Photo By Daniel DeAngelis | More than just a repair team, Norfolk Naval Shipyard's Toolmaker Shop provides innovative solutions that enhance the capabilities of the entire naval fleet. By creating custom equipment for the most complex challenges, they ensure that a solution developed at NNSY today can strengthen a warship across the globe tomorrow. "The tools we build here don't just solve a single problem on one ship," said Code 930 Group Superintendent Benny Bray. "They become a permanent part of the Navy's playbook, a new capability that strengthens the entire fleet for years to come." see less
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When a critical repair on a warship grinds to a halt because of a broken stud or a part that cannot be fixed with standard equipment, Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) calls on its problem solvers: the Toolmaker Shop. Described as the shipyard’s last line of defense, this highly specialized team designs and builds custom tools that are essential to keeping the fleet fit to fight.
The Toolmaker Shop, part of the Inside Machine Shop (Shop 31) of the shipyard’s Mechanical Department (Code 930), functions as a self-sufficient unit of elite machinists, designers and engineers.
"When a project hits a wall and there's no off-the-shelf solution, that's when our phone rings," said Benny Bray, Code 930 Group Superintendent. "The Toolmaker Shop thrives on those challenges; they are masters at turning 'impossible' into 'mission complete.'"
Their mission is to create solutions when none exist. Whether a project involves nuclear or non-nuclear work, the toolmakers are called upon for solving emergent problems that threaten to delay vital projects. They are the shipyard’s cavalry, arriving when all other options have been exhausted.
The shop’s capabilities are vast. Its workforce creates everything from complex, portable cutting machines for performing in-place valve repairs to simple drill fixtures for extracting a single broken bolt from a flange. Instead of removing a massive component from a ship, a costly and time-consuming process, the toolmakers build a machine to perform the repair directly on the vessel. This ability to innovate under pressure is fundamental to NNSY’s mission of repairing, modernizing and inactivating the Navy’s fleet.
The process is a turnkey operation. It begins when a problem arises on the waterfront. The shop’s tool designers, all of whom have backgrounds as machinists and toolmakers, assess the situation.
"The magic isn't just in the machinery, it's in the minds of our people," Bray said. "We have designers who can visualize a solution on the fly and machinists who can build it with unparalleled precision. It's a level of craftsmanship you won't find anywhere else."
These designers search an extensive database for existing tools, investigate renting commercial equipment or, most often, begin designing a new apparatus from scratch. This close collaboration between the designers and the mechanics on the floor is critical to their success.
Once a design is finalized, the toolmakers—regarded as some of the most skilled machinists in the shipyard—fabricate the parts. They utilize a wide array of machinery, including lathes, mills, grinders and Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) equipment, and work with various materials from plastics to specialized steels. The team also performs its own heat treatments, a process of hardening and softening metals to make them machinable and durable for their final purpose.
Two recent projects on the waterfront perfectly illustrate the shop's value. In the first instance, the team designed and fabricated a specialized spring compression tool for removing rod spring assemblies for a submarine’s lookout and bridge fairing cover doors. Requiring ten days of design work and approximately 70 hours of precision machining, this new device enables mechanics to safely assemble and disassemble the component. The solution was so effective that it is now included in the official Virginia-class tooling and can be used on Los Angeles-class submarines as well.
A second, more extensive challenge involved the same submarine’s retractable bow plane cylinders and guide rails. The repairs were deemed impossible without the invention of entirely new equipment. Rising to the occasion, the shop embarked on an 18-month project to design and build a suite of portable drilling, reaming, and boring tools. This custom equipment was successfully used to complete the complex repairs at NNSY, proving that no obstacle was too great. The tooling’s value was further demonstrated when it was loaned to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard to perform the same critical work on another Virginia-class submarine, showcasing how NNSY’s innovation directly strengthens the entire fleet.
The impact of the Toolmaker Shop often extends well beyond NNSY. The team shares its knowledge, designs and tools with other naval shipyards, including Puget Sound, Pearl Harbor and Newport News Shipbuilding.
"Every custom tool we create, every unique repair we make possible, directly translates to getting a warship back to the fleet faster and stronger," Bray said. "We're not just making parts; we're ensuring naval readiness one innovation at a time."
In the high-stakes world of naval maintenance, where a single delay can impact national security, America’s Shipyard’s Toolmaker Shop stands as the ultimate safety net. They are more than just machinists and designers; they are the innovators who turn dead ends into breakthroughs. By forging custom solutions for seemingly impossible challenges, Shop 31 not only keeps complex projects moving forward but ultimately guarantees that the U.S. Navy's warships remain the most formidable fighting force on the seas, ready to answer the nation's call without fail.
