Cam copying

["John Hofstetter" <hofs@domain.elided>]

----------
>From: owner-ihc-digest@domain.elided (ihc-digest)
>To: ihc-digest@domain.elided
>Subject: ihc-digest V6 #454
>Date: Sat, Jan 9, 1999, 7:50 AM
>

>I did call Federal-Mogul and the bored technician I spoke with went and
>"pulled the print" (in his words).  He read off all of the opening and closing
>points and the duration and claimed that was all that was on the print.  He
>told me they "copied" the factory cam, so I assume they simply placed a new
>(let's hope) factory cam in one of those cam grinding machines and fired her
>up.  I was reading about this on some web sight recently.  These cam grinders
>have machines that allow them to pop in an existing cam and copy just copy it.
>I got the feeling this is how they normally grind cams (pre-CNC technology).
>They make master pattern cams and use them in the machine to copy and grind
>the finished cams.  So copying an existing cam is simple.

Same way they copy a model gun stock or a table leg for that matter.
Harper's Ferry National Park has an old one of these "copy lathes" set up in
their museum gun making display. I asked the ranger who had set it up,
because the whole display was obviously done by someone who knew what he was
doing. The ranger told me that it was set up by a gunsmith who practiced his
craft in the little town just up on the hill above Harper's Ferry. 

So, I went up the hill to see the ranger's buddy, gunsmith John Zimmerman.
As you might expect with that name and business, John Z. was a crotchety
middle aged guy who had worked at one time or another for Colt, Smith and
Wesson, Winchester, and maybe others that I've forgotten. I told him that I
really liked his display down in the park and that the ranger had spoken
well of him. He told me that the rangers there, as well as the rangers
elsewhere, were a bunch of idiots who couldn't hold a job in any business
that required work, and that they were all on "disguised welfare" and much
much more. 
I asked him if he was related to my friend Tom H. but he professed not to
know him. When I explained to him why I had asked, he told me that
redneckedness is not confined to any special place, time, or national
origin. He said that it was an equal opportunity state of mind. 

Anyway, because of government regulations and his location, he pretty much
only does black powder stuff, but he had a wonderfully equipped shop, seemed
very skilled, and was a total grouch. Hates just about everybody in general,
but may be able to separate out specific people from their generic class,
because he told me that there was one ranger at Harper's Ferry that was OK,
because he was completely wheelchair bound, and that meant the government
would have to support him anyway, and so it was OK to give him one of those
meaningless jobs. He's a character worth meeting if you are anywhere near
the Harper's Ferry part of West Virginia.

What's this have to do with IHC. Well as I explained to the digest the other
day, IHC made rifles after WW II and John Zimmerman makes rifles now. See
the connection. 

John Hofstetter