Age 20, running Hydro-Tel at Anson Tools & Gages.
Well, here we go.
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 at KTD II.
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.[/caption]
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!
Phil,
I bet I’m not alone in thanking you for sharing your knowledge.
And I think slowly but surely as the wages in places like Mexico, India & China rise, it is going to be more economical to bring machine shops back here.
You and I may not be around to see it, but God willing our kids will.
Hopefully there will be enough of our younger generation still in the trades to take advantage of that swing.
Thanks again Phil.
Eric R
Really like to hear your positive attitude eric, i’m one of those few young guns in the trade today, still loving every minute of it and am working till that day when your theory becomes reality!
Appreciate these videos so much! I am changing careers from web hosting support to CNC Machinist by taking advantage of a scholarship and a compressed 4 week course in CNC Machinery/Programming here in Michigan. I start my class on Monday so I’m trying to take in as much as possible while I can. It’s awesome seeing everything you do and how professional you are. Thanks so much for sharing!
I AM RELATIVELY NEW TO YOUR SITE, AND ENJOY IT MUCH. I’M A RETIRED ENGINEER(SPENT TWO YEARS IN A TOOLROOM WHILE AT GMI) AND WOODWORKING IS MY PLAY TIME. YOUR TIPS ARE ALSO HELPFUL IN WOODWORKING. I LOOK FORWARD TO VIEWING YOU REGULARLY. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. JIM
Hey Phil!
I am a retired Toolmaker of 35 yrs. I do enjoy reading your tips even tho I knew them already I am amazed at how much I can forget in just 3 short years. I have bought myself an old Bridgeport, a surface grinder, and a small lathe just to keep my sanity when life gets hectic and when it gets boring also. Just to go down to the garage and get the smell of soluble oil back in my brain does chill me out a bit.But not enough to go back to work tho. I worked at the same place for the whole time of my tool trade life, except for about one year and 3 months. I quit there twice. All together they hired me 3 times, so I guess that says I wasn’t such a bad employee, or they were stupid for hiring me all those times.
Keep up the good work. There might be a lot of men who can push the button on a CNC or EDM but, it takes a true T&D man to know what will happen to the material after you take that cut on it.
I love your tips and web page. I wish I could apprentice under a master craftsman like you. Cheers
Hello, Phil. Am just getting my start in machining, going to school here in Mpls. Am trying to soak up any knowledge I can find and enjoy meandering around your pages of experience. Thanks for the info and stories. I hope that I can do the job justice once I farther along in school.
Thanks Phil for the video’s. Am 68 so know exactly what you’re saying as I called on Hundreds of companies that are now gone. Don’t know where this country is going but sure do not like where I’am thinking it is.
Am wondering if there is a way to keep your knowledge (and others) from China, Mexico, India and the rest. China has “Built” Nothing but have sure STOLE a plenty Thanks to our ole governor for a bunch of it to (Bill KlinToon). The THING there Now (“O”Bama) would only Tell YOU What YOU could charge & earn so it may be best we all go away and watch them when all the Die’s / Tools wear out or break.
Then again, I’m just an Old White Racist Bitter Man.
Charlie
Ft. Smith, AR(kensaw) 8=}
Hi Phil,
I’m a retired physician who is now a hobby machinist. I started with a bench top mill, a cheap Chinese lathe, and a couple of kits purchased from The LittleMachineShop. I soon immersed myself into the hobby; I bought DVDs, read all the books I could, read blogs, and looked at YouTube videos to learn as much as I could. Of course, I spent hours and hours in my garage, too.
I ran into one of your videos on YouTube just by chance , and I must say it was one of the best I’ve seen in the genre of machining tips. You demonstrate above all, how fast you can do things when you have the right tools and you know the tricks.
I now own a serious mill, a real toolroom lathe, and I’ve reached a stage in model making that demands some pretty good skills. Unfortunately, I still have to categorize myself as one of those guys you talk about who can make about anything (within the limits of my machinery), but it takes me ten weeks to do so (and sometimes 3 or 4 attempts). I wish I knew a real tool and die maker who would come into my shop once in a while, but that’s probably not going to happen. I run into people who know how to run big CNC machines, but people with 40 years of tool room experience that you write about must be rare. Your videos almost make me feel like I’ve found that one of those guys.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge of machining and of the history of the trade. I look forward to becoming a member of your site.
I really appreciate how you so openly share not only your technical knowledge, but also your life experiences with us. Really glad I signed up to your site. You are making a difference, and in the end when we are all long gone, those that remain will remember the ones that made a difference.
Thanks for everything, you have helped to transform my life – I sent you an email with a little story. 🙂
Dude, I’m counting on you. I am a loooong way from retirement. I am out on the limb in the trenches. Machinests get zero respect – until they need you.
I have the tools (no cheap crap, the good stuff) and it is a dog eat dog world.
I have to stretch ten bucks out of every penny,( I’m sure you know all about that). It was buy your membership and go without something I really needed.
I inhale everything you say and I have to admit your approach has helped tremendously. SERIOUS APPRENTICE
From a ” crazy canuk”,
Thanks for allowing us a chance to see into your life and career as a professional tradesman and passing on alot of information that has been forced from your own self curiosity and the talented men who you have worked with, that have passed along a millenium’s worth of information to allow you to become ” the ” sought after man for any job.
I loved reading about how you were maniacal in your outlook to be the best. Awesome.
I am a tool and die maker in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Been at it for 18yrs now. I was once told by an older south African toolmaker, during the course of one of our shifts, that everyone has a specific job, where as the toolmaker has to know everyone’s job………basically, his job is to know everything.
And I took his words to heart. I ate up everything I could get my hands on…..welding( mig, tig and stick), cnc programmer/operator, shipper/reciever, community college class aid, built stamping presses, learnt the basics of electrical theory and put that into practice programming and building robots for automotive, worked as a toolmaker and designer in the farming industry, worked as a cnc operator in a production environment, worked as a full time tool and die maker in die maintenance during the day in a heavy stamping plant and then worked my hiney off in the evenings for a few hours in a local job shoppe building everything. I have worked all across Canada in alot of different environments for tool and die, machining and cnc with some all combined into one. I am currently working in a spring mfg. Plant as the only toolmaker or machinist. I have my own little toolroom with all the necessary equipment and if I don’t, I build it myself. I love my career as it has made me happy and a decent life too. It has taken me to many places that I otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do with anything else. I don’t command respect, but let my work do the talking. Without the help of other talented men before me, I wouldn’t be here doing what I am doing now. There is so much tool and die touches in our daily lives, and not enough respect or understanding from society at large to know who the inventors and builders are to allow them the luxuries or neccesities we make.
I for one, use your information on a daily basis to make my job easier and more efficient, it allows one to size up something and allow ” common sense” to sneak in and get it done right.
I have many more years of work ahead if me yet, and I relish the time to put to use your knowledge.
many thanks to you, and I promise to ” work smart, not hard”.
I too agree with all of the above, I got a subscription for Xmas,and I desperately need to thank you so much for sharing and helping, novices like me who are half a world away in New Zealand. This is the best money I ever spent. Thanks again and please keep going.
Best regards and happy new year Jason
I understand you. I like the way you think and talk. “god damit” its so refreshing.
I sent a e-mail a while ago and looked over your whole web site. I now understand. We have lost so much because of the over seas market.
I have a shop in which I cant stick to just one discipline however the machine world is so alluring. Thanks for your work and your dedication to your skill.
A future member.
Rob