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Mold Maintenance/Repair By James Bourne In the Trenches Mold Repair: A Challenge Worth Choosing Trained to do mold repair; you are more than likely working in a ���less than state-of-the-art��� toolroom; and, you can never do the job fast enough���not to mention you���re a cost center not a profit center! Not only does it feel thankless, but lonely too here in the trenches. So we���ve developed this series to not only provide some camaraderie and encouragement���so you know that you are not alone in the trenches���but also to share some personal struggles, lessons learned and tricks of the trade. And, if in the course of this series we receive feedback, you will have done the same for me. S Photos courtesy of SRG Global. ome people have 20 years of experience; some have one year of experience 20 times over. With respect to full disclosure, I���m probably closer to the latter. I thought when I first got into moldmaking that there would always be toolmakers working as long as we manufactured anything in the USA���and to a degree I���m still right about that. Then after a three-year hiatus from the trade I returned to hear time and again, ���We���re not hiring. All our work has gone to China.��� Time to re-think my strategy. What can���t be off-shored to China? Repair work? As long as we manufacture anything in the U.S. there will always be toolmakers working. They may have to adapt to a different environment, but they will be working. I had done a few short stints in a repair setting (three to be exact at the same place, hence the full disclosure of limited experience multiple times), and somewhere in the milieu of round three is when I came to my eureka moment about repair work. I don���t know that I ever heard a disparaging word about mold repair, but somehow I always got the impression that it was the red-headed step child of moldmaking. You know, the kind of tacit lessons you catch from your parents like your political leaning. We look at them and catch their values and generally end up following suit. They never said it was wrong to be a Democrat (or Republican) and never judged anyone negatively who was, but we just surmised from our experience that if it was good to be a Democrat then that���s what they���d be. I caught the same kind of lesson from the mold shops in which I worked. If repair was a good thing we���d be doing it. And we weren���t, and when we did it was only because our arm had been twisted into doing it in the name of continuing good relationships to keep new (real) work coming in. Well, live and learn. What do you know? Mold repair is a viable career option after all, and why not? People aspire to be automobile mechanics to keep cars running and maintenance mechanics to keep expensive production equipment running. Why not aspire to learn the skills to keep a $200,000 mold operating efficiently, longer? It���s a noble calling, rewarding, necessary and needed. Where is the PR person for this trade? Why are craftsmen resorting to it rather than actively chasing after it? Perhaps it���s the glamour factor. Yes, you probably get to stay Why not aspire to learn the skills to keep a $200,000 mold operating ef���ciently, longer? There is and always will be a need (and therefore, jobs) for skilled craftsmen. 32 MoldMaking Technology March 2013