How it's made

[Curt Harms]

I like the show and DVR it all the time and then set and watch it when I get a chance. I agree there are somethings that I see that look a little unsafe but I guess the company has never had a visit from OSHA,
..................................

I agree, one of the best shows on T.V. The companies being filmed may not be in the U.S. or Canada and may not be subject to governmental safety regulations for whatever reason.

[Tai Fu]

I think for the most part the companies are in "first world" countries... if not in the US/Canada it's Europe. There were a few that are in Thailand but a lot of them are specific to that culture.

[Scott Shepherd]

I cringe when watching most shows where people are building things like cars, motorcycles, etc. Shows like American Chopper, Biker Build Offs, etc. It's amazing how some of those people still have their eye sight and fingers. Things like drilling sheet metal on a drill press with no clamps or vises, just holding down the sheet metal with a bare hand. Makes me cringe just thinking about it.

[Dan Hintz]

I cringe when watching most shows where people are building things like cars, motorcycles, etc. Shows like American Chopper, Biker Build Offs, etc. It's amazing how some of those people still have their eye sight and fingers. Things like drilling sheet metal on a drill press with no clamps or vises, just holding down the sheet metal with a bare hand. Makes me cringe just thinking about it.

When they start chasing everyone around the shop with MIG welders and trying to shock each other... Discovery Channel is happy to show dumb moves like that, adds to the excitement.

[Matt Marsh]

One of my favorite shows too. I worked in the electrical maintenance shop of an OSB manufacturing mill here in Northern Minnesota for about 18 years. I always thought that they should do a show there.

Whenever I took friends and family members on a tour of the mill, the men were always amazed at what was involved, watching the process go from Aspen trees, to logs with the bark still on, to a full, banded lift of 4 X 8 sheets being loaded onto truck or rail. It's pretty amazing to watch a several ton waferizer with a 6 foot diameter cutting wheel, being turned by an 800 HP, 4160 volt electric motor being pushed on rails through a 2-chord with every stroke stack of logs like it was butter. The result is wood wafers with their fibers orientated longitudinally with a thickness accurate to .001". Just think about what is involved there. The PLC must know when to start and stop the cut, it has to keep an eye on all the safeties like overpressures etc., how many knives on the disk, the RPM at which the disk is turning, the velocity that the disk is being pushed into the wood, then compensating and hydraulically correcting several tons of moving machinery for all these changing parameters. And that is just one of the hundreds, if not thousands of equally impressive steps in the OSB manufacturing process.

Most of the women hated the tour. They freaked out having to walk on steel grating because you can see through it, it was too loud, too big, too smelly, too hot, too cold, too dusty, too too! And besides, the hardhats messed up their hair, and the safety glasses made them look like a dweeb.

[Jerome Stanek]

When they start chasing everyone around the shop with MIG welders and trying to shock each other... Discovery Channel is happy to show dumb moves like that, adds to the excitement.

It's all scripted

[Tai Fu]

You know when they were making shovels and pitchforks, how they forge those tools with giant rollers that spins off center with a die on one side? That looks really dangerous because it seems if you place the tool in the wrong place the tool would be forcefully ejected. Not only that but the user could get crushed by it..

[Stephen Tashiro]

The quantities they make are mind boggling too. Example: We can make 3,000 screw drivers and hour, okay where do they all go?

Consider how many screwdrivers you own!

[Tom Stenzel]

Consider how many screwdrivers you own!

If I could buy them that fast I could lose them that fast.

-Tom

[Tony Zona]

One of my favorite shows too. I worked in the electrical maintenance shop of an OSB manufacturing mill here in Northern Minnesota for about 18 years. I always thought that they should do a show there.

The manufacturing is impressive as all get out, but OSB is still OSB.

[Dan Hunkele]

Consider how many screwdrivers you own!

But then you have to consider how many people have none.

[Matt Marsh]

Yep Tony, It's still OSB. But after working and hanging out in the QC lab all of those years, it's obvious that it gets somewhat of a bad rap. Testing it and alternative sheeting will usually show that OSB is better than it gets credit for, and today's plywood isn't even close to being as good as it gets credit for. It ain't your father's plywood anymore.

[Jerry Bruette]

The quantities they make are mind boggling too. Example: We can make 3,000 screw drivers and hour, okay where do they all go?

I used to work at a paper company and we made wrapping paper for Bit-O-Honey and Dentyne gum. Now you know how small those products are and when we made the wrapping paper we would make it in roles that were about 5 feet in diameter and 6 feet in length. A run of either would be about a week long. Not sure how many wrappers were in each roll but I always wondered who was eating that much candy and chewing that much gum?

Now I work at a fire protection company and I wonder who is buying the million fire extinguishers we make a year.

[Joe Tilson]

On diy shows they love to tare on cabinets with a sledge hammer. In some cases it is a great waste of reusable material. I would love to have something like that to build shop cabinets. Recycling is only done after destruction.

[Curt Harms]

But then you have to consider how many people have none.

Which explains why some of the people I meet sure seem like they have a screw loose!