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Coronavirus and Small Business: THE SHOW MUST GO ON (as long as it's safe and possible to do so)!
226 Plays6 years ago
TOPICS:
- Thoughts on Covid-19 and small business
- The SAGA
- Solutions for breaking tools during internal threading
- Why You Need a Neon Vest In Your Shop
BREATHE. Yes, they talk about Coronavirus. Yes, they are washing their hands. What you won't find are hosts hoarding toilet paper or coming up with conspiracy theories. What you will find is hope and perseverance!
If you want to know how you can help fight Covid-19, please visit https://www.nyccnc.com/covid/
EDC > Safe Queen During a hiking/shooting trip with a friend, Saunders notices a spectacularly crafted GK SAGA pen sticking out of his friend's shirt pocket. After spending some time outdoors, Saunders realizes he's lost his OWN SAGA...let's just say this pen has a SAGA of its own.
Grimsmo shares how the clips are uniquely and perfectly tensioned.
Internal Threading Problems Sub-spindle threading cycle = Butt Clench 100 Find out why Saunders uses masking tape on the lathe. Grimsmo switches to making knife thumb studs on the Tornos instead of the Nak. A very tiny threaded hole causes 5-6 tools worth of headache. He searches for the problem, only to kick himself later.
Grimsmo explains GO, NO-GO Listen to the one and only Go, No-Go explanation that actually makes sense!
SMW Fixture Plate Tops Now that all Pierson Workholding Mini Pallets are compatible with SMW Fixture plates, Saunders turns his attention to diamond dowel pins that require tight tolerances. When it comes to QC, keep it simple!
IN THE STUDIO Fraser has fashioned a sweet sound-proof audio/visual room for GK videos and products!
NEON VESTS What is it good for? Absolutely nothing---if it's not in use.
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Transcript
Introduction & Passion for CNC Machining
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning and welcome to business of machining episode one hundred and sixty two my name is john grimsmill and my name is john saunters this is the podcast that shares the journey of two folks two fellows named john who absolutely love cnc machining and building businesses around that through the journey of i'd say highs and fewer lows as the days go on but i will say
Machining as a Positive Distraction
00:00:27
Speaker
John and I agreed right before we hit the record button today. We both like to say something briefly about what's going on in the world to acknowledge it and kind of comment on it. And then let's give you guys a chance to listen to something that's back about machining and focus on what our energy and positivity around what we do and give it maybe a little distraction from all the other news in the world.
COVID-19's Impact on Economy & Manufacturing
00:00:50
Speaker
Is that fair? Sounds good to me.
00:00:54
Speaker
I'll say that I think folks who maybe weren't taking it seriously now recognize the seriousness of it and there's an element of the health side and there's an element of the economic side and I think one of the key things to remember is, number one, we will get through this and the world will continue to need folks to do things in all sorts of careers in manufacturing and so forth.
00:01:16
Speaker
We will get through this. We will develop a vaccine. We will persevere. I think the next few months or even years are going to be very difficult. And I think one of the ways to
00:01:29
Speaker
Everyone has their own mental process and so forth, but I think to avoid feeling like you're out of control or not feeling like you're surprised is never great. So I think my two cents would be to recognize the seriousness of this. Unfortunately, from an economic standpoint in that we are going to see some, I think, devastating effects from the terms of layoffs and just changes, some sort of a new normal.
Small Business Concerns & Adaptation Strategies
00:01:55
Speaker
It's not something I or anyone should take lightly, but the show must go on. Yeah. And just in case anybody's listening to this like months later, it's currently or even years later, it's March 18th, 2020 right now, COVID-19 is getting very serious. And as you said, it's
00:02:17
Speaker
a lot of people have been brushing it off, and a lot of people have been panicking like crazy. And I've been sort of in the middle for quite a while, you know, trying to take in information and understand what's going on without, you know, panicking and freaking out or overreacting. But as I can see, what's clearly happening in the world is the world is taking a very serious stance against this, which is it's good, I think it's going to be very difficult. And I'm
00:02:45
Speaker
From a business owner perspective, I'm concerned about thousands and thousands of small businesses that are not going to be able to make it through this. I mean, yeah, it's tough. People are going to stop buying because rightly so they should save money, but the economy also has to go on.
00:03:08
Speaker
people are going to lose their jobs, people are going to lose their businesses, and it's just going to be weird for a while. But I think, as you said, you and I have to, I mean, we're not going to stop doing this. We're not going to just, you know, roll over.
Safety Protocols & Workplace Adjustments
00:03:23
Speaker
We got stuff to do and we're going to be safe as humanly possible. And
00:03:30
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, it's definitely more than just wash your hands, everybody. There's a lot more to it than that.
00:03:40
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. We've just got to take precautions. I mean, it's starting to get worse here in Ontario specifically, and they just put Ontario on a state of emergency yesterday. The kids are off school for three weeks, could likely turn out to be the rest of the year. Two other provinces have already changed the rest of the year, and stuff's happening.
00:04:05
Speaker
We have Barry working here, who's 67-ish. He was away yesterday and he's away today. I told him, just keep your distance for a while and we'll play this out. He brought his computer home and his paperwork and stuff, so he can do a lot of work remotely anyway. I was like, I can handle all the shipping and all the stuff you normally do here, so don't worry about that.
00:04:29
Speaker
Yeah, for now we'll just wait it out and be safe and play it through. And the guys here who are working, luckily the shop is big enough we can actually keep some distance between each other. That's great, John. That's fantastic. So I mean, we're having our meetings and it's like 10 feet apart just because we can.
00:04:49
Speaker
So we, hilarious, with having the Datron, we have a 55 gallon drum of denatured ethanol. So we've been mixing up lots of spray bottles of cleaner. And we, every morning, we've been huddling or mustering, keeping our distance and just talking, you know, I want to communicate
Importance of Communication & Safe Operations
00:05:11
Speaker
between all the employees and it's a mix of what's going on here and what's going on outside of the shop. The show must go on. I love what I do. I'm not interested in shutting down the shop. I'm not interested in closing the shop. Parts need to get made. I would welcome the chance to retool. We'll talk about that here in a minute maybe.
00:05:33
Speaker
I think we all want and need something to do in our lives, even for now. If anybody out there is in isolation, struggling mentally or concerned, please reach out, social media, et cetera. I'm thinking, depending where things go, I'm actually really busy right now, which is great, but I'd like to think about starting to livestream stuff
00:06:01
Speaker
Fusion tutorials talking about fixturing talk about what's going on AMA like ask me anything sessions You know without having sports on TV and with folks in different situations Please I don't want folks Succumbing to any sort of mental insecurities depression Please reach out do what you need to do talk to friends and
00:06:25
Speaker
I kind of lost track. Oh, so it's actually been great. I think when meeting, getting together, talking about what we're hearing and seeing, going through how we're cleaning stuff, how we're maintaining distance, how we added new soap dispensers just to make sure everyone's washing their hands as much as possible.
Government Support Measures for Businesses
00:06:45
Speaker
Um, making sure, uh, sharing, just sharing with the employees and the team. Hey, uh, you know, I don't want to shop, shut the shop down. I don't think that we hopefully won't have to. Um, and so I'd like to keep things going, but, um, any business.
00:07:02
Speaker
I think we're going to start to see in horseshoe businesses not able to make payroll or layoffs or just all that sort of stuff. Luckily, the states have already seemed to really step in with pretty awesome unemployment stuff where you basically don't have to wait the full week. You don't have to show that you're looking for jobs. It hits right away. Exactly. Yeah.
00:07:26
Speaker
Yeah, here you get, from what I've heard, I haven't read the documentation, but it sounds like you get two weeks of unemployment insurance basically at a moment's notice with no doctor's note or whatever else you need. If you need that isolation time and possibly further, I don't know.
00:07:45
Speaker
But yeah, and then I don't know if they've enacted it, but there's certainly I've gotten emails and talks from, you know, the banks are talking about extending payment deadlines and mortgages and things like that. So it's yeah, it's it's.
00:08:00
Speaker
What's going on? Everyone's got to stick up for themselves on all elements. If you need to do something for the business, you got to do it. And I would say if you're going to call up your bank because you need to, don't ask them about delaying payments. Tell them, I am going to make you whole, but you're not going to get a payment for the next month. I'm happy to talk about how that can best work or make it best for you.
00:08:28
Speaker
It's not happening. So whether you can fit into a box of some sort of economic delay or defer payments, that's great.
Community Support & Resource Sharing
00:08:38
Speaker
But yeah. Yeah, this is one of those perfect situations, especially with banking where communication is certainly better than silence.
00:08:48
Speaker
and banks have always sort of appreciated that more than silence. So hopefully now they can step up and help out. I mean, things are changing daily for sure. I mean, good grief, John, to think that last week was even, I think I mentioned this at the end briefly at the podcast and now it's front and center in our lives. I would be happy to play a role in
00:09:16
Speaker
sharing and spreading the message about what we can all do. It's not clear to me what that is yet. I think what I will do is I'm going to have Alex and Julie here create a webpage on NYCCNC.
00:09:31
Speaker
We'll just do NYCCNC4 slash COVID, C-O-V-I-D.
Machining Contributions to COVID-19 Efforts
00:09:37
Speaker
We're going to start including links to things that we've been hearing and resources. The best one I heard of was a Slack invitation invite to a large group of people that have a mix of scientists, PhDs, doctors from around the world that are putting together a DIY ventilator. Really? I'm not a medical expert. I'm not in a position to lean that sort of an effort, but if it gets
00:10:01
Speaker
develop to the point where it's helpful and it's safe. I think that's one of the things that's always a controversial topic, but don't help because you think it's helpful. You can't start building ventilators that aren't safe for people and have the right background to who them, but hopefully we'll see some trends emerge, whether it's
00:10:18
Speaker
Good grief would be amazing if a medical device company can open source their own plans of some sort that gave you the confidence to know that this is a compliant device. We've actually had some sales through the last few days, which is great and necessary, but I don't know that that will continue.
00:10:36
Speaker
that will put us in a hard spot. But if there's a chance for us to, you know, we've got lots of spindles, we even have a lathe. So if there's a chance for us to start making other stuff that helps this, we're
Business Adaptation & Brand Maintenance
00:10:49
Speaker
certainly there. And I know that message is shared amongst other people I've heard from.
00:10:56
Speaker
We have seen a change in sales. People are still buying, but not nearly as much as they were even just a week or two ago. It's hard to tell where that's going to go. I can only assume down for a little while. We're preparing for that and we're tweaking. As you said, we have a lot of spindles.
00:11:15
Speaker
Meghan and I were talking, my wife and I were talking this morning, we should just figure out how to make more tests because apparently there's not any tests around here, but I don't even know what's involved in that. Well, the good news, John, is you're going to be able to make the world's most accurate ventilator. I know, man.
00:11:37
Speaker
Actually, this is an awesome story. Such an awesome story. I picked up a buddy. We went down to the farm to go for a little hike and shooting. And a good friend, haven't seen him in a few weeks or whatever. And you just find it, we've all been busy and then you make time and excuses now, or you make time, which is awesome. And so picked him up, he hops in the truck and I look over and I literally go, what the F?
00:12:03
Speaker
in his shirt pocket is a spectacular saga.
00:12:11
Speaker
Yeah. And he went to Notre Dame. It happened to be Notre Dame Colors. He was on the, what do you call your saga list, Maker's Choice? Yeah, this is Maker's List, yeah. And so it was just like this awesome, it was just so cool to hold a different one. And he, you know, it was cool to see that he had put himself on the list and been picked and got one. And then we're down at the farm, having a good time. And then the next morning, or later that night, I look into my pocket and I lost my saga.
00:12:38
Speaker
You lost it. I lost it. And so I thought I'd left it at a takeout place. Um, we got takeout because I thought, Hey, let's support a business. And frankly, if we get quarantined, I'm going to enjoy myself until we get quarantined. And so I thought I'd left it there, called there. They didn't have any, they didn't see it or know it. And so I thought, you know what? I'm going to go back down to the farm. So yesterday I went back down to the farm.
00:13:01
Speaker
I knew where we were. I marked a line. It's like if you ever read stories about how the Navy searches for people at sea, they have a very systematic approach to where they hit coordinate points and then they just start strafing. It's really weird. It's not how you would think it works. I thought, okay, we've got to have some chaos. I mean, it's literally like a 30-acre pasture.
00:13:23
Speaker
drew a line in there. I thought, okay, this will be my reference line that I'll start from. And I thought, hopefully I will be rewarded for my intent in the organization. And so drew that line, walked three steps down to start the first row. And I looked down, John, there it was. So that was a real nice pick me up.
00:13:49
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah, not something you want to lose. No, I was, I would have been bummed. Um, but you gotta, you know, I, I, it's not a safe queen. It's a, it's a pen. I'm going to keep carrying. Absolutely. And I love to hear that. The clip actually has been excellent. That's one thing I will, I really would commend the design is the, um, the clip has not in any way lost its spring pressure. That makes sense against the body. So it really stays in jeans or pants pockets quite well.
00:14:17
Speaker
Do you remember how we tension the clips, how we bend them? You use a press to overbend. No, you use the lathe to... Yes. It's the last part of the cycle. When the clip is finished, it's because we removed so much material, it actually bent too much like the natural spring tension.
00:14:37
Speaker
bends it inwards too much, then it would be too strong on a pen. So we have the lathe, take a blank tool holder block and just push up against it and bend it down for three seconds or whatever. And I figured out the perfect distances so we don't bend them. That's one and done. That's amazing. Makes me happy. That's awesome. I love, I love what you do, dude. Awesome. Yeah. Well, speaking of which, um, in, in this time, like as a business, we have to realize
00:15:04
Speaker
You know, we make a luxury good, and people are conserving their money, and we make a knife that's $900 plus, and we also make a pen that's $300 plus. And I think in these times, people would be more likely to buy a pen than they would a knife, given the choice. So we're going to triple down on pens right now. We're still going to be producing knives, but it's time to go nuts on pens as well because it's a great product. It makes me happy. It makes a lot of people happy.
00:15:32
Speaker
you love it, everybody loves it. And I want to make more so it's time for us to take it, you know, very seriously. Not as like an extra thing, but now as a as a main product. Yeah.
00:15:44
Speaker
I think you're, I mean, I don't think anyone would disagree with that. The one thing I'll add though is, as talking to somebody this weekend, it's kind of like, you know what, don't stop living your life. Good grief, be responsible. And if you've got a business to run or, you know, if you need to take care of your family first, but on the flip side, don't not buy something if you want it because it's just, you got to live life. It's okay. Well, I realized like,
00:16:10
Speaker
The want for our products is not going to go down, but the, air quote, need for our product might. Like somebody's justification to buy it might change. And I understand that, and that's fine. But the want, the desire, the interest in our company and our brand and our products is not going to go down. So it's more just a timing issue now.
00:16:36
Speaker
marketing play too. We can't just go silent and have people think we have disappeared. I will admit that I feel weird posting anything. I haven't posted anything this week. I haven't wrapped my head around what to do.
00:16:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's okay. That's okay, John. I mean, really, I like that you've been posting the more live stream things like, Oh, it's actually very reassuring to know that you're out there like making cool stuff and having fun, even if you're stressed and worried, just like everybody else's. Um, so I think I need to take that perspective and just be like, look, I mean, the fact is I am here and I'm doing fun stuff and I'm enjoying myself as much as I can. And you know, life goes on. And like you said,
00:17:21
Speaker
we will recover.
Technical Machining Anecdotes
00:17:23
Speaker
The world in the past few hundred years has had insane things happen and look at where we are today. We're in a great place. There's some amazing ... We literally have already done human vaccine trials. Now, that'll still take a year, unfortunately, but literally they've already done that. What normally takes two years to map the proteins or something, they did it in two months. It's done.
00:17:47
Speaker
50 drugs that they're already testing that are FDA approved that are true for other things like HIV that they're looking at possibly Helping or working for this like we as humanity are amazing. There's gonna be health consequences to this It's we're not even at the peak for for the Western world yet Unfortunately, and unfortunately, I think the economic consequences are gonna help outweigh the health consequences that seems clear but but darn it We will get through this
00:18:17
Speaker
And it's our job, your job, my job and all of the listeners job to get through this and to be ready for the other side. So that we're prepared and, you know, not hold up in a corner, crying to ourselves. The one thing I heard that I really like was
00:18:40
Speaker
Don't use this time as an excuse to not do, as an excuse to like take a vacation and just turn off and disappear because not only are you going to lose insane traction from everybody else who are still doing, it's just not the right time to do that. Don't use it as a vacation, as just, well, I guess throw your hands in the air and just do nothing for the next few months. That's not the hustler.
00:19:10
Speaker
hungry entrepreneur that you and I are. We just got to be smart, but keep going. Back when I talked a lot more regularly with folks from Tormach, I was talking to them about what happened 10 years ago in the Great Recession. It's interesting. I don't know the numbers or data or anything, but I remember the takeaway being that
00:19:33
Speaker
in a very awesomely, terribly awesome way, the number of folks that lost their jobs or that had to go through career changes or were forced to go through a lot of turmoil, that ended up resulting in a number of folks that took that chance to retool their own lives, start that small business, learn this trade. I think there's a chance over the next five to 10 years that we're gonna see an emphasis on reshoring
00:20:02
Speaker
and of value of manufacturing inside the United States or Canada as a matter of not just national security, but it's the right thing to do. It's not being anti-globalization. It's just being pro and the right sort of thing to do. So I wouldn't hesitate at all to think about that as a way that could come out of this. And yeah, that'll be great.
00:20:29
Speaker
Well, I mean, where you and I started is basically garage shops. And now you and I have friends that have like, you know, speedios and Robo drills and, and DMG Mori Dura verticals in their garage. Yeah. Yeah. And, and can just, can continue working from the comfort of their home through anything. Yeah. So like imagine if, if those guys start getting just blasted with
00:20:52
Speaker
orders and production quotes and all the big shops that have to shut down if they do have to shut down. The guy in the garage can still do anything. Yeah, right. It's pretty sweet. Yeah, it's going to be awesome. We'll figure this out. Yeah, exactly. We'll figure this out. Okay. Ask me why I used masking tape on my lathe.
00:21:15
Speaker
Why did you use masking tape on your lathe do tell? I was so flipping scared that the sub spindle threading cycle was going to, I had to keep pushing the thread depth further, thread depth, sorry, not thread depth, but thread distance further along the part.
00:21:35
Speaker
And it's a small part, so I have to grip it with a certain amount inside the sub-spindle royal collet. And so as I keep infusion, increasing that thread distance, I'm like, oh my God, I am going to crash the threading tool body into this collet. And so I thought, well, hold on, John. Now I'm incrementing it like five thousands at a time and then rerunning it.
00:21:58
Speaker
I took masking tape and I put three layers of masking tape over the collet face. It's such an obvious answer because that's probably over 10 thou, if not 15 thou. I thought, well, if I rub the masking tape off, that'll tell me something. I'm only going in 5,000 increments.
00:22:19
Speaker
And to rewind, the crazy thing that I didn't really even contemplate last week when we spoke was that I'm doing this threading cycle at
00:22:30
Speaker
not at the machine's B zero, the B axis has to move toward the chuck in order toward the main spindle rather, in order for the turret to have enough travel range to use the tooling it needs to use. So it's really weird because on a mill, you kind of know, you know, you have the spindle that moves up and down, but you've got this fixed table. Well, sub spindle lathe work, if you're bringing the B axis out, and then you're setting your tools
00:22:55
Speaker
there, you have this kind of like floating home position that could be, it's only a relative position between two different moving axes. Right, right. Yeah, but it works. We're making parts. They're running literally along recording this while we're talking.
00:23:11
Speaker
Awesome. That's interesting. Some of your tools can't reach when the bee is all the way at home. Correct. Interesting. I don't have that problem on mine. On mine, the turret can actually move way to the right, like very far. Oh, interesting. Like eight inches past the spindle, the sub-spindle. I don't know why.
00:23:32
Speaker
Yeah, I'm pretty sure what I said is correct. I'm not sure if there's a design intent that's good or bad, or if it has to do, wouldn't have to do with a royal, I don't know. But you have a solution, so that's awesome. Yeah. Speaking of internal threading, so I'm making, what's that making?
00:23:50
Speaker
thumb studs for our knife that, you know, the little flipper thumb deal disc that, uh, so it's a little titanium part, quarter inch diameter 0.135 long, and it's got a very shallow, um, four 40 thread on the inside. That's a blind hole. So I'm putting this part on the Swiss the other day. And, uh, first time I've run it on the Swiss, I used to make them on the Nakamura.
00:24:12
Speaker
So I spot the hole, I drill the hole, and then I have a tiny little threading tool, an 80 thou micro 100 threading tool that I come in there and I pick away the thread. And I kept breaking them. And I had like eight or nine in inventory. And I
00:24:28
Speaker
I'd break one and I'd be like, ah, what's going on? And I'd mess with the code or whatever and think that my Nakamura code transferring to the Swiss is not happy or something. So I try to go through the code and try to completely overcomplicate the solution because I'm a smart guy and it's got to be a complicated solution. And I ended up breaking like five or six threading tools, trying all different things before I was finally like, OK, first of all, let's put some brass in there so I can see what's happening. I don't need to run coolant. I can watch this slowly.
00:24:58
Speaker
And also, maybe I should check the center line of that tool, because this threading tool is fitting into a hole that's barely bigger than the threading tool. And it turns out I was 17 thou diameter lower than I should have been. So it was literally rubbing on the bottom of the thread and breaking. And so I was looking at the threads under the microscope, and it looked like there was a weird double thread, like for some weird reason. And it's because the bottom of the tool was actually rubbing as well as the tip.
00:25:28
Speaker
I thought there might've been two operations or something, and I was making it too complicated. In the end, it was just a stupid setup issue that the tool needed to be raised up a little bit. And after that, it was golden. Awesome. Is that common on this? I guess I would have thought that the center line height would have been kind of fixed on a- It's supposed to be, but everything's variable. Everything changes.
00:25:53
Speaker
Do you have to shim that or is it actually an axis that's adjustable? It's an axis. I just moved it. Why? I put the brass in and I did a facing pass manually, just watching it. I put it low and then I jogged it over to cut a thingy and I'm looking for that little
00:26:11
Speaker
the little dot in the middle because you're too low. Then I just moved it up a thou, cut it again, still there, up a thou, cut it again. Sometimes I'll even cut it low and then measure it with the mic. I did that once and I got 17.5 thou diameter. Then I can half that is my offset and then I'm good to go. That's awesome. Then after that it was like, duh, of course that's the reason.
00:26:39
Speaker
It's funny. Well, who knows what's going to happen, but I'm excited at some point to see that your tornos. I mean, it's not like the new machine anymore. I know, but still. Yeah. Once, once things clear down and they, they open the borders again to, uh,
00:26:52
Speaker
non-Canadians that I'd love to have you over. Like you got to come visit, see the new shop, see the current, have some fun, make some parts. Do you use not hand metrology tools like calipers and mics, but rather physical tools like gauge pins or go no goes and stuff like that. Do you use any of those sorts of things to measure things like diameters? Like hole diameters. Yeah, I'll use gauge pins all the time.
00:27:19
Speaker
thread gauges for sure. Go no go. For the longest time, I didn't really understand go no go because I'd just never done it and I couldn't wrap my head around it. Explain it. I'll explain it as if somebody has no idea what I'm talking about. A threading gauge, like a 440 thread, we use a 3B tolerance, which is one of the tighter tolerances you can get. Can I stop you? Yeah. Explain the difference between the 3 and the B.
00:27:50
Speaker
B is internal, A is external, I think. Three is a tight tolerance, like your range of max and min is a smaller number. Two B is a looser tolerance. A one B is like a crappy screw you get from IKEA or something. Yeah. I think most off-the-shelf hardware is a two. Is it two? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And a one is like absolute garbage stuff, but it's out there.
00:28:18
Speaker
And then three is like aerospace and really quality stuff. So we're like, if we're going to do it, let's go 3B. And it's actually not that hard to hold those tolerances. So anyway, let's say you make a thread and you have zero idea if it's big or small. It just looks like a thread. You can take a screw and you can put it in. And if it goes in, great. If it doesn't go in, then your hole is too small. But with the thread gauge, it's got two sides, the go side and the no go side. The go side is
00:28:46
Speaker
It's small, so the threads are small, so it will actually fit into a perfect thread. The no-go side is big. If the no-go side fits into the hole, your threads are too big. You've done too much. Yeah, you've made the hole too big, the threads too big.
Thread Gauge Use & Tolerances in Machining
00:29:03
Speaker
If the go side does not fit in the hole, then you've made the threads too small. So you have this max and min range where if the go side goes in and the no go side does not go in or goes in less than one turn, then you have a perfect thread. And with experience, you can learn to feel the difference, like even how sloppiness within that 3B tolerance.
00:29:26
Speaker
So what we're doing on the lay that are making these diamond pins that thread into the underside of these fixture plate, we're making fixture plate tops. So like blank pallets, mini fixture plates that go on top of fixture plates. We've got Pearson compatibility. Actually, it's been awesome kind of working with Jay Pearson. The new Pearson mini pallets are all compatible with our fixture plates with four holes that mate directly through to them.
00:29:54
Speaker
So these diamond pins are 30 Rockwell 4140 so they're semi-hard and I want to hold a really tight tolerance on a specific section of this diamond pin obviously and so
00:30:10
Speaker
I'm starting to think, unfortunately, they're not hard enough to use whatever it is, CBN or that kind of crazy cool turning where you're using a diamond and it doesn't need cooling and it looks cool and they last forever. Yeah, CBN. You're right. I get this all confused. Yeah, I know. Yeah. But my standard- Oh, 30 is not that hard though.
00:30:31
Speaker
Correct. You need, uh, according to my rep, you really don't want to use that stuff below 50 or something. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, what I'm.
00:30:42
Speaker
looking at now. First off, we're doing fine with right now. It's just using the Sandvik stock grade. It might be 4325. Anyway, a V-insert finishing pass, it's holding out quite well, but you know my cynical, I don't believe that machines hold 10ths all day because inserts wear and temperatures move on things. So
00:31:03
Speaker
One of the things I want to do is build a little gauge that we can use. Maybe we should just use micrometers, but I feel like I want a gauge that we could, or a physical gauge that we could stick this part into. So we basically need an ID for gauge. Does that make sense? Or an ID for? Right.
00:31:25
Speaker
Yeah, the trick with that, it's just so easy to use mic on the outside of a round part, even if it is diamond, because you still have the two rounds on the side, right? Exactly. It is easy to use a mic. I would just use a mic.
00:31:41
Speaker
I have a mic stand that I'll use sometimes if I'm doing a ton of measuring. Okay. I'll mount the mic up and then I just have less to hold and pick up every time. But for the most part, I just leave it on the table, pick it up, measure a couple parts, put it down, do it again and again and again.
00:31:57
Speaker
Especially on the Swiss because like making those thumb studs was a 45 second cycle time. Which is sick. That's amazing. And you just, I don't measure every part because I don't have to. If I measure, if I measure, you know, any one part and then I measure, let it make 10 and then I measure the 11th part and it's perfect. I know they're all good.
00:32:17
Speaker
Save for any weird imbalances that happen every now and then but right right in this is a statistical game We don't want to nobody ever wants to make a bad part, but you exactly if we make 20 parts the first one was good the 20th was good Over time yeah, and you have a good repeatable machine then right there's a lot of trust in there But I know some medical shops that have 100% inspection and I respect that I just don't need it
Post-Crisis Manufacturing Shifts
00:32:44
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we're not exactly. I mean, that's what I was going to say is, you know, at some point a customer is going to get something from us that we goofed on. Okay. Uh, we'll fix it. Um, yeah, exactly. Yeah. The, to be honest, I had forgotten about Mike stands. We, we have one. That's a good idea. I guess what I wanted was either.
00:33:05
Speaker
You're right. A metrology tool will be better than pushing it into a, like we could DIY some precision ID. But then you got to measure it and, and like ID measure it and keep it nice. And yeah, just an OD mic is or a note. Yeah. An OD mic is easy and fast and you have your tolerance ranges. You can write them down.
00:33:26
Speaker
And then you get a real, you get a visual for it. Like if you have a physical device, then you have to do it by feel. Exactly. Well, I'm thinking, and I'm overthinking this probably, but maybe there's a way of dropping it into a little fixture. And then you can just, because I like the idea of, this is where I actually like having analog tools, you know, dial indicators and needles, because you could sweep it and see the high spot. And I'm going to think about that.
00:33:56
Speaker
Um, I guess if you okay, let's say you wanted to make, um, you know, 10,000 of something and you want to check every 10th or 15th part and kind of know that it's going to wear. Um, I just feel like even with, uh,
00:34:12
Speaker
a mic and a mic stand, you're going to be turning it and opening it. Frankly, the mic will wear, the thread will probably, I don't know what the stats are on that. I've heard from even heard from Mitsutoyo when they were here talking about stuff with us. We did that film with video with them that Ruby tips on test indicators wear out.
00:34:35
Speaker
It's crazy, right? When you when every minute of every day on a three shift place, they're sweeping parts underneath it. They were wasn't it occurred that they said they could see on their some of their metrology tools, they could see the deposit of material from steel needles, like indicator needles. Where was I don't remember that. But that's awesome.
00:35:00
Speaker
Yeah, somewhere, maybe it was at one of the metrology companies, like if you, you can just see it, it's crazy. Yeah. Anyway, what's on tap for today? Well, in other news, I'm sitting in my studio right now at the shop, which was my office, but Fraser has commandeered it as the new Grimsmo studio. So I'm looking around, I'll give you a mental visual here.
00:35:27
Speaker
We got these beautiful glass tabletops that we got super cheap from across the street. Got a couple chairs. He's bought acoustic blankets and put it over all of my beautiful windows. So I can't see the outside and I can't see the shop now, but it's quiet. And we put, I don't think it was Kaizen foam, but we put other foam that we had, I think that we got with the current actually in the window that goes to the shop. Um,
00:35:53
Speaker
So that helps deaden a lot of the noise. I can hear a little bit from the guys down there right now, but not too much. And then it's a big stand in the back, a couple of lights, a bunch of tripods, and a huge backdrop blanket that's taped to the floor. And yeah. Awesome. So it's nice to film a podcast in here because I'm at work, but it's quiet.
00:36:16
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds great. I mean, your audio sounds great. There's no noise. Yeah. So that's cool. So the goal of this is to film like a lot of the intros, a lot of the talking sections. Um, we're going to get a nice camera table set up with a top down camera set up so that we can do, you know, product shots or hands explaining things. Um, yeah, we've got a lot of big plans for videos coming up. So like you said, life goes on. So no time to slow down now.
00:36:43
Speaker
Yeah, and hey, well on that note, we're doing the second, it's what we've been posting on Instagram. We're doing the second version of that generative truck design. I've just tweaked some toolpaths, tweaked some speeds and feeds, changed out some tooling, and I wanna kinda make sure that I like it before I set up the cameras for that one. So that's been just fun, absolutely fun. Steven Shallow is amazing, learning some of those quirks in Fusion.
00:37:11
Speaker
has been great and the ST20Y is running those diamond pins which is awesome.
00:37:18
Speaker
Yeah, it feels good. I feel guilty in a way because I haven't spent a lot of time on the Kern and I have this big, ginormous, beautiful machine that I've been so excited about for a year and I haven't, you know, given it the love it needs. So busy with other projects and things and like getting to a point of caught up atness with other things so that I can then completely focus on the Kern, which is important, but the machine's not going to run itself.
00:37:47
Speaker
Yeah. And it's not the easiest thing to just say, Hey, I'm going to dedicate an hour to like get into work on it and then leave it. Like you really do want to focus on it if you can. I know. And based on your advice, I did actually go out and buy a yellow safety vest.
00:38:04
Speaker
Um, and I have it on the back of my chair, although I don't think I've used it once yet, but it's more of a threat than it is like a thing, but, uh, I need to use it because that's what it's for. And you know, the concept of it is, uh, if I'm wearing this, leave me alone, pretend I'm not here kind of thing. Right. Right.
00:38:22
Speaker
Yeah, and look, I mean, we've continued to kind of grow to be specific, Jared, Ed, Jeffrey. Julie's always been great at this because the way we work with her in the video. But like with Ed, Jeffrey, and Jared, it's a lot more them doing great stuff autonomously. I'm hitting cycle startup machines where I'm doing testing and proving stuff out.
00:38:51
Speaker
Parts are getting programmed, developed, QC'd, made, cycled without me involved. And I would push you, it's a little awkward in the tone of today's world to, I don't, but that's still something that's important for you guys to be doing, John. Yes.
Shop Updates & Future Plans
00:39:06
Speaker
Yes. And I don't think I give the guys enough credit for how autonomous they are or can be, because I mean, I could be gone for a couple of days and like lots and lots of parts would still get made. It's just the,
00:39:18
Speaker
the next level of parts on the Swiss. I'm the only one that can touch that. I'm the only one who can touch the Kern. Even the Nakamura, I still do all the programming. Even the Moria, I do most of the programming. I need to start handing those things off, both releasing them, but also educating everybody and allowing them to do it and teaching them how to do it well. I do struggle with those.
00:39:40
Speaker
So yeah, it's, it's on my mind and I'm taking away at it. Pick the Maury that's proven down simplest machine. You've got skilled guys. Um, yep. Yeah. Good.
00:39:51
Speaker
Oh, and we got our, I don't know if we talked about it, but we installed a new mist collector on the Tournos. I think we talked about it last week. Yeah. The electrostatic bug zapper. Not the electrostatic one. That's the one that's on the current. This is just, it's a filter unit like our other ones, but this is the Aero X, the Mac Daddy Monster unit. Cause that Tournos just spits mist like insane amounts and our Misfit was not keeping up.
00:40:16
Speaker
So we installed the new big one mounted up on the wall have this huge six inch PVC plumbing like 15 feet of it that's snaking its way down to the machine just got it sealed up last night, so I'll be running it today and It was a smoke show in the shop before yeah, so hopefully it should be a clean room now So that's what I'm finding out today. Okay, awesome Well be safe wash your hands and I will talk to you next week
00:41:08
Speaker
Sounds good. Have some fun. Take care, bud.