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#423 What's the ideal retirement home shop?
0 Playsin 1 day
TOPICS:
- Saunders smashed his finger
- Met NileRED
- What's the ideal retirement home shop?
- Corporate Saga pens
- Inventory
- Vapor blasting
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Episode
00:00:01
johngrimsmo
Good morning and welcome to the Business of Machining episode 423. My name is John Grimsmow.
00:00:07
John Saunders
My name is John Sonners,
00:00:08
johngrimsmo
And this is the 423rd time we've sat down and recorded and talked about our manufacturing businesses.
00:00:18
John Saunders
which is crazy.
00:00:20
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:00:21
John Saunders
but Yeah. Yeah.
00:00:23
johngrimsmo
It's good, man. So how are you?
John's Finger Injury Story
00:00:25
John Saunders
Um, great minus that.
00:00:29
johngrimsmo
Oh, you got a finger issue.
00:00:32
John Saunders
had a finger issue. Um, Yeah.
00:00:38
johngrimsmo
Do you want to talk about it
00:00:40
John Saunders
Sure.
00:00:41
John Saunders
um So somewhat comically and ironically, um it did not happen at work or in the shop.
00:00:42
johngrimsmo
Eric has one of those too.
00:00:49
johngrimsmo
Hmm.
00:00:50
John Saunders
um So here's what's happened. was moving a piece of furniture and I saw the way i've told the story now and I think it's i think it's an honest representation. i know we always have a i think all humans have a bias of like telling the story and that in the in the a manner that favors them, if that makes sense.
00:01:08
johngrimsmo
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:01:09
John Saunders
um So I'm at fault, but I'm also a little bit bummed that this happened. So we moved he's of furniture with the furniture delivery guy. And it was going to, like coming off of the, in the like driveway, asphalt, whatever, it was going to kind of bottom out ah with the way the ramp and angle was.
00:01:26
John Saunders
And I, the punchline, ah no no need to to draw this out. The punchline is I put my hand under the furniture to lift it up, um which is kind of like the logical thing that had to happen.
00:01:38
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:01:38
John Saunders
And for reasons I don't know, and I never bothered to ask, he like shoved it forward right as I did that.
00:01:44
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:01:44
John Saunders
um So like my personal recap is it's my mistake. Like you don't put your hand between something and the ground like that um without stopping and talking and looking at the guy and be like, hey, hold on, hold, that we need to adjust this, whatever.
00:01:51
johngrimsmo
yeah
00:02:01
John Saunders
And I know better. i think where I'm frustrated is number one, why the heck did he do that? Number two, There's an interesting like medium ground takeaway that like I got so comfortable moving stuff with like the team here and people I know that we all have more situational awareness and we look each other, we talk and that's on me for not thinking like, hey, i don't know this guy, like what are you doing?
00:02:11
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:02:19
John Saunders
um But and unfortunately it wasn't great. It shattered the tip bone into four pieces and it,
00:02:26
johngrimsmo
Oh!
00:02:27
John Saunders
took the nail off. um
00:02:29
johngrimsmo
Ugh!
00:02:29
John Saunders
Yeah, so it's pretty gnarly.
00:02:31
John Saunders
um yeah sorry it's pretty um pretty gnarly um I'm actually grateful I didn't lose the whole tip of the finger.
00:02:32
johngrimsmo
Ew, gross.
00:02:40
John Saunders
And I don't, the and I'm sorry for grossing, if I mean to gross people out, the way it removes the nail in the nail bed, I don't know if I'll ever get a nail back.
00:02:40
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:02:49
John Saunders
They think I will. um So I don't mean to be dramatic about it. They think I will, but it may not grow back normal, the same bowl, which kind of, you know, kind of stinks.
00:02:50
johngrimsmo
Wow.
00:02:57
John Saunders
um
00:02:57
johngrimsmo
It's like middle finger on your left hand, right?
00:03:00
John Saunders
Correct.
00:03:00
John Saunders
Yeah. um So it's definitely more than just your average, like, Oh, broke my finger, put it in splint.
00:03:00
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:03:04
John Saunders
Like you'll be fine. um This is,
00:03:05
johngrimsmo
Right.
00:03:07
johngrimsmo
Well, you'll never be the crotchety old machinist in 40 years without stories like that. like
00:03:13
John Saunders
I'm not quite at that point yet. Although I was joking with my buddy last night. I was like, I don't ever want to become like an amputee. And I don't like that.
00:03:20
johngrimsmo
Of course.
00:03:21
John Saunders
I cannot, I give so much respect to people that have to deal with that sort of adversity on the flip side, on the flip side. What a great, like I am going to have like, i don't even know, like 3D printed machine parts, like DIY,
00:03:31
johngrimsmo
Oh yeah.
00:03:34
johngrimsmo
Especially a leg, like a leg would be the greatest like to make. You still have both your hands, you can make this, you like yeah.
00:03:39
John Saunders
Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:41
johngrimsmo
Exactly.
00:03:41
John Saunders
Um, anyway, that's my update, which is definitely curtailed my activities. It's a little harder to type and do stuff these days.
00:03:48
johngrimsmo
Sure.
00:03:50
John Saunders
Um, but whatever, I'm good. How are you?
00:03:53
johngrimsmo
Um, good. Very good. Um, took last
Montreal Trip and Inspiration
00:03:57
johngrimsmo
week off. Claire and I drove to Montreal and had an awesome, just absolutely wonderful city adventure for four days.
00:04:04
johngrimsmo
Um, so, so good. Like we did the same thing last year, went to New York city and, uh,
00:04:09
John Saunders
Mm-hmm.
00:04:10
John Saunders
God, was that a year ago?
00:04:10
johngrimsmo
And yeah, it was exactly here.
00:04:12
johngrimsmo
So drove to Montreal, it's like a seven hour drive and just great.
00:04:13
John Saunders
That's crazy.
00:04:17
johngrimsmo
She had a bunch of museums she wanted to go to. She loves art, she loves bugs. So we went to all those museums. And then also through a friend of a friend, think we've talked about him before.
00:04:28
johngrimsmo
um Have you since watched the Nile Red YouTube channel?
00:04:32
John Saunders
No.
00:04:33
johngrimsmo
Chemistry guy. um
00:04:34
John Saunders
Oh, ah recall you talking about it.
00:04:36
johngrimsmo
Yeah, yeah. And he's a huge channel, like 10 million subscribers and does all kinds of amazing science experiments and chemistry and like big projects and stuff. he He wanted to fit 100 cans of Red Bull into one can.
00:04:47
johngrimsmo
So he distilled it down like, yeah, he's like, I want one sip to equal like one can.
00:04:49
John Saunders
Stop. Oh, that's hilarious.
00:04:52
John Saunders
Hilarious.
00:04:52
johngrimsmo
And then he reached the limits of disillusion and all that stuff and things like that.
00:04:55
John Saunders
like an Oh.
00:04:56
johngrimsmo
He turned cotton balls into cotton candy, um like latex gloves into grape soda, things like that. Just crazy projects. But anyway, ah through a friend, I was able to be like to reach out and stop by.
00:05:11
John Saunders
way. No way.
00:05:12
johngrimsmo
Yeah. And Clara watches his channel a lot.
00:05:14
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:05:15
johngrimsmo
And so it was really, really fun for Claire and I both to be able to pop in. And we spent two hours there and he showed us the whole shop. And it was just super, super special.
00:05:21
John Saunders
Oh, that's awesome.
00:05:24
johngrimsmo
um
00:05:24
John Saunders
That's really cool.
00:05:24
johngrimsmo
Yeah, and I made i made a friend. like He's a really cool guy.
00:05:26
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:05:29
johngrimsmo
And to have that experience with Clara was special. It's not just like, hey, come see my machining buddy, my knife buddy. It's like, no, you watch this guy more than I do.
00:05:36
John Saunders
Right.
00:05:38
johngrimsmo
um
00:05:38
John Saunders
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:39
johngrimsmo
So that's really cool. And he's got an amazing shop and like all this cool lab equipment and chemistry stuff. And absolutely.
00:05:46
John Saunders
was going to say a chemistry shop, not like ah application yeah a
00:05:48
johngrimsmo
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, he, he made a liquid nitrogen generator and and we use liquid nitrogen and I've thought about building a DIY generator and he did it and he's like, it's not worth it, but it's so sick to be able to just on tap, make my
00:06:03
John Saunders
Well, is that the whole like nitrogen is in the air so you don't need a source?
00:06:06
johngrimsmo
Exactly. Yeah.
00:06:07
John Saunders
Okay. Okay.
00:06:08
johngrimsmo
78% of the air around you is nitrogen. So like, why can't you just pull it out? It's not easy. um And then he's got liquid helium. And I'm like, what's the difference? He's like, it's colder. I can freeze liquid nitrogen solid in liquid helium.
00:06:20
John Saunders
In the Wichelium?
00:06:21
John Saunders
No way. That's so cool.
00:06:21
johngrimsmo
And I'm like, oh my gosh.
00:06:23
johngrimsmo
And yeah, he's got he's got a bunch of projects coming up. He wants to make his own neodymium magnets from scratch. And he was showing me the whole process. And he's like, this is not easy. But
00:06:34
John Saunders
And I assume with that size of a channel, this is all he does now?
00:06:37
johngrimsmo
Yes. Yeah, he's a young guy.
00:06:38
John Saunders
Okay. Yeah, good for him.
00:06:39
johngrimsmo
He's in his early 30s, probably. um
00:06:41
John Saunders
That's awesome.
00:06:42
johngrimsmo
Got to meet his mom. Like, it was just great.
00:06:46
John Saunders
um well I want to hear more about Montreal, but I also got a segue. like what's up i didn't see the I didn't click on any links or look into it, but you you guys got a shout out on Adam Savage.
00:06:56
johngrimsmo
Yes, absolutely.
00:06:57
John Saunders
Okay.
00:06:58
johngrimsmo
um So our friend, the Hacksmith, James, is local guy. He's about an hour away, and he's launching his, you know, 57 tool in one multi-tool on Kickstarter, which is currently at $8 million dollars funded.
00:07:08
John Saunders
Okay. Okay.
00:07:15
John Saunders
but my god Yeah, that's crazy. That's crazy.
00:07:17
johngrimsmo
That's insane. um And he's friends with Adam Savage. So he went on Savage's channel to you know promote the new knife and totally name dropped us for like a minute and a half.
00:07:24
John Saunders
Mm-hmm.
00:07:28
John Saunders
Oh, good for you.
00:07:29
johngrimsmo
Yeah, it was amazing. And so James sent it to me as like, by the way, you know, I shouted you out in front of Savage. And i watched this clip and I'm just like, Holy cow.
00:07:40
johngrimsmo
Like, because Hacksmith team got to come to our shop and, uh, we got in touch because we make knives and they want to make this knife. And, you know, we're the guys in Canada and we live an hour away.
00:07:47
John Saunders
Cool.
00:07:50
johngrimsmo
So they got, to I got to go to their shop. Leif and i actually went there on new year's Eve and got like a private tour for four hours of, of their whole shop.
00:07:57
John Saunders
Good
00:07:58
johngrimsmo
And then they got to come here and get the full tour. And yeah, so he said, uh, on Savage's channel to Adam Savage. He's like, yeah, these guys, you know, close to us, they make this beautiful thousand dollar knife. That's like super intricate and super off the walls. And i'm like, yeah, we do.
00:08:14
John Saunders
good for you.
00:08:15
johngrimsmo
It was great.
00:08:16
John Saunders
It's got to feel good.
00:08:17
johngrimsmo
Yeah. It felt amazing. And this was all in Montreal. Like while I'm trying not to work or think about work, I keep getting all these texts and DMS and things. And then like, yeah, this is perfect.
00:08:27
johngrimsmo
This is so good.
00:08:27
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:08:29
johngrimsmo
Um, yeah. other
00:08:33
John Saunders
Good. Good trip.
00:08:34
johngrimsmo
Good trip. Yeah, that's pretty much it.
00:08:35
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:08:35
johngrimsmo
Montreal was just great. Yeah.
00:08:37
John Saunders
did you Did you come back to feeling reinvigorated or... Yeah,
00:08:43
johngrimsmo
Did, um especially talking to Niall Red, thinking a lot YouTube-wise, like we are not a YouTube business. um However, how do I want to leverage YouTube in the future of my personal John Grimsmo and Grimsmo Knives as a company?
00:08:51
John Saunders
yeah, right.
00:08:59
John Saunders
yeah
00:09:01
johngrimsmo
um so i got a lot of hours on the road to kind of think about that and and digest you know i like to share knowledge and i'm certainly amassing a thousand times more knowledge that i'm sharing and if i can tip that scale a little bit more um it will help everybody and you know progress the industry forward and just it feels like everybody's learning all these challenges by themselves
00:09:05
John Saunders
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:09:15
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:09:30
johngrimsmo
it until the people of some people share some things and you hear it and you're like, thank you. I didn't have to learn that myself because you did it for me. And that's how I've learned a lot of the stuff that I know.
00:09:38
John Saunders
Yes.
00:09:42
johngrimsmo
And I want to be a part of that more, you know but it's not easy.
00:09:46
John Saunders
No, I know we've talked about this a lot. I um basically took like a year off of YouTube after 10 years straight and I've had, I wouldn't even say I had conflicted feelings about it.
00:09:51
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:09:57
John Saunders
I was pretty comfortable. it was I had a couple of people that were like, you're a fool to not promote this more whenever and they they may not be wrong but um yeah we talked about the pros and cons of what that is and look our channel while it has a lot of followers doesn't have any of the critical mass of nile red or a um hacksmith type channel ever ever had but i don't care i never cared about that wasn't how i measured my success or worth all that um and so even recently like actually did a video on the finger thing because um i think i'll launch it next week but ah i
00:10:05
johngrimsmo
sure.
00:10:07
johngrimsmo
yeah
00:10:20
johngrimsmo
Yeah. Agreed.
00:10:33
John Saunders
wanted to make a ah custom splint and I i needed to, because of the stupid third joint tip is still broken, I have to protect it from getting, um, disoriented again or stopping it.
00:10:35
johngrimsmo
Yeah,
00:10:43
johngrimsmo
sure.
00:10:45
John Saunders
And the darn thing was pretty tender until really yesterday. Now it feels pretty good.
00:10:48
johngrimsmo
Okay.
00:10:49
John Saunders
Um, and I wanted it to like be tapered back to expose where I needs to heal. And so I cut,
00:10:53
johngrimsmo
That is really cool. Yeah,
00:10:55
John Saunders
I went on Maker World and 3D print sites. I saw some examples, but, you know those STLs are never fun to work with as as CAD guys.
00:11:01
johngrimsmo
yeah.
00:11:01
John Saunders
we want We want to tweak it. We want parametric. We want to adjust it. And so i was just like, oh, I can remake this. And um I wouldn't say it was hard, but, you know, there's a couple weirdnesses to the shape that are not the traditional 3 plus 2, like chunky blocky stuff that I make in my day job.
00:11:11
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:11:17
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:11:18
John Saunders
And so I did a little bit it's like a seven, eight minute video on like, Hey, here's how i figure out how to make this splint. And then but the punchline, the feather and the cap was actually had a follow-up appointment with the hand surgeon.
00:11:28
John Saunders
And he was like, he was like, it was complimentary.
00:11:32
John Saunders
I'll leave it at that. He was like, that's actually per, I was, cause I was also like, what are you gonna like yell at me for me? i Like, dude, what are you doing?
00:11:32
johngrimsmo
yeah yeah Yeah.
00:11:38
John Saunders
Like you need whatever. it was good.
00:11:38
johngrimsmo
Right. Right.
00:11:40
johngrimsmo
That's awesome. Yeah, and that's that's fun. It's like, well, I wouldn't call it a fun video to share. I smashed my finger. But um yeah, I solved this problem that I'm personally facing with a very custom solution.
00:11:50
John Saunders
Great. yeah
00:11:53
johngrimsmo
And that is why
3D Printed Splint Innovation
00:11:54
johngrimsmo
we have learned to make things, is so that we can make more things.
00:11:57
John Saunders
That's what I said in this video. I was like, this reminds me back to like 2009 in my New York apartment when I'm like, I just want to make stuff.
00:12:00
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:12:04
John Saunders
And I know there's ah the younger people out there or people that don't have access to the machinery that have this urge, this like desire to learn, to be curious and to actually bring their stuff into existence.
00:12:05
johngrimsmo
Yep.
00:12:15
John Saunders
um And i know we've talked about so many times, but like all the, but from 3D printing to Fusion to send cut sends to the hobby accessible machines, like it is so freaking awesome to be,
00:12:26
John Saunders
in this ecosystem these days.
00:12:28
johngrimsmo
Yep. And a project like that, mean, you clearly needed it to support your finger, but some of those projects are the weird, um, kind of personal decision. Like I'm going to waste a lot of time to do this silly side project, but it does teach you a lot of things.
00:12:41
johngrimsmo
And that taught you like form modeling or whatever you did to like, and you wouldn't naturally do that in your day job.
00:12:41
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:12:44
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:12:48
johngrimsmo
Um, and And that is how we grow and learn is we push ourselves. We have this crazy idea. um I'm thinking how to raccoon proof my compost bin at home right now. and we ended up finding easy straps on Amazon, but I'm thinking, okay, I can put this latch that holds the other latch and then I could 3D print something.
00:13:04
John Saunders
The other option is to shoot the raccoons.
00:13:07
johngrimsmo
Yeah, Canada.
00:13:10
johngrimsmo
Anyway. Good. So yeah, the trip did kind of um reinvigorate my
00:13:19
johngrimsmo
desire to share more.
00:13:21
John Saunders
Yeah, good.
00:13:21
John Saunders
No, good.
00:13:21
johngrimsmo
And that's, I think that's a good way to phrase it, not to be a YouTuber, not to like get a million followers, just to share more.
00:13:27
johngrimsmo
And in just in the exact way we've been doing it, but do it more. um
00:13:31
John Saunders
Yeah, yeah.
00:13:33
johngrimsmo
I'm kind of at a point in my career where I have freedom to kind of step back a little bit, whether it's take time with family or not do work, work and make videos or things like that on a day-to-day basis. But yeah,
00:13:49
johngrimsmo
Yeah. that was one of my takeaways, you know, and, and meeting guys like Hacksmith and Niall Red, who their job is to make YouTube videos and their entire existence is supported by that.
00:13:51
John Saunders
yeah Yeah.
00:14:01
johngrimsmo
um It's stressful.
00:14:04
John Saunders
Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely a different, it's a different life.
00:14:08
johngrimsmo
if Like, like with anything, my hobby became my job. it' It's a job. in a lot of ways. like Like machining, running running a business is now your job.
00:14:14
John Saunders
Oh, good for sure. Oh yeah.
00:14:19
johngrimsmo
It was fun at some point, and then it goes through this period of not being fun.
00:14:19
John Saunders
Yes.
00:14:22
johngrimsmo
And then if you're really good, like I'm really trying, and I'm still finding fun in it. um
00:14:27
John Saunders
Yes.
00:14:28
johngrimsmo
As I build a team that does the things that I'm not good at, that you know made me struggle. um And now, and me as the leader of this company, I i need and need to like it, otherwise I'm not going
Retirement Workshop Dreams
00:14:41
johngrimsmo
to it.
00:14:42
John Saunders
You want to know what the secret I've been kind of doing in my head.
00:14:45
johngrimsmo
What? I do.
00:14:46
John Saunders
It's just a, it's just a mental exercise, at least right now, but it actually has worked with me.
00:14:48
johngrimsmo
Yep. Yep.
00:14:52
John Saunders
I spent the last like my retirement shop look like.
00:15:00
johngrimsmo
Yeah. Interesting.
00:15:01
John Saunders
I'm not going to retire. I don't retire anymore. I'm assumed, but like, it's kind of like, okay, like really, like I can't justify a will of it in a retirement shop.
00:15:04
johngrimsmo
Sure.
00:15:08
John Saunders
Like you can, but like, man
00:15:08
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:15:09
johngrimsmo
mean, you used well, then.
00:15:11
John Saunders
Yeah, maybe. Seriously, maybe.
00:15:12
John Saunders
um And it's like, would you want a little five axis? Do you want a manual lay? Do you want, you know, Wazer, Waterjet? Like, or what? what um What are your goals? The goals are different.
00:15:12
johngrimsmo
Okay. But yeah.
00:15:21
John Saunders
I think a lot about the, shoot, the yeah Israeli dude, Gilbert.
00:15:22
johngrimsmo
Totally.
00:15:27
johngrimsmo
Yeah, Dan Galbaird. Yeah.
00:15:28
John Saunders
Thank you. About he's not his shop, his shop. That's what you do when you're, you know, money's no object. But, um yeah, it's it's been a good exercise for me to sort of think about the remembering the fun side of all of it.
00:15:35
johngrimsmo
Yep.
00:15:41
johngrimsmo
Exactly. And I've thought about that too, but a a home shop, a proper home shop or a retirement shop would look completely different than what I've built here at Grimsmoke because here we are here to make knives.
00:15:51
John Saunders
How so?
00:15:53
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:15:54
johngrimsmo
If I had a home shop, I don't think I'd make knives like all the time, but then what would I make?
00:15:59
johngrimsmo
like what do i need What tools do I need? i don't know. I don't have the answer to that yet because I have have everything here.
00:16:03
John Saunders
Yeah, yeah.
00:16:05
johngrimsmo
um but yeah, don't know.
00:16:11
John Saunders
Right? my I don't have a time to update on to anyways today, so i'll I'll blow my wad on this one, which is just like my home shop inspirations are largely being driven by number one, Johnny Five, um which my answer ah kind of like, how is he doing would be twofold.
00:16:22
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:16:27
John Saunders
Number one, absolutely making progress. Every, almost every day I'm doing real amounts of work on him. um The head, the legs, electronics, arms, and that's all great. On the flip side, if I'm being honest, I'm getting burned out again, which kind of bothers me.
00:16:41
John Saunders
um There's a couple of things I'm really nervous about with the build. And there's a couple of areas that I'm just not enjoying doing. And that's not the point. um And so what I did, because I was also off some this last week or two is this is like so this is so like bad advice to myself, but I let myself do anyways.
00:16:58
John Saunders
I started planning my next build post Johnny five.
00:17:00
johngrimsmo
so Okay.
00:17:01
John Saunders
Just do
00:17:02
johngrimsmo
Interesting.
00:17:02
John Saunders
just just as a way to like give myself a little bit of a break and and relax.
00:17:05
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:17:06
John Saunders
And I had it on my notes to do for a long time, like a couple of years. And it's basically I had signed up for the astromech forum and dust off my account, or I don't think I had to make an account.
00:17:17
John Saunders
And then this is the builders group. It's like OG been around since the, you know, probably the Yahoo group days, but this is the R2D2 and Star Wars builders clubs.
00:17:27
johngrimsmo
Okay. Okay.
00:17:28
John Saunders
So they have insane, you know the Johnny Five input in group is really a small group. There's not that many people that are going to build one of these. And frankly, the undertaking is no just no disrespect to some of the builds, which are nuts, but like you should do an R2 first.
00:17:41
John Saunders
construction um
00:17:43
johngrimsmo
There's a reason like five people have built Johnny Fives like.
00:17:45
John Saunders
Oh my God. Yeah. yeah um So it's actually goingnna be fun to look in R2 and be like, oh, I can do that. i can do that. Are you kidding? Oh my God.
00:17:52
John Saunders
um So it was actually super fun to start looking at, okay, what could be printed? what's What is part run built in volume? What can machine here? um And just having a little bit of fun cheating on myself and so cheating on the Johnny five build and actually kind of work.
00:17:53
johngrimsmo
Mm hmm.
00:18:05
johngrimsmo
Yep.
00:18:08
John Saunders
Cause now i like, okay, buckle down. You need to get this build done.
00:18:10
johngrimsmo
Exactly.
00:18:11
John Saunders
And i mean, I'm certainly not a alone here. If you've seen like actual fully built cosplay R2s, there's just something about them that makes you smile.
00:18:20
johngrimsmo
Yeah, that's awesome. I like that. It's you're totally allowed to give yourself that grace, whether it's a moment or a day or a week or whatever.
00:18:23
John Saunders
Yep.
00:18:29
johngrimsmo
It's like, I'm not going to worry about what's on my plate right now with this side project. And, you know I'm going to let myself wander.
00:18:33
John Saunders
Yep.
00:18:36
John Saunders
Yep.
00:18:36
johngrimsmo
and And that's it's as I age, I'm realizing the power in that because it's very easy to stress about what's what's in front of you.
00:18:44
johngrimsmo
But sometimes I just let myself wander and I need that. It's like a little reset. um Cause you get so tunnel vision you get so frustrated and so focused and yeah.
00:19:00
John Saunders
do it Did you enjoy Montreal? I know you said it was a bunch of art museum museums bug museums all that.
00:19:00
johngrimsmo
Um,
00:19:05
johngrimsmo
I enjoyed, I, I did. enjoyed time with Clara the most like just that.
00:19:12
John Saunders
Yeah, that's fair.
00:19:13
John Saunders
It doesn't matter where. Yeah.
00:19:13
johngrimsmo
That's yeah.
00:19:15
johngrimsmo
And the bug museum, I found interest in everywhere we went.
00:19:15
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:19:18
johngrimsmo
I wouldn't go by myself. Um,
00:19:20
John Saunders
Oh, you say that, but like seeing the pictures you put up in those patterns patterns, I'm like, dude, nature for the wind.
00:19:23
johngrimsmo
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:25
johngrimsmo
Exactly.
00:19:26
John Saunders
Those are, those are legit.
00:19:27
johngrimsmo
Yeah, that was really cool. So, you know, everywhere we went, I tried to find something interesting. um ah Her and I have both been very into antiquing this past year, um this summer.
00:19:36
John Saunders
Yeah, that's fine.
00:19:38
johngrimsmo
And so in Montreal alone, we went to like five places. And she's got her things she wants. I've got i think my things I'm looking for. And it's like, gives us purpose and something to do together, which is amazing.
00:19:47
John Saunders
Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:49
johngrimsmo
So, yeah.
00:19:51
John Saunders
Good. Can I ask you, talking about YouTube and filming, you asked shift the time slot a few minutes. Can you spell with beans on that one?
00:19:59
johngrimsmo
Yeah, um I can spill some of the beans. I'll leave some in the pot. um So Renishaw Canada um reached out to do a little special project. And so they came by today to film that.
00:20:11
johngrimsmo
We've been working on it for a little bit and it will come to completion in, I think it's due next Friday.
00:20:12
John Saunders
Awesome.
00:20:18
johngrimsmo
ah this project. So then we'll film. This video is pretty much for them. They're filming it and then we'll we'll use it and slice it up and put little clips up of what we're doing.
00:20:23
John Saunders
OK. What
00:20:27
johngrimsmo
um But yeah, it's been really fun. think Using our Saga pen for corporate clients.
00:20:38
johngrimsmo
Um, it's something we've been working on and talking about for a long time. So Renishow basically contracted us to make a special saga pen, um, for a certain reason.
00:20:43
John Saunders
do you mean?
00:20:46
John Saunders
OK.
00:20:48
John Saunders
Yeah. That's awesome, by the way. Yes.
00:20:49
johngrimsmo
And, um, so it's super cool.
00:20:52
johngrimsmo
And it's something Angelo specifically has been wanting to do and actually pursuing.
00:20:53
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:20:59
johngrimsmo
Um, we've actually got this large deal with Arc'terex, the, clothing company currently where they're,
00:21:05
John Saunders
Mm-hmm.
00:21:07
johngrimsmo
um I think they ordered 30 custom sagas and as like a taste test.
00:21:11
John Saunders
Nice.
00:21:14
johngrimsmo
um
00:21:14
John Saunders
Oh, no kidding.
00:21:15
johngrimsmo
Right. And their their senior design technician, engineer, whatever they call it, the design guy ah reached out to us about a year ago and started this whole thing.
00:21:16
John Saunders
That's awesome.
00:21:27
johngrimsmo
Like he reached
Collaborations and Corporate Gifts
00:21:28
johngrimsmo
out to us and he's like, you're Canadian, we're Canadian. This is amazing. And I'm like, yes, I agree. So I have a lot of Arc'teryx gear now.
00:21:36
John Saunders
yeah but I only own a few things and it's nice stuff.
00:21:40
johngrimsmo
Right. It's amazing. And I've always it's always been like top of my list and I've never bought it.
00:21:41
John Saunders
and
00:21:44
johngrimsmo
So now I have quite a bit.
00:21:45
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:21:46
johngrimsmo
The kids have some too. And this is now springboarding us specifically with the Saga pen to look at these corporate deals, you know, 30 plus purchases branded for the corporate.
00:21:55
John Saunders
Oh, interesting.
00:21:57
johngrimsmo
You know, it's a big it's ah it's annoying to put somebody's logo and colors and branding on something.
00:21:58
John Saunders
Yeah, sure.
00:22:01
johngrimsmo
But at some point it becomes worth it and you can price it in a way that And the pen is just so cool that like to have in a boardroom meeting. i love when people sign for machines with our pen, like that kind of thing.
00:22:10
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:22:14
John Saunders
Yes. Well, and the present, you do such a nice job, John, like the presentation, the case, like so much of the gift is not just the, an item, but it's the process and the ah sort of pomp around it and like the sagas are just dialed.
00:22:24
johngrimsmo
Yep. And there's, there's backstory with this gift, you know, when, when this company gives it to each, whoever's getting it.
00:22:30
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:22:31
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:22:31
johngrimsmo
Um,
00:22:33
johngrimsmo
there's enough deep dive to like for them to look it up and learn more about it. So yeah, so we're slowly trying to push this into bigger things.
00:22:38
John Saunders
Good for you.
00:22:40
johngrimsmo
you know Kind of stretch goal is like Coca-Cola orders 500 or something dumb like that. like you know It could totally happen.
00:22:46
John Saunders
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:22:48
johngrimsmo
And we're springboarding. We've got some great companies on our on our team now that we're starting to do this with.
00:22:53
John Saunders
Right.
00:22:54
johngrimsmo
And it's it's exciting.
00:22:57
John Saunders
I give you a ton of credit on this idea of if there are ways where this can, this idea can percolate amongst the people in that industry that talk amongst themselves, if you will, because I, and I don't obviously know your situation here, et cetera, et cetera, but it's a lot harder to like cold email and be like, you should use yourself as a gift.
00:23:12
johngrimsmo
Yes.
00:23:13
John Saunders
But if like, you know, Joe hears it from Susie at a ah marketing event, then, and they come to you, it's just like money.
00:23:15
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:23:20
johngrimsmo
Exactly.
00:23:21
John Saunders
Yeah, that's so like the the long game, if you will.
00:23:21
johngrimsmo
Yeah. It's a what's the word for it? Not natural, but it's it's like real organic.
00:23:27
John Saunders
or Organic.
00:23:29
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:23:29
johngrimsmo
Yeah, exactly.
00:23:30
John Saunders
Mm-hmm.
00:23:30
johngrimsmo
It's like real word of mouth.
00:23:31
johngrimsmo
um The best part of it is these two companies reached out to us.
00:23:37
John Saunders
Yeah, you know exactly.
00:23:38
johngrimsmo
Right?
00:23:38
John Saunders
That's like totally great.
00:23:40
johngrimsmo
So, yeah, I mean, everything I do, I'm trying to play for the long game here.
00:23:40
John Saunders
Good for you. for you.
00:23:44
johngrimsmo
I want this company to be strong in you know many many years.
00:23:47
John Saunders
Mm-hmm.
00:23:49
johngrimsmo
And certainly over the years have turned down the short-term money to either because I don't want it or ah to play for the long game kind of thing, or I'm not willing to do whatever that short-term thing is.
00:23:55
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:24:01
johngrimsmo
um But yeah, these build to the long-term vision.
00:24:05
John Saunders
humble suggestion, now that this has already become a thing, ah you know, have your graphics designer guy or get on Upwork and have put together the, whatever the industry bingo is, use ChatGPT to figure out like, it's not swag.
00:24:18
John Saunders
I'm sure there's better terms these days, but put together a one-page tear sheet on, hey, this is our corporate promotion program here.
00:24:23
johngrimsmo
already done 100 yeah hundred percent
00:24:23
John Saunders
Sorry, that's great. You're already over now. God bless you. Because then all of a sudden you're giving them something to work with and like, they look, they may think you're more, i mean, there's none, none of this is fake until you make it because you're all real, but like you give them something to just run with.
00:24:32
johngrimsmo
yeah exactly so the uh the arcteryx guy is doing it for us quick like that's how cool this is like yeah it's it's pretty special
00:24:41
John Saunders
Awesome. Good. Good. Because Zuda's like, how about, you know, how about Norsemen or Fjells for special events, occasions, whatever.
00:24:52
johngrimsmo
yeah Yeah, the cool thing with a pen is it's fairly universal.
00:24:52
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:24:55
johngrimsmo
Like most people, male, female, old, young could appreciate it.
00:24:59
John Saunders
oh
00:25:00
John Saunders
Touche.
00:25:00
johngrimsmo
um Knife is you know more specific.
00:25:02
johngrimsmo
Not everybody's going to like care, use, want big scary knife. um But yeah, into industry specific. Who knows?
00:25:10
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:25:11
John Saunders
Okay. I hear you.
00:25:11
johngrimsmo
I'm certainly open to it.
00:25:13
johngrimsmo
But
00:25:16
johngrimsmo
yeah, so that's exciting.
00:25:17
John Saunders
Good for
00:25:18
johngrimsmo
Speaking of engravings, I did One of my customers has been around for a long time. He's bought a few things from us. I've met him at Blade Show a bunch times. I met his kid. um He ordered a Fjall, one of the early ones.
00:25:30
johngrimsmo
And he's like, but could you pretty, pretty please engrave my you know army insignia on it? Because I want to pass it down to my son.
00:25:37
John Saunders
you.
00:25:39
johngrimsmo
and it's like a really complicated engraving.
00:25:39
John Saunders
Cool.
00:25:42
John Saunders
Oh.
00:25:42
johngrimsmo
I don't even know if I can squish all that detail into a clip that's 0.4 inch wide kind of thing. um So I pulled out my 10,000 ball end mill and fired up the Willimon and 22,000 RPM.
00:25:54
John Saunders
Mm-hmm.
00:25:59
johngrimsmo
And it it actually looks really, really good. Yeah, I actually overheated the Willimon spindle at 22,000 RPM for about 15 minutes. And it just kind of says, nope. and So it just pauses, like stops.
00:26:12
John Saunders
It's a 30 case middle, right?
00:26:14
johngrimsmo
It's a 30, but there is sensors inside that kind of cut out at whatever temperature.
00:26:14
John Saunders
Okay.
00:26:18
John Saunders
yeah
00:26:19
johngrimsmo
And so, you know, 30K for a minute is one thing. 30K for 20 minutes, same on the current.
00:26:24
John Saunders
and
00:26:27
John Saunders
Yeah. Yeah, sure.
00:26:28
johngrimsmo
And the spindle is chilled on the Williman, but clearly it kind of reached its max, which is whatever.
00:26:33
John Saunders
Yeah. The engraving worked?
00:26:36
johngrimsmo
It worked, yeah.
00:26:38
John Saunders
And did you do a test, like a scrap piece test first? Or did you just full send?
00:26:42
johngrimsmo
It actually worked on the first one. Yep.
00:26:43
John Saunders
so So no, you didn't.
00:26:45
johngrimsmo
No, I was willing to. um
00:26:47
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:26:48
johngrimsmo
and dude, two things. Because we've made so many clips a few months ago, i haven't turned on that machine in like probably two months. um We just haven't needed it. And first of all, I turned it on and it says power is off. I'm like, okay, you know, hit to read hit reset, hit hit the on button, close all the doors. I'm like,
00:27:09
johngrimsmo
it should be working by now, right? Like it's been a bit and now Jeff is running it. So I'm i'm not really, I'm losing the familiarity with like, and he's gone.
00:27:16
John Saunders
yeah
00:27:17
johngrimsmo
And it's like, power is off. I'm like, yeah, okay. Think about this. I remember complaining to um Florian, the Willman guy, you know, maybe six, eight months ago, same problem.
00:27:29
johngrimsmo
And he's like, make sure all the doors are closed. I'm like, yeah, they're closed. And so same problem yesterday. and I'm like, It turns out the tool changer door, that the key, the the key that closes the door, the interlock, whatever, missed.
00:27:39
John Saunders
Oh, you access, access oh
00:27:47
John Saunders
so Okay.
00:27:47
johngrimsmo
because We machined a little aluminum bracket to mount this key.
00:27:51
John Saunders
It
00:27:51
johngrimsmo
And it must have bent or whatever.
00:27:52
johngrimsmo
So the key was missing the interlock the whole time. So even though the door was closed, the interlock wasn't. And I could only see it by hitting my flashlight up there and be like, oh yeah, look, it's totally missing.
00:28:01
John Saunders
would be nice if it said the machine doors open instead of no power on whatever.
00:28:05
johngrimsmo
Maybe your fancy new one says that, but my my old one's fairly simple. um So i got that working and then ended up breaking one ball end mill, my last 10 thou, and I had no more 10 thou ball end mill.
00:28:09
John Saunders
funny.
00:28:19
johngrimsmo
So I'm like, well, I guess I'm redoing going over the engraving again with a 15 thou because I have one of those. And it looks fine. i was able to do that.
00:28:26
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:28:27
johngrimsmo
And I can't refixture this clip, so i have to do it like one and done on a new clip as I'm making the new clip.
00:28:32
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:28:33
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:28:34
johngrimsmo
So I made a whole clip and it worked.
00:28:36
johngrimsmo
First part.
00:28:36
John Saunders
Cool.
00:28:38
johngrimsmo
Three tries, but first part.
00:28:38
John Saunders
That's awesome. Yeah.
00:28:41
John Saunders
That's awesome.
00:28:42
johngrimsmo
Still counts.
00:28:45
John Saunders
We, what was i going to say? Oh, so are we going to see original video on your channel or will you share it when it's out on theirs?
00:28:55
johngrimsmo
I will definitely share it and probably slice it up and post stuff on ours.
00:28:59
John Saunders
Okay, sweet.
00:28:59
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:29:01
John Saunders
Sweet. had a win and a loss, a potential loss. A win that I wanted to share was we do have... um oh I mean, a huge percentage of our business is direct.
00:29:13
John Saunders
We do have one stocking distributor and they send in POs that can vary in size and SKUs. But I sort of said, hey, why are we um got together with the team?
00:29:23
John Saunders
i was like, hey, instead of just reacting to their POs, we know stuff that comes through. Let's get the stuff prepackaged, um which has the other benefit of um we could we could choose if we wanted to to rob that if we had a production issue, because I'm going to sort of say,
00:29:35
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:29:37
John Saunders
um you know if we there should be a time there will be a time where we have some pickup or you know power outage machine down or whatnot so um having a buffer is nice anyways and so long story short we had a bunch of this stuff pre-packaged on the shelf um and they sent a po in and it took us basically we had like two items we had to add a few more things to and then this order which i mean it was a nice order it was was out the door which is like
00:30:04
johngrimsmo
Nice.
00:30:05
John Saunders
freaking awesome And having those buffers built up in your own internal kind of supply chain is really, really, really helpful.
00:30:12
johngrimsmo
who
00:30:13
John Saunders
Just it lets you it lets you get orders out the door when they come in, which feels great. And it helps us buffer our own internal time because if if something is slow, you can be assembling or you know working on inventory or assembling and all that stuff.
00:30:28
johngrimsmo
So do you find yourself fighting with the you know lean one piece flow, make it as it comes in kind of thing versus the, I have way too much inventory trying to find that middle ground? Is that
00:30:40
John Saunders
Yeah, that gets talked about so much.
00:30:42
johngrimsmo
Yeah. Of
00:30:43
John Saunders
um And it gets talked about, it's it's like, so and it's not theoretical, but like, I just don't, and I don't, I understand it. What I found is it's not that simple.
00:30:53
John Saunders
So we have, we have push pull systems to where we'll have stuff on the machine that's going off onto
00:30:54
johngrimsmo
course.
00:31:00
John Saunders
shop floor inventory, the shop floor inventory gets pulled over to assembly inventory. That inventory gets converted into assembled and ready to ship inventory. And so you need those buffers in throughout those stages, um, for processes and for in backlogs and all that.
00:31:12
johngrimsmo
Mm-hmm.
00:31:15
John Saunders
And that system, um, so far has worked quite well for us.
00:31:19
johngrimsmo
Yeah, we've got the same. We need various, at least a day's buffer at each location so that that guy, that machine is does not go hungry.
00:31:26
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:31:28
John Saunders
Mm-hmm.
00:31:28
johngrimsmo
um
00:31:30
johngrimsmo
And sometimes more because it could be a week or a month before the Williman. Like we made a lot of clips and now we don't have to and it's kind of great.
00:31:37
John Saunders
Yeah, right, right. From a production standpoint, the thing I started the year, I think off talking um with you on was, was the extreme idea of nuking the horizontal and going to a five axis automated and doing one piece flow.
00:31:50
John Saunders
That obviously never happened, but I kind of want to do that more so than ever now. I don't know what that would what would look like, but at this point I would, I think I'm willing to incur the additional cost per part of, you know, more tool changes and, and slower production, knowing that you could still make,
00:31:57
johngrimsmo
ye
00:32:10
John Saunders
even it's not even making better parts because I'm we're doing a pretty good job on that here it's not having to rely on custom fixtures to scale and and the complication around patterning those or making more of them um swinging those it's less like all of a sudden one day if you need to make 20 of something you just run 20 in a row well it's a little slower but um yeah
00:32:23
johngrimsmo
yeah
00:32:33
johngrimsmo
Yeah, fixturing still becomes um critical, but easier because they're smaller. They're individual pallets. um But you still need easy, like if you can get away with just putting 20 identical vices in all your 20 pallets, then that's great.
00:32:48
johngrimsmo
But I like to make little fixtures and pallets and things like that.
00:32:50
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:32:52
johngrimsmo
So you still need kind of some quick connect way to mount to your quick connect pallet change.
00:32:58
John Saunders
No, you're right. I think what I perhaps neglected to say it was the way we would change these workflows um The first op from of these parts, the first op could be done in a traditional vice, which is scalable because it's just vice and vice jaws and all the criticals would be done.
00:33:10
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:33:12
John Saunders
So the op two is no longer important. It's like easy to do in soft jaws or fixture whatever.
00:33:18
johngrimsmo
Right.
00:33:18
John Saunders
um Much easier to scale that. Whereas now we have some stuff where the op one, op two fixtures, the way we need to make them are much more involved.
00:33:26
johngrimsmo
I get that for sure. ye And like how we do the current, we do op 1 on one tombstone and then we flip the parts. onto the same tombstone, another part and just run it on the next cycle.
00:33:38
johngrimsmo
So like the whole whole tomb, the single tombstone does most operations for a knife in every cycle.
00:33:42
John Saunders
Yes. Yeah.
00:33:45
johngrimsmo
Um, and there's probing involved. So if we don't load parts here, it's okay. It's not going to air air cut kind of thing.
00:33:49
John Saunders
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:33:51
johngrimsmo
a lot of logic behind it. Um,
00:33:54
John Saunders
That part I'll agree with you on of, like, one-piece flow. of Like, we don't ever have work in progress laying around the shop. Like, they come off of the, they go from op one and op two, and they're done immediately.
00:34:03
johngrimsmo
Hmm.
00:34:04
John Saunders
which But I feel like most people are that way nowadays.
00:34:06
johngrimsmo
Yeah. Yeah. Hmm.
00:34:09
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:34:13
johngrimsmo
What else? What else?
00:34:17
johngrimsmo
Hmm.
00:34:18
John Saunders
We, um, i what was I doing? know. was doing something over near our IBC tote that holds our, so whatever, 200 and some gallons of RO water. And I looked inside of it and I was just like, uh-oh.
00:34:31
John Saunders
So i don't, I don't know anything for sure yet. And I just emailed my QualiChem rep to ask if I can send in some water samples to them, which sure they'll say yes to. I don't if yeah, I'm sure say yes.
00:34:43
John Saunders
Um, it It might just be little like dirt type spec type stuff. it's It's clearly not like, oh boy, we've got something growing in here, but it could be.
00:34:55
johngrimsmo
yeah is
00:34:56
John Saunders
There's just a little like discoloration spots.
00:34:59
johngrimsmo
okay like settled in kind of the low spots of the plastic sort of thing interesting
00:34:59
John Saunders
um
00:35:03
John Saunders
More on the side walls. So I, part of me was like, you know what? I mean, this thing's been five years old. It's inside, but it's, a that like just could for sure be the case. And so then I'm like, well, how do we clean it? Do we throw away?
00:35:20
John Saunders
we need to shock the system or like per can we keep the water we've made? Do we want to get one of those ozone sanitizer? i don't know like I figure that out.
00:35:27
johngrimsmo
Yeah,
00:35:28
John Saunders
You did, what did you, did you ever have any resolution?
00:35:30
johngrimsmo
no, nothing. No, we we take it outside.
00:35:32
John Saunders
Okay. You're good though.
00:35:33
johngrimsmo
We hose it down every now and then pressure, wash it from the inside out. And then yeah, the IBC tote and that's pretty much it.
00:35:37
John Saunders
The IBC tote. Okay.
00:35:41
johngrimsmo
We've probably washed it maybe three times in the past few years.
00:35:44
John Saunders
Yeah, and maybe that's, maybe I have it.
00:35:47
John Saunders
Maybe that's all you need to do is just empty it and like, because you the opening, you get your arm in there.
00:35:47
johngrimsmo
Sure.
00:35:48
johngrimsmo
Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:51
John Saunders
So I guess you can get a power washer in there and just go to town.
00:35:51
johngrimsmo
Yep.
00:35:55
johngrimsmo
yeah
00:35:55
John Saunders
Okay, that's probably all you gotta do. That's fair.
00:35:58
johngrimsmo
And maybe that's normal in like, IBC tote world. don't know.
00:36:02
John Saunders
Well, people have talked about painting them or so that you don't have any form of light.
00:36:07
johngrimsmo
The UV getting in or whatever, yeah.
00:36:09
John Saunders
yeah i'm very much like i need to learn to make sure we don't have an issue here i'm also like let's not make a problem we don't have one
00:36:16
johngrimsmo
Yeah, And it is nice seeing the water level from the outside.
00:36:21
John Saunders
yes you could just paint you could leave a strip unpainted there's ah there's a level one yeah
00:36:24
johngrimsmo
That's true, yeah. That would be kind of cool. Put a light on top or something.
00:36:29
John Saunders
um I think I'm going to have, actually not like I'm going to, I know Grant is going to go down to the the DSI summit that they just announced in Texas in this fall, September or October, I forget.
00:36:43
John Saunders
But um I'd like to go, but I think I'm just going let him go.
00:36:46
johngrimsmo
Yeah. That'd be cool.
00:36:47
John Saunders
chance to learn.
00:36:48
johngrimsmo
Yeah, that'd be good.
00:36:50
John Saunders
They've done a nice job taking over this kind of fusion two-day events. Yeah.
00:36:58
johngrimsmo
Good. Yeah, I hadn't heard of that one yet.
00:37:01
John Saunders
yeah I think it just got announced and it doesn't look like it's going to be very, very large.
00:37:02
johngrimsmo
OK, perfect.
00:37:06
John Saunders
So, yeah, no, totally agree.
00:37:07
johngrimsmo
Sometimes that's better, right?
00:37:10
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:37:11
johngrimsmo
More like a class than a that a show.
00:37:11
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:37:15
John Saunders
Well, that's what i like about like the Academy and the summit, most of the time they've done a good job at keeping the itinerary, avoiding the stupid sales pitch. It's like, I don't want to hear about fusion production.
00:37:26
John Saunders
I do want to hear about tool paths and X like, you know, real world examples of stuff.
00:37:26
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:37:31
johngrimsmo
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:37:32
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:37:34
johngrimsmo
Yeah, Kern has an event coming up in Chicago oh early September. um Same thing I went to two years ago.
00:37:41
John Saunders
Oh,
00:37:43
johngrimsmo
where they, you know, unveil any new technology they're coming up with and just kind of meet and greet with current customers and a lot of their staff and vendors.
00:37:48
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:37:50
johngrimsmo
And um they'll have like Regal Fixed Air and some of the tooling manufacturers and pretty intimate. It was really fun last time. I got to meet some really, really special people, um whether they be current owners or just shop guys or industry leaders, professionals, whatever.
00:38:06
johngrimsmo
um So I'm gonna try to go, but it's also like the first week of school. with the kids and and Meg's ah going back to university to get her master's degree in history starting this year.
00:38:10
John Saunders
Yeah. Right.
00:38:15
John Saunders
Oh, well congrats. So to hear
00:38:16
johngrimsmo
Yeah. And she's kind of nervous about it But she's super excited.
00:38:21
John Saunders
Yeah, good for her.
00:38:22
johngrimsmo
Yeah. So that's that's all happening that first week. And I'm like, I don't know if I should responsibly be leaving all of you to fend for yourselves on that first week. Anyway.
00:38:32
John Saunders
I think I saw Hakko's going to ah to present at it.
00:38:34
johngrimsmo
Yeah. yeah Exactly. And I've never met him in person, I don't think.
00:38:36
John Saunders
Well, dude. Yeah, that would be awesome.
00:38:40
johngrimsmo
Yeah. So it'd be good to meet him and hang out. so
00:38:44
John Saunders
um Can we talk about a not fun topic?
00:38:47
johngrimsmo
Sure. I'm in.
00:38:49
John Saunders
Well, because it, look, it sucks, but there's no reason to not try to understand it.
00:38:55
johngrimsmo
Sure.
00:38:56
John Saunders
Tariffs.
00:38:56
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:38:56
John Saunders
um Because ah caught me off guard when I was on vacation. I was like, oh my God, Switzerland's getting screwed.
00:39:02
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:39:03
John Saunders
um I don't know if that's changed, but i think Europe is 15% and Switzerland is 39%.
00:39:09
johngrimsmo
yeah
00:39:10
John Saunders
um Which, if I understand this correctly, because I, all I know about tariffs is there people throw out numbers and then in the end it's different. Like whether there's exclusions or different things, or it's the tariff on the, on a, not IBC, on a, um what's the code called?
00:39:27
John Saunders
H ban code or something.
00:39:29
johngrimsmo
HS code maybe? Oh, yeah.
00:39:30
John Saunders
Yeah, yeah. Like it's tariff on, if a machine costs $100,000, it's not tariffed on $100,000, it's tariff on some HS code value.
00:39:37
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:39:37
John Saunders
But regardless, it's like, if the Willman had been any amount, 30%, 39% more, i don't know how I would have bought it.
00:39:44
johngrimsmo
Totally. ye
00:39:45
John Saunders
Um, and and if other stuff, we go fix oil oil that we get from Switzerland.
00:39:48
johngrimsmo
Regal fix, yeah.
00:39:51
John Saunders
Um, and even the double digit tariffs to other countries is that, I don't know, like if I bought something from Germany, was it already being tariffed? I just didn't know, like didn't see the, I don't know.
00:40:00
johngrimsmo
Yeah. Yeah.
00:40:01
John Saunders
Do you have any, sorry.
00:40:03
johngrimsmo
I don't have much, certainly no new information. I've been kind of ignoring it lately because it's always, this is happening and it doesn't happen. And then Meg's trying to keep more in touch with it.
00:40:10
John Saunders
Yeah, sure.
00:40:13
johngrimsmo
But I'm just like, I don't know yet.
00:40:17
John Saunders
Yeah, that's fair.
00:40:17
johngrimsmo
um It's hit us in little ways, but nothing in major ways yet, thankfully. um But I know my local tooling vendor says, it's just a constant battle every single day for them to try to tell their local customers, you know, like, okay, what's the price on this, you know, USA made animal versus a Germany made animal.
00:40:34
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:40:38
johngrimsmo
And they're like, give me a minute. Like, yeah, I don't I don't know.
00:40:40
John Saunders
Great question. Yeah, oh sure.
00:40:43
johngrimsmo
um
00:40:44
John Saunders
Okay.
00:40:45
johngrimsmo
so yeah, I, I haven't bought anything big nor am I planning to buy anything big in the very near future. I'm kind of not stressing out about it. Um,
00:40:54
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:40:57
johngrimsmo
guess I'm just kind of waiting for it to play out and see where it lands. But I don't know.
00:41:00
John Saunders
yeah Yeah. The same. And I don't want to sit here and lose sleep over something I can't control on the flip side. I can't. i mean, this is a big, this'll be, um, this'll, I don't know.
00:41:08
johngrimsmo
river
00:41:11
John Saunders
The disruption alone is, is, or like uncertainty alone is ridiculous.
00:41:16
johngrimsmo
Yep.
00:41:17
John Saunders
A big disservice to citizens of our country and and the rest of the world.
00:41:22
johngrimsmo
Yep, to to manufacturing.
00:41:24
John Saunders
Yeah, right. um Well, on a positive note, I had a call with the guy at Vapor vapor Blast whatever, and um I was from from from him and others that have reached out, which is awesome, number of people reached out.
00:41:31
johngrimsmo
So
00:41:42
John Saunders
what I'm learning is there are tons of differences and nuances between, you know, vapor blasting, sand blasting, bee blasting, glass, like the different stuff, some of which are different, of which are the same, different applications. And so this is kind of coming in full circle back to this conversation.
00:41:55
John Saunders
It's like that desire to like, insatiable desire to learn and try stuff out and play.
00:41:59
johngrimsmo
so
00:42:00
John Saunders
Fortunately, these machines aren't particularly expensive.
00:42:03
John Saunders
So that's kind of, yeah Exactly.
00:42:04
johngrimsmo
Like low thousands kind of thing.
00:42:06
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:42:07
John Saunders
Yeah. Um, so I am waiting for them to send us a quote on the, they probably have talked us up from one size higher than the micro. And, um,
00:42:18
John Saunders
And I even asked Dylan as a favor, cause he's got one i was like, Hey, what's it do on 3d print? He grabbed it like scrap 3d print. And it was interesting. It didn't probably do what I wanted. And vapor honing would, would Dylan was saying would probably leave moisture in the part, which is probably no good.
00:42:34
johngrimsmo
Sure.
00:42:34
John Saunders
But I, you know, sometimes you get these little prints and you just want to like, you want to homogenize it and knock off little things without sitting there with a knife or anything and in messing with it. So um I'm kind of excited to see what we learn.
00:42:45
johngrimsmo
So can you update me on your kind of takeaway from the phone call? Like we talked about it two weeks ago. um I don't know any more than I knew two weeks ago.
00:42:54
John Saunders
Yeah, sorry, sorry I'm sorry, I'm not, certainly not remembering well. um The biggest thing I knew of was, um my notes aren't in a great condition.
00:43:09
John Saunders
um
00:43:11
John Saunders
Renzetti has a Vanaman, which is a micro sand, I hope I'm saying this correctly, a micro sand blaster.
00:43:17
johngrimsmo
here
00:43:19
John Saunders
And he loves it. It's great for what he does. He's like, you would never really want to do a part larger than a two inch cube with his. Like, it's very, very micros.
00:43:26
johngrimsmo
Interesting. Okay.
00:43:27
John Saunders
Like this is not for doing a textbook size part or anything like that.
00:43:30
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:43:31
John Saunders
um But he was kind of like, this is not what you want.
00:43:34
John Saunders
You want, like, it's very different than vapor honing.
00:43:34
johngrimsmo
Okay.
00:43:36
johngrimsmo
What is your target product that you're blasting? Like typically?
00:43:42
John Saunders
aluminum for getting the shine away, homogeneizing the surface or prepping for anodize or deburring, kind of all, maybe.
00:43:49
johngrimsmo
Like, valve cover size?
00:43:51
John Saunders
So we don't, the honest answer is we don't, what really triggered all this was Amish had it and he showed me what it did. And sometimes we have brought parts off the machine you're like, oh my God, it's cool to see shiny aluminum, but you don't actually want that.
00:44:04
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:44:05
John Saunders
You don't want to see this tool pass. You don't want the super shiny marks. And there's sometimes you want the slightest of edge burry D not knocking off. And so given how inexpensive the machine was, I don't have a more, like, I'm not too worried about having a hyper-focused reason.
00:44:19
John Saunders
I want more as a versatile tool, like, Oh, Hey, let's just put that part in there and knock this off and see that's where I'm at least.
00:44:20
johngrimsmo
Sure.
00:44:24
johngrimsmo
I love it. Yep.
00:44:26
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:44:27
johngrimsmo
Yeah. I'm kind of the same with wanting one of those venom and micro blasters, you know, probably with the dust collector, just over two grand us and i I want it.
00:44:34
John Saunders
yeah
00:44:37
johngrimsmo
and don't need it. You know, like I don't have a but product line in mind.
00:44:40
John Saunders
Yeah.
00:44:42
johngrimsmo
We're going to use this every day. i i just kind of want it. And I know I will use it once we have it on many various things. Um,
00:44:48
John Saunders
Yeah. Well, that's so not to take up too much time, but like I had a call yesterday with somebody in the industry who was asking just they want to have a they wanted to pick my brain.
00:44:59
John Saunders
And we're talking they're talking about stuff and. I said, you know, the, the, when we were, if we were to bring out a machine, Vandermen is not a good example, cause that's pretty easy to use, but let's say it wasn't a, let's say it was a little similar, like little CNC machine or whatever.
00:45:13
John Saunders
At this point with our shop, then it becomes a lot more questions about, well, who's buying material for that machine? Who's allowed to buy material? What are we doing with the scraps? Like if it's plate stuff, what are we keeping this? Is this a mess?
00:45:24
John Saunders
Like who gets what? How are we handling supplies, material, how safety being handled? Um, And I don't want to make this sound too dramatic because we're not some like major shop that has major requirements rigidity.
00:45:32
johngrimsmo
It's true though.
00:45:36
John Saunders
But it's also at that point where it's just like, no, I yeah care a little bit more about um from a safety standpoint, workflow standpoint.
00:45:38
johngrimsmo
Yep.
00:45:42
John Saunders
I don't. We spent the last two years getting rid of stuff. So I don't want a bunch of, you know, scrap plates of brass or plastic just laying around.
00:45:42
johngrimsmo
Yep.
00:45:50
John Saunders
Right.
00:45:50
johngrimsmo
Yeah.
00:45:50
johngrimsmo
And like who's trained to use it and who's going to use it. And I am very conscious of bringing technologies and tools into the company that I might be super excited about.
00:45:53
John Saunders
Right.
00:46:00
johngrimsmo
But if nobody else touches it, it's kind of a wasted opportunity um because it's either too complicated or too specific or not needed for production or whatever. And I've certainly done that with various things like optical flats.
00:46:12
johngrimsmo
I'm the only guy in the shop who's completely nerding about optical flats and nobody else has really touched them.
00:46:16
John Saunders
Yeah, yeah,
00:46:18
johngrimsmo
And I'm like, oh, like, and that's not me i we certainly we make a lot of flat things um it's just not part of our more workflow
00:46:20
John Saunders
yeah. It's okay.
00:46:26
John Saunders
Yeah, you're right. But that's the irony. Like if you if I knew this machine was going to be used for one of our products, it would completely change how you spec out the requirement and like follow it.
00:46:34
johngrimsmo
yeah yep which you're allowed that's okay it's fun cool man see you next week should be good all right bye
00:46:35
John Saunders
Now, at this point, it's just kind of a play. Yeah.
00:46:43
John Saunders
See you next week. Sounds good. See you.