Fiddleback Forge is Now Hiring

Fiddleback

Fiddleback

Knifemaker
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
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Well, its time again. Chris is now focusing on his own business, of which I am immensely proud. He still runs his business out of this shop, so I don't have to miss him. And I would. Cody has gotten promoted to the glueup job. That is the toughest job in the shop. He is doing really well at it and I am proud of him as well. (In addition, he is going to school to be an avation mechanic. He is on the right track now. Woo hoo!) This leaves us short on sanders, scale layup, and bullseye creation. So here we are again hiring.

The position is our entry level knifemaking position. The duties will be sanding handles, flattening (done by hand) and laying up scales, making bullseye tubes, cleaning and tool maintainance. Along with these responsibilities and in addition to the pay, the candidate will get teaching about making knives, branding, marketing and selling knives. If you are local and interested please call the shop at 470-239-4263.
 
Make I wish we lived closer. I have a boy that would be perfect for this. Good luck with you search Andy.
 
That's really a breath of fresh air to read an offer like this. Having worked with at risk kids a good many years opportunities like this are few and far between. No doubt you'll fill that job and change a young persons life forever.


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Good luck during the hiring process! Too bad I live so far away.
 
Warrior108 said:
(purely for Andy's amusement)

Depends if you will try to philosophize why you think you can use a machine to flatten. :-D
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Its funny, but every person that comes into this position tries to innovate it with a machine method. A jig, a fixture to hold the piece. No matter how many times we sit them down and explain that this is the reality AFTER we all tried to mechanize it, they can't help but to sneak over to the grinders and give it a try. Every one ruins a set of scales or MORE. Then after a time, they all realize that there is only one sure way to flatten a scale. By hand on a surface plate is the only one.
 
Fiddleback said:
Its funny, but every person that comes into this position tries to innovate it with a machine method. A jig, a fixture to hold the piece. No matter how many times we sit them down and explain that this is the reality AFTER we all tried to mechanize it, they can't help but to sneak over to the grinders and give it a try. Every one ruins a set of scales or MORE. Then after a time, they all realize that there is only one sure way to flatten a scale. By hand on a surface plate is the only one.
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This is very true, I too was one of these people. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out an easier, quicker, smarter way of flattening scales or making bullseye tunes, and every time I would fail and I would be at square one again. There is only one way to do it lol
 
Fiddleback said:
Its funny, but every person that comes into this position tries to innovate it with a machine method. A jig, a fixture to hold the piece. No matter how many times we sit them down and explain that this is the reality AFTER we all tried to mechanize it, they can't help but to sneak over to the grinders and give it a try. Every one ruins a set of scales or MORE. Then after a time, they all realize that there is only one sure way to flatten a scale. By hand on a surface plate is the only one.
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What you need to hire is a machine designer. However, your throughput most likely would not support the the cost of the machine, especially when you'd have to design in the controls for all the different materials you use.

http://www.engineersedge.com/manufacturing/surface-grinding-process.htm
 
ShortStraw said:
This is very true, I too was one of these people. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out an easier, quicker, smarter way of flattening scales or making bullseye tunes, and every time I would fail and I would be at square one again. There is only one way to do it lol
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wow. I've never heard you admit this before.
 
1st thought... old school surface grinder modified to use 2x72 belts but... the scales you use are non magnetic so that wouldn't work. Not unless you modified the material plate to use vacuum to hold your material down. Hand sanding it is!
 
necrolicious said:
1st thought... old school surface grinder modified to use 2x72 belts but... the scales you use are non magnetic so that wouldn't work. Not unless you modified the material plate to use vacuum to hold your material down. Hand sanding it is!
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I have one of these machines. It doesn't do the trick. For it to work the scale would have to be perfectly flat, and the liners and spacers would have to be perfectly flat. Any error in any part would show up in the liner thickness varying as you eye follows it around the knife. Even if my machine was a great one (it isn't) this strategy doesn't fly.

Its an irresistible problem for people to try to solve. It takes about 30 seconds per scale to do the job. But the work is greuling when you have 40 or 50 sets (2 scales) to do. Plus we do it twice. We flatten the scale material to put on the liner, and then we flatten the scales to put them onto the knife. The corners of the pieces are sharp, and dig into your fingers mercilessly. You drag your fingertips on the paper periodically too. Very quickly this task can draw blood. You can't wear gloves while doing this because the gloves catch and get under the material and that means re-flattening. So it sucks, no question, but the best quickest most accurate way to do this is by hand.
 
#brokednmedic lives 5 hours away. Give me a year to get this mess behind me and I'll move to Cumming GA and sweep floors :)

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Fiddleback said:
Its funny, but every person that comes into this position tries to innovate it with a machine method. A jig, a fixture to hold the piece. No matter how many times we sit them down and explain that this is the reality AFTER we all tried to mechanize it, they can't help but to sneak over to the grinders and give it a try. Every one ruins a set of scales or MORE. Then after a time, they all realize that there is only one sure way to flatten a scale. By hand on a surface plate is the only one.
Click to expand...

I can innovate that.... !!! :) You need an orbital shaker with the deck removed and your flat sanding surface bolted to it. Then you just need a way to load scales into a fixed holder above, with a way to add weight for desired pressure. Here's video of one: https://youtu.be/oMWYV49ME3o

When we periodically clear out our storage, I'll see if there's a decommissioned one sitting around for you to play with.
 
M4Super90 said:
I can innovate that.... !!! :) You need an orbital shaker with the deck removed and your flat sanding surface bolted to it. Then you just need a way to load scales into a fixed holder above, with a way to add weight for desired pressure. Here's video of one: https://youtu.be/oMWYV49ME3o

When we periodically clear out our storage, I'll see if there's a decommissioned one sitting around for you to play with.
Click to expand...

For some reason I found that video hilarious. The machine kind of looked like it was dancing to the music. Reminded me of those video of cockatoos dancing to music.

Good idea though!
 
Odaon said:
For some reason I found that video hilarious. The machine kind of looked like it was dancing to the music. Reminded me of those video of cockatoos dancing to music.

Good idea though!
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That's funny. I never have my speakers on, so I didn't even know there was music. That was just the first video I could find that showed the movement.
 
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