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« on: August 30, 2014, 10:00:04 am »
Greetings,
A friend and fellow shooter went to Star to purchase parts while on a job assignment in San Diego. Here is his recollection of the visit.
That's the place! If I remember correctly, I went there on a Saturday, so the shop wasn't working full bore, but there were two machinists working, The office guy (timekeeper?) was the one who took care of me. I wish they had some photos of the inside of the shop. All the machines were run by belt and pulley from overhead jackshafts. The 2 guys who were working each had two 5 gallon buckets; one full and the other one empty. There were a couple of hooks on which to hang the buckets on each machine. They'd pull a piece out of the full bucket, run it through the machine to make whatever cut that machine was set up for, then put the piece in the other bucket.. When all the pieces in their bucket had been transferred, they'd go to the next machine for the next machining operation.
The place would have driven a modern OSHA inspector up the wall. A lot of the machines were so close together you had to kind of slide sideways to get between them. No white lines on the floor to tell you how far to stay away. With all those overhead shafts and belts flopping, I remember it was kind of noisy in there.
The picture of those two people standing in front of the big sliding door under the "STAR MACHINE WORKS" sign are standing in the alley. The shop faced the alley; there was no street entrance.
Don't even remember, any more, what part I needed replaced. Maybe the powder reservoir. The guy who's widow I bought my Star from had left it partly full of powder, and the plastic tube had sort of melted.
Memories............
Thanks, WES
P.S. Did you know that at that time, the primary product of Star Machine Works was not loaders, but sprinkler heads for the Southern California citrus industry? Overhead sprinklers were used to combat freezing temperatures - which could ruin a complete orange or lemon crop in one night. It wasn't quite as effective as lighting a whole orchard full of smudge pots, but it sure was better for the atmosphere, and I think it was probably less expensive.
Cheers,
Dave
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