[TML] Personal Armor Noise was Re: Current USAF fleet

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 5/4/08 1:46 PM, "Tom B" <kaladorn at gmail.com> wrote:

> Or do we have to make hand-crafting simply defined as 'something of
> which only one copy of any item is produced, with no mass production'?

I thought it was clear this was what we were talking about: "handcrafted"
vs. mass-produced.  Those guys making the silicon sphere are making *1*.
Hell they might even make several.  But they aren't setting up a production
line.  Perhaps the word "handcrafted" is giving you problems but I'm not
sure what else to use.

I worked in a plastic part making factory for several years.  I recall on
machine that pumped out 48 parts at a shot, about every 5-7 seconds.  It was
modular, they didn't all have to be identical parts.  So if you mold a small
part in half the slots and a bigger part in the others, the machine setting
will be different than if all 48 parts were one or the other.  That
difference in process means a small difference in the finished product.  As
long as they all stay within certain specs, the customer will buy it.  Hell,
they even allow a small percentage to be out of spec before they complain.
You just aim for "good enough".  That's a far cry from an artisan, who wants
to take pride in every single piece or he's likely to scrap it.

> There are many things we could not make without machine assistance.
> Period. And there are many sorts of things in the computer world that
> *we would not make* if there was no mass production because mass
> production produces the economic/business case to justify the effort.
> So saying that hand-crafting is always better is an awful
> generalization. There are plenty of cases where that just does not
> apply because it would never lead to *any* sort of product.

There are time when "economic sense" isn't the issue.  As pointed out,
samurai swords were *meant* to arm an army.  The components of the Saturn V
rocket or Shuttle were *never* going to be produced in a quantity to justify
their expense.

I'm not saying custom made is "better" in the sense that we should do that
for everything.  Mass production is an important and valuable process.  It
simply doesn't (in general) produce the *quality* of custom work.

> And if you further restrict hand crafting to hand tools, vs.
> computerized lathes and fabricators driven by software and analyzed
> for quality by further computer driven devices, then you really do
> have many cases where a craftsman may well NOT equal the quality of
> even a mass-produced item. The craftsman only has to make one mistake
> sometimes to reduce the value of his work. The computer driven
> automated system doesn't make those sorts of mistakes once properly
> configured.

I specifically *didn't* restrict the tools.  I said "Using the *same*
technology".  In that factory, we had our own mold building shop.  We even
built molds for *other* molders, because our reputation was that good.  Most
of the molds *were* one-off.  Some were built in some quantity, to fill that
48 slot mold and others.  But even making 50 of 1 thing isn't truly
mass-producing.  It took a great deal of individual attention to each one.
Mass production tends to "run on automatic".

Here's an example of how little care went into the manufacture of the
plastic parts though.  We had a list posted on the wall of who was supposed
to run what machine(s).  One day, I was an hour late to work.  Nobody
noticed, and the person I was replacing just left.  The machines kept making
parts.  Fortunately, the tubs didn't overflow.  When I got there, I quickly
switched tubs, and worked like hell to catch up, which I did in a couple
more hours.  I don't know that all those parts were ok.  Honestly, I didn't
give a damn, as long as I got my paycheck.

The only part that actually concerned me was that nobody notice *I*
missing.  :P