Rooster's Revenge

“Hey Tim. Do you know George Kere …”, my boss begins to ask me.

“Keremedjiev? Hell yes I know him! He is a rock star! Why do you ask?”, I respond.

“He is here in the conference room.”

I go find George and got a warm greeting. Not because he is doing business with my employer. He gave me a warm greeting because we have a mutual respect for each other.

And that feeling of respect came at a good time in my day (I have too many armchair Monday morning quarterback critics).

George, as you all know, has been the author of the monthly column, Electronics in Metalforming & Assembly in Metalforming Magazine for the past 25 years. I grew up on reading his excellent work.

He also specializes in domestic and global consultations/seminars for both technical and managerial personnel.

George proudly announced to the group that they had two PMA authors in the room. I was proud just to be standing in the same room as George.

George Keremedjiev is deeply passionate about dies and American manufacturing. He is currently doing something that no one else has done: He is offering free in-house die protection seminars.

That’s right. Free. You just pay a measily $500 in travel expenses. I can’t drive from Detroit to Grand Rapids for less than $500 in gas and speeding tickets.

He is not out to make a bunch of money by hearing himself speak. George genuinely wants you to eliminate die crashes and bad stampings. He wants you to succeed.

Do your company and me a favor: Take George up on his offer. The day rate for a die consultant is around $2000 USD. But, please, take me up on my offer: pay it forward.

If George is willing to visit you for a day for free, then at least pay him $995, plus the $500 for his flight, and get him a room and room service on your tab. If he saves you just one hour of downtime in the stamping plant, it just paid for his visit.

Why am I a big fan of George? He is simply the most knowledgeable person I know on manufacturing in general and specifically die protection. George is also an outstanding public speaker to boot.

His website, mfgadvice.com has the details.

My die guy friend and loyal reader of past articles and current blog posts, Greg from Spaulding & Day Tool & Die emailed me a question yesterday.

He responded with a “thanks” email and suggested I write a book on modern die practices, mainly because the books out there now are quite dated and have, for the most part, lost their relevance due to transfer presses, solid modeling, and NC machining.

Most of you do not know the story, so I agreed to share it here.

Last summer, I gave away all my die books to Eric Kam. Except one: the one I wrote.

That’s right. I wrote a treatise on modern die engineering and construction theory and practice. It was ready to be published in 1999.

As with all my other attempts at finding a need and filling it, the venture fell short because of factors beyond my control.

At the time, I was writing for FMA as a columnist in Stamping Journal and occasional contributor to The Fabricator.

My vision was to create an elegant book. It had to be hardcover with lots of stunning 3D full color graphics. I wanted it to be the best looking book on dies ever published with relevant, easy to understand content.

In my mind, the best publisher to put out this level of quality was FMA.

They gave me a contract – probably the most lucrative contract a first time author ever had. I gave them the manuscript.

A few months into the project, the entire editorial staff bailed for a dot com startup that promised to triple their salaries.

My book instantly died and their new careers lasted only six months.

I talked to PMA, but that went nowhere fast.

Then, the SME came along. They wanted to publish the same garbage that is out there now – old content (they wanted to borrow material from their other books and use cheap black and white 2D drawings).

At this point, I have about 5,000 hours of writing time and a couple years effort invested to find a publisher. We come to a half-assed agreement and get started.

The book was going to be a stripped down version of what I had. We were going to put out a book on transfer dies only, then revamp their Die Design Handbook, then rewrite their Progressive Dies book.

This lasted about a month.

The economy tanked and they shut down their new book publishing operations.

Not one to give up easily or when I should, I pressed on and talked to a few more publishers.

They were all the same. The publishers wanted to put out what I considered to be junk and give me a 3% royalty. No thanks.

It was not the money. It was the quality. It had to be the best or be nothing.

I chose nothing.

Actually, I did pursue self-publishing so I could control the quality, but I did not have the distribution channel.

So, I decided to turn some of the content in this spiral bound manuscript into articles for MetalForming magazine.

Perhaps I should update the work and try to get it published. I don’t know. I barely have time to blog anymore.

The book is here and chock full of cool content. It sits in my desk drawer, always within arm’s reach, simply titled Die Theory & Practice: Engineering and Manufacturing Production Stamping Tools.

It is book shelved, just sitting here waiting to be read. All 20 chapters and 500 pages of it.

Here is a note from my long-time die guy pal Pete Ulintz. Y’all know Pete; he took over the Tooling by Design column I used to write in MetalForming magazine. I am sure most of you have heard Pete speak at PMA events or have visited his website ToolingByDesign.com.

This is his note:

Tim,

I like your blog regarding restrike operations. I have another “rant” idea for you: Many times I see cam pierce stations added to progressive dies having straight forward bending operations (no drawing or stretching) because people are afraid the development will be lost if the form wears or the die radii changes, or an incorrect “adjustment” is made during production. Obviously, this adds cost and complexity to the tooling but some companies and individuals subscribe to this “just-in-case” approach regardless of the short term and long term costs. Your thoughts?

Pete

 I agree completely with Pete. More and more, stampers are adding unnecessary operations, like restrikes and cams, to their process because they are scared. Planning for every “what if” scenario becomes cost prohibitive after a while and all the while flying in the face of so-called “Lean” initiatives.

It is funny to me. Back 20 years ago, I believe you would get your ass kicked for adding cams that you don’t need. Today, you get your ass kicked for assuming the die shop is not capable of getting the job done right.

For me, the best design is the simplest design that works.

Someone recently asked me if my Tooling By Design CD was still available.

Yes it is.

I am fresh out of free copies, but it can be ordered through the Precision Metalforming Association.

Click here for more information.

I do not earn a penny on these CDs. The PMA keeps all the money.

From time to time, people have asked me to sign the CD cover. If you want yours signed, please contact me through the contact page on this site.