Transcript
John Saunders: Good morning. Welcome to the Business of Machining episode 464. My name is John Tunters.
johngrimsmo: And my name is John Grimsmo.
John Saunders: talking about running our shops, leadership. using AI. tools, stress. managing our lives, right?
johngrimsmo: Mm -hmm.
John Saunders: It's our therapy is our little therapy session.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, it's always good to chat with you.
John Saunders: It's kind of funny because I said, oh man, Griswold, I don't really have much today. And then you and I talked for like three minutes before we hit record. I'm like. I got a full list now.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Yeah, they just brought it out of you.
John Saunders: Um, Well, but in... Well, because of the nature of this podcast of kind of a day in the life, you know, I've been gone for three weeks and came back. third day i'm back first day is actually usually not a big deal the second day sometimes it's harder um some of it's self -imposed we're gonna um we have we need to get a new air or We need to upgrade our air compressor to a larger size.
John Saunders: and um There's lots of balls in the air. Mostly good stuff growing pains um Yeah, I don't wanna ramble. um I need to like it.
John Saunders: I need to... not kid myself. I need to just. We've got a guest here today. I've got other stuff to them. just cleaning I need to just take four hours in.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: in catch up It's all I need to do.
johngrimsmo: Yep, yep.
John Saunders: but But I guess if I'm being honest, it's I'm stressed a little bit about that right now.
johngrimsmo: Well, because you were away for a little bit and... You weren't not working. You were definitely... um you know head in the game but in a different game and then you come back and it's like a lot on your plate.
johngrimsmo: All of a sudden. and at what point do you put on the yellow safety vest and it's the leave me alone safety vest
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: and just says, I just need to focus.
John Saunders: Yeah. Yeah. How are you? What's on your list?
johngrimsmo: Um, i'm doing good shops are running really good we're hiring someone
John Saunders: Oh!
johngrimsmo: So last week we had interviews all week.
John Saunders: oh
johngrimsmo: We had about five or six interviews.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: um some It was actually really good. We're hiring for a customer service role, like administrator role that
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Their job is obviously to keep on top of the email box. We get quite a few emails every day, technical questions, you know things like that, problems with their order, shipping delays, yada, yada. We just need somebody to really own that and stay on top of it, as well as any other administration tasks that come into play. um We've been limping and struggling for years on that, never really had somebody who's, you know.
johngrimsmo: Loves that kind of work and is truly good at it
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: um And the more I think about the a brand we're building and the customer interaction side of it, it's so... critical that we get that right And it will only further the loyalty of our customers to our brand.
johngrimsmo: So it's like total no brainer, but we've been putting it off for a long, long time.
John Saunders: mm -hmm
johngrimsmo: We haven't hired in two and a half years. Um,
John Saunders: Really?
johngrimsmo: Yeah. So Jeff Jeff, our machinist has, uh, it was our last hire and he's been awesome.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And, uh, yeah.
John Saunders: It was Pierre though that left to go to France.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: I come. That was not two and a half years ago, John.
johngrimsmo: It was.
John Saunders: No.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Oh my god.
johngrimsmo: All right.
John Saunders: I don't know. This is like messing with me.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, time flies.
John Saunders: Holy cow.
johngrimsmo: Okay. so yeah it's like you get in this stage i might have mentioned a couple weeks ago this like complacent stage where everything's kind of fine but I'm not okay with fine I want like I want some more.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Um, and some very specific. things So as I, as I. Get. wiser. and can focus more on, pull away from some things, can focus on things that are truly critical for me start to realize things like this like no it's it's time to devote some manpower to um This aspect and many other aspects and then this frees Ryan our media guy up to do
John Saunders: I don't know
johngrimsmo: media like way more often which we absolutely need and and haven't been doing much. so um Yeah, it's like a series of dominoes that I'm always juggling with. if that works and um
John Saunders: Ha ha.
johngrimsmo: But like, you know, which first?
John Saunders: Sure. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: you know all the other ones will fall into place once this happens so um so that was good interviewees were incredible um whole gamut of like like i haven't interviewed in a while so i'm like i hope we get some really good ones and some really bad ones so we can have that perspective you know
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And you know those of you listening who haven't. interviewed or hired very much. it's It's an experience and you get better at it over time with practice. that That's it. um And nobody's ever great at it. but
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: But it was cool. We had, you know, some some really good ones and some really bad ones. And at the end, we had two that... we have to make a choice on.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And I'm very happy with the direction it's going. It's not official yet, but we're're we're finalizing.
John Saunders: Good.
johngrimsmo: And yeah, so I'm stoked.
John Saunders: Awesome.
johngrimsmo: Super good.
John Saunders: In person, I assume.
johngrimsmo: Interviews, yeah.
John Saunders: It is a roll, though.
johngrimsmo: The role is in person. Yes. a Good question.
John Saunders: yeah
johngrimsmo: but
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, everything, both getting the answers from people can happen in seconds instead of hours via email.
John Saunders: Naturally. Yep.
johngrimsmo: And I really like. you know an in -person team so this will take us from 11 employees to 12. and uh
John Saunders: Wow.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Wee.
John Saunders: I think I like what you said about. There's a... frog boiling and water aspect of like our lives where you don't always just realize like ah man that fresh perspective like i should be doing this better or differently
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: um
johngrimsmo: It's so easy to get stuck in that.
John Saunders: All right. Well, so like we do a lot of the same, you know, we answer the phone here. We don't have Um, calling tree or you call them just like a warm body just answers the phone.
johngrimsmo: Mm.
John Saunders: Um, And similarly we get... a lot of emails and Um... i'll use I'll just get out of the front of the... get out the buzzword ai so it's a question of if when where why and how you want to have ai help you there um We're not doing any of that right now
johngrimsmo: who
John Saunders: except we are creating canned responses that we can then pull up in Freshdesk. so It's not AI, but it is like, okay, this is what you want to know. It's actually more to do with like quote requests and PO requests, not so much like.
johngrimsmo: No, this is how we typically reply to this, whether it's in your head or in a notepad document or through an AI LLM.
John Saunders: Yep.
John Saunders: right
johngrimsmo: is kind of all the same result.
John Saunders: Yeah, I guess I'm defensive because I you know, we all hate when we Alright. calling the phone company for help. And they're like, have you considered using our help desk? And you're just like, I want to punch you right now.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, yeah Right.
John Saunders: um
johngrimsmo: Great.
John Saunders: But also like, I don't want to scale. customer service. like I don't want to like spend more money. like I'd rather figure out why this person is asking this question or issue and how can we...
johngrimsmo: Mm hmm.
John Saunders: um Fix that if you will.
johngrimsmo: So I actually have a lot of thoughts on that topic because.
John Saunders: yeah Oh yeah?
johngrimsmo: my past week with the hiring and with the person and how do you onboard this person and what does this look like going forward and how does it does it tie into GURP does it whatever we have one support email box
John Saunders: Mm -hmm
johngrimsmo: and we get you know a lot of emails a day. um And. Issues range from all kinds of things. so i sort of when i was away a couple weeks ago at the cottage i had this thought of like What if I could some like bring in the emails into GURP, if I could summarize them into a little thing? What if I could show...
johngrimsmo: important things. Like what are my guys always asking for? you know a customer emails and we're like well has he ordered before has is this the original knife he's got a problem with did he buy it did he buy it second hand
John Saunders: Hmm, interesting.
johngrimsmo: Is he a big customer? Has he ordered 40 things from us? Or is this the first time? like These are the questions our guys are naturally asking to to respond to a person. And I'm like. Well, what? How how can I?
johngrimsmo: what's What's on my plate here? What's available to me?
John Saunders: Yeah. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Um, so it was like. at the lake On the dock. Opened up chat GPT and started a little chat thread of like just what to work What could I do here?
John Saunders: talk through. it
johngrimsmo: Um, and basically using GURP, our database, as the middleman.
John Saunders: hu
johngrimsmo: is the way to go. so i Then when I came back, I spent about a week to import all of our gmails from the support inbox into a database in gurp so now i have all that information like I own it like directly.
John Saunders: Yeah, yeah, sure.
johngrimsmo: And then. um tied in OpenAI API. So I can... like send little snippets of emails out for a summary. So I send it to OpenAI and they summarize it and then bring it back.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: And now I have the summary. So it's like this whole long chat thread can be summarized into one sentence.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: that basically says so -and -so is looking for this and we replied with this. and that already has been super helpful and then also with that summary i can um i can show similar cases, similar warranty cases.
John Saunders: Interesting how you handled it, right?
johngrimsmo: Right. Amen. In that same summary, I can also... Not in the summary, but in that same page email page, I can show... This customer is the original purchaser of the problem at question and he's also ordered these 13 products from us And he's been a customer since 2015.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: yada yada yadda and i can like pull from shopify api i can pull from this i can summarize and then what i haven't done yet but the next level is the suggested reply
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: um function, which I'm like hesitant of because you you don't want those stupid canned responses, but I think it's getting tight enough because I...
John Saunders: Sure.
johngrimsmo: now own enough of the data that it's like. It's like real answers like the summaries. I showed them to my my guy and he's like these summaries are perfect Like they're really good
John Saunders: Yeah. Collecting and presenting information internally is, i to the extent. In my opinion, there's 100 % what it's great at.
johngrimsmo: Yep. Exactly.
John Saunders: The big difference between that and just being like, well, now we can just have AI handle our customer service.
johngrimsmo: and No, exactly
John Saunders: Yeah. yeah
johngrimsmo: And then it's that whole like inventing information kind of thing. It's very dangerous for a company to just let AI go and invent information.
John Saunders: okay
johngrimsmo: And then the next layer I want to add is to add a procedure section to GURP. where customer service can have their own procedures section. So like with warranty repair, this is how we deal with this.
John Saunders: Mm hmm.
johngrimsmo: This is law now. So then the suggested reply references that first, references similar rep replies second.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: and then suggest a reply based on that it should be like really clean
John Saunders: Dude, this is awesome.
johngrimsmo: Right?
John Saunders: Yes, love it. I had an embarrassing moment, but I'll just share it because why not? i We have an acquaintance, professional acquaintance.
John Saunders: And I always.
John Saunders: I always appreciated how... Um, how what a great job they did at making you feel like a friend, if you will.
johngrimsmo: mm -hmm
John Saunders: this is how it makes it sound like this but like it's not like we're friends friends or whatever but like really a good job and then one day that person accidentally left their like Salesforce phone open.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: on like our desk. And I just happened to see it. Like I didn't even move off my desk or snoop or whatever. era I just saw it. And it's just like. John Saunders. this about him, this about him, this about him, remember this.
John Saunders: And like, Of course, that's normal behavior.
johngrimsmo: but
John Saunders: There's nothing wrong. There's nothing unethical. And in fact, I do the same. Like I'll put notes in my phone about somebody to remind myself their kids' names. I think we all do this. But it made me kind of remember that like that's a good salesperson's job is to remember that John.
johngrimsmo: Yep. Create a profile.
John Saunders: you know whatever john lecter between or something random like that and um But it is kind of one of those moments where you're like, don't freaking like whatever, you know?
johngrimsmo: Yep.
johngrimsmo: yeah Yeah.
John Saunders: ah Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. You played me, but not really.
John Saunders: Don't be naive.
johngrimsmo: but like I'm proud of you, but also like.
John Saunders: Yeah. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: That's funny. I've had people suggest that to me over the years, and I've never done it because I'm not a salesman. but um
John Saunders: Yeah, sure. and sure
johngrimsmo: That's interesting. That's funny.
John Saunders: because I was like oh yeah. um whatever yeah uh Yeah. Uh... Okay, can i can I give a shout out to somebody?
John Saunders: This is kind of weird.
johngrimsmo: but yes
John Saunders: I... I got oddly emotional. two days ago when I saw logged onto our Saunders Instagram and I saw Keith Fenner. Turnright Machine Works.
johngrimsmo: I saw that. Yeah, you posted that.
John Saunders: posts. Yeah, he posted his kind of hey retirement sale hanging up and I have not watched many of his videos lately, but I did... i happen to a month or two ago kind of look through what he's been up to and i think I hope I'm not saying this wrong. I do think he had a health issue of some sort or is having a health issue. Forgive me if I'm wrong on that. but
John Saunders: um regardless he is he is winding down his shop he's well well deserved well -earned retirement he's selling stuff off so from a practical standpoint happy to like kind of give him a shout out for folks that wanna look into buying.
John Saunders: either his individual machines or i think he's offering the whole shop in in the cape cod area but uh really what i want to say is Um, similar to when i lost judd the dog and it kind of bookended this journey of this journey for me. Good night.
John Saunders: could tear up here. I hope I don't. um when I was Maybe even take... probably tag days, definitely pre -tour walk days. Keith was my guy, like watching him build those projects on YouTube, run a Bridgeport, run a manual lathe, the way he just talked about it, the way he was so skilled.
johngrimsmo: really
John Saunders: I just really took to that and he put out so much content. This is before YouTube was the force that it was. um And he did so much of it for the right reasons. and I loved it.
John Saunders: you know He built this TV stand that lifted it up and flipped around. it was It was welding. It was plasma. It was ingenuity. Just incredible work. and Um, i was i told my wife this i was really embarrassed he did a project that involved like raising Money or raising collecting tools to donate to a young machinist and I misunderstood the project at first I thought he was hiring apprentice and I'm in New York City.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: We're like four hours from the Cape. But I remember thinking. Oh my god. would i Would I pull the trigger? Would I, like, leave? New York and try to go work for Keith. Keith doesn't know this. Um, and it wasn't even what he was offering, which is where I was like, Oh, that's not nevermind.
John Saunders: Oops.
johngrimsmo: yeah yeah Oops, but...
John Saunders: aren undo but like that's how that's how much i
johngrimsmo: But your brain goes, yeah.
John Saunders: whatever and i actually have gotten to know keith i've been to a shop now like the last time i visited he gave us a bunch of eggs from his chickens and like like just the nicest guy and it got emotional for me to see him You know you know all of us are still in this growth mode.
johngrimsmo: Hang it up.
John Saunders: You, me, and the friends we talk to and all that, we're all like in it and young and hangry.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. um
John Saunders: And you know, Keith's older, but it's also like, oh man, he's. a He's he's hanging him up so
johngrimsmo: Yep, yep.
John Saunders: i don't know what other other
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: point i have others to say keith thank you for um thanks for putting up the content you put out and being the guy you were and like i said in the instagram post the world needs more Keith Etters.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, well, that's interesting because... whether it was back in my car days or whatever there was always the older gentleman or lady that like you kind of super respected and you're like, they've been around the block.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: They really know what they're talking about. And here they are talking to us like 20 year olds, um, teaching us the ways.
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And, and I don't think we're... At the age that those guys were to us. in the early days.
John Saunders: oh I don't think so at all, yeah.
johngrimsmo: But... We will be at some point.
John Saunders: Oh man.
johngrimsmo: And and it's it's up to us to pass it forward, right? because I mean, we like to share information. and and excitement and passion and all that stuff. And I think probably both of us have shared less than we used to five, 10 years ago.
John Saunders: Yeah, sure
johngrimsmo: um and that that weighs on me and i definitely want to get back into it but yeah it's like it's not that we have an obligation or responsibility but we have an opportunity Two. continue this right in a way that a few key individuals did for us when we were young.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: And, um, yeah, I still remember on the the Volvo turbo bricks forum, there was this guy stealth FTI.
John Saunders: Mm hmm.
johngrimsmo: That was just this mystery old dude somewhere in America.
John Saunders: ah
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: that knew. everything. And he would just share like nonstop.
John Saunders: I know. And it's like, i you know, you never watch Keith's video with an interruption from a. delivery service or a VPN I had, it was just like. Keith's like, oh, I got to braze a boat shaft or I got to grind this out. and take this or turn this shaft or he but he repaired a maling machine that was this insane like A -bomb size.
johngrimsmo: No way.
John Saunders: shaft and um
johngrimsmo: We just did it.
John Saunders: Just did it, yeah. and like I don't know, just Shout out to you, Keith.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Hmm.
johngrimsmo: Okay, switching gears a little bit. You got me thinking a few weeks or months ago, talking about hearing. And. realizing more and more that my hearing is not probably not as good as it used to be. and i haven't gone for any hearing tests or anything but i should um So I started looking into more hearing protection for the shop and I'm sure we've all seen or heard ads for ISO tunes
John Saunders: No, I'll write it down though.
johngrimsmo: The Brents. You haven't seen that? They haven't got you with their ads?
John Saunders: Now I will with you saying it on the algo.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, exactly um
John Saunders: ice I so smell it.
johngrimsmo: ISO, ISO, ISO tunes.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: they are actual hearing protection, but also have Bluetooth enabled like sound.
John Saunders: Okay. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And. you know, you watch a lot of their marketing and they. they're they're pretty firm on the fact that AirPods are not hearing protection.
John Saunders: Yeah, sure.
johngrimsmo: and noise -canceling headphones are not hearing protection.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: and that noise cancelling actually like adds more noise to cancel the noise whatever so these are whether they're in earbuds with actual foam like you know like 3m earbuds kind of thing but um
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: but with Bluetooth as well. And so I got some. and i got some uh There. two different a bunch of different kinds but they have regular ones that are just hearing protection and and bluetooth and then they have ones that have an aware function so You are. Noise suppressed.
johngrimsmo: But. It also has a microphone that can hear people next to you talking.
John Saunders: Yeah. Okay.
johngrimsmo: And it's pretty. Fantastic.
John Saunders: Interesting.
johngrimsmo: They're really, really good.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: um So I've been playing with the set. Eric's been playing with the set. And the aware function is absolutely worth. the extra $80 or whatever. um I think the kits were.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: $150, $200, something like that for each each set.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: And they're just. Awesome.
John Saunders: Yeah. So.
johngrimsmo: They're like really, really good.
John Saunders: Are you in the shop floor? the most the time
johngrimsmo: Yeah, when I'm at work, most of the time, yeah.
John Saunders: You're all the time, basically. Yes.
johngrimsmo: Unless I'm in the offices for a little bit, but yeah.
John Saunders: I see you in your... upstairs podcast room but that's like the next exception
johngrimsmo: i spend I spend one hour a week here talking to you.
John Saunders: hi okay yeah yeah fair enough so you'll wear these iso tunes all day every day
johngrimsmo: Yes.
johngrimsmo: I'm getting there. um
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: Definitely my schedule's a bit shifted. So guys go home around four o 'clock and I stay till like six or seven. And for those last three hours, I'm definitely wearing them. because I'm by myself, whatever.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: I'm i'm getting more comfortable with wearing them around other people. um it's always awkward walking up to somebody with hearing protection because they're like Can you hear me? You know?
John Saunders: Oh which interesting, yeah.
johngrimsmo: So that's that's a thing, and and especially in the machine shop. um Our team and our our manager there specifically is very... cautious of people, you know. blinding their ears and not being able to hear each other if there's an emergency or if I'm talking to you or something like that.
johngrimsmo: And so that's where the aware function. like really comes in handy.
John Saunders: Yeah
johngrimsmo: and uh Yeah, it's it's pretty cool.
John Saunders: I will repeat my PSA. Anybody who even remotely cares about any of this hearing stuff. If you don't, don't I don't care. But like if you do... go get a hearing test done they're free at any audiologist they're free at sam's club or costco
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: And. even if you don't think about hearing it gives you my god it gives you a band benchmark
johngrimsmo: Mm hmm.
John Saunders: It gives you all like a... a chart and a benchmark and then in 10 years or 20 years then you like you know if it changed
johngrimsmo: Okay.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, because I did have a hearing test.
John Saunders: Oh.
johngrimsmo: um probably almost 20 years ago and I, they sent it to me.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: So I have the PDF.
John Saunders: Yeah, yeah
johngrimsmo: I i don't know if it's applicable, but I'm sure I'm going to bring it to the next person that I go to and be like, here's where I was in 2008.
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Or whatever. And where am I at now? How does it? Because I have like. If I'm in a quiet zone and I have some ringing.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: That's like there. and that's probably not great And my daughters. voice. Especially if she comes to work with me and we're in a fairly loud shop with, you know, the air compressor going in the background and stuff.
johngrimsmo: And she talks to me, I can't hear her tone over the tone of the air compressor.
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: It's funny. You ready?
johngrimsmo: But I can hear the guys at work. like it was flying
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: So it was little things like that. Like I gotta be honest with myself. and you know protect what i got and and make sure the rest of the team is like safe and protected too.
John Saunders: Sure. true
johngrimsmo: So i'm I'm happy to invest a couple hundred dollars in each person. like It's not an issue. I just want to make sure they get used in their work. and you know and they have over ear ones too but also with the aware function
John Saunders: Yeah, yeah.
johngrimsmo: Um,
John Saunders: Yeah, that's what we've had in the shooting world for years where it's like a little microphone so you can you could actually quite hear quite well when you're just talking at normal levels in it.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: Obviously, Muffles though. Yep.
johngrimsmo: And Isotunes has a shooting division as well.
John Saunders: Interesting.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, so.
John Saunders: Okay. Take a look
johngrimsmo: <unk>s It's interesting how they... they frame it it's more for the impact noise like the you know pop pop pop as opposed to a ah generally loud environment or power tools or something like that
John Saunders: Yep.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: So, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of lot of ads, a lot of influencers, a lot of paid sponsorships about this.
John Saunders: Well, that's enough.
johngrimsmo: We are not that. Obviously, I paid real money for these. but So i'm I'm hesitant to like boast them too much because of that, but also like. um So far, I'm pretty happy.
John Saunders: Yeah. Well, good. Keep me posted because I think that's the question that you alluded to is like. Okay. throwing money at it doesn't necessarily mean it becomes this like sustainable
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: part of the ecosystem um it's really got to like work and make sense but if it does you're like yeah i've done like
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Not a complicated outcome.
johngrimsmo: Exactly. Exactly.
John Saunders: or Which is my... thing I keep coming back to on myself is like just don't think about stuff just do it um and obviously this this is
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: easier on tasky stuff than it is but like like the hearing test if you want one Don't. Debate it. Don't talk to your spouse about it. Literally, just go get one. Like just like you get in your own head too much.
johngrimsmo: you
John Saunders: um the a Michael Grover. book example with the Michael Jordan trainer guy is like, you know, don't think about going to the gym. Literally put the car in drive and go to the gym. Like don't think about it um Which is a...
John Saunders: um strange segue to One of the vibe code projects I didn't get to in New York, but I have on my to -do list is... um Potentially testing out overhauling my to -do list system. i so i've I've used this for years now. so basically don't fix with it if it ain't broken. It really does work for me.
John Saunders: having a Google Sheet open with Now. not today, but like in the future. And then the like the longer term one. usually frankly ends up getting dumped into a separate like just clear the slate, but leave it on a list outside of my my brain.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: But the now stuff has to happen today. And then the not today stuff is stuff that. I need to get done, but like it doesn't matter if I put a head down on my pillow tonight without it being done.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: However, what I think I want... is to use AI to feed information into a system. and have it. use its own intelligence to triage that.
John Saunders: or potentially even even offer solutions and responses but then the key for me would be building an interface where um i I'm making this up. as i on the fly, but like let's say there's a website front end and I have a button that says five minutes, 30 minutes.
John Saunders: afternoon.
johngrimsmo: oh I have 30 minutes. Give me a task.
John Saunders: And then give me the most important task that I can do in 30 minutes and just give me one. I don't get to see the list and I i work for you.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Yeah. Ooh. I like that. you have to When you put a task on there, you have to put enough context to be like, this will take two hours.
John Saunders: yeah you can figure that out
johngrimsmo: Maybe. Yeah, yeah, probably.
John Saunders: I think.
johngrimsmo: I think we that's cool.
John Saunders: Or even if it's not wrong, but just. You know, it stops me from. We all do this, like selectively choosing, you know, in the being in the business of to -do lists instead of doing the to -do list.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
johngrimsmo: Mm -hmm. or doing the wrong thing you know i have 30 minutes but i'm going to start a three hour task just because that looks interesting And then I don't get very far on it, but I could have knocked off a 30 minute task.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: No, that's a good feature. I like that. So I built a task list into GURP a while ago, and I've been relatively living out of it. Between that and my paper notebook. um
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: which is my like more short, short term. Um, And then in GURP, I put anything more than like one day, five days, you know, 30 day kind of things that projects i'm working on and then i put a a small checklist in group as well so that i'm like
John Saunders: Mm hmm.
John Saunders: Mm hmm.
johngrimsmo: if i have a concept or project then i can have checklists within it And I can tie other people in the company into it. And it's it's been working great.
John Saunders: Oh that's nice. Interesting.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. I can assign tasks to other people. It shows up on their dashboard. Yeah, so um I've been slowly, well, quickly more, rolling out GURP more and more to the rest of the team.
johngrimsmo: And now almost everybody has seen it and has logins, but not quite everybody yet.
John Saunders: Uh -huh.
johngrimsmo: And I'm just making it more and more powerful. And it's it's just awesome. it's finally what i'm what I've always wanted.
John Saunders: Yeah. Good.
John Saunders: all of the vibe code stuff just blows me away. like uh it's crazy
johngrimsmo: Totally.
John Saunders: It really is.
johngrimsmo: Yep. yeah I was thinking on on my drive into work this morning, I'm like, we can't just keep talking about AI all the time on our podcast, but it's it's becoming such a fun part of our lives.
John Saunders: Okay, I'm glad. that
John Saunders: I know I am. Yeah. Yeah.
John Saunders: We haven't gotten i've gotten any heat mail about it. um
johngrimsmo: Yeah whatever.
John Saunders: Yeah, well, I'd like to think I'm thick -skinned, but like I also... want to make sure that I think the reason you and I talk about it so much is that we're living and breathing it and it's helping.
John Saunders: And like those projects.
johngrimsmo: It's actually, yeah.
John Saunders: the projects that we built with the telecentric lens and the linear engagement tutorial this is real
johngrimsmo: Mm -hmm.
John Saunders: stuff and um We've i get it if it's just like not your cup of tea or you're not interested or you don't have anything to do it for it but like It's...
johngrimsmo: Yeah, we're just trying to let you know that it's possible and that it's it's really benefiting our lives.
John Saunders: Crazy to me.
johngrimsmo: like Sometimes I've fallen down the rabbit holes over the years of like, wow, that was cool and fun, but it didn't really do anything. It didn't really move the needle. It was just kind of like like fun.
John Saunders: Sure.
johngrimsmo: um or interesting or whatever but no this is like serious stuff and uh changing the way we do business, both digitally and technically like hands -on kind of work as well. And that's something I realized a few months ago is like my.
johngrimsmo: Perfect. um application of of a thing is mixing technology with the hands -on like physical world.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: you know I don't just want to make websites for all of time. i need to like it needs to be for a thing that's physical in the real world So like building a telecentric lens microscope, it's like, it's like a physical thing, object in front of you.
johngrimsmo: You've got a three print brackets. You got to make it. It does a real thing. It measures a real thing. And then the digital technology behind that allows that to happen. Those kinds of things just. are so much fun.
John Saunders: the yeah our otra Oh, yeah, wait we right before we hit record, I have a piece of software I'm trying to update, and it's... giving me an error and then just shutting down during the update which is mandatory And I've now learned to just like, don't even think you just screamed when you.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: print screen in Windows or Mac, you can it goes to your clipboard so you don't even have to find the file and attach it just paste it in chat gpt and within 45 seconds it had solved it on an outcome that I would have not gotten to on my own.
johngrimsmo: Yep, same.
John Saunders: So it's just like my life is now. completely rely on AI.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. Yeah.
John Saunders: might say it.
johngrimsmo: and that's It's kind of true. I mean, it would It would hurt if it went away. And I think we are not alone in that. i think I think it's not going away. I think it's only getting... stronger, you know.
John Saunders: Ugh. Greed. I just mean more like I...
John Saunders: i do I try to do a lot in my life, and this has just been an unbelievable force multiplier.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. This lets you do, it's easier to do a lot. Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Especially those dumb technical problems. Like I'm trying to you know load a thing onto a Raspberry Pi and have it boot into a certain thing.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: I don't know how this works. I don't care. I just wanted to do it.
John Saunders: yeah Exactly. Yep.
johngrimsmo: right I just paste the error message back into a cursor or a gesture PD or whatever.
John Saunders: Totally.
johngrimsmo: And just be like, what next? Just, this is what it's telling me. This is what it's yelling at me. I've got a weird one with VS code, which I haven't solved yet, but. ah It keeps making a pop -up that says...
johngrimsmo: Setup is installing setup. it's this weird like circular loop and then every 20 minutes a new pop -up a new like yes or no error pet message comes up so i think it something went wrong during a update and
John Saunders: so
johngrimsmo: I probably need to just uninstall it and reinstall the new one. but It's little dumb stuff like that. I don't need to be an expert. at how that stuff works. I just need a solution.
John Saunders: Yeah, exactly.
johngrimsmo: You know?
John Saunders: Yep. Yep. Yep, agree.
johngrimsmo: The next thing, which is... very group related, but more hands on. So Angela and I are devoting the next little bit of time to detailed process planning and costing.
johngrimsmo: fur.
John Saunders: Oh.
johngrimsmo: all of our stuff because it would we need it for a lot of things um we don't we don't have
John Saunders: Interesting. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: good costing. for like how much it costs to make a Norseman.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: And that's becoming a problem. It's more and more of a problem, especially when you have a full -time accountant on staff that's been asking for costing for four years.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: um And then what we want as manufacturers is the process plan is like, how do we do every step of the way? what is the drawing? What is the, and putting it all together into a package that it's like, when we sand a pen tube. This is the grid of sandpaper we use.
johngrimsmo: um That way it's not You know, so like word of mouth so tribal So memory. Um, You have the process plan for how to do everything and then we can add up the time that it takes to do each step. into the costing.
johngrimsmo: of It takes this long to cost this much, all that stuff.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: We've been missing that for a long time and all of us are on board for like... Yeah, we need that. So the first step was outlining. you know what does this look like what do we need to capture And then next step is. now that we have the outline is to like. go around to each cell and just start.
johngrimsmo: tracking, timing, writing it down.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: So. Looking forward to that. It's a big, big job.
John Saunders: Good.
johngrimsmo: And I was actually telling Angela yesterday, I was like. I wanna be involved, but I don't need to be the guy. Timing everybody or I don't need to be the guy like going around to every cell It's as fun as that would be in a way I was like, I don't need to do that.
johngrimsmo: You and Eric can do that.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: That's fine.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: Um, I'll be involved in other ways. And then I told him straight up, like all this information is going into group. I know. We all love our spreadsheets. But, uh...
John Saunders: Sure, sure. sure
johngrimsmo: you can use that as scratch paper and then tell me the layout you want and that's all going in GURP and then I will have full access to all of it and can
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: correlate to various data and add things up and some things and do some crazy analysis when I have it all. So.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: as Spreadsheets are. Dead to me other than scratch paper.
John Saunders: Well, no, we've done the same thing where we have these spreadsheets and then we just put them in the Lex. put that data into lex but then allow a spreadsheet to continue to be something that can be exported um and that way the spreadsheet is an output not an input you know
johngrimsmo: Okay.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Oh.
johngrimsmo: i
John Saunders: But totally agree. What's your are you? you have a timeline, a structure, a phasing, a framework around, cost I mean, costing can be, you can spend the rest of your life on cost.
johngrimsmo: Starting with... Okay.
John Saunders: and never have them.
johngrimsmo: Exactly. no so there's a ah practical side of it um starting with the saga because that is almost entirely between angelo and jeff with a little bit of and involvement from the rest of the team but it's kind of a closed loop of um you know two very capable guys that can Just...
johngrimsmo: quickly list out all the times and and things like that. And that gives us the framework.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: to spread out to the rest of the three products and then
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: When we want to and introduce a new product, we have literal references of like when we grind a blade on the speedio.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: it takes you know an hour of machine time and 10 minutes of setup time. and um Not too worried about consumables at this point. But that's more just shop overhead.
John Saunders: You mean... Cutting tools?
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Oh. I couldn't disagree more these days.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah, I mean... Carbide prices going up.
johngrimsmo: That's a good point.
John Saunders: We are.
johngrimsmo: It still gets calculated into overhead, but... Interesting, go on.
John Saunders: You know, go ahead. I'll share my two cents when we're done. But it's not, yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. I mean, I'm winding down on my chat here. It seems... I don't know. We do kind of make the same thing over and over. It's not like we're doing new jobs every day. that burning through all kinds of end mills. We have a pretty steady.
johngrimsmo: usage rate.
John Saunders: Yeah. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: But yeah, the costing changes all the time for. those input costs.
John Saunders: No for sure and we care I mean, it's not a one to one. correlation like aluminum continues to be an issue for us so like the price moving up and that can be something where we more directly will change an MSRP on our products but you know, the carbide goes up 30%, it's like, ah, that's...
John Saunders: It's not like we were. It's not like we use one hand mill per.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: pursue.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: um We... I love costing, but I also love not. getting to like the one thing about costing is you'll never be right like it's okay and there's the bottom -up approach of like okay you know on this fixture plate we're going to add
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: the cardboard and the the the drill that we use and the tap and the t -nuts or whatever all that stuff which is obviously, well. in the labor um And then you can do a top down of more like.
John Saunders: And it's top down is, I think, easier for things like. allocation of labor and machines.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: Because it's like, okay. We can, we made 450 plates last year on on this machine so basically i can assume that that's 450 divided by the whatever the machine cost numbers you want to use is the cost per hour for that machine now.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, yeah
John Saunders: Obviously we you'd like to think that you can improve that with efficiency and nothing we're doing is necessarily at full capacity, but like. um I think.
John Saunders: Sometimes you see that number and you're humble. You're like, oh, wow, it cost us a lot more than I thought to do something.
johngrimsmo: Well, exactly. and and Tracking the... money. is easier. Because you have invoices, you have whatever you have.
johngrimsmo: you know Once you know how many round parts come out of a bar. You can easily calculate.
John Saunders: Sure.
johngrimsmo: Um, you know, we get a hundred parts out of them. six foot bar so each piece is whatever um it's the time that we don't have. And we have no idea.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And we're allocating all this, you know, payroll is usually one of the company's biggest expenses.
John Saunders: Mm hmm.
John Saunders: Sure.
johngrimsmo: and we don't know how to allocate it per one of the four products that we make. and so even if we just have costing on the saga it's almost irrelevant because we don't have costing for the other ones so we don't know how it all like where all that manpower is actually going to and and how to price it.
John Saunders: sure
johngrimsmo: And with that pricing comes decisions on um our retail price. And.
John Saunders: sure for Sure. Sure.
johngrimsmo: Also any, any. bulk purchase or any bulk customers. Like we want to get into more corporate saga sales.
John Saunders: Oh. Oh sure.
johngrimsmo: where somebody wants to order 50 or a hundred or 500 sagas.
John Saunders: Yes.
johngrimsmo: how how do we discount it and we have not enough information other than guesses
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: to be like yeah let's just take 25 off and we'll be fine but Maybe we're losing money. I don't know.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: So that's a problem. for us.
John Saunders: The only other thing I think I'm qualified to have a value -add opinion on is when we do a costing on something that's different or new usually what I'll do is identify the top. 10 or 15 time or costs into that product.
John Saunders: um
johngrimsmo: Okay.
John Saunders: forget about the ones that are really quick or cheap like i don't need to spend time costing know a 47 cent screw usually
johngrimsmo: Hmm.
John Saunders: And then. And then you can quickly, you know, you go kind of go ask Eric, like on average, do you spend 10 minutes or 60 minutes? in Of course, the answer may be very, but like, no, but like really, like.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: if and then just put 40 minutes in and you can pick a labor rate and then you can very quickly build and inaccurate. But. directionally going the right way costing and you can refine it and you can make notes about refining it but again I find that that is... is gets you a lot closer that without trying to do time studies and like crazy detailed and like we talked about this with alex the other day like no one's i don't ever want people to be like well i a work order for 30 and i scrapped one so i need to make sure that like we
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: And like in a perfect world, I'd love to know that, but it's also just like, it's not going to happen.
johngrimsmo: right Yeah, yeah.
John Saunders: Yep.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, I think we're we're going to end up somewhere in the middle between your... just example right now and and the the shops that like scan every single
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Sure.
johngrimsmo: thing that happens and track all that time I don't want to get that far I thought about it a lot um I was actually talking with Justin about that on our ski trip. um A lot like why don't we just scan everything all of the time and he goes people are gonna forget people are gonna make mistakes you will have inaccurate data immediately.
John Saunders: Mm -hmm.
johngrimsmo: and uh Yeah, so that was interesting.
John Saunders: hard no
johngrimsmo: so Somewhere in between where instead of asking each employee for like a guesstimate, which we'll do some of, but we'll do actual. time studies. small scale time studies.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: for various tasks. because You don't always like, I think that takes five minutes. Like me personally, I'm terrible at this. you know My five minutes actually took me 45.
John Saunders: Sure. Do me a favor though, if you... If you do this, pick one of your products, either the whole Norseman or just the Norseman knife or something, and just, I bet you can spend 15 minutes, you know, set a timer, 15 minutes, write out the processes that go into it.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: and just give your best estimate.
johngrimsmo: And that's what we're doing.
John Saunders: And I'd be curious to see how close you are if you actually then go through a bunch of formal work.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
johngrimsmo: yeah Exactly. Yep. Because we're building the bill of materials first and then the... uh operations for each part in the bill of materials and we're pre -writing all that out
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: me and Angelo, and then estimated time. for each of those things. whether it's our estimate or the guy's estimate.
John Saunders: Mm hmm.
johngrimsmo: um And then we're putting an actual next to it. So you're right.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And it's it will be very revealing.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And if we end up within 20%, we'll be like, all right, that's that's not bad. but
John Saunders: Great.
johngrimsmo: Who knows? Who knows?
John Saunders: Yeah.
John Saunders: Cool.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: That's my... don't really have like a Point to this comment and it's it's a comment that I almost hesitate to talk about on public care but like I... he And more.
John Saunders: interested and persuasive and than ever about a management leadership. That's not me. that has more experience and confidence around scaling around those topics. and continues to be detached from my bootstapping.
John Saunders: bootstrapping tendencies that aren't doing us any good right now.
johngrimsmo: first
johngrimsmo: mm -hmm
John Saunders: um I don't mean this to be like fatalistic or down on myself, but... Um, It has me thinking about. if and how I need to change and adapt or... also giving obviously trying to give guys the room here to grow which i think I think we've done, but you know, all that stuff is top of mind.
johngrimsmo: Or hiring somebody with that type of experience that could come in and in some ways supersede you or tell you what you need to do because they have the clarity to.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: ah like no i've seen this before and trust me it's gonna work i'm like all right Let's get it done.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, I've been thinking about the same thing.
John Saunders: We're also hiring or going to hire.
johngrimsmo: Nice.
John Saunders: i don't I haven't put the job up, but I'll throw it out as a PSA that we need to. We're going to bring on another machinist.
johngrimsmo: Nice.
John Saunders: And so it's going to be something.
johngrimsmo: What sort of skill level are you hoping for?
John Saunders: Um...
johngrimsmo: Lathe experience only.
John Saunders: Yeah. Uh... ah Um... You know, I hate to say it. I need to talk to the team and Yvonne to help get the job description written.
johngrimsmo: Sure.
John Saunders: um we would probably prefer and go ahead with somebody who comes in with experience. full stop, but. It also will be. We need it full stop for growth, but Courtney, who's been awesome, is...
John Saunders: going back to school. So she cuts, she will remain here, but cuts back her time and hours a lot. So some of the work that she has been doing includes making fixture plates, programming QR robots, helping run the Willamette, helping do QC, helping do some mod device assembly, the lion's share of it being.
johngrimsmo: Nice.
John Saunders: being machine tool work infusion and so forth but like Um, We really need somebody to help run. it'll effectively be like a second shift on.
John Saunders: steel fixture plates. We have two well we have two genoses but really three machines maybe four that run those plates and
johngrimsmo: um
John Saunders: um ed who runs them tends to get in quite early and leaves early and so we have a chance to probably we need to increase our output and we luckily are in a situation where that those machines tend to be idle. from one o 'clock till the one o 'clock and afternoon on so when i say second shift i don't mean anything that's like crazy overnight hours um
johngrimsmo: Yeah. yeah
johngrimsmo: mm -hmm
John Saunders: and and also long -term. um
johngrimsmo: Right.
John Saunders: allowing Ed to have some more time to do R and &D. and so forth around it um and we're just growing so i'll get something up on indeed but throwing out there if anybody he is is interested
johngrimsmo: Good.
johngrimsmo: Good to know, man. Good for you. Yeah. i've Talked a lot internally with our team the next phase of growth for us. It's it's not gonna be easy Like I talked about complacency like we're kind of good everything with these fine. Everybody's getting paid the next phase of growth is like, like everything needs to get up.
johngrimsmo: it's not just one customer service person is going to make us a lot more money. It's like, no, then we're going to need a machinist. Then we're going to need a finishing guy. And then we're going to need another media guy in like a three month span.
John Saunders: Sure. Yep.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And then everything's going to be different. And then we're going to run out of parking. and like
John Saunders: Yeah, we're in that space.
johngrimsmo: Right?
John Saunders: uh yeah do i hear you
johngrimsmo: Yeah. So it's, it's I'm, I'm.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: cautiously Just cautious.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: with the next phase.
John Saunders: Yeah
johngrimsmo: I want to be smart, I want to be safe, but I also want to be aggressive. End.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: do all that. so Yeah.
John Saunders: ah Totally agree.
johngrimsmo: Yeah. I got one last thing for you. I had a lovely phone call.
John Saunders: Mm -hmm.
johngrimsmo: through my ISO tunes, actually.
John Saunders: Oh.
johngrimsmo: um in the shop he said the audio quality wasn't great, but it was fine.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: um I also called for a food delivery. like pick up on my way home and she couldn't hear me.
John Saunders: Oh
johngrimsmo: So anyway, with Andrew from ClearPath. one of the One of the technicians at Clearpath Servo Motor Company.
John Saunders: Oh.
John Saunders: Like technics, whatever they call it.
johngrimsmo: Yeah, I like techniques. um because we have clear paths on our CNC router.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: and it's a dual y -axis gantry style thing And you can't tune two motors at the same time.
John Saunders: Yes. Good evening.
johngrimsmo: So you have to copy the settings from one motor onto both motors. And it's like weird.
John Saunders: okay
johngrimsmo: And the machine was never. happy it's been running almost every day for three years now, but it like jitters at certain speeds and at certain rapids and certain cuts. And you literally see the tool. oscillating and jittering when it should not be.
johngrimsmo: um Luckily we're cutting foam, so it mostly doesn't matter, but some of the new foam that we got. the zode foam stuff. would be benefited from. a smoother motion and all that stuff.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And it's bugged me forever. I don't run it myself, so I don't think about it. So it hasn't bugged me directly, but getting back into the foam project, I'm like, why is this still bad? So anyway, I had about an hour phone call with him.
johngrimsmo: He remote tuned the motors and we did a whole bunch of.
John Saunders: Oh.
johngrimsmo: tuning they have oscilloscopes built into the program they have like their their their admin dashboard
John Saunders: Isn't that cool? Yeah.
johngrimsmo: through a secret password that lets them see even more.
John Saunders: Okay.
johngrimsmo: and some really cool settings that I didn't really understand. But we got the machine significantly smoother. Like big, big dates for difference.
John Saunders: good
johngrimsmo: And then. After that, there's still like some weird noise and some slop and some play in the lovejoy connectors and things like that. So um I custom ordered new ball screws.
johngrimsmo: specifically for this machine. Because the ones that it comes with, it's not an expensive machine.
John Saunders: oh
johngrimsmo: And so it's just kind of like the cheapest. half -decent ball screws that you can buy. But you can buy... Ground? nice preloaded ball screws and ball nuts as an assembly.
johngrimsmo: for like $200 each.
John Saunders: No kidding.
johngrimsmo: from the
John Saunders: How long?
johngrimsmo: How long are they?
John Saunders: Three foot or something?
johngrimsmo: Yes, I'm like three feet, yep.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: And.
John Saunders: Sorry, sir, you're saying that.
johngrimsmo: So like, you know, with the right end diameter and the right motor size and the right.
John Saunders: Uh -huh.
johngrimsmo: ball nut mounting holes. all relatively standard size fittings um so i think for under 600 and something dollars canadian i had two ball screws and new lovejoy connectors i ordered from China from JLCPCB.
johngrimsmo: Um,
John Saunders: Really?
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: that they're going to take over in the world.
johngrimsmo: They have a whole manufacturing division now.
John Saunders: on Crazy.
johngrimsmo: And. And it came in 16 days.
John Saunders: Wow, that's awesome.
johngrimsmo: Right. And I'm like, I don't need to buy the most fanciest stuff for this machine. I just need a solution.
John Saunders: Sure. sure
johngrimsmo: And I was like, you know, for 600 bucks, I'm. I'm gonna try it. So they came.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: They're beautiful. They feel great. They look great. They're really good quality. No burrs on them. like a They know what they're doing. And obviously it's not JLC that did it. It's subcontracted to whatever, but authorized vendors. and The ordering process was super easy.
johngrimsmo: And... It was awesome. It was great. So we'll put them in.
John Saunders: So next I just have to swap my app.
johngrimsmo: Hopefully they fit.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: but but yeah it should uh just make the machine that much tighter and and more what i wish it would be like i'm so spoiled with the kern and speedio and these like little man these really nice machines
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: and then i have this kind of diy like extruded aluminum machine i'm like yeah but like I still wanted to be. to not suck. like
John Saunders: Yes. Oh, yeah. I don't think the chatter or like that.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: Yeah. Cool.
johngrimsmo: See you. That's that.
John Saunders: Cool. Grant just messaged me because Kendall and all has actually been here. I don't know if I'm allowed to share this because I didn't even realize it, but they are. um We asked them.
John Saunders: for help with a form tool a form drill and
johngrimsmo: Hmm.
John Saunders: They ended up saying, hey, can we do it? in this which way shape or form I'll actually go tell them right now. And that it is a 3D printed. carbide body that then goes into a tool grinder so it doesn't look 3d print like you know you've seen some of those face smells that look like
johngrimsmo: Hmm.
John Saunders: They look very, like, biologically amorphous.
johngrimsmo: Yeah.
John Saunders: This is just looks like a rig groove.
johngrimsmo: Hmm.
John Saunders: tool, but the internal cooling channels include the ability to It has a back. flowing. through spindle coolant so once it's in the hole there's coolant that's flushing into the Um,
johngrimsmo: to cut
John Saunders: cut face but there's also a ah one that aims, that does a U -turn and is flushing the chips back up out.
johngrimsmo: No.
John Saunders: And. it's pcd and braze tips and multi -step features and all that so they were running it this morning um I haven't even seen the results yet.
John Saunders: and uh quite curious to see how that goes
johngrimsmo: what material you're cutting.
John Saunders: This is this for now is is just aluminum.
johngrimsmo: Okay, because PCD I thought, yeah, aluminum.
John Saunders: Yeah, exactly.
johngrimsmo: but
John Saunders: But I had asked them if if we wanted to throw up an Instagram. They're like, well, technically this doesn't go out to IMTS. I'm like, oh. Okay.
johngrimsmo: Give them one.
John Saunders: Yeah.
johngrimsmo: Um, so this tool was custom made for you for this test for purpose for this purpose
John Saunders: Well, it's custom made for... fixture plate production. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: For you guys.
John Saunders: 1st August, yeah, correct.
johngrimsmo: yeah Yeah. Cool.
John Saunders: Yeah. but it's a septal that has two different diameters and includes two chafers
johngrimsmo: So. You've been talking about this for years. Yeah.
John Saunders: for four features on it.
johngrimsmo: Okay.
John Saunders: y 'all
johngrimsmo: But not only that, it's like... PCD and kind of If we're going to do it, let's do it.
John Saunders: Yes, but mostly because of tolerance and longevity.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
John Saunders: We want to you. you There are five cutting tools that we currently use between different drill diameters taps. This obviously doesn't replace the tap. um chamfers and so forth and so If you.
John Saunders: And I won't bore everybody on this episode, but like, there's all these conundrums like, well, form tapping swages it out. And then do you need to like.
johngrimsmo: We don't get bored.
John Saunders: But basically I was like, no, if we're going to go for it, I want to have the tool that doesn't do it all. It doesn't mean we have to just come back and reinterpolate a precision bore or whatever.
johngrimsmo: Mm hmm.
John Saunders: And sure enough. um And they were like, I think we can hold your tolerance. and this and that and that. So. We'll know here in about 45 seconds.
johngrimsmo: Oh, super cool, man.
John Saunders: Yep. Yeah.
johngrimsmo: well, we'll leave it on that cliffhanger and You can update next week with some real real data.
John Saunders: Good. I'll see you next weekend.
johngrimsmo: Go in. All right. Take care.
John Saunders: Take care. Bye.
johngrimsmo: Yep.
