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Progress, Progress & Even More Progress!
233 Plays5 years ago
Overcoming obstacles is the foundation of life. But also one of the most important parts of running any type of business is being able to see an obstacle as a challenge and not a failure. This week on the business of machining podcast the John's talk all about making progress and continuing on moving forward. This includes getting the old machines running again and constantly finding new and improved ways on how to run the business and also create things!
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Transcript
Introduction to Machining Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning and welcome to the business of machining episode one hundred and eighty seven my name is john grimsmo and my name is john saunters and john and i talk every friday trying to share the real version and what we're succeeding and hopefully also all those questions about what we wish we knew and how we can be better at machine things and building our businesses around that.
Reflecting on Internal Successes
00:00:22
Speaker
Yeah, which never ending pursuit of both of those things, which is good. I like that aspect. Actually, it's keeps it fun. And, you know, I was going to say light, but it's none of this is light. It's but it's still fun.
00:00:37
Speaker
You build knives and pens and we build fixture plates, but I really am enjoying the success we've had, not success like revenue so much in external sales. That's important and we have been doing pretty well recently, but it's more the success of seeing the systems, the internal processes work.
00:01:02
Speaker
It's progress, especially because we're always so driven and we're moving and we're trying new things and we're implementing ERPs and we're buying new machines and new processes and stuff. It's all progress, and I love progress. It just lets you know that you're going somewhere.
Implementing Barcoding Systems
00:01:19
Speaker
Well, and the progress that we've had, it almost exacerbates areas where we need to get better or like Lex is working really well, but we haven't unleashed all of it yet. And so there's almost this awkward tweener stage of, are we using Kanban cards? Are we telling John? Are we leaving notes and emails? And actually today might be the day. I have a wireless,
00:01:47
Speaker
scanner arriving, which should just be plug and play because the corded one works, so there's no real difference there. And we had a bug that was stopping us from having the workflow that
00:02:00
Speaker
the way it needed to be to print the barcodes. Basically, I want no extra hassle. So yeah, when you want, when you add a new item or when you say receive an item, so somebody comes in from McMaster as you process it in and immediately gives you the option to print a barcode. So you could say add a new barcode to a bag because even if that bag goes to a barcode bin, it may be worthwhile to throw a barcode on it real quick as we're processing it or handing out. I just wanted that feature set there. And we found the bug was that
00:02:30
Speaker
For some reason, the barcode input field is case sensitive, even though the actual field isn't the input of it is. So Alex figured that out. And now it's so cool because we have the little brother label printer there. And when you want to barcode, you can obviously manually print a barcode as well, which is what we're doing today to kind of catch up.
00:02:51
Speaker
And so you just print a barcode and it's the thing about those thermal label printers It's just it's just like and then it's fast it labels out and it's cut and so so now Julie's gonna go around and start labeling the red bins that we have for certain smaller parts and now I Think today in fact, I'm pretty sure today as soon as we need to hit more on the reorder You just grab that gun and scan it That puts it in the order queue and Alex
00:03:21
Speaker
I got to catch up with him this afternoon because he said he's hesitant to turn it loose to do the automatic PO issuances because, again, what we're doing is something like McMaster. It will hold it for a day or two to batch up orders, but we could override it if we need something today.
Trusting Automation in Workflows
00:03:38
Speaker
Then I'm fine. I need to catch up with him, but I think what I'm going to tell him is add me as a CC, which probably should happen, or like we should have a PO
00:03:48
Speaker
at Saunders CC, then I can put a filter in my Gmail or Saunders Google Suite. That way I can always look at a copy easily, but it's, and I can see when it went out and who it went to, but I also don't have it making noise in my inbox because I'll set up a filter that'll mark it as red automatically. But for now I can just go and make sure it went to the right person in the right amount. And if we have something, we had a good one, which is, so like screws that are sold in bags of 50,
00:04:17
Speaker
If we wanted to order 200 of them, the actual Lex PO order would be four because four times 50 is 200. Well, I had put 200 in, so I issued like a $20,000 PO for quarter inch screws. I didn't send it out, but that's the kind of stuff we need to make sure we get fixed.
00:04:34
Speaker
I'm not too worried about us going bankrupt because we accidentally ordered $20,000 of screws. We'll get it canceled or something. That would be hilarious, in a bad way. But other than little mistakes like that, I think it's probably beneficial for you guys to
00:04:49
Speaker
to start and if it automatically generates a PO for one bag of screws or for small orders, then you can tweak that over time and you can establish your time delays and things like that and your triggers to actually place the order. But just seeing it working is going to be the win.
00:05:09
Speaker
Well, and I'd rather be in this reactive mode where the next week I need to be proofreading it immediately after it went out to catch something rather than what I'm doing today, which is like literally before we hit record, I sent out one to a vendor. Actually, it was an RFQ, so I need to await a response on that one. But I want those to just automatically push because an RFQ doesn't even... Nothing happens. I just get a quote back. If it's wrong, who
3D Printing for Custom Solutions
00:05:33
Speaker
cares? I'll just fix it.
00:05:34
Speaker
Sure, but that's a really good point is trust the system to send out the PO and then you get CC'd even if it's like active in your inbox and you have to read it every day for a couple of weeks. And then you can check some balances it immediately, but then it happens by itself. And then you just you're like, ding. Oh, oh, okay. Lex just ordered the PO. How cool would that be?
00:05:55
Speaker
Where I haven't found a graceful solution, be curious if you have any thoughts, is take fixture plate aluminum. It gets delivered on a pallet. Maybe it's 10 or 20 pieces. So it's not that tall, maybe 15 inches tall on a skid that's probably four feet by four feet. And that's fine. Right now, I don't see any reason to move it to a different skid when we receive it, because it comes in the right stacked neat, nice and neat.
00:06:24
Speaker
We'll wheel it over to the machine when we're ready to use it. But Jared this morning was like, hey, we need more 440 material. And that's what I want to be like, no, you can't say that. That doesn't mean anything. And we don't have a barcode on it. And Jared doesn't have a barcode gun yet, but he will today, maybe tomorrow. But then I guess do we, like I'm thinking that we need to 3D print a barcode
00:06:52
Speaker
tag holder this in like a bright color. And then we can literally like put it on a weight or put it with a little thumb screw tack that pushes it into the wood on the palette. Because if you look at a palette and you see this like pink square that has the barcode in it, you immediately know, positive identification that that's what I care about, then we can still move forward. You know what I mean? Yeah, I want to barcode the palette. I don't want to barcode the material.
00:07:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think something bright and obvious, a big border around it, orange or pink or something, even I've been printing with white lately and it's like a nice cool color. Oh, that's what it is. Right, right. And yeah, it's just catch your eye. Yeah. Almost like a luggage tag. Actually, that could be nice because you could even pull it off if you need to go scan it because we want to have a permanent gun.
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah, in case the batteries or one gets lost you at least know you could walk over. The one thing I noticed I've been printing white bins and putting the white barcode on top of it and there's not a lot of contrast. Like you almost don't see the barcode because it's on a white bin white background. I've also printed orange bins and green bins and the barcode stands out much more on those contrasting colors. Got it.
00:08:08
Speaker
I could totally see buying like three more 3D printers just so I have one in every color. I know. I guess I make multi-head ones. Yeah. The Prusa has the multi-material upgrade where you can have up to four or five different colors and it'll switch automatically. Yeah. I'm so tempted to get that.
Exploring Advanced 3D Printing Technologies
00:08:26
Speaker
We've been using ours so much that it's, I think twice now I've been like, oh, it's out of filament.
00:08:32
Speaker
Uh, we've been printing T-slot covers for our VF six, which are, uh, like, it's like a 16 millimeter T-slot, which big Kaiser only makes 12 and 20 now because I guess 16 is unusual. And, um,
00:08:47
Speaker
And it would have been nicer to have like proper aluminum extrusion T-slot covers. And I found them from somebody that they were, they were very expensive. And so I mean, VF2 table is 32 by 64 with, I don't know, probably seven or eight T slots I'm guessing. And so every night or every day and every night, the 3D printer just prints a little like eight inch or 10 inch section T-slot cover.
00:09:12
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah, I've been loving my printer so much lately. Actually, just last night, I installed the slice engineering upgrade, the hotend. It's like the full Grimsmo version of the extruder of the hotend. It's made of copper and anodized aluminum.
00:09:31
Speaker
You just look at it and you're like, oh, this is right. It was the other one's cheap. So I'm super excited to try that out. But yeah, it definitely makes me want at least one more printer, if not two more eventually. Is it Aftermarket? Yeah. It's my company in Florida, I think. Will you send me or maybe put a link in the description? I kind of want to check that out. Yeah, they're really nice.
00:09:55
Speaker
where the stock E3D hot end is, I don't know, $20 maybe. This one's more like $100. But it's really nice. It's made of copper. And it's got a 50 watt heater instead of a 40 watt heater. So it actually heats up your warm up time a lot faster.
00:10:11
Speaker
It's just awesome. There have been a few times where I've wanted one of the, I think it's SLA, like the form one style printer that- Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's- The resin printers. Yeah, exactly. And Ryan from Seneca had one of the cheap ones. I think it's like three or 400 bucks.
00:10:28
Speaker
And I had to talk to him about that again. The thing I didn't love is the film, it goes bad, but we're using them enough now where it would be pretty nice to be able to print in higher resolution. I think they're a lot slower, but it doesn't, it's fine.
00:10:42
Speaker
Depending on the material, years ago, somebody printed our little plastic bearing cages on an SLA printer. And they were brittle as heck. But I think materials have, there's many different kinds now. And you can actually print really solid good things. But in talking with the people that have used them, they're awesome. But you have to cure them in a UV oven. You have to wash them really good. You can't touch the resin.
00:11:11
Speaker
It's a different experience than a filament 3D printer. If anyone listening has any obvious advice of like, yes, it's worth it. Go buy this one. Shoot us a note. For me, it's john at sauntersmachineworks.com. I'd love to hear. There's so much knowledge out there. I don't need to reinvent the wheel on where it's at these days because we love having the FDM
Customer Service and Communication Strategies
00:11:34
Speaker
extrusion printers. But I think an SLA can be helpful for some more intricate stuff.
00:11:38
Speaker
Yeah, I weigh the balance too every now and then, but up until now I've decided that I don't need one yet, but they are awesome. Yeah. We sold the Robo. Congratulations. I thank you. DT lands tomorrow. I mean, yeah, basically. I actually haven't gotten the quote back. I sent the, I did the builder quote on Haas and it to my guy and, um,
00:12:06
Speaker
He hasn't gotten back to me. It's only been a few days and it was a Labor Day long weekend here. Unrelated to that, separate vendor, just like a good vendor, but very little hustle, lots of, well, that's not my department. It just reminds me of
00:12:26
Speaker
of how easy it is to succeed when you understand how to listen to what the customer's looking for and basically help solve it. And even if it's a little bit of optics, like even if you're a large company and it's not your department and you don't control it, do a little bit of selling, do a little bit of like, hey, totally here, let me help quarterback that. It's not something I can control, but I know what you want. I'm going to help you. I'm going to help get like
00:12:52
Speaker
It goes so far. Oh, that's what it was. We bought a new forklift as well. And I have a relationship with a guy from a Columbus company. I bought the pallet racking from him. I just bought that stacker from him. And I'm like, hey, we need a 6,000 pound forklift. What do you have used? And he sent me one. And I was like, what's your best price? And he's like, well, you'd have to call the use department and start talking to them about it.
00:13:15
Speaker
And I was just like, let me know your best price. And he was just like, I can't help you. And look, I get it. Maybe it really wasn't his department, but it could have been said differently or you know what I did. The other company I reached out to got back to me and and made a deal done.
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah, like I am not. Yeah, if you're not for a five figure purchase, if your answer is call someone else, I'm done. I did. Even I mean, imagine if his answer was, Oh, call Sue. Here's her number. Here's her email. She'll hook you up. Or CC soon be like, Hey, Sue, can you get right? Right. I mean, you can fiddle a little and say, Hey, John's a really good new customer. I mean, whatever. I'm not looking at you to stroke my ego, but good grief, that stuff works like but that solves the problem instead of pushing it off, like you take care of it.
00:13:58
Speaker
I literally told him, I'm like, hey, I'm going to buy one today if I get the right deal. I'm not shopping, and I'm buying. Anyway, my point is not to gripe so much as it is to look at what that represents as an opportunity for anyone out there thinking about going into business or solving problems is holy cow, even for job shop work. Think about delivering a accurate part at a reasonable price on
Efficient Order Management Systems
00:14:23
Speaker
time. And sometimes the price doesn't even have to be super reasonable. Just delivering an accurate part on time
00:14:28
Speaker
And communicating with the customer. And I think about what you just said in regards to communicating with our customers. Like say a customer gets a knife and there might be something wrong with it or missing something. Every now and then there's a weird little problem. Or it's like three years old and he loses a screw or something. How we deal with those interactions instead of saying, well, you're on your own or something. The customer wants to feel valued. They want to be taken care of.
00:14:57
Speaker
And now that me and Fraser and even quite a few of the guys through Instagram are chatting with a lot of our customers, everybody's pretty engaged. I do try to make sure that everybody's at least a little bit on the same page with what the procedure is for replacement hardware or for warranty work or things like that.
00:15:19
Speaker
That continues to be an area where we struggle. I get DMs over Facebook, over Instagram, over LinkedIn, and I struggle because part of me thinks, hey, if the customer is DMing you on Instagram and wants to buy something,
00:15:40
Speaker
accommodate them, like just keep it going. But part of me really wants it to be pushed over to our platform. Our, you know, email is good. Like DMS are horrible for tracking information and searching. Yeah.
00:15:56
Speaker
So yeah, whenever somebody has an issue that needs to be dealt with, like, can you please send replacement screw or something? We always port them to email and be like, okay, even if it's DM, we'll have a big conversation, but, you know, please send this information, this address to this email and we'll hook you up. Yeah, I wish, yeah, I wish there was a better way. For sure. Even from a like,
00:16:27
Speaker
Simple accountability. Who's logged into the Saunders account on Instagram? A couple of different people use it now, and that should be fine. That's a good thing, because I want other people posting if there's stuff going on. But then it's like, oh, if Scott is on it for some reason, and he happens to see a message and read it, and now I don't see it because it's on. You know what I mean? It's like, this is not good. It has to be dealt with. That's the thing with us, too, is if an email gets looked at, it has to be dealt with or left as unread.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yes, yes. We've actually had pretty good luck building our workflow out where we use Shopify. It has a create order feature that's relatively new, maybe like a year old. And I say that because when I
00:17:15
Speaker
It didn't happen when we started using it years ago. So when we get PO's or anything that needs something sent out the door, we create a Shopify order for
Standardizing Machine Setups
00:17:26
Speaker
it. And a lot of times we will do custom products because let's just kind of be more descriptive and it just works well. And then that's great because we
00:17:36
Speaker
That is our status board, Shopify, unfulfilled orders, or it pushes it in the ship station, which gives us a label. It's good. That's interesting. I guess I never thought about that.
00:17:51
Speaker
Because we get, maybe in a month, we'll have 10 orders for replacement screw that I lost or something, or little things. And right now, I'm tracking it in a Google Doc, in a Word document. Just name, address, date, and the thing you want. And then Barry goes through it every Friday or so. And if it's black, it's not dealt with yet. If it's red, it's gone. It's been shipped. And we put the ship date and all that. But that's still a little outside the scope of,
00:18:21
Speaker
of Shopify, if it was, I don't know, it worked. Do you charge for the product or the shipping on those? Not for these parts, no. Okay. I would think about creating those as hidden products or don't create them as hidden. Well, you probably don't want to let people buy them because they could be buying them to make their own knives, which you probably don't love, but maybe
00:18:47
Speaker
I don't know. We just don't have the volume right now to sell too many screws. Well, so you can create Shopify products that are not on the collections homepage. So then you could send people the private URL and it could be $0 or it could be $10, but you could give them a coupon that's a hundred percent off. But what I like about that is it forces them to put all their address information in, which I don't want to do. Like that's up to them to take the time to do that and just to fill it out correctly. Yeah, I have to think about that.
00:19:19
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:20
Speaker
Yeah, the thing with Shopify, though, is even if we have hidden web pages, hidden products, our customers still find them. Okay. Well, then make it $1,000 and give them a coupon that can change every month that is true. Yeah, there's ways for sure. Okay. I'll think about that. I mean, our system works all right right now. It's fine, but might not be scalable. Yeah. We're always trying to think about how to integrate things.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, we did, I would say we had a pain point the past week because we have had a combination of vacation, holiday, sick, and then school. So we had some interns that are back at school. So it changes when they work and how they work. And it really emphasizes the need for standardization across all these things and everything from how we fulfill orders to where boxes are. We have nine fixture plates that are currently lost in our shop.
00:20:20
Speaker
Scott QC'd them over the weekend and we can't find them. They're here. I'm sure they just got moved somewhere. Then CAM as well, one of our phase four things is going through production files. We're actually going to start leaving code on the machines, which is something we generally hadn't done in the past.
Documenting Processes for Consistency
00:20:40
Speaker
That's all we do. But you repost all the time. Yeah, but the standard one is on the machine. I don't repost every day.
00:20:50
Speaker
Okay. Got it. Yeah. It'll be, it'll be a good thing. But then, so what I'm thinking we'll do is we'll have, um, we're going to get like a machines sheet, which will have information about that machine. And we're going to have certain standardized tools that we're going to share across machines so that we can do actually, if anyone is interested in this sort of a thing, area for 19 did an awesome job of standardizing their tool numbers and their work holding with, they use, I think mostly the fifth axis stuff so that.
00:21:19
Speaker
within reason any product could be run on any of their Haas machines without any changes. That's incredible. And that was in your video of them, right? Yeah, I remember that. I don't need that level, but I do want to be able to take apart and have a certain core set of common tools across the new DT2, the VF2, the VM3, and the VF6A because there will be common tools across them. So keeping them the same tool number, the same holder,
00:21:45
Speaker
approximate stick out, which is all easy to do. And then the machine, like the VF2 setup sheet will list graphically. It's like a setup sheet for the machine, not for programming. It'll list, hey, here are the main parts and programs that we run on it. Here's the offsets that it uses. Here's a picture. Some of this we're going to do with the Haas M153. It's actually really cool. We started doing it on the lathe where when you start a program, it pulls up a picture or a video on the control.
00:22:10
Speaker
Oh, that's so cool. So it tells you, hey, this is really important that you clock this chuck at 12 o'clock on this square collet. And this is what it should look like. Your confidence level just skyrockets. Exactly. Yeah. And it's the kind of thing you forget from month to month as you set up the job again. You pick it up again quickly. But if the computer just tells you, that's even better.
00:22:35
Speaker
Like last week on Friday, I was setting up the Swiss to run our Norseman pivots, which I haven't run probably since, I don't know, four or five months. And I know how to do it. I've run it many times. But there's a process. There's a checklist to go through. And I don't have a written checklist. It's all in my head. So I'm like, you know what? I have GURP for that. So I have a product, a part page for the Norseman pivot. And there's a big text file at the bottom, like an input data.
00:23:01
Speaker
And I was like, it's not, you know, structure or format or anything, but I'm just going to start word dumping all my bullet points here. So I'm like, dash space, do this, dash space, do this. And then I've got, you know, 20 setup points. And I'm like, you know what, these are kind of standard amongst any product we're going to put on this machine. So eventually, let's turn this into a checklist that
00:23:21
Speaker
a product change, a part swap has to go through to be able to set up this machine. And I was like, even I will benefit from this, yet alone the next machinist on this machine.
Evaluating Candidates with Video Applications
00:23:32
Speaker
Like, OK, good. I'm glad I'm finally doing this. Yes. Absolutely.
00:23:40
Speaker
I mean, I've done it in the past with Word documents and spreadsheets and things like that. But they get to be so scattered that you never check them again. But having GURP be centralized and this is the Norseman pivot page, having all the data right there is I'm already finding it beneficial.
00:23:55
Speaker
Yeah, so I think I left out a key part of this idea of a machine setup sheet is that we could reprint it and update it as needed, but it would include the major parts that we make, the offsets that those parts use, maybe a picture, but then it would also include the barcode so that you can just scan it to pull up information about it or
00:24:16
Speaker
Again, we're going to use Lex for things like every time you swap out, like on the drill tips, we only run so many insert swaps in a soft body. So we have to. And same thing with the insert screws, relatively inexpensive. And we find that there's a correlation of
00:24:35
Speaker
insert life and whole quality to the screw itself. And it's kind of one of those things where it's like, oh man, when did I last replace it? We've got four or six of these drills and which machine and who's working right now. And now it's just like, Hey, boom, you, you on that setup sheet, you can also say, Hey, scan this. If you want to change the, um,
00:24:55
Speaker
Scan this every time you switch out an insert. And then if you hit, say the trigger of four inserts, it means a new screw. That'll effectively create a work order. Maintenance stuff is just a work order. And it'll be an email reminder of, hey, change the screw. That's so cool. How do you count that stuff now? The screw replacements and the body replacements.
00:25:17
Speaker
I mean, we don't, it's, it's sometimes we just change it or Jared tracks in his head or you know, or it's, it's reactive instead of proactive, which is, it's better than nothing, but it could be a lot better. Yeah. And you want to make it easy so that it's not like complicated and you don't forget and things like that. You create the standard. Yes, exactly. Yeah. What do you have to,
00:25:42
Speaker
Um, that stuff, uh, going over the hiring applications that we got, we got almost 10, I think. And it's, it's hard to whittle them down because like some of them are really good. Like most of them are awesome. So, uh, yeah, in the next week or so we'll be further interviewing, um, people and whittle it down to one or two guys. Awesome. Yeah. What's your interview process like?
00:26:08
Speaker
I mean for now I have the people do the two minute video of themselves put that in and then from from there on Angelo and I want to do set up like a Skype interview with everybody because I'd say at least 75% of the people would have to move to be here.
00:26:23
Speaker
within Canada, but yeah, but still like some are fairly close a couple hours away, but that's still still a move. And so it makes, you know, quick interviews a little harder, but we'll just use Skype for that. And then if things start to get serious, we'll get some of the guys over here and figure it out from there. Awesome. Good for you. I'm even thinking like, okay, if they got a move, am I
00:26:48
Speaker
I just have to think about things like covering relocation costs or even just come and work for two days. Am I covering those costs? I don't know. I haven't been a lot of thought into that yet. I very much value being able to spend some time with somebody. I think we talked about this, but I loved the most recent
00:27:08
Speaker
Malcolm Gladwell podcast on, I think it's his revisionist history one where he talks, actually, I think he's full of manure on some stuff. But this idea of hiring your skill sets and ability to interview
00:27:27
Speaker
have almost nothing to do with your ability to be a good long-term team member. And he uses the parallel of politicians where a good campaigner doesn't necessarily mean they're a good politician. And so what we've done in the past is we've had somebody come in and work for a day. And if they stay on, then we just roll that in. And if not, I'll usually just throw them a few bucks.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's that's how we did our last two guys to is like, well, come in for a day. And we'll, you know, we'll work together with the outfits and everything. And obviously, it fit great. So yeah, we're just like, Okay, come back tomorrow. But I realized it left a little ambiguity in their mind, because the whole day, they're like, Am I coming back tomorrow? I don't know. When do I hear? When do I know? Tip towing? I guess I don't know. Maybe I got to talk to them more about that. But it worked. Oh, well, I tried to make it unemotional.
00:28:20
Speaker
in the sense that, look, this isn't a test. Well, I mean, it's a test in the sense that it's a test run, but it's not like a trick test. And I'm not going to sit here and ask you about a complex problem you solved in your life in an interview situation. Like, come make parts. Come see what it's like. And it's as much a chance for us to see you as if for you to see us. Exactly. Yep. Because big decisions, like these are life choices people are making for our companies. And I never forget the
00:28:48
Speaker
not severity, but the weight of that. It's cool. Yeah.
Updates on the Kern Machine and Toolpaths
00:28:53
Speaker
We threw up a careers page as well. It's borrowing off of how you did it, which I think is awesome. I didn't do the video because I don't... I don't...
00:29:04
Speaker
I love what it could be, but I don't want to cut out a candidate just because they didn't want to just do that part of it. I wanted to push people in like, you know, if you want it, you'll you'll try even if you're bad at it. That's a fair point. And then everybody that applied for us like it was a required field you couldn't send in the form without a video but
00:29:22
Speaker
They all put in videos and it was neat watching them, like really cool watching them because it's like you're sitting in front of them and some were super nervous, some were super charismatic, some were confident, some were not and it was cool. It was just really neat and you gain a lot from it. I don't want to gain the wrong impression from it. Like I don't want to judge people based on immediate impressions but it adds to the, you know, not just a resume or an email or something. Absolutely. Yeah, another great point like your ability to do
00:29:52
Speaker
You know, indentation formatting and word on a resume is not correlate to what I care about, which is, Hey, that machine cut doesn't sound right. Maybe the inserts are at all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. Yeah. And it's weird though, going through applications. Cause like.
00:30:07
Speaker
You have to judge people. You don't want to judge people. It's this weird balance of like, of nitpicking everything like will they be a good fit? Are they smart? Are they talented? Are they, you know, can they do what we need them to do? And in my life, I don't normally
00:30:24
Speaker
try to judge people. Analyze people. You're confusing John Grimsmough, the kind Canadian with the leader of Grimsmough Knives, which is unapologetically, we're looking for the best person that can come work at our shop. And I'm not going to feel bad about wanting to try to go. I mean, that's like you saying, well, this bearing company was really nice, but they make crappy bearings, but I'm still going to buy them because it's just the right thing to do. No, no.
00:30:55
Speaker
John, don't start compromising now. No, I'm not. I'm just aware of it. I know. It's cool. Yeah. That's awesome. How's that current? Good. It's sitting still right now, but yeah, it's, I'm days away from doing big things on it, which is fantastic. Has a grinding wheel in the current touched a piece of metal? It has not yet, but I'm probably tomorrow's the day for that.
00:31:25
Speaker
little tougher with kids back in school now. And they're a little further away. So I'm doing longer pickups. So I have like less hours at the shop. However, not an excuse.
00:31:37
Speaker
We were chatting in WhatsApp over the weekend about the grinding wheel and the current and which toolpath I'm going to use and swarf toolpath and all that. I'm so hot on this idea of a five-axis simultaneous swarf grinding toolpath. And then our buddy Ken comes in and is like, just use a 2D contour. And I'm like, that's boring. But it'll work, and it'll be easier, and it'll add all these benefits and everything. And he might be right, actually.
00:32:03
Speaker
Well, but that doesn't mean you can't also push it to a sort of later. Exactly. And I've set up to try both. I do think his simple way is going to be better. And I mean, at the end of the day, the goal is to make a risk, not to maximize every capability of everything. So I'm having that internal fight in my head. It's like, but I want it like this. But this is easier and better and faster and has benefits.
00:32:29
Speaker
Well, I'm mostly excited because it's like you think about the risk of the future right now, not risk like in a dangerous way, but the unknown, which is get a rasp blade made because, oh my gosh, what if the grinding wheels don't work? Well, now you got to actually- It's a good point. You spent weeks debating Swarf tool pass and the reality was the problem to solve here was the wheel compound.
00:32:51
Speaker
Yes, that's a very good point. And I tend to do that. I think things are solid. I think the grinding wheel is going to be great. And I still think that. But it's still a variable that hasn't been tested. And the sooner I test it, the sooner I can check that off the list and be like, OK, now I can move on to the next one.
Strategies for Machine Utilization
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah, I tend to put everything into a package. And I just want that package to hit send on the same day. But sometimes I pick and choose. And it's a balance between trying to figure out what to do. Yeah.
00:33:22
Speaker
Awesome. But yeah, we're at this awkward stage where we have the VF2 is so dialed in. And I think with the DT2, when it comes, it's going to be able to sort of stay focused on aluminum and the VF on steel, which has some good benefits about chip containers or chip removal and tooling.
00:33:45
Speaker
but we're kind of short of spindle right now, not in the sense that we're at capacity, but I like that Jay Pearson mentality of like, not every spindle has to be running every time, but different machines are set up and ready to go when you need stuff. And so we actually tore the rock lock base off the UMC and just put a fixture plate on it temporarily. And so it's running like the most boring two axis, two axis, not even three axis, two axis parts right now, but you know what? It works.
00:34:14
Speaker
It works and it's set up and that's amazing. Last night, at almost midnight, I got offered an older Micron machine, 3-axis, big table, 42,000 RPM, HSK 40. What are the U-MOCs? HSK? 40. Oh.
00:34:34
Speaker
So it's like a similar machine with more RPM and a big table, apparently. It's just like a big three axis. And I'm like, I don't really need it. But if anybody needs that, let me know. Yeah. Well, it works. Yeah, it works great. Yeah. Interesting. Huh. But yeah, it's like that initial like, wow, that sounds like an awesome machine. But no, I don't need it. That's why I got the UMAX. I don't need another big three axis machine. That's not on my list. Let's be realistic here.
00:35:04
Speaker
Did they ever, are they still working on the second, you Matt? Yeah. Yeah. Still trying to figure out a, uh, it's got an Italian spindle in it. What, what does that mean? It's good. I don't know. It's a Taiwanese machine, but it's got like a, you know, spindle in it. Um, yeah, it's a Fay Matt spindle, which seems to be quite a legit company. Um, it's such a weird mismatch. Mitch.
00:35:30
Speaker
mishmosh, mosh pit of different cool parts. You know, it's got all Siemens controller stuff in the back, hide and hide control. Good linear rails and bearings and like, cool spindle. It's yep, it's a kind of off brand small brand machine. Yeah, okay.
00:35:50
Speaker
Every once in a while, there's machine brands you don't, I don't intimately know. I was at an auction and they had a Johnford, kind of like a bridge mill. I think it was set up to run graphite, EDM graphite electrodes. I mean, nothing wrong with the build. And then it's like super Taiwanese, I think. I hope I'm right on that. But it's funny because it's like, oh, Johnford, it sounds pretty American. They're probably Illinois. No.
00:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think I saw I went to a machine dealer that sold Jonford stuff, I think. Yeah, they sell all kinds of stuff. But, but yeah, one of the UMAX is working great cutting foam, we blasted through all of our foam inventory right now, just waiting for the next shipment. And it's like, oh, man, that just works. That's awesome.
00:36:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And for every day that we don't have to run foam on the Maury, we can run six more knives. It's like $6,000 of revenue for every day. It's no-brainer. Such a yes. Got the bill for the repairs on the UMAK, and it was about $18,000 Canadian. Ouch. But you start to weigh it all, and you're like, we're still winning.
00:37:01
Speaker
You know, we get the time back from the Maury and we're into both machines for not like probably 30, 35,000 Canadian for both machines so far. You say Canadian, I always think of it as not even so divide 35. Yeah, that's actually pretty decent.
00:37:21
Speaker
It's like 20-something low 20s, US, for almost two working machines. Almost. Yeah. That's awesome. I'm happy with them.
Effective Dust Management Solutions
00:37:37
Speaker
It hasn't fully worked yet, the whole plan, getting them both running. But certainly phase one, what I needed them for is in use. And it's so cool. What would the other one do?
00:37:49
Speaker
So the other one, the idea is to run coolant in it so it can do aluminum or light steel or dovetail prep or
00:37:59
Speaker
I don't know. All kinds of stuff. Stuff we don't want to take production machine down for. But it's not like the foam mori situation. Right. No. It came as a package deal. And I was like, yeah, let's do it. Well, if one dry, one wet, we'll go. We do want to get our carbon fiber inlays set up on one of the machines here pretty soon. Because I like making those. That's dry?
00:38:24
Speaker
It could be run either. It could be run dry or it could be run wet if you filter the coolant really well. But if you're on a dry, you got to vacuum it. Yeah. So I don't know which I want to do. I like doing it wet and filtering the coolant because that seems cleaner, flushes everything away, and dry just kind of flies carbon fiber everywhere.
00:38:45
Speaker
I feel like very much coincidentally that John for EDM machine, I mean, they had like this push-pull proper vacuum system that was meant to just, I mean, it was like you don't get anything near that airflow because it is getting sucked out. Push-pull, you mean like an air blast and then an air suction? I've never heard of that.
00:39:04
Speaker
Well, I think the idea is you can't just vacuum out of an enclosed machine because you'll create a vacuum. So basically like an inlet that controls where the air is flowing from and then point it to. That's pretty cool. I don't think it's that complicated. And then I like that. I actually really don't love the idea of trying to filter super finds like insanely small finds out of coolant. And it gets everywhere. And so this idea that like you have a proper Venturi based like the
00:39:35
Speaker
proper base vacuum system, air filters are cheap. And that's could be cool. Like a dust deputy kind of cyclone, but a real one, not like with filters. Yeah, with filters and enough CFM. And the nice thing too, is that you probably aren't going to run that machine 40 hours a week. So air seems a lot easier to flip it on when you want it and not on when you're doing other stuff or not using it. And then you just need a
00:40:05
Speaker
This one has an umbrella tool changer, so there is a way to get a vacuum on the other side, on the right-hand side, mounted to the spindle that is out of the way of the tool changer and stuff like that. Yeah. Oh, some of the ones I've seen are literally you have like a giant box on the left side of the table and on the right side of the table, and then you can have corrugated hose stuff that flexes with the travel, but you're creating this like continuous loop of air that happens to be a void where the part is. But again, let me tell you, it is sucking.
00:40:34
Speaker
I've never seen that either. That's really cool. There's no ... I mean, you could breathe an infant could breathe probably an exaggeration, but you could have an infant breathing two feet away from the machine because it's absolutely controlling where that graphite dust goes.
00:40:53
Speaker
look into the graphite industry for good examples of vacuum system something. Yeah. Go find YouTube videos or something of like EDM graphite machine. You'll see dust containment CNC machine. It's way more than just having a little dust shoe near the spindle. Because it works okay, but it probably collects like 40% of the dust or something.
00:41:18
Speaker
Yeah, we're actually tempted. Eric met a guy at the CMTS, the Canadian IMTS, a couple years ago that makes and sells local guy that installs dust filtration systems in shops that need it. And Eric needs a bunch of stuff for his grinding setup in the front building. And we have some grinding here in the back that creates a lot of dust and deburring bars and cutting bars and things like that.
00:41:38
Speaker
And one for the UMAX, I'm kind of tempted to have the guy come in and just be like, give us a quote. Like, what would it take you to set us up with ducting and everything so we don't have to do it? And it's done properly with good components. And this is our goal. This is what we want. So we don't have to spend 40 hours researching this and, you know, can work.
Conclusion and Future Plans
00:41:56
Speaker
Yeah. And if that's like six grand to do, it's worth considering or something. Yeah.
00:42:02
Speaker
Agree, we've got making sure we've got our missed collectors miss condensers cool stuff set up correctly so that they're running well has been huge like the we've bought the new coolant condenser from Haas on the vf6 is just to try it. And it is
00:42:19
Speaker
I think it's a bug. I think they're going to say it's not, but it turns off way quicker than I want it to. I just had to hack the post to make sure it is staying on even if an axis is idle or other situations because I'd rather over suck, especially with as much through spindle drilling as we do.
00:42:42
Speaker
Those machines are still enclosed, like the regular ones are. It's not like an open top or something. Oh, yeah. It's just a big VF2. Right, right. Cool. Is it weird having such a big, two big mills, or is it just normal now? Dude, now when I'm cleaning out the VM3, I think it looks tiny. And the VF2 is like a benchtop machine. It's hilarious. And then you still have a bunch of Tormax. Just one of each, 1,441, 7,100.
00:43:09
Speaker
But you have the whole range now. You've got a 440 with the tiniest enclosure all the way up to the VFX. That's really cool. Yeah, and Vince started Tuesday. And dude, he is awesome at the Vince Fab, Vince Ramirez. What he does on, he's been playing with the little XS tech, the Tormach hobby router in the pocket in C. And
00:43:34
Speaker
I want him to, he already knows the shape of really well, but we don't have his, we don't have his stuff on Provencut yet. So that's, um, should be relatively easy cause he's, he's already knows how to do it. You just got to get it filmed and all that. But like, uh, so far that's awesome.
00:43:49
Speaker
Speaking of Shape-O-Co, I'm going to be running ours later today for a quick job we got to do. Oh, in what? Got to cut some G10 carrier rings for the laughing. Sweet. Oh, cool. And we currently make them on the Shape-O-Co. I was very tempted to put them on the U-Mac.
00:44:07
Speaker
like today because I'm like, it wouldn't be that hard. I'm pretty epic to do it on that machine. But we bought these like four foot sheets of G10 and they can only fit on the shape OCO. So we're like, fine, let's use it this time. But maybe next time we'll buy one foot sheets and like do them on the U-Mac instead. You could just hand saw them down, right? Or like circular saw? It's no fun cutting G10. Yeah, yeah.
00:44:31
Speaker
We've done it before we've done it with like buzz cutters on a Dremel and it's just gross. Right. Sweet. Awesome. What's up today? Today working on the Swiss reprogramming the pivots doing some 3d radial. What are they called rotary toolpaths? Oh, yeah. Awesome.
00:44:58
Speaker
Sweet. Yeah, that little bit of current set up and then shape Oco and then pick up the kids from school. Dude, cut something on the current, like a test part with that grinding wheel, just to like, make sure you got to refocus on the wheel pack. Yeah. That'll be fine. No, I'm close. Yeah. Sweet. I'll see you next week. Sounds good, buddy. Have a good. Take care.