Transcript
John Saunders: Good morning welcome to the Business of Machining episode number 440 and Happy New Year. My name is John Saunders.
johngrimsmo: And my name is John Grimsmo.
John Saunders: We talk each week, although actually maybe not because we took a couple weeks off, but you know what? I would agree. I really like like took the third or fourth day of being out that I really like just read the the batteries recharge.
John Saunders: That makes sense.
johngrimsmo: A hundred percent. I did the exact same, although we just stayed in and did nothing together as a family. was amazing.
John Saunders: It's perfect.
johngrimsmo: But by, i got three and a half days without thinking about work. Like at all, you know, the thoughts would come in and I'd let them slip out and I'd be like, no, i'm going to play video games with my kids.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: We're going watch movies. We're going to go out. We're going to just spend time with family. It was great. And then on that fourth day, because I was at home and could like still do stuff if I wanted to, then the new ideas started to come in.
johngrimsmo: It was really nice actually to have that total clarity to properly perceive what's what you're working on as opposed to just being buried in busyness all the time.
John Saunders: Mm-hmm.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: But it was great.
John Saunders: It's funny too, cause you and I are broken records. Like I, I can tell myself you, you can't on day two or day one realize how much better you're going to feel. And I started, i didn't feel bad, but like, you know, you, you just, it's a, it always surprises me in a good way.
johngrimsmo: yeah and i very rarely take four days off like and you know unless i'm doing that a small trip with the kids or something like that which i hope to do more of yeah
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: um Good, I'm glad to hear. It's good to, I missed you.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, I missed you too
John Saunders: Um, okay. Here's my list. I want to talk about couple, well, it's kind of a question like, do we want to do a bigger year in review? I haven't even started my process of kind of wrapping up my year on a front of a personal and business note, but do we want to do that on a future episode? Um, I do have some things I want to share for sure on this episode about what I'm changing and doing for 2026. Um,
John Saunders: Time tracking, OpenCV measuring, um the the brother speedios, social media. And then i have one funny anecdote about our family dinner last night that I have to share.
John Saunders: But good give me your list.
johngrimsmo: Oh, amazing.
johngrimsmo: Speedio optimization, things that I've been working on, which you might find interesting.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: A bit more on my Grimsmall Vision and White Light Interferometer. Coolant level measuring. um
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: Bit on goals for the year. A quest that I'm on and Norseman Hard Mill.
John Saunders: Dude. um Okay, this I'm trying trying to make my own notes, Norseman hard milk. This is going great. let's Let's just crush it here. um We're sitting at dinner last night, and my son William would like to switch from his current bed to a bunk bed so he can put a desk underneath it.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Nice.
John Saunders: you know, my wife and I are completely fine with this and support it, but we're kind of like making him, he's, he is actually kind of like trying to sell us on it, which is great. I love it. And he's like, I really think it could be helpful and it could make the room better this way and that way and all this. And then he's like, and then dad, I had an idea.
John Saunders: Do you have a lab? And Yvonne just looks at me and then he goes, well, do you? And couldn't turn wood? And she almost spits her food out. And I don't know what's funny of the fact that like William said this or the fact that Yvonne now understands how funny this is.
johngrimsmo: Yup.
John Saunders: And I'm like, bud, what's up? And he actually is super cool. He wanted to like turn wooden posts to like modify the the bed. I'm like, dude, yes, I love this.
johngrimsmo: That's amazing.
John Saunders: We absolutely won't be doing it.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: No, I'm kidding. But I just was like, this is too funny.
johngrimsmo: Oh, that's awesome.
John Saunders: Yeah. That's my silly story.
johngrimsmo: Mm-hmm.
John Saunders: um Okay. my first things on my to-do list for this year, um I've done now probably six or seven years of a Google sheet file that has kind of my like to-do list. I do it as today, tomorrow and long-term and I've gotten better about recognizing it's okay to push stuff in the long-term. Like don't be, don't be delusional. What do I actually want to like need to get done by the time I put my head down on a pillow.
John Saunders: um the The medium or tomorrow one ends up getting a little, messy because sometimes it's stuff that I want to do, but it doesn't, it should be in the longterm, but then you you guys all know how it goes. The longterm builds.
John Saunders: And then I'd create little subsections of like, okay, here's four things I want to happen on the brother. And it's great. Like I don't, I'm not going to criticize myself because it actually works really well.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: What I've now realized I needed to do is um at the December 31st, I take that current to do sheet.
johngrimsmo: Okay.
John Saunders: I duplicate it. I relabel it legacy 2025. And I just bring over the like today and tomorrow. I don't even bring over the long term list.
johngrimsmo: Really?
John Saunders: Yep. Because we are all guilty of it. I've no, most of you listening, I've never met you, but you're guilty too of it. Like you just put something in the long term bucket and it doesn't happen, which means why are you, so what I'll do is obviously there's a lot to go on right now, both because it's a new year and I just got back, but like in about two or three weeks, I'll go look at that long term list again and decide, okay, what does need to get tackled?
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: So that's number one, kind of a fresh to-do list, but obviously, good.
johngrimsmo: on On that, I find those long-term to-do lists as the place where good ideas go to die.
John Saunders: yes
johngrimsmo: And it's, it's all like, we all have great ideas and be like, oh, it'd be amazing if we did that. And then it never happens, never happens, never happens. And then like, after being on there for three years, you're like, does it need to happen? It's still a good idea, but does it need to happen?
John Saunders: Right. Yeah. That's exactly it. It's like, it's a good idea, but it doesn't matter if you're not doing it.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: If, or if you don't need it, like if, if it's not a requirement for what you're trying to accomplish.
John Saunders: yeah
John Saunders: Yes. Yes. Yeah. It all just comes back to the kind of the dose of humble pie. Like there's only so much we can do as a person and as a company. um And yeah. um The other big change is a little bit more ephemeral or like less specific, but basically the combination of not checking orders as often recognizing that That stuff all happens.
John Saunders: It's been three or four months since I've checked our customer service system, which is great. I've never once looked at it. The team the team checks it.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: We get weekly reports of what is noteworthy items. I'm still, I get a dopamine hit when I look at sales and see good sales and you get sometimes a little bummed if you're like oh man, we haven't had much.
John Saunders: But you know, I need to now do that on a every day or two basis, not every, you know, three four times a day. um maybe be Might be a personal thing, but I'm guessing some of you out there have, you know, it's it's an addiction for better or worse.
John Saunders: Like it's okay. But um it's a bigger thing of like also just recognizing how you build the systems and processes to um to also keep a pulse on the business.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: And I don't want to be not specific about that. Um, you we are the, our Lex system has basically guaranteed. We, we don't run out of stuff that's been going on for three or three years now, which is great. We just don't run out of stuff. Now that doesn't mean we don't have just in time manufacturing. If you want to order a ah Herco 40, 16 plate, we just, we don't keep those in stock, but we stay that on the website. Um,
John Saunders: But that's all been going great. So now it's like, do I really wanna start pushing more reporting? And like, how do you keep a pulse on things? All that.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: The last thing is um a combination of work and personal, but I deleted all social media off my phone. So we'll see how it lasts.
John Saunders: I was tired of the addiction of just checking it and i enjoy parts of being a community.
johngrimsmo: yeah
John Saunders: So what I'm trying for now is I have a old computer in my basement at home that I can remote into. I can remote into it from any other PC and I can actually remote into it from my phone.
John Saunders: That has logins for Insta and LinkedIn, et cetera. um and My goal isn't actually to go away from it, but I've got to stop the whole like oh you got 30 seconds open it up um I also needed something to replace that and so I put a Kindle the Kindle app on my phone and um we'll see if it works but um reading a spy novel and or actually true the spy and the traitor about a British Russian spy guy and
johngrimsmo: Yep.
johngrimsmo: Really?
John Saunders: And then I got, um, my buddy that I was visiting, for Christmas showed me this, um, it's called the time timer, 20 bucks. And it's another way, you know, I talk about like be a surgeon, dude.
johngrimsmo: Does it have the blue thing that goes across? We bought one for Leif. Ours is blue, but yeah.
John Saunders: No way.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Red's a better color.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: um So if you're not, obviously, if you're not able to watch, Time Timer on Amazon, 20 bucks. It has a battery, but it's a mechanical timer. You just turn it. It has a really cool red or blue, what would you call it John?
John Saunders: Like a a color change wheel.
johngrimsmo: Sweep indicator thing. Yeah, it's like, you okay.
John Saunders: So a lot of times I'll just say to myself, John, spend spend eight minutes on this thing. And I don't want to pull up my phone and start a darn alarm. I'm trying to get rid of my phone.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: So um it's one day old.
johngrimsmo: Oh, I've got, it's the opposite, but in my pocket right now, I'll show you is a probably an eighties or nineties stopwatch.
John Saunders: But yeah. ah Shut up.
johngrimsmo: It's a,
John Saunders: It looks like a dial indicator.
johngrimsmo: It's a Mayland brand, but it's a mechanical stopwatch, wind up, and I use it to time all kinds of stuff.
John Saunders: Love it.
johngrimsmo: But it is a count up timer, not a countdown timer like yours.
John Saunders: Sure.
johngrimsmo: So they have fundamental different uses. But I love time tracking stuff like that.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: um Although I like your way of like, spend 10 minutes doing this. When the dinger goes off, then stop if you can.
John Saunders: Yeah. Yep.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, because a lot of the busy to-do items in our head, they don't really take a lot of time. But they're just like, they're they're heavier in our head than they are to actually go do. So if you're like, I can have that done in 10 minutes.
John Saunders: Yes.
johngrimsmo: Okay, stop everything. Do it now.
John Saunders: And it creates a micro process for yourself, which we use a process that you then can follow. Like the the boss is my timer. It's like everybody has 10 minutes. I mean, maybe on rare days where you've got fire drills, know, coolant pumps exploding with floods all before, you know, but like your average day, I can, you can take 10 minutes, one or twice throughout the day and you can get a lot done.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
johngrimsmo: Yep, I break my days into 15 minute chunks. and what I can do in a 15 minute chunk is incredible. Like a lot of little things, some things take like three hours, but every now and then you're like, oh, I'm on to my next 15 minute chunk, get it done.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And then you can move on.
John Saunders: Do you call that time blocking?
johngrimsmo: I don't really have a name for it. I'm tracking is what I call it.
John Saunders: Okay, so but they're not pre-planned at the beginning of the day.
johngrimsmo: No. Well, I think I've shown you this before, but my in my notebook,
John Saunders: yes.
johngrimsmo: I'm writing down every activity for the past 15 minutes throughout the day. And I'm on day 85 today of having done this every single day.
John Saunders: Dude. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: It felt a little pointless to do it during Christmas, but I still did it. was like fam time, fam time, fam time.
John Saunders: ah
johngrimsmo: it was It was fine. But it's good.
John Saunders: That's funny.
johngrimsmo: And it it lets me not only see because I have black for home, blue for work. So I get to like quickly visually see. not only how much time I'm working, but when I'm working.
John Saunders: Oh, interesting.
johngrimsmo: And then yesterday I was tracking it and at work I was jumping between like four different things um almost every 15 minutes. And I go back to the one, I go back to the other. And I, at first I felt kind of bad about it.
johngrimsmo: Cause I'm like, man, I should really just focus on the one and get it done. However, it was, I could, some of them I could only do when the speedy was available or when the current was available or when somebody else was available and then they'd get busy.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And then I was like, okay, jump to the other task.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: That's fine. That's fine.
John Saunders: You carry two pens.
johngrimsmo: I carry it three pens. yeah
John Saunders: Wait, what's the third red?
johngrimsmo: at Red, blue, and black.
John Saunders: That's awesome.
johngrimsmo: if
John Saunders: I never thought about, I could change my saga color. Huh?
johngrimsmo: Yeah, we stock four colors. Green as well.
John Saunders: Huh? Hey, but I think I told you this a month or so ago, but same thing, probably going on two or three months. Um, you can see the, the where,
johngrimsmo: Yes, that is a good worn, butt-shaped saga or a notepad.
John Saunders: Yeah. Yeah. And so it took me a week or two. i was like, man, i don't know if I'm going to keep this. It doesn't feel great in my pocket. And after that week threshold, it just, it just conformed.
johngrimsmo: So what are you writing your notepad?
John Saunders: Um, and, uh, you should sell them. You should sell, you should like, you you know, make, make somebody's butt mold and pre preform some of these.
johngrimsmo: Mm-hmm. so what are you what are you writing in your you know that
John Saunders: Um, I started it two or three months ago, i guess subconsciously as another way of trying to stop opening up my phone. Um, sometimes I just want to take a note and I don't want to, um, I won't type it. i just want to write it down.
John Saunders: Um, and so I've only had it for three months. I probably only have four pages of scratch chicken scratches in it. I'm debating whether i actually scissor cut the pages out cause I don't care about them anymore. Um, but I've left it alone for now.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, I leave it alone. I cross off things when they're done, but not like scribbled out, just like one line so I can tell it's done. And then if I need to go back and see what happened, then I get to see that. But um yeah, that's awesome, man. It's good to hear.
John Saunders: Yeah, thank you.
johngrimsmo: yeah that's really cool.
John Saunders: I appreciate
johngrimsmo: Yeah. And then i especially notice it in a meeting or a conversation with somebody like I find it pretty rude when somebody pulls out their phone in a meeting or in a conversation because you don't really know what they're doing, even if they're just typing notes into the note app.
John Saunders: it.
John Saunders: Sure.
johngrimsmo: But the vibe of pulling out a note, a piece of paper and a pen and writing down, it's it's present. You know, you're still like, you're still available.
John Saunders: Yes.
johngrimsmo: Whereas when somebody is heading their phone, the notifications come up. You're like, oh, I got sort three emails. What are they from? While talking to somebody. And I'm like, I don't like that.
John Saunders: Yes. And it's, look, it's a personal decision. I'm not here to what's the word, prolestatize or, or,
johngrimsmo: Well, I am because I sell these products, but... Yeah.
John Saunders: you you yeah fair enough. Um, but there is an overarching question, a philosophical question about like, you know, as you look at the way the world changes with AI or even automation or the phones, and it's just like, you know what?
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: I enjoy being a craftsman. I enjoy playing my trade. Um, You start to hear some crazy tinfoil hat. Well, they're not really tinfoil hat ideas of like everything in the world is automated, works for itself, and we all just get a universal basic income.
John Saunders: um i don I don't think i want to live in that world. um I also can't change well how that's going to, what's going to happen. But um there's, you know, i'll I'll tip my hat to Jay Pearson of, you know the pursuit of peace.
John Saunders: And I don't, I think, I think there might be a religious aspect to that for him. Not so much for me, but more just like ah Um, be present. I love how you said that. Just be present. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the life. I'm at the end of every year. I remind myself how grateful I am to be able to do what do. And, um, it doesn't feel new anymore for a long time. It did.
John Saunders: just it's, it's, you life is good.
johngrimsmo: Yep. Yeah. And it's that whole every now and then you get to step back, especially when I'm in like a sour mood and I realize I'm in a sour mood and I... I'm conscious enough to step back and be like, dude, you got a good life.
johngrimsmo: Like, I know you're really stressed and complaining about this one thing right now, but like, look around you, like, you know, I haven't accomplished everything I want to accomplish.
John Saunders: Right.
johngrimsmo: I haven't, you know, it's a journey. It's I'm, I'm on this, this quest of life to, to maximize it. So of course I'm never going to be like satisfied and full and, and have done all the things.
johngrimsmo: That's, that's what the last day is for.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: But ah yeah, so I'm,
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: In those moments, I do try to step back and be like, dude, family's good. Work's doing fine. Everything's fine. I get to do what I love. Like, it's nice.
John Saunders: Yep. Yep, agree. And you are in you earned it. Like that's, um every time I get an email from somebody who throws some kind words our way of, you know, the videos or influence, et cetera, it's just like, dude, I really do appreciate it.
johngrimsmo: Mm-hmm.
John Saunders: And I and i mean that, it's nice to hear these things. So i I mean it. On the flip side, you're writing this because you achieved something. Usually it's somebody who's able to get a job or build a shop or start something.
John Saunders: And it's like, yes, I'm glad that we were helpful or you watched every one of our videos or whatever.
johngrimsmo: yeah
John Saunders: But like, you're the one that did that. Like, good for you.
johngrimsmo: yeah it's a really good way to turn that around back on like give the praise back as well i like it right uh since we are talking about goals i'll just talk about ours for a little bit um
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Okay. I want to hear them all. Observation, vision, coolant.
johngrimsmo: So Eric and Angelo and I spent probably three hours so far in two separate meetings, meeting together, closed doors, stack of Post-it notes and an empty wall, and just said, what are we doing this year?
John Saunders: Mm-hmm.
johngrimsmo: we got all We got all these ideas. Let's make sure that the three of us are all on the same page, going in the same direction. you know is it it Is it new product? Is it improved products? like what What has to get done this year? What we want to get done? What are our goals?
johngrimsmo: And it was liberating to, especially with Post-it notes, because you can just move them all over the place. And I was like, started with four products. Okay, we make, you know, Norseman, Rask, Fjall, and Saga. So I just had four Post-it notes. And then sideways, I put like, I want to update this on the Fjall. We got to do this for the Saga, bunch of ideas.
johngrimsmo: And then Angelo went in and reorganized everything in a way that made way more sense. And then once we had all the ideas listed out, then he could put like January, February, March as new post-it notes and kind of build it into a calendar kind of theme or spreadsheet in a way.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: But it was it was liberating and very helpful for the three of us to sit down and like get on the same pitch talk about this and start to formulate what the goals and the plans are for the entire team um in a way especially that we can then announce it to the team and have it start to make sense and everybody can get behind it and we've never really put a lot of effort into doing that so it's kind of weird like more officially yeah absolutely um
John Saunders: Oh, is this the first year you've done that? Interesting.
johngrimsmo: looking far enough ahead. And like, we've always had ideas where like, yeah, this year we'll probably do that. um But now we're, we want to get more concrete about it and we want to be able to hold whoever accountable for those things and have more clarity throughout the company so that everybody kind of not only knows what to expect, knows what's going to happen, knows what we hope to achieve and how specifically how they are involved in that.
John Saunders: who
johngrimsmo: you know, what they can do, good, bad, or otherwise to help make that a reality.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Because that's something that I've noticed in our team is with a lack of clarity, people sometimes feel bad that they couldn't help more because they didn't know what I really needed.
John Saunders: Yeah, right, right.
johngrimsmo: um So I'm learning that.
John Saunders: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: It's like hard lessons to learn.
John Saunders: Gosh, you're sorry, you're triggering like a bunch of things that are are like making me write down notes, which makes me feel like I'm not being present for you.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, I know, right?
johngrimsmo: ah he
johngrimsmo: But yeah.
John Saunders: Good. i Was that, I mean, and you don't have to share obviously, but I assume that there might be some conflict there or debate or you know healthy debate.
johngrimsmo: At first there was, and and we were, i think the the first like half meeting at the end of last year was difficult and kind of annoying because we were on different pages. And then the second meeting got a lot tighter and we we kind of laid it all out.
John Saunders: Yeah. Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And that way, at least, like, i felt seen, I guess. Like, guys, these are not all of my ideas, but these are the big ones that I think we can tackle this year. Now that they're on the board, I'm okay if we don't do all of them if we choose. it I want us all to agree on the coolest one, the most impactful, the best one that's going to do what we need to do. And I no longer want to be the person to pick.
johngrimsmo: And that's what I'm really realizing is that not only do I want buy-in from those around me, especially the leaders around me, but the whole team.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: um I don't. I don't want the pressure. I don't want the weight. I don't want all the decision-making anymore for like, okay guys, this is what we're going to do. Here's my plan. i thought about this in my basement by myself and you're going to do it for me. I don't, I don't, it's doesn't work and I don't want that anymore.
johngrimsmo: So I'm, I'm leveraging Eric and Angelo and everybody else around me to, uh, to make sure we're making good decisions, you know?
John Saunders: mrs fair.
John Saunders: Yeah. That sounds great and healthy. i would remind you that I certainly look up to you for what you've what you've done, where you've gotten. So don't don't be too bashful about being a leader with conviction.
johngrimsmo: o yeah yeah conviction is a good word because I struggle with that um and caveat there is you know whatever direction we go it's the going to be done my way okay you know
John Saunders: Right. Yeah. But like, I know, you know, like, it's not like you tell people that like everybody knows that and it's, um, you don't like flex on your team on that front.
johngrimsmo: No, exactly.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: My way or the highway, but it's the vibe of the company.
John Saunders: Right.
johngrimsmo: It's the way we make things. It's the way we design things. It's the way we talk to the customer. All that is, is not so much me anymore, but it's just what we do as a company. um
John Saunders: Yeah. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And it's all those, um you know, methods and influences and the way we measure parts and the way we keep things clean and the way we work and operate and talk to each other and all that.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: It's, It's, you know, I might have started it, but it's grown into kind of the Team Grimsmo way of operating.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And it's that whole, yeah, more than me.
John Saunders: More than you, Yeah,
johngrimsmo: So if you were to bring in a new person, i don't necessarily need to be the one to hold their hand and tell them how we do things because the whole team knows how we do things, which is cool.
John Saunders: yeah, yeah.
johngrimsmo: That's really cool.
John Saunders: I'd love to piggyback off that with a quick anecdote of like how well the automation's going on the Brother. and
johngrimsmo: I want to hear all about it.
John Saunders: Well, no, I don't want to steal your thunder today. We got a lot to talk about.
johngrimsmo: I'm about done with goals.
John Saunders: but just letting, staying out of it the way Grant and Courtney have just tackled all of that in like talking, you know you know, oh, okay, I need this PLC on Automation Direct to do this mod, talking to the Lights Out guys in Idaho on this little thing I wanna fix.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John Saunders: They ran 50 cycles of the part in and out just to prove it out. And then Ed handled the the door opening closing side of it. He handled some of the machine tool stuff. I was going to,
John Saunders: start off tackling the cam. Um, and just this morning now, granted, it's like my, it's the second day back and I have a couple of things get on my plate and I just had that another Eureka moment where I'm like, what am I doing?
John Saunders: Like, no, hand this off. Um, the team can handle it.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Um, and it's just, it's been every aspect of it has been good to enable the team and let them learn, let them struggle or, you know, whatever. Um, just, it's just great.
johngrimsmo: That's absolutely incredible. And what you're working on is a fairly big project, like integrating a new machine, robot system. You know, it's if there's a lot of newness there to you guys.
johngrimsmo: And while it'd be super fun for you and me to dive in and like
John Saunders: Yeah,
johngrimsmo: Run it all. I commend you for handing off and and letting them learn, struggle, buy components, like research, figure it all out. Because I naturally like to do all that stuff.
johngrimsmo: And I spend most of my time doing all that stuff.
John Saunders: yeah. yeah
johngrimsmo: So I've almost created a, I can't think of the right word, not vacuum or void, but like, i I'm just the one that does all that.
John Saunders: I know. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I'm, and I are the same person, by the way, like I have to scratch that itch somehow.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Yeah.
John Saunders: And, but it's, um, next time um i would implore you to try, ah try this way, if you will.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, for sure.
John Saunders: Um, and also as a for everyone listening, we will absolutely do a YouTube video showing this off. I'm not hiding anything.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. yeah
John Saunders: I just, let me, give me another month to like, I'd like to, I'd like to show it from a position of conviction and confidence and not like we're testing this out.
johngrimsmo: Great.
johngrimsmo: Mm-hmm.
John Saunders: Um, But it's, I'm really happy with how it's going. And it's, it's seeing a robot load and unload a piece of stock, not only machining to be clear, but just unload, like pick it up from a load, from a grid tray, load it into a Kurt vice, move into the opt to vice, move it into a outbound tray and do that 50 times.
John Saunders: It's just, it's just had it beautiful.
johngrimsmo: magic.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: I love it. I'm so happy for you guys. I saw Pearson put up the latest kind of shop update video where he talked about a couple new robot cells and things like that. So I was watching that.
John Saunders: Oh, yeah.
johngrimsmo: It got my brain and tickled. I was like, ah, man. And then this morning, actually, before our podcast, like at home making my breakfast, I was thinking about UR Robots. And I'm like, I've always kind of always wanted one, always thought about it, not in position or a need right now, but like maybe throughout the year I'll find that need to scratch the itch and, you know, yeah, I want to.
John Saunders: Why don't you come down in a couple of months? We'll have ours really cooking and um yeah, it'll be good.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. I think Leif and I should come down and, and, and hang out.
John Saunders: And I owe you a visit too. I know some point I got believe.
johngrimsmo: Welcome anytime.
John Saunders: Yeah. No, thank you. Sorry. Back to you though. i want to hear more on the all this list.
johngrimsmo: So, okay, since we're on the Speedio topic, I've been on a journey to continue to optimize our Speedio. And we've talked a lot about thermal growth and constantly probing various features. And I've learned a lot over the past,
johngrimsmo: couple weeks towards that goal because I kind of put my head down and I was like, I'm going to figure this out. I want that machine. like It's a super accurate machine and it's great. And we have the five digit inch, the higher accuracy readout package.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: And I can see and track the thermal growth of the machine, mostly in Y and Z, a tiny bit in X, but basically not much. And because of the grinding that we're doing on the machine, we're seeing result, like the thermal growth makes a difference.
John Saunders: okay
johngrimsmo: Um, it makes good or bad parts based on the temperature of the machine. You go away for lunch, you come back an hour later and it's like colder and makes worse parts. Um, and it's not quite as simple as just run a 10 minute warmup and get it back to temp or just keep it hot all the time. Like a lot of people do. It's great.
johngrimsmo: Um, since some of the stuff we're shooting for is tight and I just want a full Grimmsmo everything. So anyway, I forgot if I mentioned, but what I ended up doing is I took Fjell blade and I machined and barrel lapped the pivot hole of the blade to be absolutely perfect, perfect in finish and squareness.
johngrimsmo: And then we CMM'd it to get the actual size.
John Saunders: Yeah. Okay.
johngrimsmo: but we calibrated the CMM first, then we CMMed it, and that's our ultimate standard. This hole is now 3, 1, 2, 8, 9, 5 inches, whatever. and then I engraved that on the blade.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: I drilled two holes in the blade, a hardened blade, and then I mounted it to our Bloom laser.
John Saunders: You did mention this.
johngrimsmo: And then, well, I've been using it now. So now we have an artifact, a known, fixed, never going change size. Some people use a sphere, but I didn't have one. I had this.
johngrimsmo: And
John Saunders: Mm-hmm.
johngrimsmo: and And then I wrote a subroutine that kind of can probe the hole and then it can auto calibrate the probe calibration itself. Like, you know, when you put a ring gauge in the in the machine and you calibrate the probe.
John Saunders: Yes. Yes.
johngrimsmo: So I know exactly what size that hole is.
John Saunders: Yes.
johngrimsmo: I do a dummy measure measurement first.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: What size is the hole? If it's any more than a 10th off of what it actually is recalibrate the probe.
John Saunders: Probe. Okay. Okay.
johngrimsmo: So
John Saunders: So you don't have to recall the the pro unless it's out.
johngrimsmo: Ever. Yeah, exactly.
John Saunders: Love it.
johngrimsmo: And a lot of times it's in, but it tends to drift over, like we're talking tense, but um over days or weeks or something like that. And I just want to always know that it's doing the thing.
johngrimsmo: So auto calibrate the probe if needed, then calibrate XYZ. And you asked if it was on, if I was going to update G53.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: like like your everything coordinates or not. And I didn't have an answer a couple weeks ago, but then I did figure out how to update and if that would do what I wanted. So I'm using that to update g fifty three which affects all work coordinates.
johngrimsmo: But what I realized is it does not change the laser, the position of the laser.
John Saunders: Yep.
John Saunders: What?
johngrimsmo: Those are in macro variables, the position of that.
John Saunders: Does it matter where it is for diameter?
johngrimsmo: It does. And i I still need to final prove this, but imagine if you have a calibration pin in a tool holder, it's like exactly 12 millimeters with no run out.
johngrimsmo: If you laser that on a cold machine and you laser that on a hot machine, I think I will get thermal growth difference diameter.
John Saunders: Yeah, and okay. That's the, question i we're ah we're not doing, sorry, not about us, but we're only doing like on our stuff. So you have laser encurring.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, but even even length changes too.
John Saunders: Yeah, understood. um Right, okay.
johngrimsmo: So in order to in order to do this perfect, once I finally figured out, the thing is on any temperature machine, but ideally not a hot, hot machine that's going to cool off really fast, either cold or medium machine, do calibrate the probe, um calibrate the XYZ on that hole, calibrate the laser with the calibration pin, ah pickup pick up G54, are two main offsets.
johngrimsmo: g fifty nine those are my two main offsets
John Saunders: OK.
johngrimsmo: And this is my calibration routine. So at the same temperature, at the same thermal growth, at the same everything, everything I care about gets calibrated at once. The probe, the laser, and my two offsets.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Because everything else in the world is based off of that.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: And then as the machine warms up, as we probe that hole for G53 updates, ah I can update all the work offsets and the laser position separately so that it, everything just moves in line every time I probe that hole. So it's not an automatic process, but I do have to probe that hole to make these changes.
John Saunders: So for the sake of an example, if the, if the, um, if the whole was off by a full thou, which I know is crazy, then are you, are you, oh my God, really?
johngrimsmo: Yeah. No, it does.
John Saunders: Holy cow.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: So are you, so in the, in the Y example there, are you then just adjusting the, the macro variable table value for the laser by a thou or oh man, that scares me, John.
johngrimsmo: Moves by a thousand Z and a thousand Y.
johngrimsmo: Yes. Yeah. It is a little scary. So I backed up the the the the real values over to one and I'm referencing the real values every time I update so it doesn't run away from itself.
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: OK. Yeah, right.
johngrimsmo: And I've done a lot of testing, but it's not in like none of this is actually in use right now.
John Saunders: OK.
johngrimsmo: But all the code is ready, and today or tomorrow I'll be putting it into use.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And but by next week, I should have proper results for you. So it is kind of dicey, but kind of amazing at the same time.
John Saunders: OK, awesome.
John Saunders: Yeah. My unsolicited feedback is if you're, if you're re, if you're resetting the values back to the quote unquote actual values, which there is no such thing as an actual value. If the machine is just a wet noodle, every machine's a wet noodle, but like that, like you said, if you're not ah setting up where you could run away and you hopefully collar it, like it can't adjust it by more than 10 thou.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: Um, then I hear you.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, and and adding this blade hole as our calibration artifact is like the extra level that most machines don't have, don't have this reference.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: You have to put a a ring gauge in the machine to calibrate your probe. I'm permanently mounting one in there. I think a sphere would be better overall because coolant and chips and it'll it'll wash down better.
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Right.
johngrimsmo: Maybe I'll upgrade to that eventually, but this was kind of the fastest, easiest, cheapest thing for me to throw on there was a blade with two holes in it.
John Saunders: McMaster sells these calibrated tooling balls for like 50 bucks or something. And it doesn't even matter.
johngrimsmo: I i bought ah bought a tooling ball from them and it's not pretty.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: So, like ideally you want like a probe tip, but huge, like a ruby.
John Saunders: Does your Zeiss have continuous scanning mode?
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: Okay, so you could build a surface set of the sphere if you bought one that wasn't perfect, I guess, or you...
johngrimsmo: You could, but the one that I bought um is just turned on a lathe. Like it's not a really, really nice surface. Yeah.
John Saunders: Oh, no, the one we have is like Chrome plate. Like it looks, it looks like the ones you get with like our Haas has come with them, which I'm not sure Haas is the, end is the end all be all for included tooling probes, but it's also like, don don't overthink it.
John Saunders: Like you gotta, yeah, cool.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, maybe. Maybe I just need a different one. Anyway.
John Saunders: Yeah, well, keep me hosting how that goes.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Yeah, so that I'm excited for that. i'm I'm actually really excited for that because to do what we need to do on the grinding, the guys are comping the offsets and the wheel diameter, the grinding wheel diameter, like every blade.
John Saunders: Mm-hmm.
johngrimsmo: And it's become a strategic guessing game of, of anticipating what the machine's going to do and where it's at. And that's fine. They're getting really good at it, but we can't palletize. We can't automate.
John Saunders: Right.
johngrimsmo: Which I'm allergic to.
John Saunders: Totally hear you.
johngrimsmo: I'm like, I didn't buy this machine to run one blade at a time.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: I bought this machine to leave it alone. So I think my method will allow us to get the perfect results and leave it alone.
John Saunders: wonder if With automation, what I'm starting to realize like today is just how wonderful it is because you have so much excess capacity.
John Saunders: Now, long-term we might soak that up with growth, but like right now, I think the brother could run eight hours a day and make all the parts we need it to. And it has, we think it's gonna have the ability to run 22, 23 hours a day with like, with no with no effort, like it just will.
johngrimsmo: Right.
johngrimsmo: Exactly. sort them Isn't that amazing?
John Saunders: Which means do we do we slow down our speeds and fees to save tooling? Do we do more? um Just what can you do with that time? We're looking today at surfacing in a feature instead of instead of a different way of doing it because who cares?
John Saunders: It's like we've got this.
johngrimsmo: Exactly. Like, like adding five minutes is like no big deal whatsoever.
John Saunders: but So what I'm wondering is keep what you're doing, but before you run that calibration, run eight minutes of max coolant, max RPM to try to get the machine up. That way you're calibrating it closer to a warm state.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, that's good idea. And when to calibrate is the good question on a stone cold machine, on a warmed up machine.
John Saunders: Right. Right.
johngrimsmo: I just, if it's on a max hot machine, the worry is it will cool down throughout the five minute calibration cycle, which whatever.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: um
John Saunders: But dude, that's the full Grimstone. If eight minutes gets the machine at peak temperature, you run it for four minutes and then do your calibration.
johngrimsmo: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. And I'm not quite at the point of putting, you know, thermistors all around the machine and data logging all this stuff, but I'm kind of tempted. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: But yeah, so that's that is, I feel like it's done. um I just need to prove it now. But all the code's done. it was quite a bit of work.
johngrimsmo: um
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: My vision system has had a couple little updates over the holidays. um i I forget what I did and don't last by our last podcast, but I 3D printed a lens mount that has tip tilt adjustments built into it because I need it to be perfectly straight up and down um so that I can properly see like walls and features and stuff like that.
John Saunders: Okay.
John Saunders: Mm-hmm.
johngrimsmo: Except since I 3D printed everything, you know, in CAD it's perfect. And then you make this assembly with multiple parts and linear rails and put it together and nothing lines up properly. And I'm like, oh man, I didn't expect that.
johngrimsmo: I didn't anticipate for that. So I got to make some updates there, but it functions.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: It works great. It's kind of awesome. um And then I spent a couple hours working on the white light interferometer because I'm still so, so excited for that.
John Saunders: Mm-hmm.
johngrimsmo: That's the one I actually want to build. um
John Saunders: Mm-hmm.
johngrimsmo: And i think I told you what, do you know what a beam splitter is? We talked about a couple weeks ago.
John Saunders: Yeah. The angle, like, goes two ways.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, it's like two prisms put together. Laser goes in and 50% goes straight, 50% bounces straight down or up or whatever.
John Saunders: Mm-hmm.
johngrimsmo: um So at on my desk at home, I had the beam splitter mounted. I had a a little pocket laser, laser pointer. you know, with the zip tie holding the button down, mounted on on some some blocks. And then I brought a set of gauge blocks home so I could stack everything and mount it all. And i couldn't get i couldn't get an interference fringe at all.
johngrimsmo: um from this and no matter what i tried and i feel like it should be way easier i feel like i know what i'm doing and i just couldn't get it to work at all and the end of the day i think it's because i don't have enough adjustment in my mirror and in my beam splitter i need to be able to to tilt adjust them to get them like perfect i just have the beam splitter resting on some gauge blocks
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: assuming that the bottom face is 45 degrees exactly to the mirror plane.
John Saunders: Okay.
John Saunders: Right.
johngrimsmo: And it's probably not because it's a really cheap beam sp splitter. So once I make a little housing to tip tilt, to adjust it, 3D print, then maybe I'll get it working.
John Saunders: Yeah, yeah.
John Saunders: i but isn't Can't you buy a beam splitter and the adjustment from Thor Labs for hundred bucks?
johngrimsmo: The beam slitters are more expensive, but the adjuster is under a hundred dollars. And I just didn't.
John Saunders: Yeah, okay.
johngrimsmo: Um, but I will probably have another Thor labs, uh, order coming up and
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: while I was trying to be cheap for the first order, the more I go back to their website and look at the prices, which are kind of expensive, but the more you like do this stuff, the more you like their prices are actually fine.
johngrimsmo: Like they make really, really good stuff.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And yeah, sure. It adds up to a thousand dollars, but it's like a lot of value there for what you're doing. And then it just works.
John Saunders: that's my thing is like, you don't want to spend two months in rent. You like go back to this post-it notes in the, with the guys.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Yeah.
John Saunders: It's like money matters. Don't get me wrong, but it's like, it's not profit margin. This isn't a product you're going to sell. Although we we can come back to that. Cause I think you're onto something here. Um, make sure you figure out how to get it working.
John Saunders: I mean, yeah.
johngrimsmo: Exactly. And that's where I'm at right now. I'm just playing around. But the more more progress I can make faster, then the sooner I have actual results and then figure out what the real system needs to look like.
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah. I can't not mention the new Veritasium video. Have you seen it on ASML?
johngrimsmo: Which one? the I saw half of it so far.
John Saunders: John, oh my God.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Anybody listening needs to finish our podcast and then go watch this. They are dropping droplets of tin
johngrimsmo: Obviously.
John Saunders: out of this machine to create ultraviolet light. And they do so by hitting them with a laser, not once, not twice, but three times. The first laser beam pancakes it, the second one further pancakes it, the third one explodes it with different beam intensities. And they are doing this 50,000 times a second.
John Saunders: to create ultraviolet lithography machines to create like so whatever those are, like four nanometer silicon. It's just like incredible.
johngrimsmo: It's insane.
John Saunders: We think our brothers are fast. the The actual physical platter on this machine is moving back and forth at 20 Gs. Like what?
johngrimsmo: It's insane.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, and they're the only company in the machine that makes, or the only company in the world that makes a machine like this as of now.
John Saunders: yeah
johngrimsmo: And yeah, it's insane. It's wild.
John Saunders: $400 million dollars too.
johngrimsmo: Are they really? Yeah.
John Saunders: yeah But I mean, peak, peak humanity right there.
johngrimsmo: here
johngrimsmo: Cool. Okay, what else do you got on your list?
John Saunders: I think I owe a quick closure. um Great example of, you know, my flaws of as, you know, ah you get passionate, excited about something. You just need to let it sit simmer and think and then realize, you know, you were being stupid.
John Saunders: Move on. So evaporating coolant. um
johngrimsmo: Mm-hmm.
John Saunders: You know, I think I was candid up front to say it's probably a dumb idea, but I want to pursue it. um Interestingly, there were some ways to do this. you know There is some ways to evaporate it with solar energy, with heat. You could turn it into a still. um And the most likely reason it's a stupid idea is that let's say you, oh, and there's also chemicals to crack it.
John Saunders: In fact, QualiChem, I talked to, I talked to the QualiChem engineer. Epsom salt is really hard on QualiChem and will cause it to deemulsify. So you can crack all Epsom salt.
johngrimsmo: Really?
John Saunders: um But the problem is that you're, um Let's say you can reverse your coolant mixture, brand new tank, you can go back to like 80 gallons of water and 20 gallons of concentrate whatever the ratio is. The problem is that that water still can't be put down the drain unless you create some process that I'm not even aware of. I assume it has to do with like an approved formula of how you do it in a laboratory style environment. but And then you get that tested.
John Saunders: every certainly initially and then every so often, which isn't even remotely worth it for the problem at hand.
johngrimsmo: yeah know
John Saunders: The only other thing you could do is potentially use that cracked water for new coolant mix.
johngrimsmo: True.
John Saunders: ah But now you're storing, you're you're going through all this effort to separate it, then you're storing it to remix it. Just hard pass when when Safety Clean will just come take it all away. It was fun learn. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: I like it.
John Saunders: learn learn
johngrimsmo: Absolutely. Well, now I just want to grab like a mason jar full of coolant and put some Epsom salt in there and just see what happens.
John Saunders: Yeah, no, I know. These conversations all happen right before Christmas. i actually did a guest episode with Spencer Webb talking about it with a chemist. um And I do actually, for fun this summer, I'm going to do a solar evaporation with a gallon just to see kind of what happens. um The idea I had there, which was decent, was, I think I may have said this, like a mist it onto a steel plate that's at an angle outside so and with a fan blowing over it so you can actually evaporate, you know, I don't know, it would be a gallon every few hours, which would be plenty to deal with our waste. to cool it But again, dumb and dumb dumb idea that doesn't actually do the right thing in terms of the environment and regulatory environment.
johngrimsmo: Actually, with that, you know, plate out in the sun, i feel like the oil would stick to it and make a mess rather than just, you know, the trickle of oil down into your jar like you think it would.
johngrimsmo: I think it would just get gummy and yucky, maybe, you know?
John Saunders: You're probably right. Yeah, right.
johngrimsmo: Interesting.
John Saunders: Right.
johngrimsmo: All right, I'm going to try some Epsom salt.
John Saunders: Yeah. Oh, the other random thing, because you mentioned it before we hit record, was I think we're all going to the Toolpath Summit now, sounds like.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yes.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Looking forward to that.
John Saunders: ape something that was a
johngrimsmo: So April, Mammoth Mountain, California. um
John Saunders: yes
johngrimsmo: Al basically said, are you going? And I was like, yeah, probably.
John Saunders: I mean, it'd be great to see you, a lot of the other guys, but then like, i mean, everyone's going to be there from SenCup, SenFounder, Jim Belosick, Terry Berry, Jay Pearson, you, Al, Toolpath team.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: The list goes on.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Looking forward to it.
John Saunders: Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.
John Saunders: What else on your list?
johngrimsmo: So I'll tell you the thought that I had after that day four of clarity.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: I was, um we've got a hot tub at home. It came with the house and I love it.
John Saunders: Nice.
johngrimsmo: And so every now and then I'll go for like a night hot tub. And I was sitting there after a while and I clear mind and I was thinking about it and then work thoughts started to creep in. And I was like, what do I want?
johngrimsmo: Like the company needs to do well and yada, yada.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: We need to do products and make customers happy and all that. But what do what do I personally, John Grimmsmo, what do I want going forward?
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: And kind of worked it into a line that says, i am on a quest to learn everything there is to know about ultra precision manufacturing.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: And that got me really excited because I'm already i'm already kind of doing it with the white light interferometer and the speedy optimization and thermal growth.
John Saunders: Good. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: I want to know all of it. And it got me to think about as I tour shops in the future, how I will format that tour. I want to know the secrets.
John Saunders: Mm-hmm.
johngrimsmo: I want to know, especially with precision manufacturing, I want to know what you guys know. You know, cool machines, cool shop. I'm proud of your business kind of thing. But like, I want to know what... like how you're pulling off what you're pulling off.
johngrimsmo: You know, I want to tour like Silicon way for manufacturers and like have them tell me stuff and and anything that I can apply to my work to make me a better machinist, to better product designer, better things like that.
John Saunders: Yep.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And that got me really excited about thinking like that because in a way I'm already doing it. And it's kind of like permission to do more of it and focus myself and my own needs, my own attention.
johngrimsmo: And there's all kinds of aspects of machining that I don't care at all about. i don't need a huge lathe to make huge parts because gross. I don't want that.
John Saunders: I agree. They're all sizes, but yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. One inch and under, I can love lathes, but anything bigger is like, ugh, that's scary. But yeah, so that was, that was cool.
John Saunders: I like that. It is, um you're right. Like sometimes you, you two different people get to the shop and get two different things out of it. And, you know, certainly I even wish you and I remember when we walked through K2 or no K1, I guess it would be right.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Mm-hmm.
John Saunders: Cause the current job shop. And it's just like, you know, I don't think we're prohibited from sharing this.
johngrimsmo: Mm-hmm.
John Saunders: They handed us a ah Petri dish with parts and both John and I were like, we don't see the parts.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
johngrimsmo: And they were like peak turbines, like peak material that are like, what are they?
John Saunders: Yeah. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Two thou diameter?
John Saunders: don't even know.
johngrimsmo: And it's an actual turbine blade, maybe eight thou?
John Saunders: I people think they were bigger than that.
johngrimsmo: But like, yeah.
John Saunders: yeah Yeah, but I mean like, and you could see them once they pointed them out to you, but I really am trying to emphasize just how nuts it was.
johngrimsmo: Speck of dust. Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: With features on them.
John Saunders: But wouldn't it be fun to redo that, Dewey?
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Now that we like, yeah.
johngrimsmo: With a totally different perspective. And even with, with this mindset, be like, whatever you guys are willing to share with me, uh, I want to you know, take it away.
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Um,
John Saunders: I did the same thing the last few days of break. The kids and I got into a kind of routine where we'd watch one 45 or 50 minute YouTube chunk of how it's made.
John Saunders: um And I didn't go in with the expectation of like gleaning anything specific other than like, I'm rewatching all these things from like pocket knives to axes to golf balls to whatever.
John Saunders: And I'm looking at like, hey, here's a pneumatic assembly line. I want that thing that rotates at 90 or like, here's a way that this thing picks this up or here's how they use a belt sander a way I hadn't thought of. And like, it just gets the juices flowing.
johngrimsmo: It's different. yeah It's funny because I used to watch How It's Made before I got into manufacturing. like It was just on TV, right? And then to watch it now and be like, I know what's happening.
John Saunders: Yeah, right, right? Yeah, it's super cool.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Good. um Okay, what else what else today?
johngrimsmo: That's about it. Last quick thing. Coolant float sensors in the Kern are still annoying.
John Saunders: Oh, yeah.
johngrimsmo: They're still alarming out, even though I'm now on my third round of upgrades. um So the i had a we've talked about this before. I had a bunch of people reach out with a fairly simple, basically toilet bowl float-style floating ball on a vertical rod.
John Saunders: Yeah. Yes. They call that a CJ.
johngrimsmo: ah Yeah. So if imagine ah a floating ball on a vertical rod that's constrained so it only floats up and down, and then four inductive proximity sensors for high-low operating and then high-low e-stop.
John Saunders: Yeah, right.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: And I could wire those into the machine. And it's like dead simple, never going to get contaminated with chips, never going to care about anything. So I'm going to build one of those with pretty much everything from McMaster is easy.
John Saunders: Yep.
John Saunders: Good, just build it.
John Saunders: You have the I.O. on the four sensors. That was my, or you already have it. It's the same one you already have now.
johngrimsmo: Exactly.
John Saunders: Yeah, love it.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, so.
John Saunders: We did that for our horizontal, except by did it, I mean designed it and then never built it, but ours was not the digital. It was just, I didn't want to look into the tank. And so it was a float, a float sensor and a piece of PEX tubing that just had a green, red flag at the top.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, cool, cool.
John Saunders: And it would just show you the level. Like, this is not hard to do, but like, I'm just being very candid. Like we did not bring, we did not finish it.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Yeah.
John Saunders: Um, yeah, love it.
johngrimsmo: But yeah, like, and this system, it, since it runs the current could cause a flood if it does it bad, like it needs to be absolutely reliable.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: i need to error proof all the, the failure modes kind of thing.
John Saunders: You could wire a second sensor in parallel series, whatever, or whatever it would be, a flood sensor next to the machine.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: So,
johngrimsmo: That's actually a good idea.
John Saunders: right.
johngrimsmo: because with these sensor wires, I have a direct install to the e-stop pretty much.
John Saunders: they go
johngrimsmo: That's not a bad idea.
John Saunders: All right, my last thing real quick. here's the This is the ornery side of me that I know sometimes is better to like just let it go. um However, I'm tired of the spam. The number of emails that that actually still get through my spam filters of you know this guy being like, oh, I can build your company up to $100 million.
John Saunders: dollars And yeah, know I know we all get them.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, I get those too.
John Saunders: So I don't want you to think that I'm not thick skin enough to ignore them.
johngrimsmo: oh
John Saunders: But um in a lot of them, when they come from bogus Gmail, I don't care. But when they're from real domains and they're real people, like you can go find them on LinkedIn. Part of me, the again, ornery, immature side of me is like, nope, i'm tired this.
John Saunders: want to start messing with these people. So there's some AI platforms that will let you like create a fake persona and mess with these people. Cause that's the best thing you can do is waste their time. Same thing with the callers. It's like the most, of course, none of us want to actually answer the spam call. The best thing that you can do is take 10 minutes of their time.
John Saunders: So if anyone listening has leads on that, the the Reddit site I found was, for, was it for a call thing? But like, I wanna be able to just feed their email or contact info into something that just messes with them. Cause I'm tired of it.
johngrimsmo: Have fun.
John Saunders: you don't You don't support this I know, but I'm, yeah, I know.
johngrimsmo: I don't, I don't care. i just delete them. And ah I honestly don't get that many.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Like as far as uninteresting spam emails, I probably get like three a day. But still, I don't need them either.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: I've been ruthlessly unsubscribing to everything I don't care about.
John Saunders: yeah
johngrimsmo: Yep. Yep.
John Saunders: That's probably why I'm more sensitive. I don't get emails anymore because the same thing, I just, I protect my inbox. And so the few that make it through, and it's the AI junk of like, oh, we've looked at your puck junk and we really think that's an interesting, innovative.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Exactly.
John Saunders: And it's just like to bug off. Like you're going to use your news crap to waste my time coming right back at you.
johngrimsmo: So it, well, if both of us are getting it, then they're clearly targeting, you know, business owners that whatever.
John Saunders: Right.
johngrimsmo: So it's, it's a problem for everybody, I guess, but, but those people are obviously probably also using AI tools to find us, to generate the emails, to,
John Saunders: Totally. i not I'm aware that the response may not even, may not actually take up their time, but kind of goes back to like being present and like I am, I have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder that like you and I have both built real companies with real people, with real products, and we're not buying email lists and creating AI junk that blankets out to like do some sort of a funnel, whatever.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Just, um yeah, and part of me just like, screw these people, I'm have a little fun, it's waste of time.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Go for it.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. All right, man.
John Saunders: All right. I'll see you next week.
johngrimsmo: see you next week.
John Saunders: Bye.
johngrimsmo: Bye.
