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  #11  
Old 08-22-2011, 11:21 PM
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Originally Posted by luke strawwalker
LOL... just got a mental image of John Boren in a plastic hamster ball... LOL Thanks for putting THAT in my head!

Yeah, it'd be nice to be able to see something there... looked like there were some NICE OLD models in the 'lobby/gift shop' area just inside the vestibule, which is as far as I could see in... might make an interesting "history of the company" kind of display...

They probably don't want to be bothered with it, but PR like that is fairly cheap and easy and does help sales IMHO...

Later! OL JR
Luke, you just sired an idea, of which I am happy to be the dam (figuratively speaking):

To satisfy the lawyers, tour participants could sign "hold harmless" release forms (similar to the "ride at your own risk" release forms that rental stables use). In addition to conducting the rocket launch out back after the end of the tour, Estes could do something that manufacturers of radios, television sets, phonographs, and other devices used to do (and may still do) during tours of their plants:

If a tour participant wanted to buy a kit, it could be produced as he or she watched, so that that person could see how each kit is made, from start to finish. The kit could be personalized with a printed sticker with his or her name on it that would be affixed to the kit insert card before the bag was sealed (and since the tour participant wouldn't ever want to open that kit, s/he would likely buy a second example of that kit to build, thus resulting in two sales). Also:

My late friend Gary Moore had a phonograph that was manufactured for him during a plant tour, and even decades later he thought that was a nifty idea, as he had been curious as to how they were made. In addition, a lot of the "Picture, Picture" films (and later, videos) on the "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" PBS children's television show also detailed how even the most mundane items (coaster wagons, tortilla chips, etc.) are manufactured, and Estes plant tours could also tap into that natural curiosity that adults as well as children have about how their belongings are made.
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Last edited by blackshire : 08-22-2011 at 11:24 PM. Reason: This ol' hoss done forgot somethin'.
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  #12  
Old 08-23-2011, 12:14 AM
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Originally Posted by luke strawwalker
LOL... just got a mental image of John Boren in a plastic hamster ball... LOL Thanks for putting THAT in my head! )


Having met John at NARCON this year, that is a truly frightening image! Funny, but frightening (sorry John ).
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  #13  
Old 08-23-2011, 02:14 AM
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Originally Posted by blackshire
Luke, you just sired an idea, of which I am happy to be the dam (figuratively speaking):

.


Ok, ANOTHER image I didn't need in my head... can't sleep and I check in and find THIS... Is it any wonder I can't sleep?? LOL

At any rate, as a rancher, there are some examples I just don't use... this is one of them... LOL

Changing the channel so to speak, my six year old LOVES "How it's made". I could see your suggestion being successful, to a degree, BUT I think it's probably more involved than they'd want to get to support it.

On the other hand, it might be an interesting segment on a show like "How it's made" or "Factory made"... maybe even get some nondescript footage of the Mabels in action, "and in another part of the factory..." then switch to showing them making up kits...

That'd be kind of neat...

Don't know if the "Big E" would agree to it. I know some motor stuff is proprietary... I once toured the John Deere Works at Ankeny, IA... (just NW of Des Moines). I've always wanted to see the cotton picker plants since I've ridden and run the things since I was 2 years old... I was led on the personalized tour by a retired engineer who worked decades at the Ankeny plant... he told me "this area is supposed to be off-limits-- so don't take any pics in here (I had my 35mm around my neck) and if someone says something, we wandered in here by mistake-- this is proprietary tooling". He then proceeded to show me the automated machinery that line bores, cross-bores, threads, and then installs the drive gears and picker spindles into the picker bars. That was really cool. I also saw some forging machines making cultivator spring-steel shanks, and we went down the picker assembly line, which was inactive at the time, but the sprayer line next over was running. I wanted to see the IH cotton picker works in Moline, but they moved them to Nebraska IIRC a few months before. I did tour the Deere combine plant in Moline and saw combines go from sheet steel to driven out the door, which was WAY cool! Deere has a "Golden Key" program where if you buy a new combine (got a spare quarter million on ya??) you can fly up to Moline, get the star treatment and a personalized tour of the plants, go to lunch with some company folks, and then watch your combine come down the line being assembled, and when the time comes to start it up for the first time, they give you a 'golden key' and you can climb into the cab and fire her up for the first time... That's a pretty sweet deal!

Anyway, if you're ever in Moline and your interested in how stuff is made, it's a cool tour... I wanted to tour the Saturn plant in Columbia City, TN in the months after I got married when I was living in Nashville (hour or so north) but never got around to it... ended up in some little town in northern Alabama called HUNTSVILLE for some reason...

That's ANOTHER thing that thoroughly sucks-- when I was there about ten years ago, you could take a BUS TOUR through part of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Redstone Arsenal-- go past the S-IC test stand, the ISS prep lab (clean room prepping ISS modules for launch-- got pics of some modules around here somewhere I took on the tour from the glassed-in balcony) the vibration test stand where they stacked the Saturn V and did vibration testing on it to determine the harmonic frequencies of the structure... all sorts of neat stuff...

Now you can't leave the Visitor Center... thoroughly sucks...

Later! OL JR
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  #14  
Old 08-23-2011, 02:16 AM
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Originally Posted by BEC
Having met John at NARCON this year, that is a truly frightening image! Funny, but frightening (sorry John ).


Yeah I met him at NARAM last month... WAY scary image... (sorry too John!)

Later! OL JR
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  #15  
Old 08-23-2011, 10:08 AM
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Originally Posted by luke strawwalker
On the other hand, it might be an interesting segment on a show like "How it's made" or "Factory made"... maybe even get some nondescript footage of the Mabels in action, "and in another part of the factory..." then switch to showing them making up kits...

That'd be kind of neat...

Don't know if the "Big E" would agree to it. I know some motor stuff is proprietary...


In the early '70s at a PITTCON Estes showed a video of Mabel in action - all it showed was tubes going around the table and rams pressing them, nothing more but it was interesting - wonder what happened to that?
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  #16  
Old 08-23-2011, 10:11 AM
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Originally Posted by Bazookadale
In the early '70s at a PITTCON Estes showed a video of Mabel in action - all it showed was tubes going around the table and rams pressing them, nothing more but it was interesting - wonder what happened to that?

Why, you can watch the video on Vern's site, of course!

http://www.vernestes.com/Photos%20and%20Videos.htm
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  #17  
Old 08-23-2011, 10:28 AM
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No that's not the video I'm talking about - the one from the '70s was better quality and you could see close ups of casings going around and the rams going into them to press the propellant.
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  #18  
Old 08-23-2011, 11:32 AM
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Originally Posted by Bazookadale
No that's not the video I'm talking about - the one from the '70s was better quality and you could see close ups of casings going around and the rams going into them to press the propellant.

Hmmm, maybe Ed Brown has a copy. He's a user here and I think you may be his "friend" on Facebook. Give him a shout.
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  #19  
Old 08-23-2011, 11:34 AM
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Originally Posted by Bazookadale
No that's not the video I'm talking about - the one from the '70s was better quality and you could see close ups of casings going around and the rams going into them to press the propellant.


Sounds like a pill making machine... they showed one of those on "HIM" a couple weeks ago or so...

Except of course pills don't have paper casings... LOL Cross the thing with bottling machine I guess... LOL

Later! OL JR
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  #20  
Old 08-23-2011, 07:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luke strawwalker
Ok, ANOTHER image I didn't need in my head... can't sleep and I check in and find THIS... Is it any wonder I can't sleep?? LOL

At any rate, as a rancher, there are some examples I just don't use... this is one of them... LOL
I couldn't resist. Friends of mine in Minnesota had a Shire stallion named Crossfields St. George (he died just a few weeks ago) who in 2005 came down with West Nile Virus followed by Seedy Toe (a hoof malady). Being lonely for lack of equine companionship during his long convalescence in the barn, they brought in his grown gelding son Wallace, with whom George was friendly. Since George was only ever with other horses (their mares) at breeding times (he lived with their Highland bull, Chip, in a pasture adjacent to the other horses' [and cows'] pastures the rest of the time), he followed his studly routine and mounted Wallace, banging his head on an overhead beam, staggering backwards, and nearly falling over backwards in the process. Luckily, George wasn't badly hurt, but he did get his bell rung. I told them after they informed me about the incident that Wallace was fortunate to not be human, because if he was he probably would have needed therapy for the rest of his life... :-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by luke strawwalker
Changing the channel so to speak, my six year old LOVES "How it's made". I could see your suggestion being successful, to a degree, BUT I think it's probably more involved than they'd want to get to support it.

On the other hand, it might be an interesting segment on a show like "How it's made" or "Factory made"... maybe even get some nondescript footage of the Mabels in action, "and in another part of the factory..." then switch to showing them making up kits...

That'd be kind of neat...

Don't know if the "Big E" would agree to it. I know some motor stuff is proprietary... I once toured the John Deere Works at Ankeny, IA... (just NW of Des Moines). I've always wanted to see the cotton picker plants since I've ridden and run the things since I was 2 years old... I was led on the personalized tour by a retired engineer who worked decades at the Ankeny plant... he told me "this area is supposed to be off-limits-- so don't take any pics in here (I had my 35mm around my neck) and if someone says something, we wandered in here by mistake-- this is proprietary tooling". He then proceeded to show me the automated machinery that line bores, cross-bores, threads, and then installs the drive gears and picker spindles into the picker bars. That was really cool. I also saw some forging machines making cultivator spring-steel shanks, and we went down the picker assembly line, which was inactive at the time, but the sprayer line next over was running. I wanted to see the IH cotton picker works in Moline, but they moved them to Nebraska IIRC a few months before. I did tour the Deere combine plant in Moline and saw combines go from sheet steel to driven out the door, which was WAY cool! Deere has a "Golden Key" program where if you buy a new combine (got a spare quarter million on ya??) you can fly up to Moline, get the star treatment and a personalized tour of the plants, go to lunch with some company folks, and then watch your combine come down the line being assembled, and when the time comes to start it up for the first time, they give you a 'golden key' and you can climb into the cab and fire her up for the first time... That's a pretty sweet deal!

Anyway, if you're ever in Moline and your interested in how stuff is made, it's a cool tour... I wanted to tour the Saturn plant in Columbia City, TN in the months after I got married when I was living in Nashville (hour or so north) but never got around to it... ended up in some little town in northern Alabama called HUNTSVILLE for some reason...

That's ANOTHER thing that thoroughly sucks-- when I was there about ten years ago, you could take a BUS TOUR through part of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Redstone Arsenal-- go past the S-IC test stand, the ISS prep lab (clean room prepping ISS modules for launch-- got pics of some modules around here somewhere I took on the tour from the glassed-in balcony) the vibration test stand where they stacked the Saturn V and did vibration testing on it to determine the harmonic frequencies of the structure... all sorts of neat stuff...

Now you can't leave the Visitor Center... thoroughly sucks...

Later! OL JR
It used to be possible to take self-guided driving tours through Cape Canaveral, too, but not anymore. :-(
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http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Last edited by blackshire : 08-23-2011 at 07:43 PM. Reason: This ol' hoss done forgot somethin'.
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