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Foundry Career

Stories about my time in an aluminum foundry and a steel foundry

I Think He Liked the Challenge

In the late 1970s, Spokane Steel Foundry purchased an IBM 3000 computer system to tabulate the accounting and other financial details of the company. It replaced the manual recording and summarizing of the information, and could do it in a fraction of the time. It consisted of a large card-reading machine, a punchcard-producing station requiring a person to prepare the cards, and a bank of tape machines to record the information read off the cards. This equipment occupied a large enclosed office. [Read full article]

My Most Rewarding Foundry Project

Over the course of a year and a half, in 1979-1980, I designed and supervised the production of a 30×36 molding modernization project for Spokane Steel Foundry—despite Mt. St. Helens’ best efforts to interrupt its final few days of installation. My concept for this project was based on modular design. First, however, maybe a brief basic description of how steel casting are produced in green sand molds, and what Spokane Steel Foundry’s process was, when I went to work for them. [Read full article]

Oblivious to the Outside World

It was a Sunday in May of 1980. We were deeply engaged in the final installation and start-up of the completed modernization of the 30×36 molding line that I had designed, at Spokane Steel Foundry. I was supervising a five-man maintenance crew and three or four laborers, and we were on the final day of the three-day job. Everything we needed had been staged on Thursday, and at 7 AM Friday we went to work clearing and cleaning the entire pouring floor. [Read full article]

Sometimes the ‘Problem’ Isn’t the Real Problem

Early in my career I came to the conclusion that what most people see as a problem is really the result of the problem. Case in point: one day I received a call from the floor supervisor that they had a problem with a machine. When I asked what the problem was, he said it was machining a taper in the bearing bores. So off I went to try to figure out was going on. [Read full article]

My Start in the Aluminum Foundry Industry (Part 1)

In September of 1964, my Navy career came to an abrupt end when I was medically discharged and sent home. Out of the blue a few days after arriving home, however, I received a call from a friend letting me know the company he was working for was hiring. So I immediately drove to the plant and after a brief interview I was hired. What a break. [Read full article]

My Start in the Aluminum Foundry Industry (Part 2)

The disastrous end to my supervisor position proved to be very fortunate in the long run. The move into the engineering department allowed me to do what I was best at. That was to find problems to solve, design, and justify productivity improvements throughout the plant and help figure out how best to produce new products. [Read full article]

My Start (and End) in the Aluminum Foundry Industry (Part 3)

In December, 1969, I was asked to visit General Aluminum, a foundry Con Met had recently purchased in Spokane, Washington. I was asked to assess the possibility of increasing productivity in that facility. Since I had never heard of Spokane, I had to look at a map to see where it was before I hopped on a plane to go there. [Read full article]

My Start in the Steel Foundry Business (Part 4)

About the same time as my boredom struck, I noticed a lot of activity around Spokane Steel Foundry, which was located across the railroad tracks. My curiosity got the best of me and I wandered in a side door to find a big shovel digging a large hole in the middle of the plant. Since no one bothered me I began going over there every day to monitor progress. [Read full article]

My Start in the Steel Foundry Industry (Part 5)

In the spring of 1977, Bob Tenold, John’s oldest son who is my age, asked me to lunch and asked if I would be interested in coming to work for Spokane Steel Foundry and help manage the modernization program they were undertaking. Of course, I accepted. [Read full article]

My End in the Steel Foundry Business (Part 6)

In 1982, I could see there probably wasn’t much future for me at Spokane Steel Foundry due to the collapse of the steel industry in the United States. Since there was little for me to do, and seeing the writing on the wall, I began to look for more woodworking opportunities on my own time. [Read full article]

Lunch Time at Spokane Steel Foundry

Almost every day when Marion Hay, Spokane Steel’s sales manager, was in town he would take several managers to lunch in his Cadillac. Usually that included John Tenold, Bob Tenold, Earl Folk, Ray Beach, and me, when I didn’t have something else to do. [Read full article]