unconventional methods since nothing is straight. The ability to think in “3-D” is vital as the mold maker must be able to visualize not only two halves of the mold coming together, but that every detail is built “backwards” so that it looks “forwards” when the part is ejected from the mold.

A simple but practical example of this is the lettering or engraving done on a mold. Our best friend used to be a simple “egg” full of “Silly Putty” that we could press onto our work to see how the finished part would look.

Building complex cavities and cores to produce an injection mold is just part of the work of a top rate mold maker. He oversees the general construction of the mold, keeping tabs on and answering questions from the various machinists and apprentices who might be fabricating different parts of the mold. Inevitably, small mistakes are made due to the process of molds being “one time” projects and the mold maker oversees any revisions or repairs that must be done and adjusts his work accordingly.

After several weeks of creative but somewhat stressful mold building, the time arrives when the cavities, cores, and mold base have been completely machined and polished.

Mold Makers fitting up the parting line of a mold using a specially-designed spotting press that simulates the actual pressure that an injection molding press produces. It was always kind of creepy to lean in under that 2,000 pound block of steel clamped to the upper platen, but you get used to it. If those bolts ever let go, you were dead.

Now, the sins of the past several weeks shall be revealed upon assembly.
The mold maker now begins the process of the final assembly and fit up of the mold. This includes assembling the mold frame, installing the water fittings, wiring the injection system, fitting up any “side” actions such as hydraulic or mechanical slides that will form shapes in the side of the part, assembling and testing the ejection system, and then, the final challenge: fitting the parting line.

A flat part is simple to fit up. But a contoured parting line can take several days sometimes to complete. This process involves painting one side of the mold blue, and forcing it onto the other side to ensure that “blue” is transferred equally from one side of the parting line to the other. Any gaps in the blue indicate where plastic will be forced out, meaning “flash” and a jagged edge on the finished part. The mold maker uses a variety of hand tools including files, disc sanders, and dental grinders to remove any high spots until he is satisfied that the mold will shut and seal properly during production.

When Plastigage is compressed, you use the bars on the package to show you how far away you are from being 100% closed.

If he is lucky, there are a few “flat” spots on the parting line where he can monitor his progress by closing the  mold and checking the gap left by using feeler gauges. If he is not so lucky, he has to resort to using something called “Plastigage” and measure how wide the wax is after he closes and opens the mold.

In the end, the biggest difference between mold makers and/or tool and die makers vs. machinists is the training and experience, as well as leadership skills, that give him the necessary skills to not only operate many types of equipment but to also lead others as well as train the next group of apprentices that are following in his footsteps.

It took me seven years to achieve “top rate,” which included my four-year apprenticeship. That was in 1985, and with overtime and bonuses, I was making around $65,000 a year as a 25 year-old tool and die maker.

That is around $139,000 today. (I use this site for my calculations – cool, but depressing at the same time!!)

In the end, those days are gone forever. But there was a day when a talented toolmaker could feed a family of four with no problem at all. I know, as I did it easily and still had enough cash to own my own home and a nice boat. When I look around at all of the shops – and toolmakers – that are gone now, I have to say it hurts my heart.

It used to be that “smart” kids chose tool and die making as a profession. Forget it now…everyone wants to go to college. Not a bad thing in itself, but not everyone is cut out for college. Someone still has to actually “build” the stuff they create with their software.

I think that the free world might be surprised to know someday in the not-so-distant future that we have no one left who can actually build anything for us. As so much work is being farmed off to China and Mexico – which is just great because they are so cheap – eventually, their economies will catch up to ours.

We’re about 10 years away from the last truly trained tool and die makers retiring for good. Part machinists, part mathematicians, part managers, and part craftsmen…they are the guys who you go to when it has to be RIGHT. And, they’re going to be gone for good.

I still say that these guys were the backbone of American manufacturing, and machines can’t replace them. They haven’t yet – they’re just all working for 10 bucks a week in China.

I have to laugh when I hear Barack Obama whining about the fact that “green” companies are failing because China flooded the market with cheap solar panels.

No shit…really? China flooded my business with cheap molds starting about 12 years ago. No government money for me…my local congressional idiot did a six-month study that concluded that I needed to “export” more.

Thanks for that.

Share
Posted in Shop Stories | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

What is Tool and Die Making?

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Phil Kerner

My Dad Fritz (left) and Uncle Ed setting up the first EDM machine in Erie, PA sometime in the early 1960's.

My Uncle Eddie had a very successful tool and die shop back in the 40′s,50′s and 60′s.
Their motto was “Precision is our practice, Production is the Result.”
Hmm. What exactly does that mean?
Because tool and die makers build molds, fixtures, and dies that pound out thousands of parts every day, it naturally follows that the more precise the mold, die, or fixture is, the better the parts will be that come out of it.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with and employing some great craftsmen. Yep, some of them were a real piece of work – but, boy were they ever good.
A “lead” mold maker – like me – oversaw the complete construction of all of my projects, some worth well over $100,000. Mistakes were to be avoided at all costs, as the further along you were – i.e. hundreds of hours working on one block of steel – the more costly they became. I would say that the average mistake in a tool room costs the company a minimum of about $2,000. And that’s the average. Look out for the REALLY big ones.
A “lead” guy oversees all of the work done by his apprentices, the machinists who are fabricating the mold base, and of course, the fitting-up and final assembly. Back in the day, our average mold took about 16 weeks to build.
The attributes of the best toolmakers I knew are as follows;
  • Are good machinists
  • Are very creative
  • Are good at math
  • Are extremely detail-oriented
  • Can multi-task
  • Can handle pressure
  • Quality is more important than quantity
It’s no surprise that the trade is dying now, as the machines are much more accurate and the labor is much cheaper in Mexico and China.
But, boy…back in the day, these were some pretty smart guys.
Share
Posted in Real Manufacturing Experiences | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Conventional Milling vs. Climb Milling

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Phil Kerner

Here’s a short post on the pros and cons of “climb” and “conventional” milling.

When we all were using Bridgeports 30 years ago, we learned that “climb” milling was a definite no-no because the endmill will grab the workpiece and follow the least point of resistance, which usually meant either your machine table or saddle taking off in a way that could truly soil your pants. You learned that “conventional” milling was much safer on this type of machine, and still is today.

For the most part, climb milling is the best way to machine anything – with a few exceptions that I’ll list later – because your endmill has a lot less pressure on it and will almost never “dig in” and machine your piece under size. The natural “climbing” motion just seems to help pull the work along, and you can leave a lot less stock for your finish pass (we call it a victory lap) because there is much less danger of the endmill sucking in to your work.

However – this is 35 years talking – when I really need to get a sidewall milled as straight as possible, I still like to use conventional milling to scrape off just a few thousandths (.002″) with a brand new solid carbide endmill. The finish is beautiful, and I can get a 4″ deep wall within a few tenths (.0002″) of being perfectly straight. This technique works great as long as you make sure that the endmill has no more than .001″ of total runout. Just make sure that you wrap a rag around that cutter when you’re done and save it for “finishing only.”

(Editor’s note: for the procedure above, I use a 1″ diameter endmill and mount it in a spring collet holder – much more accurate.)

Besides the above technique, I’ll occasionally use conventional milling when I have to rough-out a plate that’s either been flame-cut or has some kind of hardened mill slab on the surface from the manufacturer. The conventional attack lets the mill get “under” this initial tough skin while climb milling will just keep pushing each cutting edge into the surface as the mill is fed into the piece. With this method, I leave myself plenty of stock due to the conventional method wanting to dig in. It’s always a surprise to measure your work and find out that you’re already undersize before taking a finish pass.

“Surprises” in this trade aren’t usually a good thing.

Here’s a short video where I demonstrate by hand (for beginners) what direction to go on both the inside and outside of a piece of steel depending on whether you want to climb or conventionally mill it…

If you enjoyed this post…

Buy Me a Beer!



Share
Posted in The Basics - CNC Machining, The Basics - Milling | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Is My Square “Square?”

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Phil Kerner

Here’s an email that I got today:

“Hi,

I’m an apprentice, just starting.  I just finished making a solid square using combo square, calipers, files and a bit of drill press work for the rivet holes.  What method would you recommend for checking the squareness of my solid machinists square using modest layout equipment(dial height gage, surface plate and gage blocks)  AND without any layout setup at all.  I have heard tell of a method by tracing the squares edges on a piece of paper and using a straight edge determine were squareness deviates.  Can and Will you elaborate?  Thank you kindly.”

While there’s probably a bunch of ways to do this, here’s a few ways that I would do it if it were me:

Share
Posted in The Basics - Measuring, Locating, and Checking Your Work | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Soft Jaws – Easy, Inexpensive, and BIG Time-Savers!

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Phil Kerner

For most of my career, most of my work in the moldmaking industry consisted of machining one part at a time as almost everything I worked on was a one-of-a-kind part.

As I became more involved in some small production runs, I realized that I couln’t build a fixture for every part that came across my bench…soft jaws are a great solution.

Simply put, “soft jaws” are mild steel jaws that take the place of the hardened jaws that are supplied with your vise. Basically, you simply machine the shape of your part into the soft jaws and you’ve got an instant and very repeatable fixture for your parts.

The photo above shows just 3 sets of different jaws that I’ve made in the past. I save them due to the fact that we get a lot of repeat jobs here, and I’ll have them for the next run.

Here’s another set of photos on how they’re used to clamp this 8″ diameter flange in to place…

Here are the jaws – you can see these that these have been “re-purposed” a few times but they still get the job done. Also notice the drill points left in the jaws – it’s okay to let your drill or mill machine into the jaws while machining your parts. Won’t hurt a thing.

Finally, here’s the flange sitting in the jaws…

Try to get in the habit of keeping some “blank” soft jaws ready to go in case you need to make a new set. All you need is a bar of 1″ x 2″ cold-rolled steel and cut them off in 6-inch lengths. Here’s the dimensions for the screw holes if you’re using a Kurt vise, which has 1/2-13 tapped holes. Just drill and counterbore for a 1/2″ socket head cap screw.

SOFT JAWS

Remember, these won’t work unlless you machine them with some kind of block or parallell in between them to hold them tight and to give the jaws some room to clamp up on the part without hitting each other first…here’s how it would look if I were going to machine a set of soft jaws for a 6″ diameter flange:

Finally, here’s a little video tip just to wrap the whole process up:

Boy – am I thirsty!

If you enjoyed this post…

Buy Me a Beer!



Share
Posted in The Basics - Milling, The Basics - Workholding | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment