Transcript
jamie peacock: Welcome to the Learn Machines podcast with just you, the work and the machines. What do you got going on today, Kurt?
Curt: ah This week I'll do an update on my lens, how I fixed it till I fully broke it, Ultim pens, and trading my house for machines. How about you? what are you going to talk about?
jamie peacock: We're we're going to talk about tolerance stack up using my fourth axis as an angle plate and i've have questions about Elkinox.
Curt: interesting.
jamie peacock: yes yeah so uh how are you this fine evening kurt uh
Curt: Ugh. Good, good man. It's starting to feel like summer again here or spring, whatever that season is that we have a month of. So i don't know, how's sunny South Africa?
jamie peacock: ah well if the sun's about to come out actually uh yeah carrying on okay and that's a long weekend yeah so friday was a public holiday monday's a public holiday so A lot of time for R&D and things because material orders also didn't arrive on Thursday because short weeks. So I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to do, but instead I'm faffing around with my own stuff.
Curt: Oh, fun.
jamie peacock: Fun times.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So ah I want to know how you adopted the AVE mantra.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: If it ain't broke, fix it till it is.
Curt: so So on the last episode, we were talking about that that lens I bought that i was fixing and I bought like the cable for it. Anyways, I fixed the ah optical image stabilization stage in it, which i was actually pretty impressed that I could fix that. because There's a lot of fiddly parts.
Curt: But
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: put everything back together, ah slapped it on the camera, and everything, like almost everything worked. um Except there's a, there's a it's fly-by-wire. The whole lens is fly-by-wire. So like the focus is, it's driven like optocouplers drive it, and then it's a motor drive. So there's no physical connections. And like the zoom, same thing, optocouplers drive a zoom motor. um And the there's ah also a zoom override, like a zoom in, zoom out switch.
Curt: And that was broken. Or at least it was just feeding one result. So it was just like, as soon as you powered up the lens, it would go through its cycle of like making sure it was happy. And then it would slowly zoom all the way in.
jamie peacock: Ah, chef.
Curt: And there was no way to zoom it back out.
jamie peacock: ah cheff
Curt: So you'd like, you'd turn it off, camera off, turn it back on. And it would like cycle again. You go back to like your weight, your like telephone or your wide wide angle. And then it would slowly zoom back in. So i was like, okay, obviously the zoom is...
Curt: broken. So I like, you know what? I'm like, fuck it. I've got my, like, I've got my learnings out of this. I put my money into it. I'm not going spend any more time. I'm like, i'm just going to take some pictures of it and I'm going to put it up for sale and just basically tell somebody like, Hey, do you want this lens? It's a great telephoto lens with like optical image stabilization and like nice aperture.
Curt: It doesn't zoom and I'll sell it for like basically what I put into it.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Curt: And And then that was a good idea. And I listed it. And then my brain got the best of me. And it's like, why don't you just piss with it a bit more, Kurt? You could probably like maybe wiggle some connection. I know what the problem is. It's like a super tiny, tiny connector, um but I can't buy that part. So i was like, I could just piss around with it and maybe get it working. And anyways, I took it apart enough times that eventually the original ribbon cable that I bought broke again because it's not meant to be taken apart like five times. So I was like, fuck. I was like,
Curt: So I put it in a box and I put that box in the land of doom in my desk where it just, yeah, so was like, yeah, so I'll use the lens for, I don't know, melting stuff with the sun.
jamie peacock: the yeah the box of shame um yeah
Curt: I don't know. It's a paperweight, but I learned a lot, whatever.
jamie peacock: well just a learning experience yeah yeah no no exactly yeah
Curt: It was a learning experience, yeah. So, I mean, i could bring it I could bring it right back up to the same state again, but why? Like, I've already spent enough time in it, so I know how those things work now. So, I got my, i got my ah what I'm going to get out of it.
Curt: Now I'll just move along.
jamie peacock: Exactly. You don't you buy a whole bunch more lenses?
Curt: So.
Curt: Yeah, that's another topic.
jamie peacock: Oh, yeah, that would be the the other topic.
Curt: but
jamie peacock: Okay, we can come back to that.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Curtain is lens addiction.
Curt: Dude, that's a problem. But, okay, tell me about, ah let me see what is. Tell me about, ah you have one thing here that says you poo, I watch. this Tell me about that.
jamie peacock: Yes. So you know in Project Hail Mary, Rocky's kind of based roughly on a dog?
Curt: Are these to be spoilers so we can let people know?
jamie peacock: and No, not really.
Curt: Okay. Yes.
jamie peacock: Yes. I went to take shit and Danica let the dogs in. So ah it was a team exercise.
Curt: Oh, nice. ah
jamie peacock: You poo, I watch. Both of them sitting there staring at me.
Curt: Yeah, I had my...
jamie peacock: But yeah. She then quotes at Project Hail Mary to me. Well, not quite, but yeah. You poo, I watch.
Curt: My, uh...
jamie peacock: i can
Curt: My, uh...
jamie peacock: My nieces were the same.
Curt: My two... Yeah, I was just gonna say, my two-year-old is, same thing, going through the whole potty training thing, and and she has her own little seat that she puts on, and she fell in once, because she didn't put it on, so now she...
jamie peacock: Yep.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Nice. Swimming lessons.
Curt: Yeah, now she comes to the washroom with me. Same thing, when I'm already in there, and grabs my legs and says, I'll hold you so you don't fall in.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: i was like, thank you, but I...
jamie peacock: ah
Curt: yeah I'm okay, but...
jamie peacock: Oh. Yeah. when my When my nieces were being party trained, you went to the toilet, no, they wanted to wipe your bum for you.
Curt: Oh, yeah. They're all about that.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: yeah
jamie peacock: Yes, it was great. Have children, they said. It'll be fun, they said.
Curt: Yeah. Dogs and children. Kind of the same at that age.
jamie peacock: Oh yes, speaking of speaking of dwarfs, my nephew was on the merry-go-round and then decided to stop holding and broke his arm.
Curt: Okay.
Curt: Oh, no. Oh, no.
jamie peacock: Yeah, broke his arm just just above the wrist.
Curt: Oh,
jamie peacock: Whole arm and a cost up to the shoulder because usually it pops the elbow out as well so they're like, no, we don't want him to damage himself more so immobilized him.
Curt: ah or ah poor little dude.
jamie peacock: It's hilarious.
Curt: I mean, at least they heal crazy fast, but still.
jamie peacock: And yeah, And then they're on the way back from the doctor and my mother-in-law was in the back with him and he threw up on her arm, which is just even better.
Curt: no. What a rough little day.
jamie peacock: okay
Curt: ah
jamie peacock: Yeah. He's a special. And then we saw him we saw him the day it after it happened. He's running around like nothing's changed.
Curt: of course. Yeah, of course.
jamie peacock: Yeah, he was getting annoyed with the sling he had and then he went to the orthopedics and they cast his whole arm in a sling, which is funny as hell. Or in a cast.
Curt: oh
jamie peacock: It's like, yeah, that's what you get for being a dipshit.
Curt: Yeah, well, you learn.
jamie peacock: you
Curt: Yeah, you learn about the how merry-go-rounds work.
jamie peacock: Yeah, and he learn not to fucking and let go. Yeah. Hello, centrifugal force. Okay, I have questions about Alkinox.
Curt: Yeah. Yeah, man, what's your questions?
jamie peacock: Can it be used to clean aluminium?
Curt: I ah believe so. I believe so. i could throw some in here and see what happens.
jamie peacock: I know... Somebody somewhere has a recipe for it on Reddit. Because you can't just buy it everywhere.
Curt: Ooh.
jamie peacock: Yes.
Curt: No, yeah. Yeah, interesting.
jamie peacock: um Someone had a recipe. I don't know where I saw it, but yet someone mentioned there was a recipe for it somewhere. So I'm thinking of maybe attempting it for a cleaning stage in the aluminum or in the anno.
Curt: Yeah, i
jamie peacock: Instead of mechanical scrubbing using Elkinox.
Curt: It would probably... think it'd be fine.
jamie peacock: Probably etch it.
Curt: Like, I know... i I haven't found, like, it hasn't bothered anything I've ever put into it, but I don't deal with much titanium stainless, bronze plastics.
jamie peacock: Yeah, but you are putting titanium into it.
jamie peacock: Okay.
Curt: but I've never put, i don't I don't know if I put aluminum into it or not. I'm trying to think now.
jamie peacock: Yeah, because it's an alkaline based, like a very, very alkaline cleaner.
Curt: Yeah, yeah, totally, yeah. Yeah, hmm, I don't know.
jamie peacock: Effectively caustic soda.
Curt: i'll
Curt: Yeah, yeah, exactly, it's, yeah.
jamie peacock: Not young. So that's thing like aluminium is etched by very, very basic things, or very alkaline things. I know because I have degreaser that will literally strip anodizing off.
Curt: but Oh, yeah.
jamie peacock: Yes, I had a batch of 20 mag bases that I had anodized and we were just cleaning oil off and all of a sudden there was staining and no more anodizing.
Curt: Oh, no. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Like we've literally used it to strip anod off of parts before.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, it's great to get on your hand and then your hand feels funny because there's no oil on your skin.
Curt: yeah
Curt: Yeah, totally. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Like it's it's a hardcore degreaser. But yeah, i was thinking of maybe trying that as a as a step. So I've got a bunch of small stuff I'm going to be needing to anodize. So I was thinking of not having to scrub the fucking things can pre rack them and then put them in something really, really aggressive.
Curt: Yeah, that would probably work. It's funny because Alkinox doesn't feel aggressive, but yeah, it is like it's a pretty aggressive cleaner, I guess, when you think about it.
jamie peacock: yeah yeah yes
Curt: Yeah. Strips. Like you said, put you put your hands in there. First, your hands are really slippery. Like, it's hard to hold anything. And then you rinse the water off them or you rinse it off. and you're like, oh, I have zero oil left on my skin. And my skin feels weird now.
jamie peacock: yeah so don't know i'm just looking to to make the ano process a little easier cause because i've potentially got a bunch of little little parts going to need to be anodized and not my idea of fun
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah. Cleaning sucks.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Cleaning does, and it's a critical part. Like, the anchor point part is not an issue. It's a big fucking part to do one at a time. But when you've got 20 parts on two racks, like, it's a poor leg to clean.
Curt: Yeah, I get that.
jamie peacock: Because you've got to either scrub and then rack, or rack and then hope for the best.
Curt: Yeah, are you going to ultrasonic them or just...
jamie peacock: I don't ultrasonic currently. are just... So currently, acetone soak.
Curt: Okay.
jamie peacock: Then from there, they go...
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: They get hand scrubbed in...
jamie peacock: 45 degree simple green, well, in my case, simple pink. um It's the pink one. fucking They get scrubbed and then washed in there. Then they get rinsed, they get etched, they get rinsed again in that in the simple green, and then they go through ammo.
jamie peacock: And that's been super, super reliable.
Curt: ah Okay.
jamie peacock: Like I very seldom get any funny business going on, but I've also gotten pretty good at and anodizing my own parts, like being very diligent about washing out holes and things like that to prevent runs.
Curt: Right. Yeah.
jamie peacock: So like you get the odd bubble under the pot where it creates a hydrogen bubble or an oxygen air bubble, and then obviously that doesn't get anodized.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: But other than that, like it's I've got it pretty, pretty freaking dialed.
Curt: Right.
jamie peacock: No.
Curt: Yeah, it might help.
jamie peacock: also looking at putting a whole bunch of water tanks in the workshop still.
Curt: I don't know.
Curt: For a bigger setup or?
jamie peacock: ah So I have 200 and something liters of RO water on hand and 200 liters of tap water.
Curt: oh right.
jamie peacock: So when I want to top up the machine, I can walk up to the tap water thing, open a 40 millimeter ball valve, dump a bucket full in like four seconds, close the valve and throw it my machine, not wait a minute or two for the bucket to fill up.
Curt: Yeah, that makes sense.
jamie peacock: Because really, really annoying doing that.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So also was in CAD figuring out how to squeeze another mill into my workshop.
Curt: That would be so tight. I guess it depends how big the mill is.
jamie peacock: Oh yeah, literally you'll have one you'll have one one entrance in the front.
Curt: Okay. yeah
jamie peacock: You'll only be able come in from the one side. um Yeah, I've got a customer who wants me well, they've offered to send me a whole lot more work for two years now. So I'm like, Well, if you want me to do your tool steel work best you guys put a fucking machine down, you put a machine down and we'll make come to an arrangement.
jamie peacock: I'll run your shit at a reduced rate until the equity of the machine is sorted out. Like, if you want to go that route, we can go that route.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So looking what will fit, thinking of getting another drill tap center and moving all my shit onto that and running this on the LK.
Curt: Yeah, it has a rigidity for it, so yeah, why not?
jamie peacock: ah Yeah, that it's rigid enough. I was actually chatting to the guys at WDH about getting a quote on another spindle for the LK because the air purge is not working on mine.
jamie peacock: The spindle is still okay, but I'm getting the odd chip in the taper and it's really frustrating when you machine a part and then you've blown the tolerance because of was a chip in the taper.
Curt: Oh.
Curt: Right, yeah.
jamie peacock: So potentially also might look at if can get a cartridge to switch it to BBT if I'm going to be running tool steel on it. because that'll make a significant difference in rigidity.
Curt: Sure.
jamie peacock: So yeah, I don't know it's <unk> I'm going to go have a meeting with them this week. They want to send work. i like I guess I can get good at machining tool steel. It can't be that hard.
Curt: Hmm.
jamie peacock: Fucking John, I can do it.
Curt: Hmm.
jamie peacock: um Like, also the quality of work that they expect is fucking dog shit. So yeah.
Curt: Oh, okay.
jamie peacock: Like, What comes out of my shop is going be way better. Like i actually had a discussion about this. The reason stuff gets sent to the guy gets sent to us because he's cheap. And the guy's like, yeah, he knows I'm more expensive. He's happy to pay because I'll do twice as much work as the other guy does in the same amount of time.
Curt: Oh, okay. Okay.
jamie peacock: Because I don't fuck around. Like I'm using modern tool parts. I'm using decent tools. So.
Curt: Right. The things that we discovered in the nineties.
jamie peacock: Yeah, exactly.
Curt: Yeah. Yeah.
jamie peacock: So yeah it'll be ah it'll be interesting conversation this week. as to what machine I can fit because it is tight. Very fucking tight. And then I've got to put Samo the Mamo outside in my little shack where my bandsaw is.
jamie peacock: And my bandsaw's got to get squeezed in behind the machines. My office will become the anno setup. My CO2 laser comes into the packing room. um Yeah, like major rearrangements. But I think I have enough space to make it work and it'll make it work for a little while and then build a new shop.
Curt: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
jamie peacock: Because it'll also increase cash flow significantly. So...
Curt: That'd be nice if if they're down with that.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yeah.
Curt: That's not a bad arrangement.
jamie peacock: Well, yeah. That's the thing. like They've offered to get an um industrial space, put a machine down and have me just go work down. Like, no, I'm not commuting. It's not fucking happening. It's not something I'm willing to do.
jamie peacock: um So I mentioned, man, we're going to put a machine another machine in my shop. like Happy to do that. And then you can just send me work and whatever you send me. Basically, the arrangement I'm going to try to push them for is whatever they send me,
jamie peacock: half of that goes towards paying the capital of the machine every month. So not a set machine payment. But if I invoice them 100,000 rand, 50 of that goes to them and the other 50 is to cover running costs.
Curt: Sure. oh Yeah, that's not
jamie peacock: So we'll be running at a very reduced rate for them, but I can still keep running all my other shit at the same time.
Curt: Yeah, yeah, fair.
jamie peacock: Because yeah my big concern is putting tool steel like production tools tool steel stuff onto the LK.
Curt: Yeah, that works.
jamie peacock: We have an incident and now everything else becomes difficult.
Curt: No doubt.
jamie peacock: Like if we throw a part, fuck the spindle up or knock it out a square or something, then everything else is now a fuck up.
Curt: Yeah, no doubt.
jamie peacock: So I don't want to risk it if only have one spindle.
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah. No, I get that. That makes sense.
jamie peacock: no But yeah, it was an interesting conversation with them this week and I think might be a road we go down. I mean, a lot of their parts, it's just blocked with fucking holes.
Curt: Yeah, I mean, it doesn't sound like a bad idea.
jamie peacock: put a bunch of holes in some pockets.
Curt: m
jamie peacock: It's not super complicated work. There's a bit of surfacing, but it's not difficult either. um So yeah, we'll see what the story is. Who's walking past your window, Kurt?
Curt: Why so?
jamie peacock: I see you looking around.
Curt: Oh, no, I thought my door opened coming into here.
jamie peacock: Oh, nice.
Curt: I'm just seeing shadow people. So, no, it's nobody. Nobody.
jamie peacock: The ghosts are visiting.
Curt: no Yeah, the hat man or whatever people call him.
jamie peacock: Nice.
Curt: yeah
jamie peacock: ah nice um yeah hard dude how'd that ult and pen go
Curt: ah Really good. Yeah, it's sitting in my pocket right now. Like I said, I was ah just using the same ah feeds and speeds for the titanium and ah it came out. it's Obviously, it's so smooth because it's titanium riding inside of Ultem.
Curt: um yeah I'm super impressed with it. I was kind of hesitant on and selling it as a production unit because I'm like, well, I want to make the changes. I want to change the threading to be more coarse, um up the body size a little bit to make it more durable. But now that I have it in my hands and that I've been carrying it for like a week,
Curt: I don't know. It might be able to be as is. So, um, yeah, i don't know.
jamie peacock: Oh, okay.
Curt: I'm digging it Lots of people seem to like it. So we'll see.
jamie peacock: Yeah, looks fucking sweet. Yeah, looks really, really cool.
Curt: Thanks, man.
jamie peacock: Like, yeah, piss pen.
Curt: Yeah. Piss pen. Dude, it's so nice to machine plastic after machining titanium for years.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: It's just like, you're just like, oh yeah, nothing matters.
jamie peacock: Oh, yeah. Dude, plastics.
Curt: Like the tools. though Actually, the one thing I do notice is ah for all the, like I did this one with the ISO grid pattern on it.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: If I do alt them, like I'm have to put like just brand new tools in.
jamie peacock: Brand new tool, yeah.
Curt: And then just run as much so as soon as they touch titanium or anything, they get even just the littlest bit dull and plastic.
jamie peacock: Yeah, it doesn't work.
Curt: Just it's so much nicer to have just razor sharp tools for plastic and the last 1000 2000 bodies before I to replace a tool in plastic.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, I've actually got ah I've got a meeting this week at the diesel guys to discuss ah another printing project and design changes and shit.
Curt: So
jamie peacock: And then more of those truck truck housings. And I think I'm going to buy a very specific ball in mill for it. Because I've been using coated 12 millimeter and I'm getting like fluff because it's just not as sharp as a fucking uncoated.
Curt: Okay.
jamie peacock: So I'm gonna see if I get myself uncoated for it to try and just make my life a little bit easier.
Curt: Yeah, yeah.
jamie peacock: Also, I have a lovely wife who offered to buy me a pneumatic vase.
Curt: Ooh, fancy-pancy.
jamie peacock: So I'm going to take her up on that because I want auto part loading.
Curt: Sugar mama.
jamie peacock: Well, like I said to at breakfast yesterday, i'm like, I've got I'm quoting a job this weekend. um It's 5000 small components. It's five part numbers. 1000 of each is the order.
jamie peacock: And it's like, cool, I can fixture them, but I need to fix them reliably.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So I might need to dovetail 1000 blocks of material.
Curt: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
jamie peacock: So if I can part load that, like I've got a bunch of stuff i want to part load, automatic part load, but I don't have the vase, so I'm not making the jump. So she's like, no, if I can, she'll buy it for me. I can sort out for it when orders come through. I'm like, hmm, I like this plan.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: I've already designed the pallet for it, so it goes on the mechanical anchor point. I don't know if you saw my stories this week about the idiot pin.
jamie peacock: I think it was this week.
Curt: Maybe.
jamie peacock: So I made, made, yeah, made Zendai risers for the anchor points, yeah.
Curt: I ring as a bell.
Curt: Yes. Yes, i I saw it then. Yeah.
jamie peacock: um But I made it so it's got four dowel holes, so you can put it either along the X or along the Y axis, and then I made little Delrin pins with an O-ring that you push into one of the holes, so it can only go one way.
jamie peacock: like ah i And it's got a hole through so when you want to take it out, you just blow air up its butt and it shoots out.
Curt: That's smart. Yeah, I like that.
jamie peacock: I was like, Yeah, I like the M code, I set it up and shut those things out quickly, I made like 25 of them quickly.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Because even the um the palette for the other words are hard this morning for the pneumatic force, that'll be able to go either orientation depending on what I want to do.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: So then you just pull out the idiot pin and put in another slot, drop it into the anchor points and go.
Curt: Oh, okay. Nice.
jamie peacock: just to make it easy like if i'm running the same thing day after day and i pull the setup to carry on doing other work and i need to put it back in you don't want now i'll put it that the wrong way because you weren't paying enough attention and then go crash because yeah stupid happens i know ah have experienced it
Curt: Totally. Yeah, no, exactly. Yeah, yeah.
Curt: Just pulling up a link here.
jamie peacock: but i mean uh
Curt: Okay, never mind.
jamie peacock: yeah I've been playing with the the anchor points quite a bit, the palette custom pallets. So this guy is a custom pallet pot. So it's got features on three sides.
Curt: Oh, okay.
jamie peacock: So it's machined from three sides. So I hold it like that, do all the holes, put a hole in the middle for knife maker method. And then I made a pallet that I bolted to, shove it in the fourth axis as an angle plate, do the edge holes, then put it on the anchor points and machine the top side of it.
Curt: Oh, yeah.
Curt: Nice. Nice.
jamie peacock: Same thing with the body. I machine the bottom, and put some holes in it, then it bolts into a fixture, goes into the anchor point as a on the fourth, machine the side holes, then it goes on an anchor point on the table, and I machine the tops.
Curt: Nice. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, so taking advantage of the fourth axis as an angle plate. But yeah, this is going to need some love.
Curt: Well, and then the the advantage of a ah zero pointing everywhere, which is the is the goal, right?
jamie peacock: Yeah. Zero point is the way. it like Doing this is freaking super easy. And making the pallets, the most annoying thing now is when you do knife maker method, you've got to you've got a machine the pallets unless you're making a pallet from scratch. Then you can do it all in off one. But you've got to machine the pallet, then you've put it in a vase to machine the counter balls.
jamie peacock: Really, really annoying to put my two big vases back in every time.
Curt: fair.
jamie peacock: So I want to pick up one of the Zendai Duo longer vase.
Curt: Fair.
jamie peacock: So same 54mm wide, but longer. So want to pick one of those up so that I can put soft jaws on it for doing op 2s on pallets that I can just literally pick up the one hand, snap it on the machine. And then I've got a soft jaw vast to do that.
Curt: Nice. Yeah, was it I was going to say you should make a palette for the anchor point that holds upside down palettes so that you can...
jamie peacock: The problem is the the top of the pallet are not always square.
Curt: he
Curt: Oh, okay.
jamie peacock: So it becomes a bit of ah a bit of a challenge.
Curt: Okay.
jamie peacock: But yeah, I did consider that.
Curt: Okay. Fair, fair.
jamie peacock: Like, I really did consider that. um
Curt: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm.
jamie peacock: Yeah, I can stack upon, like, yeah, just make a super tall stack up of pallets. But yeah, the the anchor point was, like, the zero points on this thing was making life super easy.
Curt: yeah exactly
jamie peacock: even now, I need to go make changes on the balls here um because I have a tolerance stack up when I press the balls in, and it's causing it to not see properly.
Curt: Oh, okay. Okay.
jamie peacock: Yeah. So I need to figure out what's going on. I'm going to change from balls on the bottom to pins. I've got some eight mill ball. just going to turn some pins quickly this morning. Mill slots, drop the pins and see if that solves the issue. Because I think what's happening is of with balls and pins you're going to have six points of contact, except your six points of contact can move along the pin.
jamie peacock: It doesn't have to be exactly on the apex of the ball.
Curt: Right.
jamie peacock: So I'm going to switch that out and see if that solves it because it's got here, just a little bit of play, which there should be none of.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So gonna I've got some spare bodies, I'm goingnna throw it back on the anchor points, throw it in the mill, mill the slots open, drop some pins in and see what happens.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: See if that solves my my issues. And then I can bar rolling elements.
Curt: Yeah. And for.
jamie peacock: So just bar hardened rolling element chrome rolling elements from the supplier who has no stock. And then I've got the same same solution.
Curt: Right. Yeah. And for the listener, this is that, uh, the tool setter mount.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Oh, the toolset amount, yes.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, the quick removal toolset amount that doesn't have magnets in it because magnets in the machine are stupid.
jamie peacock: I also made the the end of the toolset amount of stainless.
Curt: Yeah, that's awesome.
jamie peacock: So that's a threaded on dingus.
Curt: Oh, okay. Okay. Instead of aluminum.
jamie peacock: Yeah, it only threads on like three threads.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: um It's got a one mill pitch thread, so it threads in and then I'll lock out them in before they go and then it's solid.
Curt: but
jamie peacock: like
Curt: Nice. Nice.
jamie peacock: then it's stainless on stainless meshing, not stainless on aluminium.
Curt: Nice.
Curt: Yeah. Fair. Fair.
jamie peacock: And then, yeah, ah do I'm pretty freaking happy with this thing other than the fact that it doesn't work. Everything other than that is great.
Curt: That's a problem, right?
jamie peacock: Yeah, it's a little bit of an issue, but it's not ah it's not an um insuralable insurmountable task to fix.
Curt: ah ah
Curt: Well, and going from physical, like, like going from idea to product one is a huge jump and then it's just incremental little jumps to tweak it.
jamie peacock: So...
Curt: So, yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, I mean, this thing's already had a bunch of changes since I started making it. um Because I realized this there's a pole here that gets a pin to stop the button shooting out.
jamie peacock: So the button is located, well, the button is limited with a slot. But I had that slot the same size as the hole, but potentially there's a misalignment there because the um there's no clocking feature when I put this on the pallet to align it...
Curt: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
jamie peacock: um So that hole could be off bar, whatever the tolerance on the bolt holes, yeah, that hold it down is. So I was like, just open the slot up a little bit bigger, then I don't have to add any additional features.
Curt: right yeah
jamie peacock: Because obviously, the goal is to not add any features, keep it as simple as possible.
Curt: yeah
jamie peacock: So yeah, pretty, pretty happy with how how this has come along so far. um I'm going to literally bolt a ball off the side here to test repeatability.
Curt: Oh, sick. Okay. Good idea.
jamie peacock: Yeah, so I'm going to put like a parallel or something, clamp it down, and then measure out here so that we're going to see if there's any repeatability issues.
Curt: Yeah. yeah
Curt: Yeah. Interesting.
jamie peacock: Yeah, so we'll see.
Curt: That's cool.
jamie peacock: This has been shooting along in the background over the last few days while doing other dumb shit. Got to make some magwells and then realize, shit, i don't have brass. It's not the size brass that I have a whole bunch of.
Curt: Hmm.
jamie peacock: So now I've got a source one inch by two inch brass.
Curt: Fun, no? Spendy, yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, it's going to be fucking spendy. So I've got to now figure out where to buy like half a meter. Oh, I've got to buy about a meter of it to make the 10 mag bases I need to make.
jamie peacock: Oh, mag wells.
Curt: that'd be a stick. That'd be a spendy little chunk of
jamie peacock: Yeah, it's going to be spendy. going have to buy, don't want to buy three meter length because that's going to just be stupidly expensive. And I only need like 700 mils.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So i think I'm going to reach out to Metal Center and see if they'll do 700 mils for me. I might even just get them to cut it to the blanks that I need.
Curt: but fervor
jamie peacock: And then just go go pick up. but jar Yeah, to tolerance stackups. Making this thing not work right now.
Curt: Yeah, i've we both played that game now.
jamie peacock: Yes, it sucks.
Curt: It's funny how those things bite you in the ass. Yeah. yeah
jamie peacock: Yeah. how did your How did your production go? I see you sent out passwords.
Curt: ah Yeah, no, it went great. um Like I said, majority of this batch was kind of snapped up by my corporate customer who just kind of blindsided me.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: And then I had some other people that were waiting on bigger orders. And anyways, yeah, got basically everything out and then sent passwords for everything that I had on Friday. And I have a ton of spots still open. So there'll probably be more passwords going out early next week. By the time you hear this, it'll probably already have been happened. So this is pointless to talk about. But yeah, so that's good.
Curt: I'm happy about that.
jamie peacock: look Okay. Yeah, nice.
Curt: Yeah, I did a bunch of... ah like a bunch and i had a Whenever I do like a nebula finish, like that entropic finish, I always do way more than I need because the likelihood of me fucking them up is like super, super high.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: So for this batch, i just I had a ton of just parts that were just sitting, so I used those ah to make up a batch just to...
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: get them out of here so they don't start getting stale. I don't mind sitting on serial numbers for a little bit, but I hate sitting on them too long because then it starts to get weird. So I'm just like, get them out of here. So yeah, happy. i feel i feel I feel lighter when that happens.
jamie peacock: Okay, fair enough.
Curt: Like when I have stock and it goes away, it's like old.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: just like, ah, better. I feel better now. So yeah, excited.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Clearing out the old the old stock.
Curt: Yeah, totally. just like not like it It's not like that old, but in my mind, it's it's weighing in my mind. So it's nice to get it out of here.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Oh, you also space is at a premium.
Curt: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I can hold them in my mouth, but still, it's nice to get them out, yeah.
jamie peacock: You know, they add up eventually.
Curt: Eventually, yeah.
jamie peacock: and Eventually, like seven years from now, Kurt can't speak anymore because his mouth is full of nebula parts.
Curt: Well, and that's the thing, like, all these people all these people are talking about, like, ah sending their carbide in, because carbide is just so expensive right now, or um or the prices anyways.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: So was like, oh, I should send it. I'm like, oh, wait, I work with small shit. and Like, I literally have what would be a, just, six inch by four inch by two inch box.
Curt: So I don't know, sila half a loaf of bread.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: And that holds all the carbide in existence that I've ever used. but So it's like, it's going to weigh at most five pounds, like maybe 10, maybe 10 pounds.
jamie peacock: Yeah, i've ah I've got six, just on six, six and a half pounds worth of carbide since I started J-Spec. Like all my inserts and that got thrown in a blicky and yeah, I'm going to take it in because it's still not a small amount of money.
Curt: Okay. So yeah.
jamie peacock: um so I'm going to take it in at some point, but to take it in is like a 60 kilometer drive.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So I'm like, ah not that keen on taking it in.
Curt: Oh, yeah.
jamie peacock: I might go fishing and take it in after going fishing because it's right by the dam I go to. And now that my truck is fixed, I can actually go and do things.
Curt: Oh, nice.
Curt: Oh, cool. That's good.
jamie peacock: Yeah, I can took it in cam belt service, had them fit the new brake balancer.
Curt: Figured it.
jamie peacock: Yeah, not a cheap endeavor, but it's now working again.
Curt: That's good. It's cheaper than a new vehicle, so...
jamie peacock: So yeah, so at least I have a vehicle because using the mother and law mobile is getting old.
Curt: Yeah, especially if it comes with a mother-in-law.
jamie peacock: Yeah, so.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yes, rather let her go crash by herself.
Curt: Mm-hmm. Ooh. Mm-hmm.
jamie peacock: It's fucking terrifying driving with her good God.
Curt: ah
jamie peacock: but yeah So how's your solo learning? Well, actually, before we do solo learnings, we have Patreons. And the Patreons make the wheels on the train go round and round. AJ finds that super entertaining that we call our Patreons train enthusiasts. But I think it is a pretty fitting description of our Patreons.
jamie peacock: ah Yeah, our Patreons all get access to the after show where we talk a bunch of shit usually.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Usually stuff that we don't really want to share on the podcast or Project Hail Mary reviews or whatever. um Yeah, it tends to be all over the show. The top tier Patreons, they get a shout out every week.
jamie peacock: um But thank you to all of them. And that is all going towards INTS and the fun shenanigans that are going to go down there. But yeah, special thanks to Jade from Benchmark20, Luke from Fabtastic, AJ from Subtract Manufacturing and 37 other companies, Jason S, EJ from Nocturnal Welding, Darzy Machinist, Christian Olson, Charles Watt, Kyle from Cursed Machine, Matt from Offworld Gear, Alex B, John from Tourism Performance and Engine Tricks, and our new Patreon, Matt from Modern Fuel.
jamie peacock: Thank you, guys.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: And yeah, you keep the wheels on the train going round and round.
Curt: Cool.
Curt: That is awesome.
jamie peacock: So Kurt, tell me about your solo learnings.
Curt: jess So, ah like I said, ah last week, whatever, i had a solar... person um and knock on my door and try to sling me product. And then that just steam threw me down the rabbit hole. Like I've been wanting to put solar on my home.
Curt: So um I just, i so then I got a bunch of quotes from people. And the more I learned, the more I realized every single company here is basically using the exact same panels, pretty much the exact same like inverter systems. There's a few different ways you can go.
Curt: They're using the exact same shit, which is,
jamie peacock: yeah yeah
Curt: like insanely simple to work. It's like, it's all plug and play. um The most complicated bit is getting the, you get a a different meter ah put in so they can run forward backwards, essentially. um So you can buy, sell from the grid.
Curt: That's the longest procedures. I contact the power company, getting them to do that. um And then then they do the system install. and I'm like, you know what? I'm like, there is there's few things in life that I don't like to do. Like, for instance, I'm getting my fence built this summer.
Curt: I don't i could build fence myself. It doesn't make any sense. I don't want to build a fence. Fences are boring.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yeah.
Curt: There's people that can build fences for me. Putting a solar on my house for the price that they're charging, when I like average it, like, okay, I could probably put, like, I could buy all the panels. I could buy everything. And I could probably put it on my house.
Curt: I would say less than a week. I could have everything fully done. And then when I value that, like that costs about $15,000.
Curt: Um, just, just the install. So I'm like $15,000. fifteen thousand dollars Like, would I pay myself $50,000 to just walk? And I, like, I do a problem. I'm not going to go my roof and like fall off my roof and kill myself. going put a harness on and do all the ja jazz.
Curt: Um, so do I want to do that? So, uh, I was kind of in float, not idea too. Cause I'm like, well then I can do exactly how want it to. I don't have to like go by these people and like, and then if they put a panel on my roof and it's not like, it's not aligned or square, like it's going to drive me
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: insane like i'm going to go up there and fix it if they have it askew and like anyways uh so it's kind of been floating through my head um yeah now i'm up to 11 and a half kilowatts so uh and that's that's as high as i can go uh without the power company getting mad at me unless unless i wait an entire year and i like i said for us it's it's based on your historical use so
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Just run a space heater for the whole year.
Curt: Dude, so many people do that. So many people do. But there's also no um penalty to upsize your system. So you can put like a whatever. can put an 11.5 kilowatt system on my house and then use a shit ton of power for the next year and then be like, oh, I need to upgrade to 15 kilowatt.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: And be like, oh, yeah, of course you can because you're using it. So it's not.
jamie peacock: Okay.
Curt: Yeah, it works. So anyways. I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it. It's ah the payout.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: If I do it myself that way, and then ah even if I paid myself, I would still charge less than a company is going to charge. And then ah the payout is just much faster.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: I'm don't know. I'm considering it. We'll see. We'll see how it goes.
jamie peacock: Yeah, the solar stuff's not or the inverters. It's not fucking complicated. I installed my own inverter. I pulled in a sub DB when I did it.
Curt: Dude. Yeah.
jamie peacock: It's fucking it's not hard. The solar stuff's a little scary because the voltages get really high really quickly.
Curt: No.
Curt: Yeah, well, that's the thing is all these ones are um like for the most part, the there's a higher efficiency. It depends if you're doing battery backups and all this stuff. But yeah, you either have a shit ton of like a DC power coming down to your panel or the ones that I'm considering.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: They basically flip them over to AC at the point.
jamie peacock: Oh, okay, so they've got mini inverters on them.
Curt: um
Curt: Exactly, yeah. So you have a whole shit ton of mini inverters, um which gives you a ton of failure points, but it also gives you a ton of small failure points instead of just one giant failure point.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Ton of redundancy, yeah.
Curt: Yeah, so you get one panel goes down is big deal.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: The system is still active instead of, you know, the entire.
jamie peacock: Yeah, that's what they're doing on all the shopping centers It's putting solar on the parking lots, and they've all got mini inverters.
Curt: It's a great idea, right? It's yeah. And then in that case, it's not really like you're only dealing with a few hundred volts and, you know.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: ah
jamie peacock: Yeah, 220 volt AC, that's fine. That'll only make you have a bad day.
Curt: Yeah, it's.
jamie peacock: Like the 500, 500 volt DC, you're going have a fucking shit day if that zaps you.
Curt: Yeah, exactly. It's not going to.
Curt: yeah That's a rough time.
jamie peacock: Like, yeah.
Curt: Yeah, DC is scary. Yeah, DC is very scary.
jamie peacock: Yeah. No, because that's the thing, like coming in you're bringing in these, some stupid voltages that you've got to handle.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: And the problem is sun's shining and you're connecting. Like, if the sun's shining, the voltage is there.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Like, best you be ready.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So, yeah, i'll install it not.
Curt: he
jamie peacock: Oh,
Curt: Exactly. That's all the issues. But anyway, yeah, the more I learned, the more I realized they're all just the same people selling the same shit.
jamie peacock: yeah.
Curt: So, but yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah. No, 100%. It's the same shit, just different companies. But john that actually might not be a bad plan to go with the mini-inverters.
Curt: Yeah. I was going to go the other way.
jamie peacock: Because I wouldn't mind running some of my stuff off of solar.
Curt: But yeah, I mean, like you have, yeah you have the sunlight, you have the daylight, so why not?
jamie peacock: Yeah, I know. We got fucking sun most days. like So I was going to put a solar setup.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: if We got an EV. It's charged EV. But...
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, that's only reason I would put solar. I have a 20 kilowatt Jenny. If the power is off, it's a generator on. I need to work.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: To put in a solar system big enough to run the machines is just not going to fucking happen.
Curt: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
jamie peacock: Yeah, so.
Curt: So, and if, like i said, if I couldn't sell back at, like I could sell back at three to one right now. So if I, and if I couldn't do that, there's no point, like why, why?
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Exactly.
Curt: But if I'm selling, I'm selling back at, I buy it at eight cents a kilowatt hour and I can sell back at 33.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: So that's four, four X.
jamie peacock: Oh, wow.
Curt: So yeah, it's, it's pretty solid.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: That's over the summer, but still.
jamie peacock: that's
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, but that's very much worthwhile then.
Curt: Oh yeah. Yeah. ROI is pretty short at that point.
jamie peacock: Because our meters here, my brother-in-law, so he owned the house, then he sold the house, moved to Durban, decided to have an involuntary disco dance, moved back to Joburg, rented the house from the guy he sold it to, and in the interim he had put it in solar.
jamie peacock: And they were burning through power and they couldn't figure it out. It was feeding back to the grid, but if it feeds back to the grid, yeah, it bills you for it at the same rate as using power.
Curt: What?
jamie peacock: Yes, because our meters aren't made for it.
Curt: Oh.
jamie peacock: So he's like, fuck, we're using so much power. What the hell? Turns off the solar system, all of a sudden their power usage dropped. So they had set it up incorrectly that it was selling back to the grid and charging you to sell back to the grid.
Curt: Oh. Brutal.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Fucking Africa. Not for the faint of heart.
Curt: yeah
jamie peacock: Because I was getting quotes on cables now.
Curt: ah
jamie peacock: Because obviously if I put another machine in, I need more power. So then pulling the second the second power supply through to my workshop for the second machine.
Curt: Mm.
jamie peacock: Then I've got 44 kilowatts of power.
Curt: Mm.
jamie peacock: um
Curt: Ooh, nice.
jamie peacock: Yeah. But I mean, that cable is not super expensive, but trenching it is.
Curt: Yeah, fair.
jamie peacock: So I would probably trench it and have a bit of extra. So that if I'm going to trench, I may as well trench both cables in for when I move to the new, when build a new shop.
jamie peacock: So I was thinking of trenching a across, trenching down to the current garage with two cables, pulling them both in, just terminating one and then having one to ah to a DB with a bit of extra cable.
Curt: Sure.
jamie peacock: That when I build the new shop, I can untrench to the gate and then run where I need to run.
Curt: bright right right right
jamie peacock: little bit sketchy, but not the worst thing I've done.
Curt: yeah well and i mean the nice thing about this i all my my learnings uh led me to my my power company and i think i can up my home service my home service is only it's 220 100 amp um i can up it yeah i can up it to 125 with basically zero change uh because my panel will support it and so will my line and then i think i can up it to 150
jamie peacock: yeah that's what i've got i've got two of those yeah
Curt: without uh with a panel change and the the feed to the house is the same so that's it'd be a pretty inexpensive upgrade to 150 amps and then going to 200 i think i have to do a new line from the street um
jamie peacock: okay yeah yeah so we we got a good year we got two power supplies 200 and power supplies one for the house, one for the cottage. So when my mother-in-law built the cottage, she got a separate power supply added.
Curt: nice right
jamie peacock: So we actually have all three phases in our little sub box, but we only use two phases, one for each property. So what I'll do is I'll just trench two cables and then I've got two suppliers. I'll steal her power meter and be like, you don't buy electricity anymore, lady, because what you use is inconsequential compared to the machines.
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah, not totally.
jamie peacock: And then I'll just, I'll manage power on both both incoming lines and use all 100 amps.
Curt: Well, you want I want to get real freaking fancy. I got some high tension lines that are about like less than a kilometer from my house. So, and those are like 50,000 volts at God knows how many amps.
jamie peacock: Yeah, nice.
Curt: yeah
jamie peacock: Just think how fast your machine will go on that much voltage.
Curt: Right. Exactly.
jamie peacock: yeah So fast the smoke will shoot out. oh
Curt: The smoke will shoot out of me too. Actually, the and price missed mist will shoot out of me at that voltage.
jamie peacock: Yeah, geez.
Curt: Anyways.
jamie peacock: yeah over um
Curt: Oh,
jamie peacock: In 15 days, there's an open house at the local sal dealer.
Curt: Oh cool, okay.
jamie peacock: Yeah, so I'm thinking of going through to go look at their X5s and their X7s, just for shits and giggles.
Curt: Yeah, it'd be fun to take a peek, yeah, take some pictures.
jamie peacock: Yeah, I saw i saw an X5 at Machine Tool Africa in 2024. Yeah, I don't fit through the door. It's bit annoying. My shoulders are too wide.
Curt: Yeah, fair.
jamie peacock: The door is not big on that fucking thing.
Curt: It's not a big door. Yeah.
jamie peacock: like Yeah, it...
Curt: No, I'm bumping into the doors, yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, it wouldn't be my first choice in machine, even though it's considerably cheaper than the machines i'm looking at, um just because of access and whatnot.
Curt: I do wish it came more towards me. And like, it comes over lefty-righty, like X, it's pretty good.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: But Y, it'd be nicer if it scooted up a little closer, because it's it's a bit of a stretch in there.
jamie peacock: Came closer. Yeah.
Curt: Yeah. I mean, it's a tiny-ass machine, so it's not that big a deal, but still.
jamie peacock: So, I don't know. It might be an... Yeah, it might be an option to move all my aluminum stuff onto an X5, because most of what I do will fit in an X5 pretty happily.
Curt: Yeah. Yeah.
jamie peacock: ah Most of what I do is not more than, like, 200 millimeters long.
Curt: Yeah. Yeah, you have tons of room, yeah.
jamie peacock: So, yeah, I mean, I've got some big stuff that I do, but that can always just stay on the LK.
Curt: Well, tons.
jamie peacock: Like, there's no reason to to really move it over. Although, y'all we'll see. I will... I kind of prefer the idea of the Zappo 600mm machine, because then it keeps basically 90% of what I do, I can still do.
jamie peacock: It's just the tufnel that'll have to stay on the LK.
Curt: Like you said, it would be nice to have a machine that you can basically swap almost any job to if you needed to.
jamie peacock: Yeah, exactly.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Because yeah the anchor points will come out of the LK then. And go in, because then I'd set the, okay, put the riser for doing plate work and steel work and whatnot and vases and shit like that.
jamie peacock: Whereas, yeah, the next five, no, there's not enough travel for 90% of what I'm going to need to do tool steel vases.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So I like having the bigger travel for it.
Curt: Yeah, sure.
jamie peacock: um So well I want to know about how you're trading your house for machines.
Curt: Yeah. Cool. Tell.
Curt: ah um So that was a. ah Same thing. So um i went to the bank, which I should, well, I went to the bank years ago looking for basically funding for my machines.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: i was like, I want a loan. And they're like, ah yeah, you don't have enough.
jamie peacock: For your habit, yes.
Curt: Yeah. You don't have enough. have My habit. You don't have enough business history for us to to trust you.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: I'm like, yeah. Okay. Well, fair. um And they're like, oh do you have like guaranteed orders? I'm like, yeah, I can, I can get you that if you need. And they're like, okay. And then anyways, it was just heinous rates for any kind of lending.
Curt: So I basically privately financed the style when I bought it because I had and no way. um But then i I realized, I was like, I have like i have my home and we paid a decent amount to our mortgage. um
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: So we're looking meowor for looking at just like our home equity line. and cri Because like it's you can borrow against it cheaply. And if you have any other loans, which which then got me thinking, because I'm like well, we don't really need the cash, but like we'll look we're going to apply for it.
jamie peacock: Yes.
Curt: And then you have it then if you ever need want the cash, you have it in your,
jamie peacock: Easy to get it when you don't need it
Curt: you ah Precisely, right? It's like it takes three, four weeks to get it. And then looking at the solar stuff too, I'm like, well, like you look at the rates that, you know, some of these, there's all kinds of benefits in Canada and there was all kinds of different loans that zero percent.
Curt: Anyways, besides the point, um a whole equity line of credit loan is about the cheapest rate you're going to pay almost anywhere. So like like my wife still has a little bit owing on her vehicle where it's like, well, let's just completely pay off your vehicle because even if it's a percent or two higher, then...
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Curt: our home. Like why would, and it just, we just, me and her just got thinking, it's like, as soon as you have a little bit of money in the world, everything just gets like a little bit easier. Like you have equity in your house. Like it just, it's, it's almost unfair because like if people can, if you can never get enough money to buy it like a house, you kind of never get to the point where you can like put equity into it a home. And then once you have that, then you can like be your own bank. So like,
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: like anything like you buy, I mean, phones are pretty good because they're almost all 0% nowadays, but like go buy a phone and then instead of using their loan, like loan yourself, like be your own bank and pay way less interest than all these.
Curt: Anyways, this got me thinking. And then i was just like, Hey, I could use this for machines. i was like, I could not, but I'm like, it just gets around the whole issue of like them being like, well, we need all your dust, all of this, all of this, all of this. I'm like, I know I can make the payments. I just need the, I just need to prove it to you that I need, like, i just need the cash. I don't need the,
Curt: and you If I could just pay for, yeah, if I could pay a machine, like a reseller monthly, I'd be i'd be golden, but they don't like that.
jamie peacock: Yeah, all the bureaucracy.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: They want all their money. So it's like, that's the part. And then I was like, well, this solves it, but.
jamie peacock: Yeah, unless it's Haas, then they don't mind.
Curt: Even Haas here, i don't have enough. I have to have three years of business history to deal with them.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: But yeah, their rates are ridiculous. Like if I would 100% go them because they're bottom of the barrel.
jamie peacock: Oh no, their rates are fucking stupid.
Curt: Like i understand why everyone buys a Haas machine because they're cheap.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, no, it's fucking dumb.
Curt: Yeah. So anyway, just kind of interesting.
jamie peacock: So not interesting. Yeah.
Curt: Yeah, just...
jamie peacock: Fucking can having equity in assets helps.
Curt: Yeah, well, it's like, and i was just joking with the bank. i'm like, oh, it works out well. Because like, yeah, and like, if I make a mistake, you just steal my house. He's like, well, he's like, that's why we don't, we never lend out more than 80% of your value.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: I'm like, no, I get it. I'm not, I'm not just being silly, but I'm like, it's it's funny how, oh, go ahead.
jamie peacock: Yeah. I was actually watching a thing. was watching a thing on shipping. And generally speaking, the owner of the ship is not the one operating it. So like people or a company, a shell company will buy a ship.
jamie peacock: And if they want buy another ship, they spin up another shell company.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: And then they lease the ship out to the to the actual shipping agents. And like very, very interesting. And it's so volatile that you can buy a ship for $150 million it's $80 million.
jamie peacock: and tomorrow it's worth eighty because demand is not there.
Curt: Wow. Wow.
jamie peacock: Like, it's insane how how it fluctuates. But a lot of the guys will buy a ship and then they'll hedge it. Like, okay, no, we see there's going to be a downturn coming.
jamie peacock: Let's fucking sell the ship off quickly or scrap the ship to make sure we don't end up in a hole. Like, it's super, super interesting.
Curt: Wow.
jamie peacock: Yeah. And most of them are owned by the Greeks.
Curt: oh
Curt: Interesting.
jamie peacock: Yeah. It's fucking very interesting. Like, a couple of Greek families own a lot of the ships in the world.
Curt: Weird. Yeah, I'd imagine ships would be spendy, but yeah.
jamie peacock: it's Yeah, they are. And the price is not based on just raw material. It's raw material and de demand. So when there's high demand, then then all of a sudden the ship's like three times the price.
Curt: Sure, yeah.
Curt: Right, right.
jamie peacock: So, yeah, really, really interesting, the the whole economics of it.
Curt: Right.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, so I see the last two are basically the fucking same.
Curt: Tell me, uh, you got anchor points and anchor points. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about those then. Or if you already spoke on them, I don't know
jamie peacock: Yes, I did, but I'll speak on them again because anchor points fucking cool. um Yeah, I've been using my anchor points a lot this week, like just if fucking blasting through pallets.
Curt: know.
jamie peacock: Also, now I have the little Zendaya vise on the pallets. I need to make soft jaws for it because I'm going to start using that more for soft jaw stuff just because it's easier than lifting the two four-inch vises into the machine because they're fucking heavy.
Curt: Mm.
Curt: Sure.
jamie peacock: Yeah. because then I can do my my two self-centrings with gripper jaws for doing Op 1 and then just pop into the little Zendai for Op 2. And then, yeah, I made little Zendai pallets.
jamie peacock: Some should be arriving this week with Dylan from Got Chips to do some testing for me.
Curt: OK.
jamie peacock: And then, yeah, I was using Anker Point pallets for making the not-so-working tool post or tool set amounts. But, yeah, just...
jamie peacock: using uh yeah what's it's uh yeah using my own supplier like in yeah exploiting them for what they are intended for like zero points like it works super super well so i actually have some thoughts on your machine setup but we will chat about that in after show
Curt: Yeah, nice.
Curt: Yeah, I know. I look at it every day. i see your I see your anchor points.
jamie peacock: and then
Curt: I see the zero points. I'm like, i'm gonna I got to move to this. Actually, I think as soon as I get these, um ah if if these fidgets do go, then i'm going to have to make the switch because it will it won't kill me, but it'll just be an it'll be a good a good point to switch.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yes.
jamie peacock: It'll be very tedious.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah. It's a lot of commitment to switch. Like, it's a lot of upfront effort and commitment to make the switch, but fucking worth every second.
Curt: I think what I need is I need another X5 right beside this one that I could switch. And then when that one's running, I can switch back and then everything.
jamie peacock: There we go.
jamie peacock: Well, well, you have equity in your house.
Curt: Yeah, that would be the best way to do it.
Curt: ah Yeah, I know, right? It's like, fuck.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah, so...
jamie peacock: it's a But yeah, i think I think I have a solution that will work for your tiny-ass machine.
Curt: It's not tiny. It's adequately sized.
jamie peacock: I have the solution that will work for your adequately-sized machine, Kurt.
Curt: I hear they like the smaller ones.
jamie peacock: Yeah, we'll... Yeah, if it's too big, it hurts, apparently.
Curt: Less scary. yeah that's so Yeah, exactly.
jamie peacock: Oh, fuck.
Curt: It's not intimidating. oh
jamie peacock: He's classed for days of the podcast here. Yeah, so the PixCut S1.
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: Yes.
jamie peacock: Yeah, the dickheads don't ship to South Africa.
Curt: Ah, okay. Okay.
jamie peacock: went and found one on their website, and South Africa is not a listed shipping destination, which very fucking frustrating, because I'd like to make my own stickers.
Curt: And this is, yeah, the like the the printer, sticker cutter, kind of all in one.
jamie peacock: Yeah, it's a little, yeah, it's a little printer and then does the cutouts as well a sweet little looking, sweet looking machine. I'll try to find one on AliExpress, no luck. um Or Amazon, no luck.
Curt: think it's ah I think it uses also the same, ah what do they call it? Not the CMYK process, but it's it's the same way that, ah like, I have a little photo printer that, ah and it like i prints, well, it prints, like,
jamie peacock: Yes.
Curt: cyan, magenta, like all the, what do they call that? It's a specific type. You get a nice high quality print out of it and the ink is like, it's it's not ink, it's like it, forgot what it's called now.
jamie peacock: Yeah, they look...
Curt: Anyway, it's more better than inkjetting because it's waterproof.
jamie peacock: Yeah, so... Apparently, i can order this and have it delivered to South Africa. It's just fucking brutally expensive.
Curt: Thermal dye sublimation. That's the word. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Okay.
Curt: So, as opposed...
jamie peacock: Proceed to check out.
Curt: Buying shit on the podcast.
jamie peacock: I doubt that this is actually going to... Yeah, I know.
Curt: Buying shit on the podcast.
jamie peacock: I don't think this is actually going to ship to South Africa. Also, it doesn't know my password. Cool, we're done. um Yeah, also filled the wrong password. Couldn't be bothered. And also quite spendy for what it is.
jamie peacock: um
Curt: What's it worth?
jamie peacock: At least via Amazon, 5,100 Rand.
Curt: I didn't even...
jamie peacock: So South Africa. three hundred dollars three hundred and eleven dollars including shipping tis on africa
Curt: Oh, shit, yeah. that's
jamie peacock: So not not ungodly expensive. My question then becomes the consumables.
Curt: no.
Curt: Oh, 100%. That's what I'm looking for right now is how much the, how much the.
jamie peacock: Yeah. So I was looking at the consumables for it, and they were like $42 for like 70 sheets and the toner cartridges or ink cartridges.
Curt: Oh.
jamie peacock: It wasn't ungodly expensive.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: The problem is if I've got to buy I've got to buy it from the overseas.
Curt: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, fair.
jamie peacock: And that's where it gets where it gets a little bit expensive. 72 sheets of the adhesive version, plus 90 sheets of sticker paper and three cartridges.
jamie peacock: As it looks like, yeah, so I don't know.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: um yeah the the one I was looking at for $311 only has 18 sheets of the stickers. I was like, what the fuck am I going to with 18 sheets? I'm gonna run out.
Curt: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
jamie peacock: Like... So, yeah, I don't know. I want one. i might just wait till later in the year and pick one up while I'm outside of the world.
Curt: I like it for the reason of it being a little machine, but literally in every, every financial sense, it doesn't make any sense.
jamie peacock: Yes.
Curt: Even if you were just wanting to do goof off stickers, like ah a different sticker every month, it still doesn't make sense.
jamie peacock: No.
jamie peacock: No. So, like, yeah, getting decent stickers here. We've got a sticker lady. I need to actually reach out and get some stickers made. Yeah. They're cheap as fuck. Like they are literally cents per sticker.
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: And yeah, I'll just reach out. The only thing is they don't loose die cut them. So they die cut, but they're in a fucking sheet. So then you have a sort of pair of scissors, which kind of fucking sucks.
Curt: Oh, bummer.
jamie peacock: Yeah, but they're also literally cents per sticker.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So like we ordered a whole an A1 size sheet before IMTS last year. Danik and I sat and watched TV and just cut stickers apart and came to IMTS with like four five hundred stickers.
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: Nice. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, all different ones, South African themed, like, don't be a side, be like a, yeah, which Al thought was fucking hilarious.
Curt: Bright. ah
Curt: Sick. Yeah, that's cool.
jamie peacock: So, yeah, like we, so, you know, I saw the review on Tested, and that's how I got, that's how found it.
Curt: Yeah, I just assumed it was like going to have to watch one untested because I've only seen like TikTok reviews and I'm like, oh, 100% this product doesn't exist.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Like, this is just a scam, but it's kind of cool.
jamie peacock: Yeah, norm did a Norm did a review of it and it looked look decent.
Curt: Oh, cool.
jamie peacock: yeah So I'd say check it out.
Curt: Oh, cool. i'm gonna watch that later then.
jamie peacock: um So what more lenses did you buy?
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: I have banned myself from marketplace now because I find too much cool shit.
jamie peacock: Good.
Curt: I found that optical comparator that's still sitting right beside me. I don't need it. um Found a shit ton of cameras don't need. And then I found a shit ton of lenses this guy was selling. And i was like, yes, that's what I need. So because I've ah I've already broken one lens.
Curt: So I'm like, i may as well add to my queue.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: But no, this was these were some vintage lenses. And I kind of like I have an old Pentax that I like shooting. And it has some uh it has an old lens a 50 millimeter uh super takuma takumar uh lens which is like it looks pretty i like the way it looks i just take pictures of my family and i i like the look of it so this guy was selling like three of those plus uh another things plus he gave me a lens ball which is just like a big crystal ball so um
jamie peacock: Oh, cool.
Curt: And he gave me like a camera bag and then another, a modern Sony lens with it. And like, ah yeah, he wanted like 300. I said, you would, you do two 50. And he's like, yeah, sure. And I looked it up. I'm like, I kind of,
Curt: kind of feel like I screwed the dude. I should have gave him 300.
jamie peacock: Kind of lowballed him. Yeah.
Curt: Kind of feel bad driving away. I was like, oh, that was a really good deal. But anyways, he obviously wanted it gone because he wanted a new shit.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: um And who else is going to buy this stuff? Like, right?
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Some dork like me. So anyways, I got a bunch of fun ones to play with now. And the crystal ball I gave him. Actually, my wife immediately stole it from me. um because She's a witch and she likes that stuff.
jamie peacock: Liberated.
Curt: Yeah, I text her. I'm like, guess what? I got you a crystal ball. And she was just like, oh, And I sent her a picture and then she was all jazzed. So like, I didn't even get in the door and she already stole it. So it's somewhere in the house now, but so yeah, anyways, but that's ah just a hack.
jamie peacock: lovely. a
Curt: um If people have cameras out there, a lot of those old lenses, they still work just if you're fine with manual focus, they work fine and they work great for video.
jamie peacock: Yep.
Curt: Cause nine times out of 10, I'm using manual focus when I'm shooting video. And like, they're usually like all those lenses, the lenses I have are like apertures are like 1.4, 1.7.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Like they're really fast lenses. They let lots of light in. And they're like, they're good to build like tanks. They're all steel. Like they're they're really nice pieces of, ah and they're all made in Japan, like really nice gear.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: So anyways, if you're looking for a cheap ways to try lenses, vintage lenses are nice and they got a cool look to them. So yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, they look vintage, which is cool.
Curt: Yeah. i don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They look sharp, but they still give you a kind of like a, I don't know They look nice. I like them. So yeah, that's my fun.
jamie peacock: OK, OK, it's lensing lensing endeavors.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: So what?
Curt: it's fun. It's a fun hobby.
jamie peacock: What is in your Google box?
Curt: ah basically everything that we just talked about. I put your pics cut in my Google box because I'm going to piss around with that.
jamie peacock: I saw you put that in there. Ooh.
Curt: Solar panels, boring stuff. Artemis stuff because why if you're listening to this, you should you should obviously be watching that.
jamie peacock: Yeah, obviously. Yeah.
Curt: Updates on that. that's like the It's the Apollo of our era right now.
jamie peacock: Yeah, the outlook broke. It's fucking hilarious.
Curt: yeah Yeah. yeah um and ah Yeah. And a hard coat titanium anodizing. I've been talking with a few guys who are messing around with it and I didn't think anyone else was messing around with it because I was toying with it in the dark.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Anyways, I found a few ah few other guys that are toying with it now. So we're we're comparing notes and trying to make trying to make everyone better. So yeah. How about ah um but you? What's in your box of Google's?
jamie peacock: Um, the Elevate Muse, which is basically a DGR pocket three, Osmo Pocket three, ah except skirting the DGR ban in the US.
Curt: Oh yeah. Yeah. I've seen that. Yeah. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Looking up Arbor presses because Dave the Rave needs an Arbor press and literally cheaper to buy brand new one than to buy second hand one on Marketplace because South Africa. um Looking up z Zappo machine tools because again, another mill.
jamie peacock: And then was looking up dial pins last night, which I don't think I need. Because I took the locating knobby off, and now this thing is rigid as fuck.
Curt: Hmm.
jamie peacock: So I think I have a solution for that, but we'll discuss that in the after show, where our Patreons get to hear the revelations Jamie has during podcasts.
Curt: Hmm.
Curt: Ooh.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: go um Yeah, that's...
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: ah Oh, yes, there's ah one thing we didn't discuss was Kayleigh's Cairns video. There's a link in the doobly-doo about that.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Making a titanium suppository.
Curt: oh
jamie peacock: um
Curt: That's a big one.
jamie peacock: Yeah, awaken where can people find you and your stuff, Kurt?
Curt: You can find me and my stuff at confoundedmachine.com. And ah yeah, I don't know, points to everywhere else you would ever want to find information on me or the podcast or anything. So confoundedmachine.com.
jamie peacock: nice uh yeah day-to-day happenings in the shop at jspec underscore engineering on instagram apparently it's early in the morning yes i yawn a lot um you can find some other stuff at jspeceng.com including the online store that has all the merch and shirts and flux and then for any work holding stuff you can find us at nauticalwh.com if you search nautical work holding it now comes up in google which is suite and that's got all the anchor points and keel clamps on it and then yeah if you want to see fancy stuff on the from the podcast there's the loan machinists.com it's got a companion guide and some bonus content and some other stuff don't know what the other stuff is but i'm pretty sure it's there what are you up to tomorrow kurt yes
Curt: How about you, Master Jamie?
Curt: That's awesome.
Curt: ah Tomorrow is Easter, so I'm going to watch my little rat who hit me and my, I mean, sorry, ah the Easter bunny tonight, just in case they somehow listened to this, hit a bunch of eggs all around my house tonight.
jamie peacock: yes
Curt: And then, so yeah, they're going to go rabid tomorrow. Ha ha, rabid. Pun not intended.
jamie peacock: Nice.
Curt: Finding eggs and then, yeah, family shit. And yeah then eventually I'll get to work.
jamie peacock: Okay. As long as your dog doesn't eat them first.
Curt: No, she's pretty good. I gave her carrots. She likes carrots. So that's all she's that's her treat.
jamie peacock: Okay.
Curt: So they're just plastic eggs too.
jamie peacock: Yeah, when Danica...
Curt: So they're not, and they're not real ones.
jamie peacock: Okay. um I'll save that for the after show. um Danica's Easter story. There we go.
Curt: Ooh.
jamie peacock: Making notes. So we actually have something to talk about in the after show.
Curt: Sounds good. How about you?
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: what are you up to today?
jamie peacock: I think I'm going to go make a two piece version of this thing. But we'll discuss that also in the after show. This is part of the part of of this thing. I think I found the problem. So after show we all I'll discuss that and then probably try and get that sorted out today.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: Either that or sit on my ass and do fuck all one of the two.
Curt: Both are compelling. Both are compelling.
jamie peacock: Yeah, been feeling a bit. don't know. There's some fucking death flu going around here lately. So I might just ah sit on the couch and watch TV all day.
Curt: Not a bad use for a Sunday. It is Sunday.
jamie peacock: Yeah, just take a fucking a break because burning the candle on both ends takes its toll.
Curt: Sunday? Yeah, Sunday.
Curt: Yeah, dude, I was, yeah, I was feeling that the other day and i was like, you know what I'm going to And same thing today.
jamie peacock: Yep.
Curt: Just like my little one went down for a nap and I laid on the couch and my other one colored and I just checked my eyelids for cracks for like a few hours.
jamie peacock: Hmm.
jamie peacock: Yep. No, it's this last week, I've been very, very fatigued and been like napping in the afternoon. And I'm like, yeah, there's something going around right now that is really unpleasant.
jamie peacock: So trying to kick it and it's ah proving challenging.
Curt: good
Curt: Godspeed.
jamie peacock: Anyway, um ah thank you for listening, everybody. If you saw our faces, it was probably Zencastrify.com or YouTube. If you've just been listening to us, I hope you enjoyed it. That's on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.
jamie peacock: um If you enjoyed the show, please consider sharing it with somebody that you think will enjoy it or someone you don't think will enjoy it. We don't mind rage listens. um But yeah, we will see you guys next week. And yeah, for the Patreons, to the after show.
Curt: Take care all.
