dn't read or write
I have a close family member who couldnt read or write, but was a precision machnist for goodyear aerospace. finally retired after working there a lifetime..
retired now among other things, some of his machined parts went to the moon........
obviously he could measure.
I've know a couple that could not tell you when the ruler read 3/16", but they can count 3 little lines and make an accurate cut. A generation ago, it was common to leave school at an early age to help support the family.
Some portion of your account is missing. Blueprints contain many written notations, not just numbers. And any CNC or machining center is full of written menus.
The machinist's bible, "Machinery Handbook," is thousands upon thousands of pages. No machinist is without one, and it is referred to frequently.
Perhaps he was a production "handle-puller," making the same part over and over again on older equipment. I'm sure he was a fine gentleman, and all that, but an illiterate precision machinist? Sorry, I ain't buying it.
I've been a machinist for many years, it depends on what type of work he's doing. True, Mach. Handbook is valuable, but not essential, in some work. Prototype is one where your brain and experience tells you how/what to do, not a book. My guess is he made one, maybe two of each. Manual machines are great for 1-2 part orders. Or where you have make a procedure up as you go. I've been in research for a few years, doing things never done before. Putting a milling mach on a lathe tool post. Or live centers on both ends of a part, in a lathe, part chained down, so as to not rotate while the carriage travels. That is not in any book.
I agree there are many different aspects to machining, as there are in any field. I'd consider the Bridgeport EZ-trak to be a "manual" machine, perfect for prototyping. You still have to read to use it, and you have to be able to read myriad notations on drawings.
Please tell me whether you could do your job without being able to read.
What back when, a fellow by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson said something to the effect "Experience is a fools best teacher." Whenever someone tells me that they have more experience that me, I reply "Oh, you've burned up more equipment than I have." I know a lot of old time techs that can't diagram a sentence or do math in their head but they're not stupid. There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity, ignorance means you don't know but can learn, stupid means no way. Stupid also means acting out of ignorance when you know you are ignorant about something. "Hey Bubba, wuts this Front Toward Enemy mean? Reckon wut wood happen ifin I squeezed this here handle?"
PS, I know a lot of guys like Bubba's friend.
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