gnappi
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,394
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Post by gnappi on Feb 23, 2024 16:46:13 GMT -5
If this is old news, it's new to me.
Gosh, what's next. First Lathesmith, now Magma.
Their site just says,
So Long, Farewell...
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Post by wendigo on Feb 23, 2024 17:52:20 GMT -5
News to me as well. Seems strange since their machines are so widely used, unless everyone who needed one (or more) now has them.
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ideal
.240 Incinerator
Posts: 69
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Post by ideal on Feb 23, 2024 19:22:30 GMT -5
He had been having difficulties finding suitable, hard working employees from what I've heard. Particularly machinists.
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Post by x101airborne on Feb 23, 2024 22:49:40 GMT -5
Shoot, what industry hasn't???
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Post by singleaction on Feb 23, 2024 23:16:30 GMT -5
Darn! A sign of the times, I guess.
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Post by bigbore5 on Feb 24, 2024 6:34:09 GMT -5
Dang. I've been saving up to buy one of those.
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gnappi
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,394
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Post by gnappi on Feb 24, 2024 7:12:18 GMT -5
Dang. I've been saving up to buy one of those. It looks like Ebay and Gunbroker are for now your only options. Prices are already skyrocketing!
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Post by wendigo on Feb 24, 2024 9:02:03 GMT -5
Shoot, what industry hasn't??? That's the truth. We have one guy in my shop who's 50, the rest of us are all north of 60. It seems that the extent of the manual skills of most folks these days is tapping an icon on the screen of some device. I started noticing the lack of younger workers in skilled trades about 10 years ago, but it's been much more noticeable since '20.
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Post by bigbore5 on Feb 24, 2024 9:05:33 GMT -5
We've been capable of only finding one trainee under 30. He's 18 and a relative of a member of management. Good worker and listens. But he was raised around the business and home schooled. All the other young people washed out quickly the past few years.
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edk
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,106
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Post by edk on Feb 24, 2024 9:21:45 GMT -5
I'm afraid we on this forum have a distorted view of the popularity of our interests. I can be guilty as well because I'm here regularly and all of this is important to me. I know what Magma makes but that's about it as my needs are met casting on a small scale. One thing I do know is that machinists are becoming very scarce. I've been accumulating some machines and skills of my own which takes me to Lathesmith. I wouldn't want to try to make onesy-twosy machined items on a custom basis for under $100 a piece. I can see a retired guy doing it for supplemental income but not a real business - by "real" I mean pays a living wage. Had lunch with a friend I had not seen since pre-pandemic days and my hamburger and two beers yesterday were $50. As a businessman I have to make at least $70 to pay for that. I don't see a solution. I say lock down what you must now because inflation and/or availability is going to get you!
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diddle
.30 Stingray
Posts: 469
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Post by diddle on Feb 24, 2024 10:26:00 GMT -5
Anytime I begin to think all 18-19 year olds are a bunch of bums, I remember my nephew’s Boot Camp graduation at Paris Island. Sometimes it’s about the leadership these youngsters are getting (or not getting). Just a thought.
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gnappi
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,394
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Post by gnappi on Feb 24, 2024 12:07:55 GMT -5
I'm afraid we on this forum have a distorted view of the popularity of our interests. I can be guilty as well because I'm here regularly and all of this is important to me. I know what Magma makes but that's about it as my needs are met casting on a small scale. One thing I do know is that machinists are becoming very scarce. I've been accumulating some machines and skills of my own which takes me to Lathesmith. I wouldn't want to try to make onesy-twosy machined items on a custom basis for under $100 a piece. I can see a retired guy doing it for supplemental income but not a real business - by "real" I mean pays a living wage. Had lunch with a friend I had not seen since pre-pandemic days and my hamburger and two beers yesterday were $50. As a businessman I have to make at least $70 to pay for that. I don't see a solution. I say lock down what you must now because inflation and/or availability is going to get you! It's not new... my dad was a master tool and die maker, one of the top in his field. In the various shops he worked at in his lifetime he called the shop "machinists" Indians and nobody ever questioned why he used that to describe the younger guys in the shop. One day a curious fellow asked pop why he called the shop guys Indians, and pop replied "because all you guys say is HOW do I do this" :-)
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edk
.375 Atomic
Posts: 1,106
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Post by edk on Feb 24, 2024 13:15:43 GMT -5
Anytime I begin to think all 18-19 year olds are a bunch of bums, I remember my nephew’s Boot Camp graduation at Paris Island. Sometimes it’s about the leadership these youngsters are getting (or not getting). Just a thought. It's not as simple as that and as I said I don't see a solution. I agree with your leadership suggestion and that is not the machine shop owners or the senior employees. It begins with school guidance counselors embarrassing anyone unwilling to submit to tremendous debt and a 4-year university degree, embarrassing those interested in pursuing a trade school vocation. Can you even walk in the door and serve as an apprentice machinist? If so, can you survive off the pay? By that I don't mean support a family but let's just say a single 18-year-old either living at home or sharing an apartment. I well realize that manual machining is all but gone in everyplace save perhaps an R&D environment. No local machine shop around here wants to make one of anything that you'd want to pay for and I don't blame them (see my burger comment above). I worked for Ma Bell and watched all manufacturing go offshore around the turn of the century. We had a row of about a dozen Bridgeports alone along a wall at a 45* angle in our toolroom (not a production machine shop - manufacturing support). The accountants had to verify the scrappers torch-cutting the tables before the millwrights could haul them out. Of course all of us wanting one for our garage were just about crying. When I started in 1982 9,000 employed under one roof was around 150 when I left in 2005. This is ancient history now but as we find ourselves this far down the road from all of that I don't see a solution. That's why my last sentence in my previous post was to the effect of needing to take a defensive posture. Expecting this to reverse would not be a good plan.
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Post by Gunny268 on Feb 24, 2024 13:53:09 GMT -5
“Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society.” - Aristotle
I think I heard that bell rung 50 years ago.
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Post by hounddogman on Feb 25, 2024 14:38:19 GMT -5
Ask the average American, what is wrong with the country? Ignorance or apathy? The most likely answer will be, I don't know or care. Chuck Missler said that over 30 years ago.
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