Comments

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  JIM COWAN January 31, 2009 at 10:27pm

  MYSELF, RICH HARRIS AND HTC STALH (NDT), TOOK A BEARING SHELL, HAD THE MACHINE SHOP CUT ALL THE DOVETAILS OUT OF IT AND WE SPUN IT ON THE SPIN CASTER........HAD NDT CHECK IT AND IT FAILED.....WE SET IT ON END AND PUT A 10 TON PRESS ON IT AND IT DIDN'T COME AWAY FROM THE SHELL........BUT NDT SAID IT STILL DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH BOND.....GO FIGURE...AS FOR FORM-A-JIG....I THOUGHT THAT WAS CALLED SMURF SH*T....NEVER DID SEE THE RED STUFF.......AFTER THE YOSEMITE AND TEACHING "A" SCHOOL THE ONLY OTHER BEARING I SAW WAS IN THE GULF....THE USS JOUETTE HELOED ONE TO US.....OUR REPAIR BOSS SAID WE COULDN'T DO BEARINGS AS WE WERE A SUB TENDER.....USS DIXON AS-37.........THE C.O. OF THE JOUETTE SAID B.S., CHIEF COWAN AND PETTY OFFICER MILEY ARE ABOARD AND I KNOW THEY CAN DO BEARINGS...THEY SERVED ON MY SHIP IN MAYPORT, THE YOSEMITE.......CAPT WEEKS WAS THE C.O. ON THE YOSEMITE WHEN WE DID OUR SPIN CAST EXPERIMENTS.......NEEDLESS TO SAY HE GOT HIS BEARING.....
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  Joe Rhea January 31, 2009 at 10:09pm

  we played with the centrifical casting machine a few times also but could never get it right and just static poured them. Pouring bearings was always a nice break from packing sand, however babbit burns sucked worst than the others. remember the blue "formajig" that contained asbestos? the red asbestos free shit they replaced it with sucked.
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  JIM COWAN January 31, 2009 at 8:59pm

  ANOTHER UNIQUE SMELL WAS THAT OF BURNT GARLOCK AND STEAM FROM THE CENTRIFICAL CASTING MACHINE.......WHAT A COMBINATION......IT TOOK FOREVER TO SET UP A BEARING IN THAT MACHINE........AND THEN WE WOULD END UP STATIC POURING THE THING ANY WAY.....I HAVEN'T SMELLED ANYTHING THAT COMPARES TO THAT SINCE I RETIRED.......
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  Joe Rhea January 31, 2009 at 8:23pm

  There was a unique smell of petrobond sand, my wife use to know what kind of metal we poured that day when I got home. Guess we all smelled pretty bad, but it was more like perfume.
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  Joe Rhea January 31, 2009 at 6:39pm

  I just uploaded some A school pics pouring cast iron
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  George E. Demand January 24, 2009 at 5:22pm

  I am looking for a class picture of my molder "A" school class. I believe the class number was 81002(not sure). Graduated on 11Dec81. School was at SSC Annex 32nd st. We had 2 civilians from Virginia and 3 Canadian sailors.
  I can't track down any of the classmates that I remember ie: Ronald Mathias, John Glenn , Dave Short, Rick Gravink, Paul Garett.
  Maybe one of you knows one of them or has any information that will help me.
  I do thank you all for reading this.
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  JIM COWAN January 20, 2009 at 12:50pm

  ONE OTHER OBSERVATION...........YOU COULD ALWAYS TELL WHICH BALLCAP BELONGED TO THE MOLDER IN THE SPACE..........JUST HOLD IT UP TO THE LIGHT..........ALL THE LITTLE BURN HOLES GAVE IT AWAY.............
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  JIM COWAN January 20, 2009 at 12:47pm

  REFLECTING ON MOLDER BROWN'S RECENT COMMENT, " there is no real thrill like that of getting a gun bronze splash burn". THE THRILL OF THE INITIAL BURN IS A REAL RUSH......THE THE SENSATION OF THE CORPSMAN SCRUBING THE BURNT SKIN OFF IS EVEN MORE EXCITING.....IN THE EARLY 70'S I WORE A 4" WIDE LEATHER WATCHBAND......AND WHILE PIGGING OFF SOME GUN BRONZE THE MOLD POPPED (SOMEONE FORGOT TO PREHEAT THE INGOT MOLD.....) AND WHAT SEEMED TO ME TO BE ABOUT 10 POUNDS OF METAL LODGED BETWEEN THAT WATCHBAND AND MY NOW SCARED SKIN..........IF I ONLY WORE MY GLOVES.......WAIT A MINUTE MOLDERS NEVER WORE GLOVES WHILE POURING IN THOSE DAYS........HA....KEEP THE PICTURES AND SUCH COMMING AND INVITE ANY MOLDERS YOU'RE IN TOUCH WITH TO COME ABOARD (I GUESS A PATTERNMAKER OR TWO WOULDN'T HURT) .......JIM
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  Norman "Dutch" Johnson January 19, 2009 at 11:49pm

  What an elite and insane bunch. Work with moletn metal inside of a steel box, no A/C and do it in places like Saudi Arabia?
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  Dan Brown January 19, 2009 at 10:46pm

  Hot - hot - hot , fun - fun - fun !!! Even hotter and more funner when it's in a little two by twice shipboard foundry. And let's face it, there is no real thrill like that of getting a gun bronze splash burn. Ya gotta love it. Or - like most sand pounders that I've ever known (both Navy AND civilian) be just a tad on the drifty side. I was a molder both before AND after my Navy days, and I know whereof I speak.