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Jay Leno talks about machinists

sourdoughme

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 3, 2003
Location
oregon
"Nowadays, if I meet younger people who run machine shops, they’re working there because it was their father’s machine shop. You don’t see a lot of young guys starting machine shops. But it’s a respectable trade and there’s still a lot of money to be made.

Take the guy who used to be in the building next to mine. He made airplane parts and his business got so big he outgrew the space. This was a guy with a little machine shop with a bunch of machinists. He made $14 million the year he left. I’ll tell you how he did it.

There are tons of phony airplane parts coming from Asia and other sources that are stamped “Approved.” Trouble is, they’re not approved by anyone that matters. So the big airlines would come there and say, “We need 600 titanium bolts.” Then they would have to have somebody stand there while the guy made the bolts out of titanium. So the work never got out of the airlines’ hands. When the bolts were done, they were stamped, graded and delivered. You have to understand that some critical aircraft bolts are 4 grand apiece, because the only way you can ensure that the bolts are being made right—there’s such a black market for counterfeiting aircraft parts—is to pay a trustworthy man to watch each and every part being machined. That’s why they’re so expensive. So bolt by bolt, this guy’s a millionaire.

What a difference from years past. In the old days technology was expensive and labor was cheap. Look at my 8.0-liter Bentley. You’ve got about 75 acorn nuts holding the water jacket on. When this car was built you could pay a guy 10 cents an hour to sit there all day and tighten acorn nuts. Now it’s just the opposite: Labor’s expensive and technology is incredibly cheap. It’s odd, but I’m not simply talking about physical labor today. I’m talking about people with real skills.

I watched “Dateline NBC” a while back and they had some guy on who was a math genius. You could throw him a column of figures and he could add them up quicker than you could on a computer. There are guys like that with machinery, guys who can just look at an engine and know all there is to know about it.

Take the late Harry Miller, a real American genius—aesthetically and mechanically. Here was a man who made racing parts and engines in the 1920s and 1930s that looked like beautiful sculpture, but they actually worked. I don’t believe Miller was a trained engineer—he was just an intuitive engineer. I don’t think he went to MIT or anything like that. But he had the vision. So did Ettore Bugatti. And they had shops full of guys who had the skills to machine and make anything they needed.

How many guys are there like that today? I don’t know. But a lot of them just get passed by because it doesn’t seem as though preserving and encouraging these skills is worthwhile. By establishing college scholarships, I’m just trying to open up another area for kids—an area that they may not know is available. When you’re a kid, you always think you’re the only one who thinks about anything. It’s like sex. You think, “My parents don’t know anything about this.” It’s the same type of reasoning.

I like the idea of making the job of a mechanic a respectable position. In my mind, I rank a machinist higher than a computer operator. But I think in America’s mind, a machinist is like a Jiffy Lube guy—nothing against Jiffy Lube, but these are guys who have only the most basic automotive skills. The machinist’s craft just isn’t acknowledged, probably because it’s hard, meticulous, often dirty work. People don’t understand it.


When Leno needs parts for his cars, he can't usually find what he needs on the shelves at your basic discount store.

Here’s an example we should never forget. Somebody literally made all the airplanes—the fighters, bombers and transports—we used in World War II. We didn’t win the war just because we were great fighters—not to demean anybody who fought—but we also won because we had the ability to overwhelm the enemy in terms of skilled production and technology.

Think about Henry Ford and his chief engineer, Charlie Sorensen, figuring out how to build four-engined B-24 Liberator bombers on a mile-long assembly line in an enormous building at Willow Run, Mich. In California, before these East Coast guys got into the picture, they built aircraft painstakingly one at a time outside in the sun. But under the pressure of a world conflict, a couple of mechanical geniuses figured out a better way.

Back then, we had plenty of people with the necessary skills: Kids learned machining and welding in high school, then they worked as apprentices until they mastered these trades. We built things that were very well done. And we did it all in America. Take my ’32 Packard V12. It was built in Detroit, but some of the parts came from as far away as South Bend, Ind. The whole thing was made here, most of it under one roof. That doesn’t happen anymore and it worries me. You think about another world war and you say to yourself, “Uh oh.”

I needed high-speed gears made for one of my Duesenbergs. They’re hypoid and helical. I found people who could make one or the other, but not both. I couldn’t find anyone to make them. There wasn’t one company in this entire country. Every gear cutter I tried told me that all the machines had been sold. Some went to Korea, some to China. But I called a company in India and they could make the gears. And I guess that would be okay. But finally, through an older man in Chicago, someone 10 years past retirement, I was able to get them made. And all it took was 18 months.

But a few years ago, this job could be done within a few miles of Burbank Airport, right near my garage. I don’t know if that means anything to a lot of people but it’s important to me. All these venture capitalists today don’t make anything. When they’re dead, there’s nothing left. Years ago, people made things that lasted. There was a finished product. I have a garage full of ’em.

If you want to preserve old cars, you need people with the skills to do it. We’re growing a generation of kids who won’t know how to work on old cars. That’s why I support the Fred Duesenberg Scholarship and POPULAR MECHANICS sponsors the Jay Leno/POPULAR MECHANICS Scholarship at McPherson College.

It’s too bad, but I see a lot of essential skills going to Mexico or Japan. You can still wander off on a side street in those countries and see some guy making something work because he’s literally whittling a piece of metal to fit. True machinists don’t think of metal as something hard and unchangeable. They can make anything they want, or replace nearly any part that’s ever been made. I have a lot of respect for those guys. I always will."

from a 2000 Popular Mechanics

man, he really put the world in a nutshell!

Dave
 
That's darn interesting.

I knew the guy was a motorhead, but I didn't know him to be so actively insightful and well versed in things technical. And capable of putting in words. I usually change channels when his show is on.

He oughta (maybe does) hang out here.

.
 
Oh yeah, in his own way Jay is close to a genius. He has a way of looking at things and summing them up in a few phrases dense with meaning in implication. He's often addressed technical subjects and the scarecity of people who can do them. He's even testified before Congress a few times.
 
I didn't know Jay Leno had such a serious side. It's great to know that some people appreciate what a machinist does and understands how important we are. After reading the article, I begin thinking about what the next 50 years will be like in the machining world. It's sad.
 
And it ain't just mechanics and machinists. As an airline co-pilot, I shudder to think of how well qualified MY co-pilots will be when I'm a captain.

Tools
 
I have watched countless shows that had Jay Leno as a guest. Many times he was in his own garage showing the "Host" something highly complex on one of his old cars or motorcycles. He understands very unique aspects to each of his vehicles. The thing that is amazing about his collection itself is that most all of the antiques works and works WELL. He also drives those vehicles!! They aren't all just for show.

He does have a lot of respect and admiration for for technically gifted people..
 
The Leno thing is old news and has been discussed here already a few times. In the same vein, legendary rock guitarist Jeff Beck is also an auto buff who does all his own restoration work. Funny thing is, he is English, but all his cars are American hot rods ! Saw a show recently where they went into his garage, and one could see some welding and simple fab equipment about, but didn't see a lathe or mill. Perhaps he has both, but the show didn't happen upon that corner of the garage. Anyway, interesting guy.
 
I don't watch his show, but I always respected Jay for his passion for cars and motorcycles, and after reading that I respect him even more. He's just so opposite of most rich people. If I had that kind of money I would be doing exactly the same thing.

But I also find it kind of funny how he throws out examples from his collection (look at my Bentley, take my Packard, needed gears for one of my Dusenbergs) like everyone owns million-dollar cars and knows what he's talking about. I know he's not bragging or anything, but just struck me as a little strange.

John
 
If you think Jay Leno's good (and, honestly, he
is) then you will love Kevin Cameron. Maybe
not as popular or as readable, but technically
I think Cameron has the edge.

Jim
 
J Lauffer Leno's got turn of the century steam driven cars too. The Bugattis and Deuseys are mentioned as they're the most likely to have been kept 80 years to be in his collection.

I'm sure he's got several Model T's, Model A's, Bel Aire's, Impalas, Mustangs, etc. But most all of those cars still have cottage industrys to support them.

In Denver here we've got Harry Matthews and Clive Cussler with amazing collections of cars. If you look at a V-16 Caddy, the parts are pretty rough, the exhaust manifold was a rough-cast piece...but if you need one, you can't exactly run down to Checker for it.
 
I thought all hypoid gears were helical, that a hypoid gear was a special type of helical gear. Can anyone explain what a hypoid helical gear would be, and how it's different from a "normal" hypoid gear?

BTW, Jay writes a column for Popular Mechanics where you can read many similar articles, some of them are online here: Popular Mechanics Leno Archive
 
He makes some interesting points, however I hope to be a execption to that first little introduction paragraph in about 10-15 years after I graduate college as a machinist. My goal right now after college is to save up enough to start myself a small shop.


And before anybody asks I don't know a single person who does machining or is a mechanic in my family (well my mom has a cousin that lives in the US that does machining but I've never met/talked to him).


Dimitri
 
Cool article. When I was still riding motorcycles, I would run into Leno a couple of times a month at a local breakfast spot in the hills above Malibu called The Rock Store. Sometimes he'd ride up on an old Vincent, or he'd pull up in a Buggatti. It was always something interesting. After a few minutes of folks that hadn't met him before flocking around, he'd just end up blending into the crowd talking bikes and looking at everyone's machines. Very accessible and quite knowledgeable. Genuinely a nice guy with a passion for things mechanical.
 
sawrfed, as I recall from years gone by, amboid and hypoid gearing have to do with the relationship of the pinion gear to the ring gear in a differential in motor vehicles. Amboid gearing has the pinion above the ring gear and Hypoid is the opposite. Helical gears are merely the teeth cut on an angle relative to the axis of the gear. They are quieter and smother running than spur gears that are cut 90 deg. to the axis. Also, there is more tooth engagement in helicals than spurs making a stronger engagement for the same gear size.
 
Thanks rayman, I've never heard of amboid gearing until just now, even though I've seen diffs with the pinion above the c/l of the ring gear. But the part I still don't understand is that Leno could get a hypoid gear and a helical gear, but not a gear that was both hypoid and helical. AFAIK, all hypoids have angled teeth, and thus to me all hypoids would also be helical. I would think any rear gear maker (like Richmond) could cut a normal hypoid gear to order. But apparently his "hypoid-helical" gear was a very special case. I'm still missing something here.
 
I tell you its a weird skill being a machinist (although its not something I wanted to be, but thats another story)

We have a unversity graduate at work, when he first started he was full of recomended feeds/speeds/ new whizz tooling etc etc etc you all know the sorta guy

One of the first jobs he programmed he asked me to have a look, I put my hand on the machine while it was running, looked at the part after it was done and had a quick scroll through the program, he was gobsmacked* when I told exactly what he was doing wrong, what the correct feed/speeds were and howto program to knock 45 secs off the cycle.

Or sticking a domed part on the shadow graph and telling him he'd either programmed the nose comp the wrong way or left the nose comp off completely.

Machining stuff I've always thought as 1/2 skill 1/2 art, and can only be learned in a place employing skilled machinists, which are in the west, sadly a dying breed.

Boris

*Translation: Amazed
there you got to read a posting and learned a new word too... unless you're english....or knew it away
 
I agree with Boris.

Knowing how to use a tool is education, knowing what can be done with a tool to get a job done is experience.

A good machinist or tool maker will take "it can't be done" as a challenge and will have to prove them wrong or it will bug them.
 








 
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