Hello! My name is Larry Hoke. I’m a retired manufacturing engineer/CNC programmer turned writer and blogger. My wife and I have been married 32 years as of 2020; we have three children and 7 grandchildren, all of whom live on the west coast in California and Washington.
My primary theme on this site is to engage with industry to write technical papers, training guides, and any other type of written material that benefits the company in its sales, production, and training efforts. I will sprinkle some short stories, some humor pieces and other miscellaneous articles in the mix from time to time.
My focus has shifted a little relative to other posts, and current events. I am working on a long series of posts on Black History, as well as tracking my battle with Parkinson’s. Along the way, there will be short stories, and special challenge pieces from other bloggers I follow. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do writing them.
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My Work Experience:
My background is in manufacturing from both the automotive and aerospace industries. Specifically, in the area of CNC machining, and tool design. My career ran from 1966 thru 2015 when I retired.
I began at a Rockwell Automotive plant in Ohio as an apprentice tool designer; moved to a new NC department as an APT programmer; became supervisor of a Flexible Manufacturing System for several years. My last job at Rockwell was as a supervisor over a repair crib for the NC machines, where we did all electronic maintenance on the controls.
After leaving Rockwell, I worked at IBM for 7 years doing high level CAD/CAM demonstrations with CATIA and CADAM graphics systems for customers and trade shows. I ended up using CATIA for 35 years in a variety of jobs.
After IBM, I worked on the F-22 project for three years as supervisor over 23 CNC programmers. We did programming for both airframe parts as well as production tooling.
While working on the F-22, I also taught CATIA NC programming at El Camino College in Lawndale, CA for two years. I hired two of my students to work on the F-22 after they completed my class.
My final work experience was as a contract NC programmer, working for various companies, many of whom were Boeing suppliers. To name a few, I worked for Lockheed, Triumph Aerospace – Vought Div. in Grand Prairie, TX and Milledgeville, GA; Compucraft Industries; and finally Boeing – Fredericktown, WA. on the 737, 747, and 777 aircraft.