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"Inside" vs. "Outside" Machinest

Access Db Guy

Hot Rolled
Joined
Mar 16, 2005
Location
Norfolk, VA
Here in the Tidewater area are located several ship yards; new construction, repairs, etc. I often see ads seeking "Outside Machinists" but never actually knew what the difference was.

Well, here it is:


Machinist, Inside
a. Simple and difficult drill press work
b. Simple and difficult shaper work
c. Simple and difficult lathe work
d. Simple and difficult milling machine work
e. Simple and difficult vertical and horizontal boring mill work
f. Planer work
g. Simple and difficult dismantling and erecting work
h. Grinding work
i. Simple and difficult turret lathe work
j. Lay out work

Machinist, Outside
a. Disassemble or dismantle valves; inspect for wear/replacement; assemble
b. Install stanchions and hand rails for gratings and ladders
c. Dismantle pumps and minor auxiliary machinery; inspect; assemble
d. Install piping for steam, exhaust, suction, discharge, heating, refrigerating, from plans
e. Dismantle deck machinery; repair
f. Dismantle main engines; inspect; repair
g. Inspect turbines
h. Remove propellor wheel, line, tail shafts; install
i. Run horizontal and vertical lines for alignment of engine;
j. Overhaul and repair refrigerating machinery
k. Dismantle, overhaul, assemble generator governors

Ref: Major Trades at the Brooklyn Navy Yard During the first half of the Twentieth Century

Regards,
Stan Db
 
Wow, this makes me "amphibious!"



Richard
 
I worked 20 years as an "Outside Machinist" At Tampa Shipyards in Tampa Florida. I did all the jobs on the list except b and d. All pipeing was done by the pipefitters and handrails were boilermakers jobs. Anywhere else I would be known as a "Millwright".
 
Inside machinist are like bats; they sta warm and never see the light of day. Outside machinist are like cow $hit and melt in the rain, bake dry in the sun, or freeze in winter.
 
I worked as an Inside Machinist at Jeffboat in Jeffersonville,Indiana for a little while when I got out of the Navy. They build barges, tugs, and have built several riverboats. Outside machinists were part of our shop, but as everyone here has mentioned they are mill wrights.
 
No shipyards here in the Az desert, but the London Bridge is here! I live close to a large copper mine and the machinists there have to go out and tear down what ever is broken and bring the parts into the shop for rebuilding. Maybe a bearing goes bad on a conveyor belt thats way up in the air.
Michael
 
When I started my apprenticeship here in Australia in 1960 it was as a "fitter & turner".

During the course of such an apprenticeship, those who displayed an aptitude for "fitting" would be steered that way whilst those who displayed an aptitude for "turning" would be steered towards machining.

In an Australian general engineering shop the bloke who did the duties listed for an "outside machinist" would be called a fitter. There is/was no single word for the bloke who did the "inside machinist" work; he might be called a lathe operator, a machine operator or a machinist.

The terms "inside/outside machinist" were not, to my knowledge, used here.
 
I had an employee who always talked about his years "millwrighting in Canada" so I finally had to ask a marine engineer friend what that is. He thought for a minute and said, " well, its pretty much a machinist that can't run a lathe..."
 








 
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