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Ep. 8: Always Double Tap
59 Plays17 days ago
Join Curt and Jamie as they discuss the importance of optimization, tool setup, and automation.
Links Discussed:
- DIY Centrifugal Tumbler: https://bypepa.cz/blogs/news/omilani-aneb-odhrotovani-a-lesteni-bez-namahy
- Intricate Mechanical Puzzle: https://youtu.be/-5dVN8F0h8s?si=3XkrXi4P8r47WP60
The Lone Machinists Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/ Check out our Companion Guide.
Jamie:
http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
Curt:
Recommended
Transcript
Volume Adjustment Challenges in Podcasting
00:00:46
jamie peacock
How's it going? How are you doing today?
00:00:48
Curt
Good, Jamie. How are you doing this evening?
00:00:50
jamie peacock
I'm good. Sounds like you're from the video. It looked like you needed your protection.
00:00:54
jamie peacock
I turned the volume on the intro up a little bit.
00:00:55
Curt
Yeah.
00:00:57
Curt
I had you, I had your volume jacked when we were just chatting before the show. And then as soon as it started, I was like, whoops, I've made a grave error.
00:01:02
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah, it was a little bit a little bit violent, but I noticed on the last episode, the intro was just a little bit quieter than our talking. So I thought I should just address that.
00:01:13
Curt
Well, they can, uh, people will let us know if it's too loud or too quiet and
00:01:15
jamie peacock
Yes.
00:01:17
Curt
There's nothing we can do at this point. So yeah.
00:01:19
jamie peacock
Yeah. Well, I mean the last, the last episode didn't get any complaints about the the audio volume. I just noticed the intro was a little bit, a little bit quiet.
Machinery Setup Success and Efficiency
00:01:29
jamie peacock
Yeah. So what did you get up to last week?
00:01:32
Curt
Oh, last week was just ah mainly a production week. I didn't have a ton of massive. fun improvements. The one thing, the the crowning jewel that kind of crushes everything else is I finally have the fourth axis working on the style. So that just takes so much stress and whatever off my brain, I can just stop thinking about that. It's just so happy that that is finally done.
00:01:54
Curt
ah
00:01:54
jamie peacock
Yeah, the thing looks super fast.
00:01:56
jamie peacock
I saw your Instagram real of that.
00:01:57
Curt
Yeah, it's, it's way quick.
00:01:59
Curt
Like, and that was just a jogging, like it goes about four times as fast as that during a rapid, which is amazing. Like I haven't had a fourth that ran that quickly, um which is going to be nice for a lot of positional stuff. but yeah I'm just, I kind of, I don't want to say I lost it on my Canadian distributor, but I basically, I got a quote from Siemens to come out to fix
Navigating Siemens Tech Support
00:02:17
Curt
it directly.
00:02:17
Curt
Cause I'm like, I can't wait any longer. Um, and, uh, the quote was in like the five digit price range, uh, cause they have to travel essentially across my country to get here.
00:02:19
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:02:28
Curt
Um, and.
00:02:28
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:02:30
Curt
Yeah, so that was basically a non-starter. But I just wanted to let my distributor know like, hey, we got to get going on this. And anyways, they put me in contact with Sile directly. And I just stayed up one night just so I could hit their you know working day because there's such a big time difference.
00:02:42
Curt
And just stayed up all night talking with one of their tech guys, who was fantastic.
00:02:42
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:02:45
Curt
And and we just chunked through. It ended up being a ah old PLC that was loaded in this machine that just didn't have the right settings across. And as soon as we dropped the new PLC, um I just re-flashed the PLC on the Siemens control.
00:02:57
Curt
And then everything
Updating PLC for Machine Performance
00:02:58
Curt
came to life. So yeah. Nice, nice fix.
00:03:01
jamie peacock
but Okay, so just didn't have the the actual stuff configured like the break and some of the other back end stuff that you're not actually meant to be fondling.
00:03:11
Curt
Correct. And the funny thing is that like, it was also missing, like I was noticed on spindle change or on tool changes, there's an air purge um that comes through most of these spindle tapers. And I just, it wasn't very good.
00:03:20
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:03:22
Curt
Like I was like, I think it's air purging. And I just noticed as soon as I updated the PLC. Then I had a like a full air purge. So I'm like, Oh, this was, so I wonder if they just, cause this is one of the first Siemens X five in Canada.
00:03:33
Curt
And it's one of the first Siemens X fives in general. I know they just kind of recently started plugging them in.
00:03:36
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:03:38
Curt
So I think
Tool Setup and Automation Advancements
00:03:39
Curt
they probably had loaded in like a manufacturing PLC just to kind of test everything over. And then with the assumption of, you know, loading the correct PLC when it was ready to ship, that's, that's all I can think about. That's, that's the reason I.
00:03:48
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:03:49
Curt
assume that the, it was missed and they, they acknowledged that it was, you know, their fault and, uh, they're definitely, uh, definitely remedying it.
00:03:54
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:03:56
Curt
So, uh, that's, uh, that's good. Otherwise I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be too happy, but there they're, they're treating me really well for all the kind of troubles they've caused me. So I can't complain too much.
00:04:06
jamie peacock
yeah no i'm looking forward to seeing what you what you're going to put on there because it's going to be significantly faster than other machines than your than your kurt yeah well my speaking of seaman's controllers my optocoupler came in so now i have a jsi unit inside my
00:04:10
Curt
Yeah.
00:04:14
Curt
Yeah, the Kurt is, uh, it's, it's still doing all the fourth axis work, but that's all it's doing right now. So I'm just, I'm so jazzed to have something that just can move a lot faster. And yeah, not as tedious.
00:04:33
jamie peacock
control cabinets instead of an HSI unit. It's a Jamie signal interface. um But yeah, I got that integrated, got that working. The toolsetter repeats astonishingly well, even though I've been inside it and
Home Automation and Machine Calibration
00:04:46
jamie peacock
modified it. ah But that's now all properly set up and repeating. I was running stuff this evening and yeah.
00:04:53
jamie peacock
It takes a while, like I'm lazy, I just go to auto two length sets. I set the rough gauging probe, let it come down slowly. Type in the next number, let it come down slowly. I can jog it over the thing, but it's just not worth effort. I'll just type the number and hit go. Once it's touched off, it's stored in memory, it's tagged. at yeah So I was setting up, at I don't think I'd run my M5 treadmill.
00:05:16
jamie peacock
Hadn't run my 4.2 drill. Like I get had a touch of a bunch of tools over the last couple of days.
00:05:21
jamie peacock
But yeah, it's it's now properly interfaced. And it beeps. I made a beep.
00:05:21
Curt
Hmm.
00:05:26
jamie peacock
So that I know the probe is being triggered. And I know like if I boot the machine up in the probe and things going beep, because something's not happy, it at least lets me diagnose it before I ram a tool into it.
00:05:26
Curt
Nice.
00:05:33
Curt
Hmm.
00:05:38
Curt
Do you have to do, um, are you still doing like multiple touches or is it now repeatable enough that you can just do a single touch?
00:05:45
jamie peacock
i'm doing double I'm still double-touching just to make sure it's repeatable, ah but it's it's within like two-tenths, so like five microns.
00:05:49
Curt
Okay.
00:05:52
Curt
Okay. you
00:05:53
jamie peacock
it's It's well within, I mean, I used to touch my tools off to 10 microns. I'd switch to 10 micron increments. If I was doing something I really cared about, ah about hearts between different things, then I would go to one micron steps, but otherwise 10 microns and when it beeped, I was happy.
00:06:05
Curt
Hmm.
00:06:11
jamie peacock
so it's more accurate than it was. I've noticed, so the first touch, it changes because that's the value I typed in, not the actual measured value. And if I measure again, I think the worst I've seen is about 50 microns.
00:06:12
Curt
Beautiful.
00:06:25
jamie peacock
And that was on, it was on some weird combination. I think it was spinning the tool because it was a big diameter or something.
00:06:33
jamie peacock
And then there was a little bit of variation and that was on from first attempt and second attempt
00:06:34
Curt
Hmm.
Machining Projects and Precision
00:06:39
jamie peacock
and third attempt was the same as the second within like two microns.
00:06:41
Curt
Oh, oh yeah, that's plenty.
00:06:42
jamie peacock
So for the work I do, more than accurate enough.
00:06:46
Curt
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:06:46
jamie peacock
So yeah, that's that's all integrated as well.
00:06:50
jamie peacock
but yeah
00:06:51
Curt
That's nice.
00:06:51
Curt
That's, that's such a, like, that's such a luxury to have that. Just like.
00:06:54
jamie peacock
Oh it is. The thing is, the slowio had it. So I wrote a macro for the slowio that you just jog your current tool, so you call the tool tool 21. So I'd call tool 21, I would jog it above my toolsetter, M300 hit enter, and whatever tool was loaded, it would measure the length and write that to the tool offset table.
00:07:17
jamie peacock
So the slow, you're like, if ever I set up, if I, so because it's a homemade machine, if I ever changed the tool, I'd then touch off everything I was running. So if they all touched off in relation to each other, not in relation to the home switch day to day. So like then if they all touched off to each other, if I go and pro the job, they're all in relation to each other, not relation to the home switch kind of story.
00:07:42
jamie peacock
but job That M300 macro I wrote was job it's lovely. It's still there. I used it the other day. I had something that needed a whole tool too two tools on the slowio. It was very tedious because I had to manually change tools. I'm a little bit spoiled now.
00:07:42
Curt
Yeah, that makes sense.
00:07:59
Curt
Oh, absolutely. I know I'm, I'm spoiled for the tool changer. And the one thing I'm massively spoiled for is like absolute encoders that repeat perfectly, like offsets all functions.
00:08:07
jamie peacock
Yeah, exactly.
00:08:08
Curt
Like I did, I had multiple offsets on my, on my little grizzly here, but every, like every time I changed it, I would still probe it in.
00:08:11
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:08:14
Curt
Cause I'm like, it would vary by, you know, a couple foul, whereas like this machine, if I change my offset and go and probe it just for fun, it's like, Oh, it's a 10th out or
00:08:22
jamie peacock
It's exactly,
Expanding Home Automation with ESPHome
00:08:23
Curt
dead on.
00:08:23
jamie peacock
yeah.
00:08:23
Curt
It's like, it's yeah, it's like, Oh, it's such a, so nice just to switch jobs.
00:08:26
jamie peacock
You know, even tool length. Tool length, day to day, is exactly the same.
00:08:31
Curt
Mm hmm.
00:08:31
jamie peacock
like it's It's nuts. like Industrial machines are just a different beast. I've had G57 set in my machine for months. It's where the pallet system is. It's the location on the pallet system.
00:08:43
jamie peacock
And I throw a pallet and I hit go. I don't even think about it. It repeats exactly because it's homing on the, well, absolute. And if you lose absolute, it's homing on the index pulse within a certain range.
00:08:54
jamie peacock
like It repeats exactly. It repeats within the tolerance of the ball screws.
00:08:59
Curt
yeah No, exactly. Yeah. And is that is, is yours epoxy granite as well?
00:09:00
jamie peacock
Yeah, like it's... No, mine's cost iron.
00:09:06
Curt
The frame. Oh, okay. I didn't, I didn't know if it was, if it was boxier or cast.
00:09:07
jamie peacock
Yeah, cost iron, yeah. Yeah.
00:09:10
jamie peacock
Yeah, a couple tons of cost. um No, that's the LKs. I think that all the machines are cost iron still.
00:09:18
jamie peacock
Like epoxy ground arts, very fancy stuff.
00:09:18
Curt
Hmm.
00:09:21
Curt
Yeah, it's nice. I just, I just noticed that there's like zero thermal growth from like the end of the day to the start of the day, at least for my style of work.
00:09:22
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:09:26
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:09:27
Curt
I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm, I'm dead nuts on. So I'm, I'm pleased. I mean, I'm coming from a machine that warmed up and like drifted five thou.
00:09:30
jamie peacock
yeah it also yeah no 100% yeah no no i mean the the lk um i actually i need to pull all the tools and clean the taper because i know just the one animal is cutting like 10 microns bigger than it was previously it could be run out in the animal but it's across two animals so i think it is
00:09:34
Curt
So it's pretty easy to impress me.
00:09:52
jamie peacock
I think it is something in the taper, so I'll just... I did clean the taper the other day, but I think I need to pull all the tools, just clean all the actual tool holders, clean the taper, and then it'll be back to dead nuts. Because I'm busy setting up for that camera housing job.
00:10:04
Curt
Now we're going to machine away 80 kilos of aluminum.
00:10:06
jamie peacock
Yeah, I had...
00:10:10
jamie peacock
ah Yeah, I had 150 kilograms of aluminium raff on Friday, and that's going out the doors 100 kilograms of shavings.
00:10:14
Curt
Nice.
00:10:19
jamie peacock
It's going to be great fun. Yeah. Now I actually went through the programs today and just made sure everything was up to date. Cause I did some stupid stuff when I programmed it last time where I modified my stock. So it had a cutout in the middle so that it wouldn't try and adapt to that.
00:10:20
Curt
That's so cool.
00:10:34
jamie peacock
but I copied it and then they were still linked, so I just exported it, filled the hole up and imported it again as a new body or new component. so And then I just had to go and re-associate that component as the modeled stock.
00:10:46
Curt
Hmm. Hmm.
00:10:48
jamie peacock
So I went through all of that today. um On the plates where I remove all the material, the four plates, I can basically op one all, how many is it now?
00:11:01
jamie peacock
It's all 12 plates. I can op one of them in one day. in about six, seven hours.
00:11:05
Curt
Oh nice.
00:11:06
jamie peacock
So my plan is to, well tomorrow we're going to to friends, so that's kind of a write-off. But then Monday, set up, do all the op zeros on all the material, all the big material, put my fixture back in the machine, get that all indicated in, and then just Monday afternoon start going and then probably Tuesday evening run late, because I've got to go to SART on Tuesday.
00:11:29
jamie peacock
So that day is basically going down the toilet. So when I get back there, now I'm going to need to catch up a few hours and then I'll let let that run. I mean, the one part's got nearly four hours of machine time in it.
00:11:43
Curt
Oh, wow. Is your, uh, is the op one on like, are they two out parts or three out parts or right?
00:11:43
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:11:46
jamie peacock
ah So there's are op zero. of
00:11:49
Curt
Yeah. Your stock prep or whatever.
00:11:50
jamie peacock
Okay, there's op zero that just puts in some dial holes and some ah clamping features. Then there's op one where I rough out, so I face it, rough out the one side, do all the finishing from that side, like chamfer the back sides of the holes and things. Then it gets flipped over in the fixture. There's an op two, and then on some of them there's a three, four, and five where I've got to have them on end to
Aluminum Machining Efficiency
00:12:14
jamie peacock
put a hole on the sides.
00:12:16
jamie peacock
But when we when it was being designed, we put in features that I can easily, so I've got a vertical plate with a little notch on it, and these parts just drop onto the notch and locate in all three axes.
00:12:16
Curt
Hmm.
00:12:28
Curt
Oh, nice.
00:12:29
jamie peacock
So then ah it makes it super quick. A lot of effort went into this between Roger and myself too to make it as easy to manufacture as possible.
00:12:38
Curt
Nice. And is your op one like taking care of the bulk of the like material removal?
00:12:39
jamie peacock
no It takes every...
00:12:42
Curt
Like, is that where you're seeing most your time sucked up?
00:12:44
jamie peacock
um Well, the the roughing the whole center takes six minutes. It's not a large portion.
00:12:49
Curt
i I suppose, yeah.
00:12:49
jamie peacock
There's stupid tapers and yeah, no, there's this um funny tapers in places that eats up like 40 minutes on surfacing.
00:12:58
jamie peacock
And then there's slots that are four millimeters wide and like 16 millimeters deep. So that's gonna that eats another 20 or 30 minutes of cycle time just slotting.
00:12:58
Curt
Okay.
00:13:09
Curt
Yeah.
00:13:10
jamie peacock
into the part. So that that, I think the the average op one time is about 40 minutes, 45 minutes, and then op twos are also 40, 45 minutes.
00:13:20
jamie peacock
But then op two, I turn it around, ah rough the perimeter of the parts, bolt it down, and then take the the bolts and dial pins out and just evaporate the corners off.
00:13:29
Curt
Hmm.
00:13:31
jamie peacock
and then it's all just like 15 000 finishing passes and chamfers and all these little friggin things because the parts are well designed but there's funny tapers and like the whole front of it is just surface everything the one the wandering literally takes me four hours it's two hours on op one and two out two or three hours on op two i think it's silly and but that's because i have to go in with
00:13:32
Curt
Hmm.
00:13:35
Curt
Hmm.
00:13:55
Curt
Well, at least that's enough time to, yeah.
00:13:57
jamie peacock
Well, that's gonna, I'm gonna plan for that to run in the evening. So I'll run one in the morning, run another one and then leave the last one to run at night. The machine can turn itself off when it's done because it can, it can do that.
00:14:06
Curt
That's nice. That's cool. Yeah.
00:14:09
jamie peacock
It was a little bit tricky to turn it on this morning. Cause I did that yesterday or the day before, um, I enabled auto shut off on auto. auto shutdown on home assistant and then I enabled APO on the machine.
00:14:23
jamie peacock
But when it does ah a auto power off with the APO function, it actually turns the breaker on the back.
00:14:28
jamie peacock
But I had the break, I didn't have the door, I had the panel open and then I had the machine on so I just pushed the door closed and it wasn't actually properly in the switch. So I had to like vocal the switch this morning to just get it to align so I could turn the power back on.
00:14:29
Curt
Mm.
00:14:43
Curt
Mm.
00:14:44
jamie peacock
But yeah, that's sorted now.
00:14:46
Curt
That's cool. that's That's something I want to implement. Like I want to be able to do something where A, it shuts down the machine at yeah the breaker level, but then also shuts down the, um, like my phase converter.
00:14:47
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:14:55
Curt
That would be nice. Cause it could run all night, but like, I don't need to put hours on it for no reason.
00:14:58
jamie peacock
No, that thing eats electricity. It, it pulls mine...
00:15:01
Curt
It it doesn't mind.
00:15:02
jamie peacock
Oh, it doesn't draw. Mine pulls one kilowatt, if it's idling.
00:15:04
Curt
No. Yeah. Mine. Mine. Well, it, mine's digital. So it's 70 Watts when it's idle.
00:15:09
jamie peacock
Oh, okay, yeah.
00:15:10
Curt
Yeah. But it's harder to shut down that way.
00:15:11
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, mine's like a kilowatt.
00:15:12
Curt
So.
00:15:13
jamie peacock
Yeah, mine... Yeah, like surely it's just a button push to turn it off.
00:15:21
Curt
It's I mean probably yeah, probably I'd have to interface with it. I know there's a way to do it internally I just flip it on with a giant switch so yeah, I don't I don't need any more help with this home assistant because I'm just gonna like Financially ruin myself.
00:15:27
jamie peacock
so So... Home assistance you can with ESPHome, you can run servos.
00:15:42
Curt
I like I want to switch over all my lights now to Zigbee because I'm sick of Wi-Fi and
00:15:46
jamie peacock
No, no, don't go to Zigbee. No, the ESP32
00:15:50
Curt
Why?
00:15:54
jamie peacock
boards, the cheapest chips, put a relay module on it, that's a done.
00:15:59
Curt
Oh, how do they communicate? I thought that was the same.
00:16:02
jamie peacock
That's over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
00:16:04
Curt
Oh, and I don't like, I've never found just stability and wifi though.
00:16:08
jamie peacock
I have had no issues.
00:16:10
jamie peacock
Like I've got, so i put up um I put a mesh network in that handles all my home assistant stuff.
00:16:10
Curt
Really?
00:16:14
jamie peacock
It's all on its own network. My main internet connection gets plugged into the mesh network and then everything on the mesh has an internet so and my workshop, by the machine's on a separate network. But everything's on the mesh and it just, I've got wireless cameras, wifi cameras.
00:16:14
Curt
Hmm.
00:16:29
jamie peacock
I've got a bunch of home assistant, of ESP home stuff going and I've got a switch for my swimming pool.
00:16:35
Curt
Hmm. Hmm.
00:16:36
jamie peacock
And that's all on Wi-Fi and it's pretty friggin stable.
00:16:39
Curt
Hmm. I've had nothing but poor luck.
00:16:40
jamie peacock
Like even my lamp in my lounge. My lamp in my lounge is running at ESPC3 with a solid state relay.
00:16:46
Curt
Hmm.
00:16:46
jamie peacock
That in a little box, that's it. That switches my lamp on and off for me. So it turns on in the evening, turns off at a set time, or we can turn it on manually from our phones.
Advanced Home Automation Setups
00:16:57
jamie peacock
No, no, it's it's pretty reliable though.
00:16:58
Curt
up um mr um I have like everything like I have all the lighting in my house interior and exterior on on switch like on Wi-Fi switches and I just find there the connection like every every few weeks one drops and I'm like oh and then it comes back in a few days and I was like I have a mesh network too but I should probably get a little more robust mesh network I can't none of them are supported cuz they're all like dirt cheap so yeah yeah
00:17:06
jamie peacock
But you can...
00:17:13
jamie peacock
So you can also probably tie those into Home Assistant, because literally everything ties into Home Assistant. by and Oh, okay, yeah.
00:17:24
jamie peacock
No, my neighbor ran into a similar problem with some of his stuff.
00:17:27
Curt
Yeah. Yeah. I didn't realize cause they were like regular, I don't know, 40 bucks and I got them for like $4 each. So I'm like, Oh, I'll buy a gang of them.
00:17:33
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:17:33
Curt
And yeah, I probably, I understand why now cause they don't interface with anything. So yeah, they might, I might go away.
00:17:37
jamie peacock
Yeah. So the workshop, the workshops got four lot circuits running through home assistant, which are not tied to my lots yet, but it's done specifically. So my lots can turn on Ironman style from one side to the other side, like a stupid shit that I've done.
00:17:48
Curt
Yeah.
00:17:51
jamie peacock
Um, but the, yeah, I've got that board. I'll send you one of those, uh, boards that I had done. I had five of them done. I'm just waiting for the S and D components to come in. that you've got six opto-oscillated inputs that all, I think all the grounds are also oscillated.
00:18:06
jamie peacock
So it's ground and signal, not connected to anything else.
00:18:08
Curt
Hmm.
00:18:11
jamie peacock
um And then it's designed to be powered over just a ah old cell phone charger. Just plug into the ESPC3 and that will get you your power you need. And then it's got two relay outputs. So if you want to control lots or something, you can do that as well.
00:18:12
Curt
Proper.
00:18:26
jamie peacock
No.
00:18:26
Curt
Yeah.
00:18:26
Curt
My, uh, electronic pusher man here, but I appreciate it. I will definitely make use of it.
00:18:31
jamie peacock
my neighbor has My neighbor has tried for years to get me to go to Home Assistant. Little years. And I finally switched over to it like a year ago, and now everything's on it.
00:18:43
jamie peacock
Like it's great. But I just pick up my phone, I'm like, hey, Brooke, come have a beer.
00:18:45
Curt
yeah
00:18:47
jamie peacock
He pulls in and then he writes all the code for me because I'm lazy.
00:18:50
Curt
nice
00:18:51
jamie peacock
Like I brute forced the stuff that's on the LK now, but yeah, that's, I mean, I've got ultrasonic sensor measuring my coolant level. which I still need to actually calibrate.
00:19:01
jamie peacock
I know roughly what it should be. I need to, when I drain the tank to, before I start this job, I'm gonna pay attention to the levels on my phone when I fill it up and then say, okay, cool, this is low, this is high.
00:19:12
jamie peacock
Send me a warning at this level and automate that as well.
00:19:16
Curt
Nice. Yeah, automation is life. I love it all.
00:19:19
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, um I mean, on the LK, I'm going through that door in the warning. If I go in through the door, there's a button and I can press that'll turn the lights on. from the back of the LK that I don't have to walk through or pull my phone out.
00:19:30
jamie peacock
I just hold the button and then I get a notification to say that the lights are turning on and then all the lights turn on and my clock and everything else.
00:19:37
Curt
yeah
00:19:39
Curt
Yeah.
00:19:39
jamie peacock
ah john The nerd things.
00:19:40
Curt
Yeah. It's the way it's, it's so fun.
00:19:42
jamie peacock
It is.
00:19:44
Curt
It's fun to just walk around your house and just have it like living around you. Like my uncle was said, he's like, my goal is to be able to die and no one will notice.
00:19:47
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:19:50
Curt
Cause like my lawn will be watered. All my lights will be turning on and off. Like,
AI in Home Security Systems
00:19:54
jamie peacock
Well, my neighbor just put the AR hats on his but his home systems to help with object recognition on his camera system.
00:19:54
Curt
like yeah I see that.
00:20:04
jamie peacock
He was running at like one FPS.
00:20:04
Curt
oh
00:20:05
Curt
Wow.
00:20:06
jamie peacock
He's now running at 15 FPS.
00:20:08
Curt
wow
00:20:08
jamie peacock
Object detecting, like my dog goes over there, it recognizes a dog, recognizes me, he gets notifications he put, he changed the sensor on his gate. Used to just be an infrared beam to say something's in the way of the gate. Swaps it for a human detecting board that literally says, there are four people standing in your driveway. Like, silly stuff. And he gets notifications, because I've got a remote for his gate. So I just open his gate and I go there. And then he gets a notification to say that I'm in his yard.
00:20:37
Curt
Yeah, that's what I need. like for I don't have a window on the garage, which is another story I would like to do that.
00:20:40
jamie peacock
yeah yeah yes yeah
00:20:41
Curt
But same thing, I get deliveries. And i'm like I can't hear them go to the ah door of the house. So I have a camera. But the delay, like by the time I get a notification, and it can detect like delivery truck, you know people, all that jazz.
00:20:54
Curt
But the delay is like maybe 10 seconds from when the person is there. And then by that time, they're like halfway to the door. And like most of our mail services will like knock once and be like, you're not home, and just peace out. So it's just like, Oh, I need something a little faster.
00:21:05
Curt
Like a window would actually solve my problems, but why do a window when you can, you know, complicated horribly with a bunch of electronics and backend automation.
00:21:11
jamie peacock
Well, that's what, yeah. I've got one, I've got my original FPV screen from like 2012.
00:21:16
Curt
Okay.
00:21:17
jamie peacock
I gave it to my mates. He was out here from the UK and he was going through his stuff that was still here. He's like, hey, do you want this? I'm like, yeah, I'll bring it. I'll use it for something. I want to put an old FPV camera pointing at my gate and that can be in my office.
00:21:29
jamie peacock
That it's a live feed and I can see the gates without having to walk around the corner.
00:21:34
jamie peacock
because often I'm i'm working and then I hear a hoot or I hear something and I just wanna see what's going on without having to stop doing what I'm doing.
00:21:34
Curt
Yeah, I know.
00:21:43
Curt
No, I totally get it. I know i've but I've debated just putting like LCD screens on my garage door and then cameras on the opposite side.
00:21:44
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:21:48
Curt
So I have like digital windows, but I'm like, if I'm going to go through that much effort, like let's cut a real window so I can get real light and feel like a real human as opposed to just bathed in OLEDs.
00:21:50
jamie peacock
Yes.
00:21:56
jamie peacock
um There's a YouTube channel, what's it called? make stuff, I think.
00:22:06
Curt
Okay.
00:22:06
jamie peacock
it's yeah It's one of the guys from the Making It podcast, ah David Pashuto, and he's got three TVs on his wall that he puts different backgrounds on.
00:22:14
jamie peacock
So it looks like a window. He literally built a window frame around it. And it's just it's so that he can set dress easily.
00:22:14
Curt
Nice.
00:22:20
jamie peacock
It's like where he does most of the shooting. And then if he's busy working, he'll put a movie up on there or something, his background noise. I was like, yeah, that seems like an expensive solution.
00:22:20
Curt
Yeah, yeah.
00:22:30
Curt
Yeah.
00:22:33
jamie peacock
as it is, yo, I missed the deal on some really nice monitors a little while ago.
00:22:38
jamie peacock
I think I mentioned them to you, the 27 inch HP monitors with built-in webcams and stuff.
00:22:38
Curt
Oh yeah.
00:22:42
jamie peacock
I left it, I was like, eh, let me sleep on it, and now they sold out.
00:22:42
Curt
Yeah.
00:22:46
Curt
No, that's that's how how it works.
00:22:47
jamie peacock
They were refurbs, so, yeah, but it's obviously not meant to be.
00:22:51
Curt
I know I missed that same kind of deal on, I was looking for call it chucks for the big manual lathe and I came across a nice Bison five C with like the complete line of five
00:22:58
jamie peacock
Ooh.
Tumbler Usage in Machining
00:23:00
Curt
C.
00:23:00
Curt
I think it was all Imperial, but still like, you know, 50, 60 call it's and then all the squares as well.
00:23:01
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:23:05
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:23:06
jamie peacock
Oh wow.
00:23:06
Curt
Um, so it's like, Oh, and it was like, I don't know.
00:23:09
Curt
It was like 600 bucks US or something like that. It wasn't one of the set trues. It was just like the, um, But as I was like, okay, I'm like, I'll think on it tonight. And then if it's still here tomorrow, I'll pull a plug in.
00:23:19
Curt
Oh yeah. It immediately went. I was like, whoopsie daisy, but live and learn.
00:23:21
jamie peacock
Yeah, that's a friggin' killer deal.
00:23:24
Curt
I was so, and it was such a good deal. Yeah. I should have jumped on it, but.
00:23:27
jamie peacock
Yeah, I know that. Yeah, how you live and you learn. So I see you got a quote on a Tumblr.
00:23:34
Curt
Yeah, just a a little update for the folks that are following along. so I did get a quote for that Avalon Tumblr, so shipped into Canada, which is probably no Canadians listening to this. It's about 500 bucks and free. so All told, that's going to cost me $3,500 US. Yeah, I'm going to sit on that for a bit. because I don't really need it right now.
00:23:53
Curt
And, um, actually someone reached out to me and said, why don't you get one of your friends that have, you know, the similar model to, you know, tumble you some parts. I'm like, that's a big brain thinking right there. So I might reach out to a ah couple of guys that haven't be like, Hey, you want to tumble some parts for me?
00:24:01
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:24:05
Curt
You know, trade you some shekels or product or whatever you like. And, uh, just kind of see what make, cause you know, maybe it's not big enough and I just, all the parts whack into each other and then I'm kinda.
00:24:08
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:24:15
Curt
Hosed. So we'll see.
00:24:16
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, it's always good to do a bit of testing on those kind of things. But yeah, my tumbler went together.
00:24:22
jamie peacock
Well, that's one way to do that's one way to describe how it went. um Yeah, it's an afternoons project.
00:24:22
Curt
Oh, I'm surprised how fast you put that together.
00:24:30
Curt
so
00:24:30
jamie peacock
um yeah It's been in the works for a while. It's been a lot of planning, but yeah some moron designed it and overlooked a whole lot.
00:24:36
Curt
this was
00:24:39
jamie peacock
That is very much a V1 of the tub, but it is together enough that it works. is We sprayed all the weld silver so you can't see them because of it it was meant to be taped, but then the bending of the tub didn't go well, so we ended up making it.
00:24:48
Curt
Nice.
00:24:55
jamie peacock
ah to describe it as hot shit would be a compliment, but it's together. And it showed me a whole bunch of stuff I needed to know.
00:25:02
Curt
then
00:25:05
jamie peacock
um It works. It works flipping amazingly on big bots. Like throw a machine bot in there 10 minutes later, it's tumbled.
00:25:12
Curt
That's nuts.
00:25:13
jamie peacock
Like it's insane.
00:25:14
jamie peacock
I'm running it at 30 Hertz because if I go to 50 Hertz, it starts throwing things out of it. It's insane. The motor is a little oversized. I mean, I did get a good deal on it. That's why it's the size of it is.
00:25:14
Curt
Yeah.
00:25:26
jamie peacock
It's just a bit noisy.
00:25:28
Curt
Well, I saw, I saw your Instagram story on it and then I'm like, Oh, there's no audio on the story.
00:25:29
jamie peacock
Yeah. you Yeah. and the
00:25:33
Curt
This, this tells me everything I need to know about this machine.
00:25:35
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:25:36
Curt
It looked aggressive.
00:25:36
jamie peacock
It's not. It's very aggressive. It's not that loud now that I've got the the sprinkler system on it. It's a bit quieter, but it's annoying.
00:25:42
Curt
Right. Yeah.
00:25:44
jamie peacock
I'm thinking of putting it in my little grinding shack outside because I don't use it every day.
00:25:47
Curt
Hmm.
00:25:48
jamie peacock
It doesn't actually need to be in the main workshop. um The main thing is it's going to do what I need it to do, and it's going to do that well.
00:25:56
jamie peacock
like that That is the main thing. I mean, even if I don't rebuild the tank, it'll be fine. um I noticed the interesting thing this morning, so I went and bought a little tote for the water recirculating system, threw some soap into it, started running it, and the media goes the other way.
00:25:56
Curt
Yeah. That's key.
00:26:15
jamie peacock
With the soapy water, with the foamy water, because now it's obviously generating foam, goes the opposite direction.
00:26:19
Curt
Okay. Yeah.
00:26:24
jamie peacock
Like, this is weird.
00:26:24
Curt
Like water, like water falls towards you or something or.
00:26:27
jamie peacock
Well, no, the media, instead of going, if you're standing in front of them, instead of it running towards you, it runs away from you.
00:26:34
jamie peacock
But it was running towards me yeah the day before but yesterday or yesterday, yeah.
00:26:34
Curt
Right. Weird.
00:26:37
Curt
Right. Okay.
00:26:38
jamie peacock
So, I'm like, okay, the phone's getting a bit insane, yeah, grab my de-foamer for my coolant, put a few drops in.
00:26:44
Curt
Hmm.
00:26:44
jamie peacock
Literally watched it. Stop going in that direction and start going the other direction.
00:26:49
Curt
Oh, weird.
00:26:50
jamie peacock
I think it's just the fact that the the foam is is sitting on the on the media and changing the coefficient of friction or something and just causing it to go the opposite direction.
00:27:00
Curt
Yeah. Just like, yeah. Just bounce bouncing the resonance, like one cycle over.
00:27:02
jamie peacock
Yeah,
00:27:04
Curt
So then it wants to flop the other way.
00:27:04
jamie peacock
yeah
00:27:06
jamie peacock
it was really weird. And then I threw some big pots in there today, threw some small pots in, let it just do its thing. ah job It's gonna do the thing.
00:27:06
Curt
Weird, weird.
00:27:14
Curt
Nice. Yeah. It looks, it looks like it's a great, my great unit.
00:27:15
jamie peacock
Yeah, so. Yeah. And I think the whole thing cost me like $500.
00:27:22
Curt
Yeah, that's yeah.
00:27:22
jamie peacock
If I don't include Tom, like, uh, yeah, that that's if I don't include Tom.
00:27:23
Curt
Actually somebody I'll go ahead. Sorry. I don't want to interrupt Karen.
00:27:30
jamie peacock
So like, obviously I spent an afternoon welding the thing. I spent an afternoon designing it, but I needed to go weld stuff at my friend's place anyways. So we did this while I was there.
00:27:41
Curt
Yeah, exactly. There's easy ways to justify time.
00:27:41
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:27:43
Curt
We don't have to talk about time on anything.
00:27:44
jamie peacock
Yes.
00:27:47
jamie peacock
Yeah, so you're saying.
00:27:48
Curt
Actually, uh, someone on Instagram, I'm sorry. I forgot your name right now. Um, he reached out and he had built his own, uh, like centrifugal Tumblr.
00:27:57
jamie peacock
Oh.
00:27:58
Curt
And so he sent me some details on it and a link to his blog. Oh, you know what? I'll make, I don't know if we have show notes yet, but I will.
00:28:03
jamie peacock
Yeah, pop it in the documents and I'll get done.
00:28:05
jamie peacock
It gets added in because I really want to look at that as well.
00:28:06
Curt
Okay.
00:28:06
Curt
I will, I will find. There's not a ton of details on it. I'll just put it right here so I don't forget. Tumblr ah link, good enough. So yeah, there's not a ton of details on it.
00:28:20
Curt
And I think it's a check site, but Google Translate works amazingly well. And it looks like he used a bucket and mostly printed parts, honestly.
00:28:22
jamie peacock
yeah but okay I have thought about it
00:28:26
Curt
And yeah, he showed, there's a video of it operating, I think, on his YouTube channel as well. And yeah, I was like, wow, I've never seen anybody build a centrifugal Tumblr. And it was very, very basic. And it looked like it worked really well, so I'm like,
00:28:37
Curt
Hmm so I just kind of as a gears turning yeah, I know Yeah, yeah
00:28:41
jamie peacock
I've considered it because I mean I've still got my little tumbler and that's gonna still get used for the small parts because the small parts going in the big tumbler is just gonna be a little bit violent and hard to get out because actually chatting to EJ from nocturnal welding he are saying no you link your parts together with cable ties that way you just pull a string of parts out its like because he threw some small stuff in and it was a problem I was chatting to Danica today about it I was thinking, okay, do a 3D print plugs that I can push into the hole so the parts can't stick to the side of the tank, because it's a smooth HDP wall, so they get water behind them and they stick.
00:29:08
Curt
Mm hmm.
00:29:13
jamie peacock
So I said to them, I'm just gonna buy long cable tires, and you just click it in a few clicks, and then when you take the parts off, you cut it right at the thing, so you can reuse the cable tire five or 10 times.
00:29:21
Curt
Right? Yeah.
00:29:24
jamie peacock
And then when you're done, you throw the cable tire away. They're not super expensive. And then I can also chain all the parts together, so getting them in and out is easier.
00:29:32
Curt
those, I don't know where it is. And I i imagine you could 3d print them, but I've seen somebody that has these like, they're like, like really thick twist ties almost. And they're plastic and they just twist together. And they're meant for exactly this.
00:29:42
Curt
You put it through your part and you're like, the the ends are kind of pre-formed.
00:29:43
jamie peacock
ah okay yeah oh i know yeah okay yeah i think i actually know what about those the only the only problem with those is i want the cable tower whatever it is to not cause a spot that isn't tumbled
00:29:45
Curt
So they want to twist together and they just give it enough support from, yeah, just enough support from the walls. They don't stick. And then you can take them out and reuse them, you know, a gang of times until they just basically get tumbled to death.
00:30:03
Curt
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get that.
00:30:04
jamie peacock
Now that's the only the only thing I want to travel with, that's what I was thinking, big loops of cable tar.
00:30:08
Curt
Yeah.
00:30:09
jamie peacock
The pot can spin in the cable tar and it's not going to leave you with spots that aren't tumbled.
00:30:14
jamie peacock
Not that it's super critical, they're going to get powder coated, but yeah.
00:30:14
Curt
Yeah.
00:30:14
Curt
Um, cable does not cable does a cheap anyways. Um, relatively.
00:30:19
jamie peacock
Exactly.
00:30:20
Curt
Yeah.
00:30:20
jamie peacock
Yeah,
Innovative Machining Solutions
00:30:21
jamie peacock
oh no. you So I only use locally our good brand is Hellerman Titan. I only use their stuff because anything else is just garbage.
00:30:21
Curt
So if you can reuse them.
00:30:27
Curt
Hmm.
00:30:29
jamie peacock
You pull a Titan and it snaps.
00:30:30
jamie peacock
In this case, I will go to the China shop and I'll buy the cheapest cable towers I can because they're not holding anything.
00:30:30
Curt
Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:37
jamie peacock
They are just going in a pot and going in a tumbler. So I'm gonna literally go buy the cheapest ones I can.
00:30:37
Curt
Yeah.
00:30:42
Curt
Nice.
00:30:43
jamie peacock
Because yeah, that's no point in wasting bucks on good cable towers.
00:30:48
Curt
Yeah. That's my main issue with tumbling is like, I have these one part of the thumb stud for my pen, which is like, um it looks like a rounded head bolt.
00:30:52
jamie peacock
yeah is that threaded?
00:30:54
Curt
It's got a big ball on the end, but it's. It's threaded on one side. So what I normally do is um I basically print a fixture so I can thread them into a fixture.
00:30:58
jamie peacock
okay yeah yeah
00:31:03
Curt
But I want them tumbled all around. So I was like, ugh. So the fixtures actually get really weird. So for the longest time, I just printed little it kind of like covers that would cover the threads and just threw them in the tumbler and be like, OK, I threw 20 in here.
00:31:13
Curt
I guess I'm just going to have like a ah searching game. And it's always like the parts are so dark after tumbling. And my media is like brown. And then I pour it out into the sink to clean it all. And it's like, OK, I spend What I should do, which I got smart is just take like fluorescent green heat shrink.
00:31:25
jamie peacock
Oh
00:31:27
Curt
And does he put heat shrink over the ends or like use a printer, you know, print that's not black.
00:31:29
jamie peacock
yeah.
00:31:32
Curt
Cause I just, I spent, it's like, where's Waldo?
00:31:32
jamie peacock
Yes.
00:31:34
Curt
I just look in the sink for, you know, 20 of these microscopic parts amongst the exact same size media.
00:31:38
jamie peacock
Well, I lost a mag base in my little orange tumbler. I put 20 pots in, tumbled them, stood there, took them all out into a little colander, and I'm like, okay, cool.
00:31:48
jamie peacock
I don't see any more pots. I watched it go around a few times, stroked my hands, and I'm trying to find the pot. Nope, nothing there. Go wash the pots, laying them out after drying. They're like, hey, wait, there's only 19. Go back, shuffle through the tumbling media.
00:32:00
jamie peacock
Ah, there it is.
00:32:03
Curt
Yeah.
00:32:03
jamie peacock
Tumblers are problematic when it comes to losing pots.
00:32:08
jamie peacock
Especially small stuff.
00:32:08
Curt
Yeah, it's the most time I spent is just finding the parts in the Tumblr after the fact.
00:32:13
Curt
like It's like <unk> a first world problem, but still.
00:32:14
jamie peacock
Yeah. have you seen ah Have you seen Grimsmo's tumbling jigs for their pivots?
00:32:22
Curt
Yeah, it's a very similar jig that I used.
00:32:22
jamie peacock
He posted a while ago, before and after, where yeah, it's insane how much material's been removed over the years on those fixtures.
00:32:25
Curt
Yeah, it's just a nothing.
00:32:30
jamie peacock
But, I mean, yeah you are throwing it in with rocks and shoving rocks against it.
00:32:31
Curt
Yeah.
00:32:35
jamie peacock
Especially there, they're using ceramics. Like, I'm still using plastic media because I mostly do aluminum.
00:32:35
Curt
Exactly.
00:32:38
Curt
Yeah.
00:32:40
Curt
yeah and Yeah. Same thing. I only roll with some ceramic because titanium.
00:32:44
jamie peacock
yeah ah Yeah.
00:32:47
jamie peacock
So, yeah, this, I've got a bunch of things.
00:32:47
Curt
Yeah.
00:32:49
Curt
So I see here you have, I'll go ahead.
00:32:51
jamie peacock
Yeah, so this week, rake threads.
00:32:54
Curt
What is this?
00:32:56
jamie peacock
So, you know a plastic rake for raking your leaves in your yard?
00:33:00
Curt
Yes.
00:33:01
jamie peacock
Yeah, they screw onto a wooden thread on the sticks. It's one of the options.
00:33:04
Curt
Okay. Yeah, right. Okay.
00:33:05
jamie peacock
So they thread the young they thread the end of the wooden dowel and it screws in. And my customer who's repairing this mold is like, hey, we need to put a taper on this pin and then thread it, but it needs to be like a buttress thread, but we don't have a drawing.
00:33:21
jamie peacock
Here's a sample of the right one. That's mushed. And here's a sample of one that isn't right. Make it.
00:33:28
Curt
Yeah.
00:33:28
jamie peacock
So I spent two or three hours figuring their stories out, put it in the lathe, forge or chuck, clocked everything up, turned it, and then I just used a DCMT insert, turned it, and then just loaded the another tool of set so I could adjust my thread diameter, and then just, but now it's tapered thread, which was quite cool to watch.
00:33:33
Curt
yeah
00:33:48
jamie peacock
So yeah, cutting a tapered thread with a, effectively a buttress angle because you got the, the diamond insert sitting in a it was a right hand holder it's just like a normal new normal right hand holder and then yeah did the threads and then end up polishing them because there's a little bit of run out in there in the the shaft but yeah like like stupid job okay i actually need to invoice them i haven't invoiced them yet um i must remember to that tomorrow morning but yeah like silly little silly little job but something interesting i haven't done tapered threads before
00:33:48
Curt
that's me yeah okay okay
00:34:23
Curt
Yeah, that'd be pretty coarse. Probably pretty coarse thread.
00:34:25
jamie peacock
ah Yeah, four millimeter pitch.
00:34:27
Curt
Yeah. Okay.
00:34:29
jamie peacock
And that was in K110 tool steel as well.
00:34:32
Curt
Oh, okay. So not something fun and easy.
00:34:32
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:34:33
Curt
Just yeah.
00:34:34
jamie peacock
Yeah, K110 is not that bad. I've got my feeds and speeds dialed for it in Bertha, but yeah, that was not, that is not even the the highest pitch thing I've threaded in Bertha.
00:34:37
Curt
Oh, really?
00:34:45
jamie peacock
I made a new worm gear for the EMCO, because my EMCO didn't come with the worm gear to drive the tool changer.
00:34:51
Curt
Hmm.
00:34:51
jamie peacock
So a 3D printed one, messed with the pitch, came to a seven pitch. So that was threaded with a DCMT neutral insert and just threaded, it worked, 55 degree thread.
00:34:56
Curt
Hmm.
00:35:05
jamie peacock
And that's been running for years in the EMCO. It actually has no signs of wear last time I had it apart.
00:35:10
Curt
Nice.
00:35:12
jamie peacock
It's meant to be a hard and tool steel gear. I'm like, why? Rather have it wear out and fail than break the part that I can't afford to replace.
00:35:15
Curt
Yeah.
00:35:20
jamie peacock
mark But I threaded a 7 pitch, I think I had to drop my RPM down to like 250 or something or 300 because I didn't have enough speed in the in the Z axis.
00:35:21
Curt
Absolutely.
00:35:27
Curt
I was going to, that's what my next question is me. I'm like, did you just do, it do like a boss at 3000 RPM and just have that thing flying at 4,000 inches per minute or whatever the math works out to.
00:35:37
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, I think it only rapids at four meters a minute or something.
00:35:42
jamie peacock
So it yeah, you've got it you've got to be cognizant of these things. So like I did 500 RPM for this threading I did, because then I'm doing 2,000 feet, which is okay.
00:35:42
Curt
Okay.
00:35:53
jamie peacock
You've got a bit of headroom, you're not right up against the hard limit.
00:35:53
Curt
Right. Yeah.
00:35:56
Curt
Yeah, yeah.
00:35:59
Curt
That's cool.
00:36:00
jamie peacock
Oh dear.
00:36:02
jamie peacock
But no, the lathe. And then I made stupid bolts. Also in my list of things I did this week, that's what I had to go and actually weld.
00:36:03
Curt
Yeah.
00:36:09
Curt
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:36:10
jamie peacock
So it's 22 millimeter BMS that gets threaded with a 1.5 pitch thread on the end to match a tartar bucky. It's the tow hook.
00:36:22
jamie peacock
It's a bolt that goes into where the screw and tow goes on the front.
00:36:26
jamie peacock
And the guys attach a flag pole for on the mines.
00:36:26
Curt
Okay.
Production Week Overview
00:36:29
Curt
Hmm. Okay.
00:36:30
jamie peacock
So our machine needs 22 diameter blanks, then I'll take a piece of 30 millimeter hex bar, bore a 22 mil hole in it, and parts it off 10 millimeters long. And then they just go together, you weld them, and then face the weld off, paint it black, and it goes out the door.
00:36:41
Curt
Oh, Oh, I see. Okay. Okay. That makes sense.
00:36:46
jamie peacock
Yeah, but those, the price is tripling now. I'm gonna send them an email this week and say, hey, if you ever want these again, the price is now 3x what it was.
00:36:54
jamie peacock
Sorry for you, because by the time I go and buy material, because now I've got to drive and go buy a piece of hex bar and do the work and drive to weld it, bring it back, face set up again to face it, it's not worth what I'm charging.
00:36:54
Curt
Hmm.
00:37:09
Curt
Yeah.
00:37:09
jamie peacock
like Just not even remotely. And quite frankly, if they don't like it, I'll show them where the door is.
00:37:16
Curt
Yeah. Well, it's probably a low, low cost enough part for them.
00:37:16
jamie peacock
I mean, well, that's it.
00:37:18
Curt
They could just buy, like, just buy a gang from you and be like, here, we'll just, we'll buy one batch from you of whatever a hundred or a thousand or whatever it works out for them.
00:37:24
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:37:25
Curt
And just be like, we won't have to bug you again now ever.
00:37:25
jamie peacock
Well, they've been ordering 10 at a time.
00:37:28
jamie peacock
I think the last time they ordered was like a year ago.
00:37:28
Curt
Oh yeah.
00:37:28
Curt
That's annoying.
00:37:32
Curt
Okay. That's annoying.
00:37:32
jamie peacock
So it's not even like they're ordering a lot.
00:37:32
Curt
Yeah.
00:37:33
jamie peacock
So the price is going up.
00:37:35
Curt
Yeah.
00:37:35
jamie peacock
It was, it was one of those things that I wasn't super busy when I started doing it. Now my time actually means something. So price can go up.
00:37:44
jamie peacock
And if they don't like it, that's not my problem.
00:37:44
Curt
Yeah.
00:37:47
Curt
Yeah. That's, it's unfortunate.
00:37:48
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:37:49
Curt
I'm not, that's how, how it works sometimes.
00:37:50
jamie peacock
It's how it goes. Yeah. No, that's I've got to go to start this week. Tuesday is going to be a total runoff. Like I know I've got to get, I've got to wake up early, be in my car at six in the morning and on the road if I want to be there by half past seven when they open. And then I'm helping them set up a RBR sheeting machine. So bending roof sheeting. They're having some tracking issues. They want me to have a look at so and then setting up the wire bender I built in 2020.
00:38:19
jamie peacock
when that's been in storage for a year and now they can't get it to run. So I've got to go and just see what the hell's going on there. I think it just needs some grease and then it'll work.
00:38:30
jamie peacock
So yeah, I've got to try and remember how to run it. ah And what I did, it's yeah, it's running Linux CNC actually.
00:38:37
Curt
ah Oh, okay, well that's good.
00:38:37
jamie peacock
like Yeah, it's easy.
00:38:38
Curt
He's familiar with it.
00:38:39
jamie peacock
The reason I did that is then you could tweak the program, like the operator could tweak the program.
00:38:44
jamie peacock
if it's feeding a different length or whatever, like it it was easily adjusted. It wasn't built into a PLC and uneditable.
00:38:45
Curt
Right, yeah.
00:38:52
Curt
Yeah, no, totally.
00:38:53
jamie peacock
So yeah, and also it's what i it's what I knew at the time. But yeah, that that means my whole Tuesday is going in the bin and then hopefully hopefully I get back at a reasonable time and then straight back to camera housings.
Paper Slasher for Packaging Efficiency
00:39:04
Curt
nice nice
00:39:05
jamie peacock
Yeah, so I'm curious, what is a paper slasher and how did it save the day?
00:39:12
Curt
So for the longest time, I've like, I print for all the packaging that I print, I, I thermal print these little labels. They basically say like the serial number, branding, stick them on the boxes, send them to her forever. I have sized them because I can get special like thermal paper that goes in the printer where you can print on and they're actually to size, but to get the alignment, right. It's always finicky and and they never come out perfectly square. So then when you stick them on, all the text is kind of slightly slanted and it just It frustrates me.
00:39:41
Curt
So I looked at just getting them all printed, you know, from a shop, print them all on the label, pull them off the label at the time. I just couldn't justify the price. Cause I'm like, well, these they're, they're literally free. Like my thermal printer costs nothing. And I'm like, I can spend an evening and chop them all up.
00:39:52
Curt
So I was chopped them off with just like a utility knife and a ruler. And, uh, the other, the other day I'm like, you know what? I'm buying like a little paper sheer. So I went and bought, I wanted to buy a nice big paper sheer. I found it inexpensive one. It was like, I don't know, 20 or 30 bucks.
00:40:04
Curt
It's just like a bypass sheer. So like kind of ones, but guillotine kind of jobbies.
00:40:05
jamie peacock
yeah
00:40:08
Curt
I should have bought one of those forever ago. That is now my favorite tool. it's like i it made It made this silly job that I shouldn't be doing in the first place, but it makes it so much faster.
00:40:20
Curt
like i can I chopped up that last order. I sixty to like i had to cut like 180 little labels up you know in varying sizes. and just I put a podcast on one night after you know my little people were in bed, everyone was quiet.
00:40:29
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:40:34
Curt
I just came out here and just listen to a podcast and chopped up labels and it took me like an hour as opposed to just you know slowly grinding away my soul for you know days on end to do it all so yeah i just one of those dumb things where it's like oh i wish i would have known this would be so much better
00:40:44
jamie peacock
yeah Yeah, the quality of laugh things like that make a huge difference.
00:40:56
Curt
Oh, and they hit extra hard when they're inexpensive. Like when you do a quality of life improvement and it costs thousands of dollars and you're like, okay, well I get, I get why that helps.
00:41:02
jamie peacock
yeah yeah now i went uh so we were out today i went to another shop because i'm trying to bar the same flippin tupperwares
00:41:03
Curt
It's just like when you buy whatever an automated timer for a light switch and you're like, okay, this costs $6 and it's made my life infinitely better. It's like, those are the ones you're like, Oh, that's a good one.
00:41:24
jamie peacock
and I can't so I ended up at another shop found a different one a little bit more expensive I'm like screw it.
00:41:25
Curt
Right.
00:41:30
jamie peacock
I'm buying nine of them now I'll go back next week and buy another nine of them that all my stuff can just go on the shelf in a Tupperware label it and be done with this because I'm procrastinating cleaning because I'm trying to get the same Tupperware it's now been I think two weeks that I've been trying to buy the same Tupperware and I keep going back another one order I'm like
00:41:46
Curt
You're right.
00:41:48
jamie peacock
That ship has sailed now, friends. That's ah the rack and stack boxes I use.
00:41:52
Curt
Yeah.
00:41:52
jamie peacock
No one has stock. I don't know if the company making them went out of business. I don't know what the story is, but I have 20 of them and I cannot get any more.
00:42:00
jamie peacock
Like if it if I could, I would have a hundred of them in my workshop right now.
00:42:00
Curt
yeah
00:42:04
Curt
Mm hmm.
00:42:05
jamie peacock
But I just can't get them.
00:42:08
jamie peacock
I found one. I actually found one of those today. I don't know why is there only one? Like in what world would someone want only one of these?
00:42:08
Curt
Yeah, that's.
00:42:14
Curt
Yeah.
00:42:16
jamie peacock
But yeah, I ended up getting some other, some other fun tupperwares to organize the workshop and kind of start getting myself towards myself for if we're going to make lots more pallet systems, just that I've got trays to put machined parts and that they're not going to get dinged or damaged before they anodized and after they anodized.
00:42:34
jamie peacock
Cause the last, the last part has been made. I don't know if you saw my story, I forgot to tag you in it, making the Kurt special.
00:42:34
Curt
Right, yeah.
00:42:41
Curt
Uh, I usually catch them all. Um, Oh, bummer.
00:42:45
jamie peacock
ah there's There's a file called Kurt Special on my machine now.
00:42:49
Curt
Okay. I must, I must have missed it. You should try to catch all your stories.
00:42:50
jamie peacock
Yeah, I forgot to tag you in it.
00:42:53
jamie peacock
But yeah, that's making the base for your system so that you can put it in your vases.
00:42:53
Curt
Oh, I appreciate it.
00:42:58
Curt
I appreciate that man.
00:42:58
jamie peacock
Yeah, ah you'll see why I said I'll do it because it took two minutes.
00:43:02
jamie peacock
And the only reason it took so long is because I went around the perimeter twice. Like it's really super quick to do. I had the machine set up for making the last thing I needed for finalizing the pallet systems.
00:43:03
Curt
Okay.
00:43:14
jamie peacock
And that is the base alignment jig. So it's a block of aluminum that's got two ah hardened locating pin bushes and the pull stud. I slap the pallet system on there and then I loosen the base and there's a linear guard that I can put my indicator on and indicate the base to be true to the pins.
00:43:33
Curt
nice
00:43:34
jamie peacock
Yeah, so that's now the machining's done tomorrow. Or if I get around to tomorrow, I'll just take an angle grinder to the linear guard, chop it to length, and then I must print some things. I was actually looking for them this evening.
00:43:46
jamie peacock
I've got TPU on the printer. I have to change filaments. But you'll print things to go on the end of the block so that the, or the end of the rails of the block can't shoot off the ends.
00:43:53
Curt
Hmm. I got your gotcha.
00:43:57
jamie peacock
Because if you don't do that it inevitably does.
00:43:58
Curt
Gotcha.
00:43:59
jamie peacock
So I'm just gonna cut the rail long and just clamp things on the end. Just find some prints for that. I'm pretty sure I saw one on Printables or GrabCAD recently.
00:44:07
Curt
Hmm. Odd sick.
00:44:11
jamie peacock
I done then then that is done my new boxes arrived finally because I think last time we last time we spoke I was designing packaging for the boxes I didn't like then I designed new packaging for different boxes asked my brother-in-law to please go pick them up for me because he he was picking something else up for me just up the road because his boys got a school nearby of the powdercoater and I don't know if
00:44:14
Curt
Oh, beautiful.
00:44:37
jamie peacock
I don't know if I told you, I dropped stuff at the powder coater and I got a phone call that afternoon, your stuff's ready for collection.
00:44:42
Curt
Yeah, you did say it was a super quick turnaround.
00:44:43
jamie peacock
Yeah, there's nuts. Yeah, so I asked him on the Tuesday morning last week, I asked him to please pick up some boxes. He goes there, I know you can't buy those at the shop, you can only buy them online.
Shipping and Material Lead Time Challenges
00:44:55
Curt
Okay.
00:44:56
jamie peacock
Like, what the hell? So anyway, I then ordered them online, had them courier to me for flipping $3. I'm like, screw that, I'll just have it delivered. Now if I'd known it was that cheap to courier and I would have courier'd everything last week.
00:45:04
Curt
Right.
00:45:07
jamie peacock
So I've got the new boxes. I assembled one this morning. It looks more reasonable. It's gonna be heavy, but it's a more reasonable size for shipping the pallet systems around.
00:45:18
Curt
Nice. And that's with all your like origami, lasered, uh, cardboard internals.
00:45:21
jamie peacock
Yeah, which I haven't done yet because I only got the boxes yesterday.
00:45:23
Curt
Oh, nice.
00:45:24
jamie peacock
So that'll be the next couple of days. I want to try to get that sorted out. And then, yeah, that'll all fall together and be hopefully very pretty. And then get, yeah, I'm also going to be getting in touch with a freight forwarder.
00:45:32
Curt
Yeah. Looks like it is.
00:45:38
jamie peacock
for larger volumes.
00:45:39
Curt
Hmm.
00:45:40
jamie peacock
ah mar I was at one of my customers this week, which we're gonna go into shortly, because that's on my list there, the spinning lathe. And I was asking them, they make lampshades and they send stuff all over the world. So I was like, no, they're like, no, no, they'll just put me in touch with their freight forwarder.
00:45:54
jamie peacock
You can literally just buy a square meter or cube meter in a container. Take six weeks to go from here to the US s and then get LTL to the distributor.
00:46:04
Curt
Oh, nice. Okay. Well, that's, that's a nice option.
00:46:05
jamie peacock
and will be considerably cheaper. It's just eight weeks lead or six weeks lead time, which is a bit brutal, but did that is what it is.
00:46:12
Curt
Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:13
jamie peacock
Like, yeah, that just, it's part of life. It's that or pay an exorbitant amount of money to have it shipped with DHL or FedEx or UPS or one of those. And that just gets silly very, very quickly.
00:46:24
Curt
Yeah.
00:46:29
jamie peacock
So will we'll see how that all shakes out.
00:46:29
Curt
Yeah.
00:46:29
Curt
um Yeah. It's like, no, I hope.
00:46:33
jamie peacock
But yeah, we know I've got, uh, yeah, I need to get those pallet systems out at the door because we're running out of February at this point.
00:46:41
Curt
Hmm. I would talk to a few people and they thought, they and they looked at your, the thing they're like, they're like, that's slick. They're like, that price point is going to be.
00:46:48
jamie peacock
Yeah. Killer.
00:46:50
Curt
decent, like, yeah, no one's, cause a few guys I talked to, they're like, well, I was going to make my own.
00:46:50
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:46:53
Curt
I was like, can you even come close for this price? They're like, well, we'll know. It's like, okay, then do you want to make one?
00:46:58
jamie peacock
So yeah.
00:47:00
Curt
Make one if you want to, but if you want to use one, just why?
00:47:03
jamie peacock
I wanna list my pallets at $26.99.
00:47:08
jamie peacock
So blank pallets with a pull stud and an idiot screw.
00:47:09
Curt
That's nuts.
00:47:12
Curt
That's nuts.
00:47:13
jamie peacock
Yeah, do you know why I wanna list it at that price?
00:47:15
Curt
Why is that?
00:47:16
jamie peacock
The closest competitor's pull stud is $26.99.
00:47:22
Curt
Okay.
00:47:22
jamie peacock
I know, it's a bit savage, but yeah, like they they just their pull stud is $26.99.
00:47:24
Curt
Yeah.
00:47:28
Curt
Yeah. That's, that's great. I don't even think I could buy that.
00:47:29
jamie peacock
It's, yeah.
00:47:30
Curt
I mean, aluminum is kind of expensive here, but especially in small quantities. I don't even think I get the aluminum for that.
00:47:33
jamie peacock
Yeah. Well, I mean, I got, I got material for 10 pallets in this week.
00:47:36
Curt
Wow.
00:47:38
jamie peacock
It was 10 pallets. The material cost me X, X VAT was $50 for 10 pieces of material.
00:47:45
Curt
wow Wow.
00:47:47
jamie peacock
So I add 15% on that.
00:47:50
Curt
Wow. Yeah, that's, that's inexpensive.
00:47:51
jamie peacock
So yeah, materials, materials cheap.
00:47:53
Curt
No kidding.
00:47:53
jamie peacock
And then it's all set up and it's a five minute run. So I just set up and ran. And under an hour I had 10 pallets on the shelf.
00:48:00
Curt
Yeah. That's awesome.
00:48:01
jamie peacock
So it's yeah, but there that's also like our shop rates here are hilariously low.
00:48:06
Curt
Right. Yeah.
00:48:07
jamie peacock
Yeah, like even I looked at, ah uploaded one of the parts to, ah one of the simpler parts uploaded to PCB way just to see what China would charge for like a batch of a hundred of them.
00:48:09
Curt
Yeah.
00:48:18
Curt
Hmm.
00:48:21
jamie peacock
Yeah, they don't even come close.
00:48:23
Curt
Oh, really?
00:48:23
jamie peacock
They don't even come close to my pricing, not even remotely. Like they're off by 30, 40%.
00:48:29
Curt
Wow.
00:48:29
jamie peacock
And that's before shipping it, like, yeah. And that's paying myself at a better rate than I currently get paid to machine things.
00:48:33
Curt
Yeah.
00:48:38
jamie peacock
So I'm not, ah yeah, i'm not even I'm not machining it for free either.
00:48:39
Curt
Right, okay, soon.
00:48:39
Curt
Yeah.
00:48:42
jamie peacock
I'm like kind of ripping the ring a bit.
Spinning Lathe and Workshop Visits
00:48:45
Curt
so
00:48:46
jamie peacock
But yeah, that's just, it's yeah, the joys of living in Africa.
00:48:51
jamie peacock
So yeah, I went to see ah went to see a spinning lathe.
00:48:51
Curt
I guess.
00:48:55
Curt
Yeah. Okay. Is that like, like metals?
00:48:55
jamie peacock
Well, I got, yeah.
00:48:57
Curt
Sorry. Like metal spinning. Like, okay.
00:48:58
jamie peacock
making lampshades.
00:49:00
Curt
Gotcha. Okay.
00:49:01
jamie peacock
All fancy colanders in this case. um So yeah they're spinning parts for lampshades but this machine runs in split bronze bushes and they want to switch it to bearings because the bronze bushes have a bit of play in it and it causes the material to jam up and it's a problem.
00:49:12
Curt
Okay.
00:49:19
jamie peacock
So I went and had a look. I've got to pull the spindle, take it to an ex-colleague, have him turn the spindle down because there's now a step, because there's a split bush, so you can have a stupid step in it.
00:49:31
jamie peacock
Turn the whole front of the spindle down to like 55 millimeters. But I've got to have a bearing that fits in a 78 millimeter OD with a 55 ID.
00:49:31
Curt
Hmm.
00:49:40
jamie peacock
So it's going to end up either having tiny balls or rollers.
00:49:41
Curt
Hmm.
00:49:44
jamie peacock
And then I said to them, it might actually be a better option to just build a whole new frame for your machine, still modify the spindle, but then put nice big angular contacts in it and have a whole frame fabricated. Reuse the tailstock, reuse the tool rest, reuse the spindle in the motor, but just build a new frame. Cause we could take the existing frame to somebody, have them lawnboard out, but it's going to break the bank.
00:49:44
Curt
Right.
00:50:10
jamie peacock
not We're better off just building a whole new frame out of flipping R-beams. It's a spinning lathe. There is no accuracy at all.
00:50:18
jamie peacock
So yeah, i'm going I've got to go there this week as well with my with my one mate, the guy helped me weld the tumbler so that we can go and have a look at this thing and he can quote them on building an entirely new lathe for them because it's going to be probably cheaper and quicker than doing anything else.
00:50:18
Curt
Right, yeah, yeah.
00:50:29
Curt
Ha ha ha.
00:50:35
jamie peacock
because they now, their production's standing because their spinning lathe's not working.
00:50:36
Curt
Wow.
00:50:39
jamie peacock
And that's what they use for making lampshades.
00:50:42
Curt
Wow. Hmm.
00:50:43
jamie peacock
Yeah, it's a really weird process.
00:50:46
Curt
Yeah.
00:50:49
jamie peacock
Sorry, farting with my chair.
00:50:49
Curt
That's weird to like depend on one, like depend on like one clapped out and laid for your production.
00:50:55
Curt
But I mean, like what's there to break on them?
00:50:55
jamie peacock
Yeah, exactly.
00:50:57
Curt
Like you said, they spin a piece of metal and you you just form it over a, you know, a guy or whatever.
00:51:00
jamie peacock
So I initially quoted quoted them on all their machinery for the new workshop, like two years ago. And my plan for a spinning lathe was buy a big ass lathe and you just roll the tool post towards the back of the lathe and put a steady rest and go, there you go, use a normal lathe.
00:51:19
Curt
Yeah, yeah, totally.
00:51:19
jamie peacock
But they do some stuff that's like two, three feet in diameter.
00:51:25
Curt
Oh, okay.
00:51:26
jamie peacock
Yeah, they do some big stuff and that thing. So yeah, it's an interesting process. You know, last time I was at that shop, it was all dirty and being used as a store room. And then the guys have renovated and made it into a ah really nice little shop.
00:51:40
jamie peacock
So I'll go, yeah, that's also this week going to start. Yay.
00:51:45
Curt
so That's cool.
00:51:45
jamie peacock
And it's in like the arse end of Joburg. It's really annoying to get that you've got to go like through the middle of Joburg. And yeah, shithole is a compliment to that area.
00:51:58
jamie peacock
Yeah, like literally I drove up, passed a pile of burning garbage the last time I went there.
00:52:04
jamie peacock
Like not even kidding, burning garbage on the side of the road. um Yeah, not the best area. And then you go like five roads up and it's one of the more upmarket areas in Johannesburg.
00:52:04
Curt
I see.
00:52:16
Curt
Okay. So, well, if you guys don't hear a podcast next week, you know what happened.
00:52:19
jamie peacock
yes because Yeah, it's because I went through Hillbrow. Yeah, no yeah no that is not above everything.
00:52:23
Curt
Jamie's burnt on the side of the road.
Creative Product Enhancements
00:52:29
jamie peacock
And then, yeah, I see you planning on putting new easter eggs in your pens.
00:52:33
Curt
Yeah, I just ah now with the and ah added um tool changer where it doesn't, there's no real detriment. If I go, if I take an operation from, you know, five tool changes to 14 tool changes, it doesn't really make all that big a difference.
00:52:46
jamie peacock
Doesn't matter, yeah.
00:52:47
Curt
Like it's, I think my chip to chip is like two seconds. So it's like, whatever. ah So now I'm starting to do the stuff that I wanted to do forever. It's just dumb stuff, like put engravings in places. People will never see them.
00:52:57
Curt
So that's what I'm putting a ton of focus on. I was just like inside pockets and wherever I can put something that no one will see it until they, and until they take it apart. They'd be like, Hey, that's cool.
00:53:08
Curt
So that, that kind of stuff lights me up, especially when I get someone else's product and I like open it up and I'm like, Hey, you, you deliberately put effort to put this here knowing no one will see it except the odd person.
00:53:12
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:53:19
Curt
Um, yeah, just like people that's
00:53:19
jamie peacock
I considered doing that on the pallets, the sample ones that are going out.
00:53:24
jamie peacock
But then I'm like, I actually don't want you guys opening them because you can't close them again.
00:53:24
Curt
sure, right.
00:53:29
jamie peacock
Like if you take it apart, you're kind of screwed. So yeah I did consider it.
00:53:29
Curt
right. And yeah, yeah, that's, that's like, yeah, this is the part that most people will take off if they're into modding pens, or even if they're just geeks and they want to take it all apart.
00:53:37
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:53:39
jamie peacock
If I just wanna see it here.
00:53:41
Curt
Yeah, they'll get into it. But yeah, I don't know. It's just kind of, it's just kind of fun to be able to start doing more of that.
00:53:44
jamie peacock
Nice.
00:53:47
Curt
Just the fanciness for fanciness sake. So yeah, I'm gonna try to figure out where, especially with the new
00:53:50
jamie peacock
Yeah. That's sweet. Yeah, i actually, I got my my hands on one of your pens when I was at IMTS. I was looking through the IMTS posts because I was looking for all the shirts I wore there.
00:53:59
Curt
a while.
00:54:01
jamie peacock
And I was like, hey, I got to play with one of your pens.
00:54:04
Curt
Oh, that's cool.
00:54:04
jamie peacock
I think it was a tartan ring designs one.
00:54:05
Curt
ah Oh, yeah, he has. Yeah, he we.
00:54:08
jamie peacock
Yeah. because Yeah.
00:54:10
Curt
Yeah, we had a little switcheroo there because I really liked his ah Quattro ring and he really wanted one of those pens.
00:54:13
jamie peacock
Yes.
00:54:15
Curt
So we had a little little trades. He trades. So.
00:54:17
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, I had a long job. I've spoken to him for like two or three hours at the toolpath booth.
00:54:23
Curt
There's a cool dude. I talk with him on the regular on the Instagram and whatnot.
00:54:24
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:54:27
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah, no, he's pretty sweet. i got Yeah, that's the fun thing with IMTS, getting to meet all the people in person.
00:54:27
Curt
It seems like a seems like a cool person.
00:54:37
Curt
Yeah, absolutely. That's the main reason I want to go is just put faces to all these digital people I interact with.
00:54:37
jamie peacock
It's, yeah.
00:54:43
jamie peacock
No, that's exactly why I went last time. And it was worth, it was very much worth it.
Supply Chain and Delivery Challenges
00:54:49
Curt
That makes sense.
00:54:50
jamie peacock
And it was a lot of fun. It was so much fun. So many big machines.
00:54:54
Curt
So I see, I see on yours Euro steel, no stock with us. What does this do to you?
00:55:01
jamie peacock
This potentially ruins me. um So it's the same stock order every month since an order this month. And they're like, oh, um no stock will have in two to three weeks.
00:55:15
jamie peacock
It's an extruded aluminum tube. And I'm like, cool, send me the rest of the stuff. I'll do all the prep work, but I'm literally, so I can't deliver a, it's only a $1,500 order, but I can't deliver it until I get that tube.
00:55:29
Curt
Hmm.
00:55:32
jamie peacock
The last thing is I get the tube, I deliver the same day.
00:55:34
Curt
Hmm.
00:55:35
jamie peacock
Like as soon as there's stock, it'll be here and I can deliver the next, like the following day.
00:55:40
Curt
Hmm.
00:55:41
jamie peacock
I'm hoping like hell is going to be this month still. I kind of expect the material to come in ahead of schedule, but yeah, that a little bit infuriating. But it's also one of those things I don't want the material just sitting in my in my yard for six months again. Cause that's what happened last time. The guys did a nice big order. I was like, okay, cool. I'll hold stock of like 300 parts worth of material. And it just stood there for like five months. So I don't want to have garden decorations of aluminum tubing, but I think I might need to just suck it up and just order and have someone hand that if customer needs, I can at least deliver in the usual like two week timeframe that we we holding to.
00:56:26
jamie peacock
But yeah, that was a little bit infuriating to discover that that they can't deliver material.
00:56:26
Curt
Right.
00:56:33
jamie peacock
And it's not like this is the first time I've ordered it.
00:56:33
Curt
Yeah, especially.
00:56:36
Curt
Well, and yeah, like I said, especially when you're used to a fairly short turnaround and then poof.
00:56:39
jamie peacock
Yeah, normally it's like two days and it's here and then I send it back because it's the wrong size and then I get it the next day. um So yeah, it's a bit it's a bit tedious, but it is what it is.
00:56:51
jamie peacock
It's doing business, I guess.
00:56:54
jamie peacock
There's always gonna be little hiccups
00:56:54
Curt
Yeah, no, I kind of.
00:56:56
Curt
I kind of had a similar experience, obviously not didn't really slow me down much, but. yeah If I order from McMaster, I usually get it next day. I think I talked about it on the last podcast I ordered on Friday.
00:57:04
jamie peacock
yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:57:05
Curt
Typically, we'll get it like Monday, or if I order on a Wednesday, I'll get it on a Thursday. like It's crazy how fast they ship. However, for some strange reason on this order, it took almost a week to get here. and I didn't need any of the parts.
00:57:16
Curt
and Normally, like McMaster, their customer service is bar none the best I've ever experienced, because I had this happen once in the past. just Some bar stock didn't make it the next day, and I needed it. um and I reached out to them, and they're like, no sweat.
00:57:26
Curt
We've already overnighted you the same order. You'll see it. tomorrow morning I was like, that's insane. Like I'm not a big customer of them. And they just like, just no questions, no, nothing. It's just like, we got another one on the way. Like, don't worry about that first one.
00:57:37
Curt
If you get it, great. You have double the amount. If not, no problem. So I was like, I didn't reach out to them because I know they'll do the same.
00:57:40
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:57:43
Curt
And I'm like, no, I like, I'm not pressed for it, but just turned out to be our local posts. It's just probably still having hiccups from that strike. It showed up, which was nice.
00:57:51
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:57:52
Curt
Um, but yeah, I just.
00:57:52
jamie peacock
Well, that's us. Our post is allegedly working and now apparently they're going to shut down the postal system or something. I don't know, I don't listen to the news. My mother-in-law was telling me about it today.
00:58:01
Curt
That's a way to do it.
00:58:02
jamie peacock
Her friends were saying, no, the postal service, they're shutting it down. I'm like, you cannot have a country without a postal service.
00:58:09
jamie peacock
It's not a thing, like, but yeah, I mean, I ordered two pneumatic cylinders, a little gripper cylinders for my cutting plans, I've got a foot, and they were here within a week and a half.
00:58:10
Curt
yeah
00:58:17
Curt
From where?
00:58:20
jamie peacock
They were sent with arm mark or arm mail or something, or arm oil, and literally they were here within like a week and a half.
00:58:24
Curt
well
00:58:28
jamie peacock
I was astonished, because the shipping wasn't expensive from China.
00:58:30
Curt
from where Oh wow.
00:58:33
jamie peacock
It was silly, it's but that's how Sheen and TeamU and all those things are getting their stuff around so quickly. Like the the China to South Africa couriers are really good.
00:58:43
Curt
Hmm.
00:58:45
jamie peacock
Like all these little couriers are really, really good.
CNC Lathe Conversion Projects
00:58:48
jamie peacock
um I'm waiting now, my PCBs arrived yesterday. And on Monday, I've got a FedEx order of motors for a lathe conversion I'm doing and for the automatic loader.
00:59:03
jamie peacock
And then I've got ball screws arriving hopefully towards the end of next week for the same two projects.
00:59:03
Curt
Hmm.
00:59:09
Curt
Fun, all kinds of toys.
00:59:10
jamie peacock
yeah Yeah, I'm building a CNC lathe conversion that bolts onto the bed of the lathe. So you wind your carriage back drop it on the bed of the lathe, bolt it down, and you have a CNC lathe.
00:59:22
Curt
Oh, that's cool. That's cool.
00:59:23
jamie peacock
Yeah, so the idea is it might get pushed to becoming a product, I'm not sure yet, but the idea is you can get into CNC lathing things for about $200,000.
00:59:37
Curt
Oh, nice.
00:59:39
jamie peacock
And you're not decommissioning your current lathe, you're just bolting this thing on, and when you don't want it there, you unbolt it and you have a manual lathe again.
00:59:42
Curt
Right.
00:59:48
jamie peacock
Cause I've got a, I've got a customer who bought a secondhand Nakamura lathe, I think, but it's flipping ancient.
00:59:52
Curt
Yeah.
00:59:56
jamie peacock
Getting anything onto it is a schlep.
00:59:59
jamie peacock
And yeah, he wanted to start doing production turning and yeah I don't know if he ever did. I was meant to go there last week and then kind of forgot to go somewhere, did a U-turn, went there and then didn't feel like driving back to his shop.
00:59:59
Curt
yeah
01:00:11
jamie peacock
So I then went home.
01:00:13
Curt
Hmm. That's, that's the funny thing is there's like no, like if people, like, if people are getting into like machining, like you can find a million CNC machines from the dirt cheap, like little CNC routers that you can get off, you know, whatever kind of cheap sites there are nowadays to like even decent, like Tormach for instance, right?
01:00:14
jamie peacock
Cause y'all driving, driving. Yeah.
01:00:32
Curt
The whole gang of CNC machines, but like lathes, there's like very few lays.
01:00:33
jamie peacock
Yeah Yeah
01:00:37
Curt
Like unless you're buying an old industrial lathe, it's slim pickens when it comes to to CNC lathes.
01:00:42
jamie peacock
No, especially small ones. Like when I found the M car, I started vibrating.
01:00:44
Curt
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:00:45
jamie peacock
I was so excited because you don't find those.
01:00:46
Curt
think Yeah.
01:00:48
jamie peacock
Like, especially here, you don't find small machines because most of the industry service is mining.
01:00:52
Curt
yeah
01:00:55
jamie peacock
So it's as big as you can get. And you put the big machine down so you can make the big part for the mine.
01:01:00
jamie peacock
So like when I found that MCAR was ecstatic. And even Bertha, like Bertha is not a small machine. I think, well, it can do a 120 millimeters over the over the gang plate and like 400 if you keep your tools off the front of the of the X axis.
01:01:01
Curt
Yeah.
01:01:16
Curt
Mmhmm. Mmhmm.
01:01:19
jamie peacock
So like it's not a small, small machine. It's turn off tons of lathe.
01:01:24
Curt
Right.
01:01:24
jamie peacock
Probably a bit lighter now because I've yeeted a whole bunch of stuff out of it. i mean i recouped I recouped a quarter of the cost of the lathe just from the transformer I found in the bottom of it. I sold it on Marketplace and recouped a quarter of what I paid for the lathe.
01:01:38
jamie peacock
And then I scrapped all the old stuff and recouped another quarter of it. So I ended up only paying like $500 for the lathe.
01:01:47
Curt
That's awesome. i know it
01:01:49
jamie peacock
Yeah, like it's silly, like retrofitting stuff when you've got time, you you can do amazing things.
01:01:56
Curt
Yeah.
01:01:58
jamie peacock
Now that lathe, I think that whole lathe ended up costing me like $2,000.
01:02:03
Curt
Right. And like there's, yeah, that's, that's basically the only option if you want to get it.
01:02:04
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:02:06
Curt
Like if you legitimately want a lathe, that's not just, you know, I mean, even if you want to cobble something together, like there's very, there's like, I can go today and I can buy a $600 little CNC router and it would probably be here tomorrow or the day after.
01:02:11
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:02:18
Curt
And I can start playing with like CNC machining.
01:02:20
jamie peacock
yeah
01:02:21
Curt
Um, but if I want to do that, like if I want to do a round part, like a lathe, there's like, I don't know, like the Tormach 8L is probably the cheapest lathe you can buy CNC lathe now.
01:02:28
jamie peacock
ah There's a shear line lathe actually Yeah, but that's us kind of only I don't actually know I'm curious ah know age I AJ had one at one stage I'll
01:02:31
Curt
Oh, I guess, but those are, yeah, I guess that's what, three grand or so. And it's, yeah, a tiny little like kind of watchmaker's lathe, but it's just weird how that never, never took off.
01:02:46
jamie peacock
probably spell too strong. Sorry.
01:02:48
Curt
Google on a podcast.
01:02:48
jamie peacock
I'm doing the Google on ah on a podcast.
01:02:53
jamie peacock
Yep. Everyone loves it.
01:02:53
Curt
So someone's listening.
01:02:55
Curt
build someone out there, build a really cool like benchtop lathe.
01:02:56
jamie peacock
I
01:02:59
Curt
I'll buy one just for the goof of it, just to play with it.
01:02:59
jamie peacock
ah I am resisting the urge.
01:03:04
Curt
Just like a fun little toy. Wanna be awesome. Like, you know, like a, like a pop the pocket and see build like a lay, like a good little late, a little turret lay to that size. That'd be amazing. That'd be so cool.
01:03:13
jamie peacock
Would you like to take a guess on how much the Chukalei is? There's two options.
01:03:21
jamie peacock
There's the option. Yeah, the share line.
01:03:21
Curt
This through shoreline.
01:03:25
Curt
Shoreline Chuck are full CNC.
01:03:25
jamie peacock
There's So there's the full CNC and then there's the one where you throw your own controller by the looks of it and your own motors Nope keep going Yep, gro okay for context it is running a Maso controller Yeah Seven
01:03:31
Curt
Uh, I say, I say full, full meal deal. I don't know. Three grand. Up four. Oh, okay. That bumps it up. Um, uh, I don't know. What what do you want? Five for it. Seven.
01:03:53
jamie peacock
$7,181 to $7,578. The one without motors starts, so no, it's got the spindle motor, no axis motors, starts at $2,800.
01:04:05
Curt
Yeah, no, go, no, go. I almost bought one of the tag tag makes a little ball screwed lathe, which is pretty cool.
01:04:06
jamie peacock
Yeah, no.
01:04:11
Curt
This is a gang lathe.
01:04:11
jamie peacock
Okay, yeah.
01:04:12
Curt
I almost bought one of those. They're like three grand for the CNC back, or I think it's with the steppers. I think it's like four grand turnkey.
01:04:18
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:04:19
Curt
That seems reasonable. The seven for a sure line.
01:04:22
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, that's rough.
01:04:23
jamie peacock
So of this the setup I'm building is an alley plate, 1605 ball screws, 15 millimeter guards. The problem is it starts to stack up really quickly.
01:04:24
Curt
Yeah, that's ah up there.
01:04:33
jamie peacock
It's five inches tall already. um But luckily the first machine that it's going on has got like stupid hot clearances. um It was an old one of those lathes with the milling head on the top.
01:04:34
Curt
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:04:46
jamie peacock
So the you can spin a 300 diameter pot.
01:04:47
Curt
Okay, yeah, yeah.
01:04:51
jamie peacock
on this toy lathe, that's hilarious. So the first one's going on there and that job. It's got three Newton meter step, it's gonna be a beast. Like you'll be able to do some actual work with it.
01:04:51
Curt
Okay.
01:05:00
jamie peacock
And again, this guy, this is actually the guy who wants to barber off of me when I'm ready to sell.
01:05:01
Curt
That's cool.
01:05:04
Curt
Hmm.
01:05:05
jamie peacock
So this is for him to get his feet wet on how to program either with a quick change tool post or with a gang plate.
01:05:06
Curt
Hmm.
01:05:13
jamie peacock
So like I said to him, I'm just gonna pepper that top the top plate with holes and he can make blocks and do what he wants with it. like
01:05:13
Curt
That's cool.
01:05:20
Curt
Right. Yeah.
01:05:21
jamie peacock
And then, it yeah, ah ideally I'd like to make a couple more and offer it as a product, but the problem with that is you have to service said product.
01:05:29
Curt
Absolutely. Yeah.
01:05:30
jamie peacock
And if there's one thing I learned from where I used to work, it's you can't sell 100 machines and have two service techs because that's a problem. Some idiot does something dumb and then all your service techs are tied up.
01:05:43
jamie peacock
and that that ends up going really badly for the company. So yeah we'll see. I might pursue it. I might not. I might use this as an excuse to build a Swiss lathe. You never know.
01:05:56
Curt
I'm going to push you towards that because I just want to see how that goes just for nothing more than my than my own personal.
01:05:58
jamie peacock
Please don't. I'm resisting the urge. I've been resisting the urge, like so badly.
01:06:04
Curt
and so
01:06:04
jamie peacock
Because look, the Emco does what it needs to do, Bertha does what it needs to do. Technically, I don't need another lathe. I want one, but technically I don't need one. I found the spindle already.
01:06:15
jamie peacock
um Spindle off of Aliexpress, it's like, I think a thousand dollars for the spindle. And then you don't need a giant motor on your spindle.
01:06:26
jamie peacock
Now, let's be realistic. If you're cutting PTFE and brass, a one kilowatt spindle is way more than what you need. I mean, the EMCO's now got a one kilowatt servo on it for the spindle.
01:06:37
jamie peacock
And it doesn't bog down even when I run stainless, it's fine. But again, the stainless is 16
CNC Machine Power and Efficiency
01:06:43
jamie peacock
diameter. It's not exactly giant.
01:06:45
Curt
Yeah, yeah Yeah, no absolutely Yeah, I know it's so many people even so many people even talked to me about like I was putting the the
01:06:47
jamie peacock
like I think people overdo it with their motor selections.
01:06:53
jamie peacock
everyone wanting a million horsepower when in reality, yeah.
01:07:02
Curt
phase converter, my garage, you're like, Oh, why don't you go up to like, whatever 30 horse? I'm like, how? Like power in power out. Like I, you can't power that and now.
01:07:08
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:07:09
Curt
They're like, well, you could, you could run a, this break or two. I'm like, you'll never pull more than this amount of horsepower. Like you can't, you can't get around these silly laws of, you know, P equals IV.
01:07:17
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:07:18
Curt
Like you just, you have limited amps. You can't go more than I have a hundred amp service here.
01:07:21
jamie peacock
yeah
01:07:23
Curt
Like I can't pull more than a hundred amps.
01:07:24
jamie peacock
Well, I've got a 15 kVA phase converter, and I've got a 22 kilowatt service.
01:07:25
Curt
I mean, I could, but not long.
01:07:31
Curt
Hmm.
01:07:36
jamie peacock
So, can't really put a second one.
01:07:36
Curt
Right.
01:07:39
jamie peacock
Could probably pull 20 kilowatts, but yeah. Like, that's the thing, you you have limits.
01:07:39
Curt
Yep, exactly.
01:07:44
jamie peacock
My 3.7 kilowatt spindle on my machine, people go 23.7 kilowatts. I was rigid tapping M12.
01:07:45
Curt
Yeah.
01:07:51
jamie peacock
It does the thing. Like you work within the bounds of the machine and it's a BT30 machine. You don't need 15 horsepower on the fucking thing.
01:07:51
Curt
Yeah.
01:07:58
Curt
Right.
01:08:00
jamie peacock
You put 15 horsepower, everything else starts to become a problem.
01:08:01
Curt
Yeah.
01:08:03
jamie peacock
Your rigidity goes out the window.
01:08:04
Curt
Want to
01:08:06
Curt
And it's like, are you a, do you want to push a machine that you own that hard? Cause you're going to, you're going to hurt it. And like, B, are you running your machine 24 hours a day where it makes sense to like squeeze every ounce of horsepower out of the spindle?
01:08:12
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:08:19
Curt
It's like, or are you running for like four hours a day and then spending a bunch of time?
01:08:19
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:08:23
Curt
Like, you know, like just people like, I think greatly overestimate, uh, the, uh, or underestimate the, uh, the sheer amount of time that you have on, on machines. Just like you can, you can run them all night.
01:08:33
jamie peacock
We'll monitor the, yeah.
01:08:34
Curt
You don't have to run them that fast.
01:08:36
jamie peacock
No, that's it. Like, if I look, I'm gonna quickly open my home assistant. Come to the dark side, good.
01:08:43
jamie peacock
Thing, can you please scroll?
01:08:43
Curt
I will, I will.
01:08:44
Curt
Don't, don't push me. I'm, I'm just, I'm already on the edge of the cliff. I'm, I'm excited to jump. So
01:08:49
jamie peacock
So, I'm just looking at my stats. So, k
Mechanical Puzzle Crafting
01:08:55
jamie peacock
okay. Okay, stats today, I had 43% up time.
01:08:59
Curt
right.
01:08:59
jamie peacock
I ran a warm-up cycle and I ran two parts. but they were both one-offs, so there was a adjust, adjust, back and forth, back and forth. um Recently, I haven't really done much, about 50%, but then the other day, I had 96% uptime.
01:09:00
Curt
Yeah. So yeah.
01:09:16
Curt
Right. Yeah. You'll have the stretch.
01:09:16
jamie peacock
Running production, that's the thing, like, yeah.
01:09:18
Curt
Yeah. Yeah. You'll have points where you'll have it, but like, I don't know. Horsepower has never been a limit on any of my work. Like I'm always the limit.
01:09:27
jamie peacock
No, like,
01:09:29
Curt
Like I'm always the limit.
01:09:31
jamie peacock
Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, uh, shipping options on occasion. Uh, yeah, someone's trying to order enough and apparently there's no shipping options, a which should not be the case, but my wife has been playing around in my, um,
01:09:43
Curt
Hmm.
01:09:53
jamie peacock
in my equid store. So it may be the case. Sorry. I'm being super. uh super wanting to deal with this right now and i probably shouldn't be and yes do the ranting Kurt um
01:10:07
Curt
I could probably probably find something to rant about to the people that are listening. Do the ranting. Oh, let's see. What can we rant about? Uh, we can rant about, so I talked about Easter eggs. That was kind of fun. Um, I actually did tease about doing a Canadian pen version for once again, the, uh, one Canadian, my mom probably listening. Um, so I don't think I'm going to do a full Canadian pen. Um, but I have another product that I'm kind of toying with. So can I gonna tweak with that and see, I'd like to have a product where I can do more kind of just like goofy engraving. Like I'd like.
01:10:45
Curt
I wanted to do this like big, the isogrip pen I make has a ton of like fourth axis work on it and I wanted to get crazy and do some weird art and do some like kind of funny quotes to the kind of nods towards the political situations nowadays, but I also don't want to do that on like a $300 product where it's going to be kind of funny right now, but it might not be funny in X amount of time. Just kind of one of those non-evergreen kind of things. So I'm working on some other little products that would be a little bit less expensive. It's still intricate enough to keep my interest. The last thing I want to do is build, like this is not throwing any shade, but I don't want to build a pry bar. I don't want to build
01:11:21
Curt
I don't want to build a, uh, a super basic item just because it doesn't excite my brain, not because I don't think I could do something cool like that. I think there's some people that are doing really well at it. too Um, but it just doesn't, doesn't ah doesn't it doesn't, it doesn't please my, my brain for complexity. So I want to build little complicated little things. Um, and, uh, hopefully if this pans out well, that I'll have a, I'll have a little bit of a canvas that I can play with and then I can offer a, you know, an item in the, you know, sub a hundred dollar range.
01:11:49
Curt
the $50 to a hundred dollar range is kind of what I'm shooting for. Um, where I can be a little more goofy with it and do silly things. And, uh, I dunno, that's, that's kind of the the thing that excites me more. People have always asked why I named my company confounded machine and the whole point of this, um, that I talked about, I might've talked about a little bit when we did the, uh,
01:12:10
Curt
the yeah get to know Kurt episode here um but it's because I wanted to build like mechanical complexity is what I'll call them um like puzzles mechanical puzzles is ah is really what I want to get into and there are some companies building them um and I don't mean like the little rings that you know do you have to try to take apart that once again, does not excite me. I want like sliding mechanisms and little dials that spin and internal features that click and move with, you know, different angles and like just puzzles that are just so insane and just like they would look beautiful on your desk. But once again, like if, if bolt action titanium pens are niche, this is like 17 steps more niche. And it's not something that I'm going to be making in mass quantities. It's going to be like in handful quantities, like per year, like they would be
01:12:56
Curt
relatively expensive and just over the top complicated. Actually, you know what? I will put a link in the show notes to this one mechanical puzzle. I only know of one that was made um and Mr. Puzzle, he's a YouTube channel. He got his hands on it. Fantastically beautiful, beautifully machined, anodized, what exactly what I want to do. But once you look at it, you'll understand why ah you probably wouldn't be making, you know, dozens of these um a month. You might make a few per year just because the ah the complexity of it was off the chain.
01:13:28
Curt
So that's, Oh, I would be, that would be pure candy for my brain.
01:13:29
jamie peacock
That sounds like a creative outlet.
01:13:35
Curt
That's the whole reason I want to get these pens to a status where I can put like, let's say I put even 75% of my time towards production and 25% of my time just towards these like little pursuits of madness.
01:13:47
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:13:47
Curt
That would, that would please me
Balancing Work and Passion
01:13:50
Curt
greatly.
01:13:50
Curt
So that's kind of my main goal.
01:13:50
jamie peacock
Indulging the creative side.
01:13:52
Curt
Yeah, and then still building something like I love building things even if like Um, like if I have something that just pays a bill so I can live and then, and then on the side building, like I get all my enjoyment out of building something and having it sure.
01:14:01
jamie peacock
yeah
01:14:05
Curt
But like the physical act of building something is what really, you know, sets my brain on fire, which is kind of good that, I mean, I'm sure you're kind of similar.
01:14:06
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:14:12
Curt
Like this is a role that we like because, or that we excel in because we like it. Like I legitimately enjoy this.
01:14:17
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:14:19
Curt
I think about it on my off time, which yeah, I don't know.
01:14:21
jamie peacock
It's unhealthy and yes, I do the same thing.
01:14:24
Curt
Yeah, it's unhealthy, but like, who's to tell me it's unhealthy? Like you tell me going to your day job for eight hours a day.
01:14:27
jamie peacock
I'm going to be doing it tomorrow.
01:14:29
Curt
Yeah, right. Like.
01:14:30
jamie peacock
I'm gonna be doing it at the bra tomorrow. Bra is not in the companion guide, but there is a companion guide for most of the other words I use on our website, theloanmachinists.com.
01:14:34
Curt
and
01:14:40
jamie peacock
So I thought I'd just quickly plug that, but yeah, we're going to a barbecue, ah also known as a broi in South Africa, tomorrow.
01:14:42
Curt
Absolutely.
01:14:47
jamie peacock
So I'm gonna be meeting up with a draftsman there, ah my wife's friend's boyfriend. He's rather tolerable. um So we're gonna probably end up talking shop all day, but that's fine.
01:14:57
Curt
Rather tolerable.
01:14:57
jamie peacock
i mean
01:14:59
jamie peacock
It's yeah rather tolerant. No, actually I like King Julian, he's delightful.
01:14:59
Curt
Yeah.
01:15:02
jamie peacock
His name's Julian, so he is now King Julian, the king of the lemurs.
01:15:02
Curt
Hmm.
01:15:06
Curt
Yeah. so
01:15:08
jamie peacock
But yeah, he's ah he's ah quite entertaining to talk to. He runs a CNC router where he is a draftsman. Somehow he's running a router. Sounds kind of familiar.
01:15:19
jamie peacock
But yeah, he's a nice down-to-earth guy, so I'll actually enjoy spending time with him tomorrow because apparently working every day of the week is not allowed.
01:15:20
Curt
Yeah.
01:15:28
Curt
Hmm. Yeah. No, it's once again, people that have unhealthy careers tell you that's unhealthy. So like, right.
01:15:35
jamie peacock
fair enough yeah like you said the shirt was sold my soul to Lockheed Martin for X amount back yeah well Danica and I are this evening uh what did
01:15:40
Curt
Yeah. I know. It's always someone who like works in a wire factory, you know, measuring counting spools of wires. Like you can, you have to have word life balance. I was like, please, you hate your job. What are you talking about?
01:15:54
jamie peacock
she showed me something and we got onto the topic of oh she showed me a video of a guy indoor flying a model plane so an indoor 3d plane flying around i' like oh no have you seen the the big ones the gases from joe knoll so we started that then i was like oh have you seen heli she's like no So I showed her 3D helis.
01:16:00
Curt
Mm hmm.
01:16:05
Curt
Mm hmm. Yeah.
01:16:14
jamie peacock
She just put a buter video of her brother's X helicopter pilot. She's like, um I want to send him a video and say, why can't you do this in your helicopter?
01:16:14
Curt
Yeah.
01:16:20
jamie peacock
Because no the 3D helis are absolutely insane. And Danik's like, do not want to get back into flying. And I'm like, I don't have the bandwidth for it right now.
01:16:20
Curt
Yep.
01:16:29
jamie peacock
Right now I'm focusing on building the business to a point that it sustains us with 50% or 75% of my attention.
01:16:29
Curt
Right.
01:16:37
jamie peacock
And but then the 25% can go elsewhere. Right now, like the robot combat stuff, that's ah Thursday before the tournament. I'll start working on my new robot. Because up until then, I don't have the bandwidth for it.
01:16:37
Curt
Right.
01:16:48
jamie peacock
There's always some other fire to be put out.
01:16:51
Curt
Sure, but like. yeah I'm, I'm, I mean, I don't want to speak for you, but I also imagine that you, you get enjoyment out of the work you do during the day. Like it's not like, it's not like you're mining coal and just like, I hate every second of this.
01:16:59
jamie peacock
Yes.
01:17:03
Curt
I can't wait till I can fall into my hobby and work. Like we we've made our hobbies, our jobs, but we still for the most part enjoy it.
01:17:08
jamie peacock
That's it.
01:17:10
Curt
So it's not like you don't need a creative outlet to keep from, you know, walking off a bridge.
01:17:14
jamie peacock
going insane.
01:17:15
jamie peacock
Yeah. No, that's the thing. Like I became a machinist because I really enjoy it. I enjoy making stuff. Sometimes I don't like when I've got to do tool and art work. But 99% of the time I'm enjoying what I'm doing while I'm doing it.
01:17:15
Curt
Yeah.
01:17:28
jamie peacock
ah The hobbies, I don't need something to to distract me from the fact that I go to an office every day and I sit there for eight hours or nine hours and then I get to drive home for
01:17:28
Curt
Right.
01:17:39
Curt
Right.
Entrepreneurship Financial Dynamics
01:17:40
jamie peacock
an hour.
01:17:40
jamie peacock
I don't need a distraction from that. Like flying models and that used to be a very large part of my life when I would go to work every day, do my work and then need to switch off and do something different when I got home because yeah I enjoyed what I did but not to the same degree as I do now yes yeah
01:17:59
Curt
Absolutely. No, exactly. and i think that's I've talked to my wife about that. it's like when you When you drive the bus, it's different than when you're on the bus. so Even if you like ah a job you're working for, like you have a boss, it's like, yeah, you might be able to work for the company and work within the company and get better at it, but like you don't get to steer.
01:18:17
Curt
Like you get to maybe make suggestions on where to go, but like when you're driving the bus yourself, work becomes a lot more fun. Cause it's just like a big video game. It's like, there's no high, so like there's no limit to the high score.
01:18:24
jamie peacock
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, no, that's it.
01:18:26
Curt
Like you can just do what you want. Like whatever you want to do.
01:18:29
jamie peacock
No, 100%. I mean, I got an order now that literally is gonna pay me more than I would have been paid in three months working where I was working.
01:18:38
Curt
Right.
01:18:38
jamie peacock
like And that's just one of the orders this month.
01:18:39
Curt
Yeah.
01:18:41
jamie peacock
like um mean yeah I've had months where I've made more in a month than I ever made in a year where I was working.
01:18:42
Curt
Yeah.
01:18:49
Curt
Yeah, it's such a cool feeling.
01:18:49
jamie peacock
knockets It is. like yeah i like I like that. so I'm the bus driver.
01:18:54
Curt
Yeah. Oh, along with that, though, there's also months where you will make $0.
01:18:55
jamie peacock
I'm the Draggy from the Simpsons, the the bus driver there.
01:19:01
Curt
So you just have to, uh, you have to weather the lows.
01:19:01
jamie peacock
Yeah, yeah, it's ups and downs.
01:19:03
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, that's it, it's ups and downs. If it's all ups, you are heading for a very big low, because it can't be all ups, like it's just not how it works.
01:19:04
Curt
Yeah.
01:19:10
Curt
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or you're slinging drugs, one
Collaboration with Toolbot and Chatter
01:19:15
Curt
of the two. So.
01:19:15
jamie peacock
Yeah, well, you either got VC backing or not, because that ratchet blows my mind.
01:19:22
Curt
Yeah, yeah, that's nuts.
01:19:22
jamie peacock
Like the venture-backed stuff. But yeah, did you see this week, Toolbot and Chatter have now combined forces.
01:19:28
Curt
Yeah. Two cool companies.
01:19:30
jamie peacock
Apparently, apparently, Chatter can link to our Siemens controllers.
01:19:31
Curt
Yeah.
01:19:36
jamie peacock
It's not officially supported, but it is supported. Justin keeps sending me things. I'm like, I have Home Assistant. Home Assistant doesn't cost me anything.
01:19:44
Curt
Yeah. That's the thing. This is like a part that this, where it rolls into like, this is something like I would enjoy setting up like on a, so like on a Saturday when, you know, like I'm hanging out with the family, maybe people are coloring.
01:19:46
jamie peacock
Because that's the thing, yeah.
01:19:58
Curt
Like I would enjoy tinkering with this.
01:19:59
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:20:00
Curt
This is a fun thing for me to like set these machines up.
01:20:02
jamie peacock
Exactly.
01:20:02
Curt
Like I don't, I don't need a service to do it for me. It's not part of my business that I rely on right now. So that's something I enjoy, but I think chatter is a super cool company for people that need it.
01:20:07
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:20:09
jamie peacock
Oh no, 100%.
01:20:11
Curt
Yeah.
01:20:11
jamie peacock
As said, like I think it was CJ, he was standing in front of a Willyman, so I'm assuming it was CJ.
01:20:17
jamie peacock
He was saying the first notification, chatter pays for itself. The first notification, every month it pays for itself.
01:20:18
Curt
Yeah.
01:20:23
jamie peacock
because it's a production run that stopped, it was gonna run all night, he gets a notification nine o'clock at night, goes back to the shop, sorts it out, comes back home and the machine runs all night.
01:20:23
Curt
Totally. Yeah.
01:20:30
Curt
Yeah.
01:20:32
jamie peacock
And that's where it makes perfect, perfect sense.
01:20:35
jamie peacock
like For me, it's just more I wanna see the stats for shits and giggles.
01:20:35
Curt
Absolutely.
01:20:39
jamie peacock
like I'm not gonna get a promotion if I manage to do 98% uptime, and I'm not gonna get fired if I only get 10% uptime.
01:20:39
Curt
yep
01:20:48
jamie peacock
Mostly because my boss is a really nice guy.
01:20:48
Curt
Right.
01:20:49
Curt
But it's good to have the data.
01:20:52
Curt
Well, and data, like you never, you're never going to know without the data.
01:20:53
jamie peacock
Yeah, well, yeah, what's what's measured is managed.
01:20:54
Curt
Like that's why I want it is because like, absolutely. Yep.
01:20:59
jamie peacock
That's why I want to,
Enhancing Machine Monitoring
01:21:00
Curt
100%. Yeah.
01:21:00
jamie peacock
that's why the new boards made so that I can tie in the EMCO and Bertha because they don't run every day.
01:21:06
jamie peacock
But when they run, I got the distinct feeling that when they are running, they're running at like 98% spindle up time. because they run bar. So you load bar, had to go walk away and come load a bar when it runs out.
01:21:15
Curt
Yep.
01:21:18
jamie peacock
So I'm yeah very, very curious. Like I want to add in notifications as well that I can't always see the EMCO's light. If I'm standing at the mill, I've got to look around the corner ah and I've put a million things in the way of Bertha's light.
01:21:27
Curt
Hmm.
01:21:30
jamie peacock
So I can add notifications into Home Assistant that, hey, machine stopped. It can notify me that the machine has stopped and I can go and load a bar. It's not sitting for 20 minutes.
01:21:39
jamie peacock
I get a notification. I can go, I know I need to go and address the problem.
01:21:39
Curt
Right.
01:21:42
Curt
Yeah.
01:21:43
jamie peacock
So yeah, that's the plan with the new board.
01:21:46
Curt
Yeah, I'm excited.
01:21:47
jamie peacock
I mean, the new board got thrown together so quickly, it doesn't even have my logo on it.
01:21:51
Curt
Oh, speed.
01:21:52
jamie peacock
Doesn't have a labeling, nothing.
01:21:54
jamie peacock
It's still got everything where it where the components placed there, um like the R2 number and like all the that shit. It's exactly where it placed it. I didn't optimize the board at all.
01:21:54
Curt
Oh.
01:22:05
jamie peacock
I just sent it for fab. So the documentation to call it lackluster would be a compliment.
01:22:13
jamie peacock
But yeah, if it's dumb and it works, it isn't dumb.
01:22:14
Curt
That's awesome.
01:22:17
Curt
Precisely. no I looked at that.
01:22:18
jamie peacock
I did do a proper job of the Imperializer though. That's labeled, yeah, it's, yep.
01:22:22
Curt
I saw your silk screen logo. I was like, Ooh, that's a pretty PCB.
01:22:26
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, I made it purple as well. It's not as vibrant as I was hoping, but that's fine, it's going in the case.
01:22:30
Curt
Yeah.
01:22:31
jamie peacock
It's also a lot smaller than the Imperializer that I have.
01:22:35
jamie peacock
So like this guy's, this guy's rather large.
01:22:35
Curt
Oh, nice.
01:22:37
Curt
Oh, that's robust.
01:22:37
jamie peacock
um The keys, yeah, the PCB, the keys are closer.
01:22:38
Curt
Yeah.
01:22:42
jamie peacock
The Arduino is on the underside of the board.
01:22:44
jamie peacock
So the screen is actually over it. So it's actually, it's a hell of a lot more compact.
01:22:45
Curt
Hmm.
01:22:49
Curt
Nice for the listeners.
01:22:49
jamie peacock
So I'll order, hang on, I'll give you dimensions.
01:22:50
Curt
That's like a, that's like a monster looking cell phone in your hand right now.
01:22:56
Curt
Oh, Imperial or metric.
01:22:56
jamie peacock
Why is this vernier so crunchy? Which would you prefer?
01:23:00
Curt
ah The real unit, of course.
01:23:01
jamie peacock
Why, who did this? Jeez. Okay, so it is 147 millimeters, which is 5.78 inches, by 74 millimeters, which is 2.913 inches, and about as thick as an old cell phone.
01:23:10
Curt
Perfect numbers. There we go. Wonderful round numbers.
01:23:21
jamie peacock
um So yeah, the new one will be a bit, probably a bit slimmer.
01:23:25
jamie peacock
Although, yeah, we'll see.
01:23:25
Curt
Well, now that the PCB is all purple, I'm going to have to make a case with like a cutout in the back so that you can see the purpleness.
01:23:30
jamie peacock
So you can see it.
01:23:32
Curt
Yeah.
01:23:32
jamie peacock
Well, yeah, so I've got voltage boosters and all sorts of fun stuff here so I can actually make the thing um wireless so it doesn't have to be plugged in because it's designed to just be plugged into a USB cable.
01:23:42
Curt
Hmm.
01:23:42
jamie peacock
Like, it doesn't need a battery.
01:23:45
jamie peacock
Like, it's going on your desk. There's computers nearby. um But I might just go overboard and put a USB charger on it and a little charge controller and all the bits and pieces that I have from the robots.
01:23:45
Curt
Right.
01:23:57
jamie peacock
Just put that into the box because I can.
01:24:00
Curt
Nice. Well, before we derail deep, deep, deep down the electronics la rabbit hole, cause I know we both dig that.
01:24:01
jamie peacock
Yeah. yes yeah i think let's yeah let's start wrapping it up so what have you been googling i beat you to it
01:24:07
Curt
Should be a, we're near an hour and change. So we should probably.
01:24:13
Curt
Yeah. So what have you, Oh, bo saying the same thing. Blast. Well, I don't think I'll take your topics this week. Uh, what have I even been coopling this week?
01:24:25
Curt
You know what you, you go ahead. Cause I actually don't have a clue what I've been looking up.
01:24:29
jamie peacock
damage because I don't know what I've been looking up either.
01:24:32
jamie peacock
um Yeah.
01:24:32
Curt
Okay.
01:24:33
Curt
Well, I can, I can jump on then.
01:24:35
jamie peacock
No, that's fine. Let me quickly because I leave all the tabs open on my phone.
01:24:36
Curt
Okay.
01:24:41
Curt
Yeah, that's ah exactly what I just looked at.
01:24:41
jamie peacock
Then I clean them out. yeah um Yeah, I've been googling flex seal spray and angle grinder wrenches, because I lost my angle grinder wrench, so I couldn't get the disc off.
01:24:51
Curt
Okay.
01:24:52
jamie peacock
So I ended up putting the angle grinder in a vase, wedging a piece of PTFE to lock the the locking button up, and then putting a pin into the one of the holes. and mooring it with a hammer till it came loose because normally i just tighten the disc by hand and then i think this time the disc bit somewhere or something and it just it locked and i could not get it apart so yeah big hammer and a vase and i managed to get that app apart so and then flex seal because some idiot designed my tumblr and i was like oh it'll be fine if there's a gap like water flows downhill it doesn't flow downhill when it's flipping vibrating it flows uphill
01:25:17
Curt
Nice.
01:25:27
jamie peacock
I learned this the very, very, very hard way. I put aluminium speed tape, that didn't work, then I went and bought ah like $20 tin of flex seal stuff, sprayed that on and it's still flipping leaks. So there have been some major design revisions for version 2 when I get around to it.
01:25:45
jamie peacock
that not gonna be stained, it's just gonna be mild steel. I'm gonna have it all bent at the laser cutters and then we'll weld this thing together and we will make it flippant watertight from the get-go.
01:25:51
Curt
Nice. nice Yeah.
01:25:56
jamie peacock
Yeah, but anyway, it worked pretty well.
01:25:59
Curt
That's good.
01:25:59
jamie peacock
What's in your history?
01:26:01
Curt
Uh, so my history is a bunch of rather boring FedEx and shipping stuff. So we'll just gloss over that. Uh, some of it was searching for this lovely mic stand, which I'm using now, um, which is quite nice for people.
01:26:11
jamie peacock
Yeah, it looks... I enjoyed watching you adjust yours up and down.
01:26:13
Curt
can't
01:26:15
jamie peacock
It was quite entertaining.
01:26:16
Curt
It's yeah, it's so pretty. It's like all, there's so many little adjustments on it. Um, for the longest time, people can't know this is not a ah video podcast yet. Um, but I zip tied my microphone to a tripod for like the last forever.
01:26:24
jamie peacock
Yeah, not yet.
01:26:29
Curt
So, uh, this is quite nice. It gets out of my way. Just kind of one of those things where it's like, we can record quickly. Cause now it's all set up. Um, so yeah, I was looking.
01:26:34
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah, mine's actually on a 3D printed mount because the the little G clamp mount was such hot shit that it was opening when you tightened it.
01:26:43
Curt
Yeah. Yeah.
01:26:45
jamie peacock
So I made a 3D print and screwed it to my table so that the boom is always attached and I just pull it in when I need it.
01:26:46
Curt
yeah
01:26:48
Curt
Nice.
01:26:51
Curt
Same thing. I just, I looked at them and I'm like, man, those are cheap.
01:26:52
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:26:54
Curt
I'm like, you know what? I'm going to spend a little bit more. Cause I know I'm just going to be frustrated with like a dirt cheap alternative.
01:26:58
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:26:59
Curt
Um, so yeah, I did that. And then, um, yeah, I don't know. That's, that's basically my world. Nothing, nothing horribly interesting, bunch of home assists and stuff, but we've already droned on about that way too long.
01:27:10
jamie peacock
yeah way way too long but yeah okay i'm gonna rearrange this document quickly because i think we should do the calls to action next so do you want to do that quickly well i'll just
01:27:11
Curt
So, um, yeah, that's my world. So it's, uh,
01:27:23
Curt
Absolutely. So, uh, if you're interested in the, uh, in the wares I make, or if you want more details on that, uh, little tiny product I kind of rambled on about when Jamie had to, uh, correct his little website, uh, hit up my site confoundedmachine.com on the contact page. I have a newsletter signup.
01:27:39
Curt
You can put your email in there. Anytime I'm doing something of interest, I send an email out. I don't send many. I'm not going to spam you. Um, so yeah, if you want to join that list of cool people you're welcome to, and I should have new product dropping in the next couple of weeks. If that's, if that's to your flavor, how about you, Jamie? How can people find out more about you?
01:27:56
jamie peacock
So you can check out my website at jspeceng.com. We've got a page on there for the Framelock utility knife, which is a utility knife that I manufacture. And then we've also got a page on there for the anchor points, which is the pallet system that we are busy finalizing and going to be going to market with relatively soon on the anchor point page there is a form you can fill out that'll get you on a mailing list there are options on there whether you want to hear everything or just when the product's ready to be released so yeah if you fill that out we'll be in contact with you when we do finally go to market aiming for the next short while but yeah making sure we're doing our due diligence and the product will be right when it actually releases
01:28:37
Curt
Nice, yeah, that's the way to do it.
01:28:38
jamie peacock
So Kurt, yeah, no, they'd definitely rather be thorough with it. So what are you up to today?
01:28:44
Curt
Well, first we have to plug. The last thing is you should go to the lone machinist.com.
01:28:47
jamie peacock
Oh, yes.
01:28:48
Curt
Um, we will also link that in the show notes cause we'll, we'll do this like all fancy podcasts do.
01:28:51
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:28:53
Curt
You can find a bunch of details about the show and whatnot. Um, but the coolest part is the companion guide. I know Jamie's been talking about it, but there's little blue links. You can click that open just a little page that automatically plays what he says.
01:29:05
Curt
It's my favorite. I've gone through like all the things he says and just click them cause it's fun to listen to. So yeah, if you're, if you're. If you find Jamie South African accent and words funny, check it out. It's worth it for that alone.
01:29:16
jamie peacock
Yeah, apparently my word selection is very yeah unique.
01:29:20
jamie peacock
Having grown up, yeah. Yeah, that that's also having grown up on the South Coast. I've got a very, a very Durban set of slang that I use, like Vai, for instance.
01:29:20
Curt
Some of them are like they, yeah, some transfer, some do not.
01:29:31
Curt
Hmm. Right.
01:29:33
jamie peacock
You know, I'm gonna Vai Vex, eh?
01:29:34
Curt
Yeah.
01:29:35
jamie peacock
Like that is very, very South African Indian Durban kind of wording. So yeah, the the companion guard's quite entertaining. It helps give some context to the words that I tend to use quite regularly, that it turns out not a lot of people understand.
01:29:51
Curt
And it's pretty, it looks well. It looks, it's a very cool site.
01:29:53
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, Danica did a a number on that one.
01:29:56
Curt
Yeah, she did a really good job.
01:29:57
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:29:58
jamie peacock
ah job There is some some other stuff coming down the pipeline, but we'll get into that as soon as we we have confirmation of all of that.
01:29:58
Curt
Cool.
01:30:06
jamie peacock
But yeah, so what what are you gonna be up to today?
01:30:06
Curt
Yay.
01:30:10
Curt
Uh, today is what day is it even? Is it Saturday? It's Saturday. So I'm going to hang out for the weekend and same thing, hang out with my little humans. Probably not going to get a lot of ton of work done because I don't typically work on the weekends. And then Monday is family day here, which is another holiday, which is why we're recording a little bit earlier than normal. Um, so once again, I will hang out with the little people and go to the park and, uh, and get back into it on Tuesday. And it's just regular production, nothing crazy interesting. So how about you? What's your, what's your week coming up looking like?
01:30:39
jamie peacock
um Yeah week coming up.
01:30:40
Curt
or what's your tomorrow.
01:30:41
jamie peacock
Well, yeah my next 27 minutes till tomorrow so Yeah, just fixing my chair yeah this week we've got 300 pounds of material that needs to go through the mill ah I want to crank that out as fast as I can but have to go visit customers on site which throws a spanner in the works. So yeah, it's going to be probably either tomorrow night or Sunday night or Monday morning. I'm going to do all the material prep and then start up oneing these parts. They're all programmed already and just power through all of it because there's three of everything now. So it's going to take a little while to
01:31:21
jamie peacock
to actually do, I think there's about, I think it's about nine or 10 hours on up ones on the the big components. And then there's a lot more than that on the smaller components.
01:31:32
jamie peacock
So I'm gonna be busy for a good few days just filling chippens and filling my big chippen. Yeah, I ended up getting $320-ish dollars for scrap in the beginning of the year.
01:31:44
Curt
Oh, nice.
01:31:45
jamie peacock
Took in ah probably close on about 700 kilograms of shavings. between brass, steel, aluminum. Yeah, the guy sent me the total finally.
01:31:56
Curt
Nice.
01:31:57
jamie peacock
Yeah, so I actually wanna go get the slip so I can see exactly what I got for what, because like some of the brass had been there for over a year. Like I just keep all the shavings.
01:32:06
jamie peacock
But yeah. Oh, sweet. I think we're gonna end it there. Thank you everybody for listening. ah Please give us a glowing review on Spotify and Apple podcasts or like and subscribe on YouTube and share it with your friends, please. Thank you very much for listening and we'll see you guys next week.
01:32:06
Curt
Nice.
01:32:27
Curt
Awesome. Take care.