Shooting for Perfection

Whenever I see some kind of object in the world that I care about, whether it’s a machine tool, a pool cue, or a competition pistol, I have an urge to make it better. Let’s take pool cues as an example. I play in a lot of pool tournaments, and so does my wife (she actually got to compete in Vegas this past summer). Being a mechanical engineer, I’ve studied how pool cues are constructed. Many of them have a cheaper wood in the center that’s covered with a linen wrap that’s used as a grip when shooting. But personally, I want to see beautiful wood on the whole cue, without any of it covered up. Therefore, you will never see a custom cue from me with a wrap on the handle. To get the cues just the way I want them, in both design and quality, I ultimately decided I should make them myself. So I repair and make custom pool cues using a manual machine lathe I have set up in my garage.

Shooting for Perfection

I guess I really gravitate toward the “precision” sports, because I also like to shoot competition pistols. Here again I get good use out of my lathe because I also use it for gunsmithing. One of my recent projects, which is not really for competition but just for fun, is working on a Mosin-Nagant, which is an old Russian rifle. I cut 5 inches off of it, added a target crown, bedded the stock, and of course modified the trigger. I just enjoy touching everything and trying to improve it. The competitions I currently participate in are with the IDPA (International Defense Pistol Association) and GSSF, which is fast-paced bullseye competition. In IDPA matches you go through stages that each have scenarios and objectives where you're shooting around barrels, on the move, and against moving targets. So I guess you could say precision is what I do for fun. Shooting pool or shooting pistols – I like to make things as close to “perfect” as possible.

Hands-On Work

I enjoy putting these skills to work in my professional life too. Sometimes we have customers that need to have something custom made for their particular application. For example, we had one that needed special steadyrest covers for their MULTUS B750 horizontal lathe. There was no design available for this, so I did it by hand, flat patterning the sheet metal to get it to work properly. It was fun to put my hands on this and make sure that everything going through my mind was correct and the process would work well in the field, not just as a prototype. So I spot-welded and designed what needed to be done around an offset block, then mounted it and trimmed certain areas until it was just right.

Another one I did was for a GENOS lathe that needed a special auto door designed. I designed this custom application, taking careful measurements and then drilling, tapping and installing the entire option mechanically. Here, again, I got the opportunity to look at a design challenge, make it better by putting my hands on it, and see the project through to completion.

Making Things Better

Last February Okuma did a survey where they asked people “what do you love about manufacturing?” You can see my answer (and another photo of my trusty garage lathe!) in this blog where I talked about taking raw materials to a finished product…and always welcoming improvement for more accuracy. If you haven’t read it, you should check it out because so many people gave fantastic answers. In the outside world, some people don’t understand how cool manufacturing really is. For one-thing, with how advanced the technology has become, it’s a true high-tech career. I love the technology part for sure, but I also love getting to put my hands on things and make them better. So I guess I found the right job in life and it suits me just fine.

I bet many of you feel the same way. Feel free to comment below and share your thoughts!

Chase Dooley is Mechanical Engineer, Okuma America Corporation.