Thanks I liked that... in high school I joined a BSA Explorers group for engineering and our sponsor company was Wean United, who built those machines. We did tour the Fisher Body plant in West Mifflin PA one time... they were stamping Fiero floor pans and Monte Carlo doors at the time.
It was cool seeing the QC guys take oiled doors into a room with black/blue lights to spot defects. As it turned out I wasn't ready for college and it wasn't as inspiring as you might think listening to a bunch of middle aged steel plant engineers in Pittsburgh during 1985...
then you'd a dug going into an engine plant assembly plant (maybe even a engine foundry too ... but I digress)..
quick story only tangentially-related to this thread's topic.
as a junior level bean-counter fresh from college in the early 80's, I had to observe the physical inventory procedure at a V8 engine assembly plant.
a day or two before (plant has to be shutdown to take the inventory) I was there on a recon/planning mission
while the plant was running to get a sense of where everything was..
Friggin' fascinating. I couldn't a gave a rip about counting parts .. seeing an automated engine mass production build was astounding. My first engine plant .. and I'd just go to them later in my career just for fun.
ANyway, there was a big walled off floor- to - ceiling area in the plant that was noisy as hell .. even from 100 yards away. But ya couldnt see what was going on.
My guide told me it was the "block broaching" room. I bolted for the door -- i had to see that -- and the guide basically tackled me.
Turns out you need MAX ear protection in that room -- the little yellow foam ear plugs could NO WAY cut it. He said (in nicer terms) "You effin' idiot you could die in there. Didnt you see the effin' sign college puke?"
140 decibels Warning etc and so forth. I think 150 dB will bust your eardrums, 170 could kill ya.
Why all the noise? The broaching machine was a giant "sum'-bee" that basically "decks" like 8 engine raw engine blocks at a time. And there were six machines running at the same time.
SCRAAACKKKK! one way, SCREECCHCK! all 8 blocks on one long arm-rack, that dragged the blocks over cutting tools. first one way, then back the other way. four times. flip em. do it again for the other side side of block.
Most awesome "gosh-darn" machines (even cooler than the engine the local gas company used to inject natural gas into underground storage) I ever saw. Not the biggest ever ... but absolutely bad-a**es. I was mesmorized.
End of story. back to unobtainium
