Decline of the machinists

Shahwar laments the dying art of machinists, as he trolls the streets in search for skill and precision with a lathe

A few years ago, a friend drove into my garage in a recovery truck, with a really old Nissan one-tonner on the hook. He had inherited the truck from his father, and it was his pride and joy. On a rainy day, though, it had fallen down a mountain and only came to rest against a tree down below. The result was a bent chassis, and, of course, some superficial dents on the body.

So, I stripped the body off the truck, and took the chassis to this jolly old man who ran a large lathe machine shop. He cleaned out the floor, placed the chassis on the ground and drew an outline of the chassis with white chalk. I don’t know what calculations he made, but he asked his understudy – a burly, middle-aged man – to hit one particular section of the chassis, marked out with chalk, with a jackhammer. ‘Hit it twice, and no more,’ were his clear instructions. This carried on for a few days, and, all the while, the chassis was pulled with a chain that had tensioners strategically placed.

He had basic measurement tools, and relied largely on his eyesight to check the straightening. I noticed that he never used heat to soften the chassis – only measured blows with the hammer. And he had a whole collection of hammers of different sizes, all of which he knew just how to wield – exactly where to hit, and how hard.

His work was art, as much as it was science. Unfortunately, people like him have become a microscopic minority. New technologies have made it easier to ‘replace’ things, and no one is interested in taking the trouble to ‘repair’ them anymore.

And this is extremely bad news for the people who restore old cars and bikes, as there’s a tremendous lack of quality machinists. My friend, Gurmukh Singh, who restores vintage motorcycles, became so frustrated at the poor quality of work that the young machinists were turning out that he decided to install his own lathe machine at his workshop. Restoring a vintage car or a motorcycle without a lathe is practically impossible, and most restorers don’t mind paying the asking price for a quality job.

Machining is tedious work, and calls for a high level of precession and skill. Most people today do such a shoddy job that one is forced to open up the engine, or the repaired part, to redo it. And this is purely due to poor workmanship and bad metallurgy. So, the search for a good machinist starts all over again. They are hard to find, these geniuses – but, thankfully, there are still a few around.

Sometime ago, I was working on a 1946 Citroen Traction Avant 11CV, which had a cracked gearbox casing. I found a guy in a nondescript garage who agreed to weld the aluminium part. He did the job, alright, but at some point he used too much heat, which distorted and misaligned the hole for the top shaft bearing.

So, there I was trolling the streets once again with the aluminium casing of a Citroen Traction Avant, when I came across a young chap in a small lathe shop down a back-lane. You could feel the passion he had for his work, as he worked painstakingly on the gearbox to get it fixed. I can tell you that I didn’t mind one bit paying him the handsome sum he demanded.

Most of the old machinists who once ran successful shops have retired, or departed for another world, and no one has really stepped into their shoes. The younger lot found easier options of earning their livelihood.

The new machines are far superior to what they used in the past, and there are still some young guys with great skills. I just hope that take the time to repair more, and replace less.

That would certainly gladden the heart of people like Gurmukh Singh!