- [Mike] Despite the steady decline of American textiles,
the industry still does support a fair amount of jobs,
just upwards of half a million.
But since each of those jobs
actually supports three more jobs further down the line,
you’re looking at a workforce large enough
to populate Nebraska,
all in the business of putting clothes on your back.
And in Stafford Springs, Connecticut,
40 of them are working at breakneck speed
to fill a rush order worth $20,000,
due for shipment by quitting time.
But making that deadline doesn’t just fall
on the spinners and the weavers here.
It’s also on mechanics like Kirk Simmons to ensure
that each of the company’s mills
is working just as it should.
And right now one of them is not.
- I have no idea what the problem’s gonna be
and I won’t know until I get there
and see how high off the floor Keith is.
- [Mike] But on arriving at the mill in question,
it seems that Keith is staying busy elsewhere,
leaving Kirk to figure out exactly
what has gone wrong with this warping machine.
- There’s nothing obviously showing.
Power’s all on, so it should be working.
- [Mike] But after 35 years on the job,
Kirk already has an idea of what the issue might be.
- [Kirk] The drive gear on this sometimes loosens up.
That’s what happened.
Hopefully I can get everything lined back up.
And if I don’t, they have to start from scratch.
- [Mike] Whether Kirk knows it or not,
there’s simply no time to start over.
So hopefully his somewhat low tech remedy will save the day.
- [Kirk] We’ll rock it back and forth.
Get the teeth meshed.
Oh, and I think we’re there. It’s meshed.
I believe we’ll be okay now.
- [Mike] And just in the nick of time,
because Keith still has another 3,000 feet of thread to warp
before he can move on to weaving the actual fabric.
(machine whirring) (gentle music)
- Looks good.
This job is finished.
We’ll be loading into the rapier room.
That’s where we’ll be creating the actual cloth
with the weft and we’ll see the final product.
- [Kirk] But try as Keith might,
the hits just keep on coming.
- [Keith] Oh, got a broken end.
(bright music)
This material is fairly fine and soft.
So it breaks easy.
But in turn, the material comes out very, very nice.
So you take the good with the bad sometimes.
- [Mike] But it seems lately,
Keith may be taking a little more bad than good.
- [Keith] Another break.
Yeah.
This may be an issue.
(dramatic music)
Same situation.
I’ll try it again.
But if it happens one more time,
I’ll have to look into possibly changing the cone
or may be a result of a problem in the treadle.
(dramatic music)
- [Mike] Strike three,
which means Keith is gonna have to take a closer look
at what’s causing the chronic issues.
- No mechanical issues with the treadle itself.
Everything looks okay.
I’m gonna check the cones.
Oh. Well that could be an issue right there.
We have a cone that doesn’t have proper winding
and I’m gonna replace this one.
And if one cone that has a problem,
it’s possible that another cone
in the immediate area has the same problem.
Right there.
I’m gonna swap this one out too.
I’d rather take the extra couple of minutes now
then waste a hour in the long run.
(dramatic music)
- [Mike] With the new cones swapped in
and fingers firmly crossed,
Keith fires up the warping machine one more time.
(dramatic music)
- [Keith] Looks good.
Feels good. Seems to be running pretty well.
- [Mike] While Keith gets his day back on track,
down in the blending department
Head of Operations Giuseppe Monteleone,
is still dealing with issues of his own,
specifically a large amount of black wool
that somehow found its way into his all white batch.
But after an hour of gathering,
the offending material should be just about clear.
- [Giuseppe] This one here, we’re gonna put ’em in a bag
where we have all, some of the waste that we save.
Think we’re good.
- [Mike] And with that,
it’s time to start the picking process back up.
- Looks okay. So, so far so good.
No, no more black, everything looks good.
- [Mike] With the picker back online,
Giuseppe should be able to blend the remaining 1,000 pounds
of wool in just under an hour,
but no sooner does he get one issue squared away
than another rears it’s ugly woolen head.
(dramatic music)
- Think we got some problem
because I don’t see the conveyor advancing.
As you can see it stop.
And we don’t have enough material going
into the spike apron.
I think we got some problem with the conveyor.
I have to shut everything down and go downstairs and check.