This is My Job: Fabricator

November 22, 2011 5:00 PM

Thomas Hosford Ann Arbor, Mich. Age: 28 Years on Job: 14

A busted clutch drove Thomas Hosford to a job that turned out to be his calling. It was 1998, and "my time was cheaper than buying a new clutch basket," he says. So he headed to his father's fab shop?which the elder Hosford has operated since 1979?and milled a new part from an aluminum slab. After that, Hosford worked summers alongside his dad, but didn't realize he wanted a fabricating career until he studied business for two years at Indiana University. "I found myself going back to the shop every chance I could," he says. Now, Hosford can make just about anything. "I'm either fixing a cracked lawnmower deck or making parts for remotely operated vehicles [ROVs] that maintain underwater pipes." His bike frames in particular are getting noticed. Demand is so great that he started a side business, Ordnance Bikes, to build custom downhill MTB and BMX frames.

How to Fab a Custom Part

Design Verification

Jobs arrive with a variety of instructions. Most are singular requests, like the coupler (left) that connects an underwater ROV's cable to the control unit. "Sometimes a guy wants a real-life version of a napkin sketch," Hosford says. "Other times I get detailed CAD drawings." In all cases, he checks to see if the part can actually be made. "I look for tricky curves or oddly placed holes, and I'll work with the customer to simplify the design to reduce the labor cost."

Fabrication

While Hosford works with all types of metal, wood and composites, the coupler plans called for corrosion-resistant bronze. First, Hosford cut a solid, round bar of bronze to the specified length. Next, he bored a central hole with a lathe, then used a milling machine to cut a groove down the coupler's length and to drill and tap the perpendicular holes. Milling machines?the backbone of every fab shop?use a variety of cutting and drill bits that rotate in a spindle like a drill press. But the table on a milling machine moves in three dimensions while the spindle stays fixed. The material, which is rigidly held in place by fixtures, is moved to engage the bit.

Final Inspection

As he does with everything he fabricates, Hosford used a die grinder to clean burrs off the coupler. He also polished any machining marks and measured the part to make sure it matched the plans. Then it was off to the customer?and on to the next job for Hosford. "Every day is different," he says. "I love the variety."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/extreme-jobs/this-is-my-job-fabricator?src=rss

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