Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Business of Machining - Episode 84
181 Plays7 years ago
THIS IS NOT YOUR ORDINARY PODCAST! THIS IS AN AWESOME, IMMERSIVE AUDIO EXPERIENCE OF IMTS!
Energy = Kinetic
People = Inspirational
Podcast = Straight, No Chaser
Experience IMTS as Saunders and Grimsmo as they meet people on their way to AB Tools. BOOM. You're on the podcast!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to IMTS 2018
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Business of Machining episode. I have no idea. My name is John Saunders. My name is John Grimsmo. We are at IMTS 2018.
Navigating IMTS and Background Noise
00:00:09
Speaker
We're literally running around the show right now, so you hear a lot of background noise.
00:00:13
Speaker
But we're here with Tyson Lamb from Lamb Crafted, my buddy Amish, Morgan Olif, and lots of other people. So maybe we'll get them on the podcast as well. And we should take a shortcut through all the amazing machine tools, because we are walking over to the West Building, where AV Tools is actually sharing a booth with Torbok to do this big Instagram photo. Sweet. So we're trying to maximize time here at the show. So let's do the podcast right now.
Mental Exhaustion and Productivity at IMTS
00:00:39
Speaker
How has your week been?
00:00:41
Speaker
My week has been utterly packed and amazing and just thrilling. What's the first takeaway for you? I went deep. I didn't get to see everything. I looked at Swiss Layeds for hours and hours and hours.
00:00:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just learning as much as I can. Yeah, awesome. I have continued to not be able to do thinking at these shows. No, it's actually not funny. It's actually a stress point for me. I find it very difficult to clear your head to do any critical thinking and sometimes even to do basic thinking. So I have been drawing on my list that I made.
00:01:21
Speaker
before the show and actually this was my wife's advice when I was on the phone one morning was and it's so difficult to do but you know 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. at the show try to find a quiet spot and just sit down for 10 minutes you almost like a meditate close your eyes and clear your head reset thing because it's exhausting and it's just a buzz buzz buzz all day long.
00:01:44
Speaker
Well, and as you were telling me the other day to actually just write down your thoughts because you're never going to remember them. You're never going to have it again. There's so much information, so much new coming into your head, which I haven't been doing. I haven't written anything down. Yeah. I mean, it's the fun part to meet new people and vendors and folks at the show who are able to extend invites to things afterward, but it just means you're not stopping until 11 p.m.
Exploring New Tools and Networking
00:02:09
Speaker
there is a sense of responsibility that we owe ourselves and our businesses to come here and be productive and learn. Um, and you know, remember it's fun and it's exciting and entertaining, but, uh, you, you've got an obligation to figure out some big stuff for you. Well, like, like right now we're like, we're spending all day with Autodesk doing a customer advisory board. It's three o'clock right now. I'm actually going to ditch them for the rest of the day so that I can go see tooling. Yeah. Because I, I, I'm here for a reason, not just, you know, to help them or I'm here to run a business and learn as much as I can. Yeah.
00:02:39
Speaker
So, what have you been focusing on for Crimson Eyes? Well, I look at the future. I look at where we're going to take this, how we're going to grow and scale. I even hear Autodesk talking about scale and figuring out how I'm going to grow my business in a responsible manner, but also all the cool stuff I want to buy and what direction. I come here with all this knowledge and I know how to ask the questions I need to ask.
00:03:03
Speaker
I'm much better about cutting through all the BS and all the sales pitches and just moving on. I was surprised to hear you mentioning or overhearing. You spent a bunch of time looking at machines that I don't certainly think about, at least at times, yes, like double disk grinders and lapping and deburring and polishing. It's such a big part of our process. Right. But yeah. OK, I had a great experience. This is why you go to a trade show. I want to look at a microscope.
00:03:30
Speaker
You know the common players and brands. You kind of know what you want. And in some respects, microsoaps aren't that sexy or there aren't that many variants of them. And I was walking down the hallway and I saw somebody and I was like, hey, I forget how it came up, but I was like, who would you look at for a microscope? And kind of putting yourself out there as a random question. And sure enough, I got lucky. And he said, vision engineering. And sure enough, they were around the corner.
00:03:56
Speaker
A company I've never heard of. Right. Completely different microscope platform, completely different interface. Absolutely loved it. I made the mistake of not having an end mill with me and that's the purpose of what we're trying to do. So it's like amateur hour. If you need to do something, if you're trying to buy a machine tool to make a part, bring the frickin' part with you. Don't bring a picture of it. I mean, you have to because it's size wise. That's why I brought a pocket full of parts. Exactly.
00:04:25
Speaker
I actually went, found an end mill, went back, shout out to Area 419 who hooked me up with a tap to use as a surrogate and spent more time at the microscope and I'm pretty sure we're gonna pick it up but what was great to me was it's not something I would have seen in a catalog or a flyer. It was different and it was great to see in person and have that time.
00:04:49
Speaker
So you think, I think you got your microscope problem figured out maybe? Yeah, I think so. Which is exciting. That's fantastic. You said it was, it ditches the two eyepieces.
Equipment Selection and Learning Opportunities
00:04:59
Speaker
Yeah, so instead of having the two eye tubes, sorry, I don't know the optical terms. The eye holes. Exactly. The holes for the sockets.
00:05:07
Speaker
It has a kind of like Star Trek-ish optical viewfinder, so it's not digital and it's super easy to use, it's low stress, it's low fatigue, it's not fussy. The focus was great, the lighting was great. I've used this cheap microscope now, and frankly I like it, but I knew we needed some more stuff, and so that's actually probably another good lesson.
00:05:30
Speaker
I don't regret our progression of $45 loop or $5 loop to $45 USB Amazon to $800 insides to now we're making I think the right long-term decision which will be these things are between three and ten grand I think we'll end up with one on the lower ish or maybe mid-range of that range but I don't I have the conviction to know exactly what I want so we're good to go it's not stressful exactly going to it with all this knowledge so
00:05:56
Speaker
I spent a lot of time, like an hour or two at the MAR measuring booth. So I learned prophylometers and I actually had some sample parts that we got to measure the surface roughness of and it was super cool because the guys there were watching me nerd out and be like super excited about measuring and I'm like yes because this is awesome and it's super applicable to what I do.
00:06:16
Speaker
The people here are maybe a little bit, you know, it's what they do every day. So I don't want to say that they're a bit like G. But don't hesitate to come at it with an energy and a freshness and an enthusiasm because darn it, I love this. I love what we do. It makes you stand out. And I mean, that's just who you and I are. But when we're like jumping up and down giddy, they don't know what to do with themselves. Right. It's awesome.
00:06:39
Speaker
So you gotta look at tooling, right? So we have just walked into the entire tooling building that I haven't been to. And I only have a couple more hours of available showtime before I have to go home. Two more years you'll have another show. I know, I'll be back in two years. Think where you're gonna be, John, in two years. Two years from now is gonna be nuts. The difference between two years ago and now has been
00:07:03
Speaker
Not so much like outward growth, but inward growth. You know, we've hired some people, but it's not like we bought a ton more equipment. Oh, I disagree, John. No, no, no. We have transformed our business from struggling to thriving. That's true. And that's been huge. The next two years will be like exploding. Yeah, you've grown on all fronts and it's awesome. I appreciate that.
00:07:24
Speaker
So we're headed over to A.B. I already said that A.B. tools. Walking through the tooling booth. Yeah. I will say this just to kind of keep it real. I haven't seen too many mind blowing things here. Maybe you could say that on the hardware side there's been some plateauing of machine tool innovation. I haven't seen anything that
00:07:43
Speaker
It just hasn't blown me away. Maybe we're just smarter and more educated, so it's a perception thing. I'll give a shout out to Haas. They have beta software that will update the next-gen controller. So if you're doing a jog move or a G0 move,
00:07:59
Speaker
and you crash the machine, if you collide a tool into a part, again, during a jog or a linking move, the machine will just stop back off and say, hey, you were about to crash, you know, you'll leave maybe a few thou, 10 thou nick in your part. You might break certain tools or chip them, but it's going to be much easier on your machine spindle and the bearings and overall tram and quality, and that is absolutely awesome.
Networking and Community Impact
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's fantastic. I've heard a lot of people have been really, really excited about that.
00:08:27
Speaker
So yeah, it's been a good show though. It's someone's advice, actually it was Alan Watanow's advice was make sure to meet people and faces because it's also the ability to pick up the phone later and get help outside the chaos of a show and have a little bit of a relationship with somebody to it, right?
00:08:45
Speaker
You and I have exponentially spent the past 10 years growing and making all these relationships, and even more so now. But that goes for anybody coming here, even for the very first time. Just meeting everybody, talking, shaking hands. I've literally bumped into people and then had the most amazing conversations.
00:09:08
Speaker
And I don't really love talking about it because I just feel like I want to keep my head down and keep doing what we're doing. It's awkward for me to talk about, but there have been countless people who have talked about, they're either here at the show or they've had inspiring stories from the channel. So to everybody that came up or has been influenced, thank you. I love what I get to do. I got to pinch myself sometimes. Make sure to try to stay humble and grateful there. Yeah, 100% ditto on that.
00:09:35
Speaker
It's weird. Just being recognized so much. I mean, you and I are brave enough to put our faces out there, even if it's nerve-racking. And people just appreciate it and notice it. Yeah, it's fun. It's fun. And your pen is awesome, the saga, the knife. I'm excited to see what comes next. Me too.
00:10:00
Speaker
Well, since we're live. This is going to be the shortest episode? I don't know. We're almost here, I assume, because we're reaching a wall. Yeah. But we're live, so we can't really, like, just ignore you guys. Let's see. I see Derek's booth. I see a lot of end mills. Kyocera booth. What are we looking at? We lost the crew that was trailing behind us. We're kind of just looking around. I see the Cogstill booth. I want to go talk to them. You want to talk Cogstill? Yeah.
00:10:30
Speaker
I have a list of stuff that I wanted to see at IMTS that I literally have not looked at in the past five days. Oh, I see a huge crowd of young people. I think I'm just gonna keep this rolling. Okay. I might stick it in some people's faces. Put the lapel on, I'll give you your backpack. Okay. Lapel is on, John Grimsmough. Alright.
00:11:00
Speaker
So I'll have to lean in close to people so that they can hit the lapel too. What's up guys? Good to see you again. You are live on the podcast right now. Nice. Good to see you again. How are you? How's the show? Good to go on well. What's going on guys? See you again. See you too. You're live on the podcast right now. Anything you want to say?
00:11:28
Speaker
It's having fun. I see faces and names. How is the IMTS going? Fantastic. A lot of free beer. A lot of free beer, alright. Lots to learn. Last time was way too hectic. This time we actually get to settle in and kind of go to the smaller booths, learn what we need to learn. Nice. Anyone else? Good.
00:12:08
Speaker
Love you guys podcasts. You're on it right now
00:12:11
Speaker
Great. We're actually recording the podcast. That's awesome. I'm glad you guys are doing it live. You keep tagging me on Instagram. You're like, I missed you guys. I missed you guys. Right? Thank you so much. It's really inspirational hearing you guys' podcasts and stuff. We're on it right now. Awesome. Yeah. Anything you want to say or mention? Like, how's the show going?
00:12:30
Speaker
The show's going great. This is my first time at IMTS. I've just kind of been hitting every place that I can, kind of getting disoriented and lost, but it's been great. So yeah, just going around trying to scope out stuff for my shop and stuff. It's never ending. You keep walking and there's another room and then another room. Six days isn't enough time. No, you're not going to see it all. That's awesome. What are you looking for particularly?
00:12:52
Speaker
Nothing, I mean nothing and everything. We've reached a point in the shop where I work where we either need to go towards five axis or we need to get a really small high-speed meal. So aside from that looking at just comparators and inspection equipment and stuff like that. Just trying to improve our process as well. Well you're in the right place. Yeah, yeah.
00:13:30
Speaker
Nice to be here. Yeah, nice to be here. You got a big crowd of people in your booth. How's the show going for you?
00:13:38
Speaker
Well, you know, it's a great show. I just got here, but it's a great show. I know from John and everybody who's been Baker, the owner of Baby Tools, he's been telling me how great it is. And it's just walking around today a little bit. I can tell this energy. There is. I mean, the index is great right now. Anyway, industry index, but it's just a great
00:13:58
Speaker
it's great and then we got the 1100 max in here which is I mean it's not running but but it looks great right and I'm just excited about and I'm excited about this
00:14:10
Speaker
I'm mostly excited that all these guys get to meet each other. Because it's not just Instagram. It's the Facebook forums and the machinist forums and all that kind of stuff. I tried to put it out there because I wanted everybody to be able to say, hey, I know you. You do great stuff. Well, it's a big difference when I know you. I've seen your face. I've shook your hand. And now we're closer. We're better friends. We did this two years ago. I think so. I think that did that. I love it. That's really cool. What's up, Johnny?
00:14:52
Speaker
Let's see who else we can talk with.
00:14:56
Speaker
How's it going? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Listen to Business and Machining. You're on it right now. Wonderful. It's a great podcast. Thank you. So, inspirational to someone like me, starting out of business, been at it six months. So, you know, it's nice to... What do you like about it? I mean, I got you right here. Let's do this on the podcast. What do you wish we talked about more? I don't know. Well, I've only... I've started at the beginning, so I'm not in terribly far yet, but I really like how it's...
00:15:21
Speaker
Fairly informal conversation between you guys. It's real world. It's not you know pie in the sky It's like this is what's going on at my shop with me right now, and this is what I'm doing to fix it So I mean I don't know what I'd change right now like I said I'm still just getting into it, but you know good job guys doing great. Well. Thank you very much It's a pleasure meeting you
00:15:41
Speaker
Alright, how are you doing? We are with Chris Fox on the podcast right now. Hey, how's it going? It's going good. Chris Fox from Tormach. You got the new MX. What's going on? Yeah, well, so this is actually the very first MX. We haven't have an announcement date yet, but it'll be this winter. But this is the first one that we've had and is available to see in person.
00:16:04
Speaker
We've taken the M machine that we announced back in June and we've got servo motors on it, a BT30 spindle and the 1100 has a 10k spindle on it. So as you guys know I grew my business on the Tormach 1100 and seeing the M, the progression, the upgrades is phenomenal. Like you guys are stepping it up. Things that I noticed the bed casting is different or the
00:16:29
Speaker
Drain tray, what do you call that? Yeah, with the chip pan, we have improved chip evacuation. Actually, the bed casting looks bigger, doesn't it? Yeah, it's a little bit bigger here. You can see, you can't really hear it, it's a podcast, right? But the chip pan is significantly different. Hugely different. Pull out cooling tray. I see doors on bearings that clip together. I see BT30, the servos we talked about. You guys have listened.
00:16:54
Speaker
Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah, I mean, and that's a big part of it, too, right? I mean, we had a lot of customers that, you know, they were they were yelling for a lot of different things. And we tried to do as many as we could with this new design. But the big thing about it, too, is we're moving away from the different series so that we can help grow the machines without having to do like a giant feature doll. Right, right. So then this
00:17:15
Speaker
this is the uh this is the new industrial controller holy cow it's still path pilot it's still pc based but it's like built it in you you it looks like a real exactly and there's some there's some tactile controls cool like i love the machine buttons yeah yeah exactly this is such a good step for
00:17:30
Speaker
And the LED changes colors so you can brand it with your company and your shop. Is it like green for go while it's running? Yeah, yeah. You can set it up on the fit, which is great. And then there's pennant, which is another thing that a lot of people have been asking for for a long time. That's fantastic. It's still kind of in a prototype phase. That's why we don't have an official announcement for the machine yet, because there's a couple little details like this mounting system and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, it's growing. And we're excited to see this thing get in front of people.
00:18:00
Speaker
Awesome, I can't wait to see where it takes you guys. Yeah, we're pumped. Cool, I'm gonna move on. Alright man, good to see you. Hey Chris, what's up? Let's see, let's see who else we talked to. Hey what's up fella, how you doing? You want to be on the business of machining podcast? I guess I will be on the business of machining podcast. Alright, name, what do you do? Eric McGray, I'm a toilet bowl scrubber at Avante Manufacturing.
00:18:24
Speaker
So yeah. You just got a new UMC or something? 750SS. That's correct. So fun stuff. It's been a treat. Yeah, it's a fun tool.
00:18:37
Speaker
Learning 5-axis machining, I thought it was a good tool to get for first time programming. You just jumped right in. Yeah, that's how I do things. I know, right? I like it. That's how I do it. YOLO, right? No, seriously, that's how I think about it. I know. You live once, man. Just go for it. I got big dreams, so I've got to do it. Love it. Let's see. Who else should we talk to?
Emerging Technologies and Future of Machining
00:19:03
Speaker
Looking, looking, big crowd of people. There's grinds and CAD models. Well, how's it going? Good. I'm Brian Kippen, CAD models and prototypes, prototype manufacturing in Alameda, California. Alright. Short run production, high run production for us is any more than five parts. Okay. We are a small company, started in 2011, now up to five machines, five employees.
00:19:24
Speaker
How's that growth process been for you? About one human and one machine per year. Steady incremental? Steady incremental, about 15% increase per year. Nice. Now coming up with issues in the Bay Area.
00:19:39
Speaker
employees and primarily the largest issue is space. There's always something that's going to hurt a little bit of growth, but right now that seems to be what it is. All right. Yeah, there's always challenges to deal with, but it sounds like you guys are dealing with them quite nicely. Doing well and having fun doing it too. Awesome. Well, good luck with everything. Thank you very much. All right. See ya. What's up? How's it going? You're on the podcast. Hey, what's up?
00:20:06
Speaker
I'm T's 2018. Whoo! You doing all right? Doing great. Well, I follow you. I think you do some really amazing work. And I think you're doing some great stuff for our community here. And I'm glad I finally get to meet you. Yeah. And hang out. And tons of other people. I'm making everybody else here. Yeah, absolutely. I've introduced myself to quite a few of these guys that follow on a daily and appreciate their work and the machining that they do. Excellent. Makes me just want to do better and make a better product. It almost makes you want to just run back home and make parts. Yes. But also absorb everything that there's here.
00:20:35
Speaker
Yeah, this is a very unique situation here because although our minds are set on manufacturing, we're also set on finding the new and cool things to be innovative. Exactly, right? Yeah. That's awesome. Very, very cool. Cool. Well, enjoy it.
00:20:49
Speaker
Kurt Chan with the Autodesk on the podcast. Hello. Hello. Are we going live? We are live. No, this is raw, unedited. That's how we do it. Oh, we're only 21 minutes in. We usually go for 45, so I got lots of time. So I'm hoping that, I mean, this is phenomenal. I think you, correct me if I'm wrong, John, I'm about 100 people here right now. Probably. And we're looking at
00:21:10
Speaker
you know, the guy who thought this up, Mr. AB Tools over here, Alfred, right? Yeah, we talked to him already. Yeah, is he gonna give the little hoorah speech and say, I'm hoping he's gonna say, I saw him, you gotta give a hoorah speech and say, hey everybody, thanks for coming out. So, all he needs is a mic, but other than that, I mean, you can't,
00:21:28
Speaker
You know, the funny thing is that we all need Instagram machinist name tags right now. I'm sure people come up to you saying, hey, I know you're like, man, I didn't even know who you are. I share my face. You share your face. It's easy to pick us up. Exactly. Everybody else is like, oh, dude. So this is awesome, man. Yeah. What are your thoughts so far, dude? Good? Good show? I love coming here. It's amazing.
00:21:51
Speaker
It flows through my blood, this manufacturing. Once I found this industry, I didn't even realize how much it had, like, grabbed onto my heart, you know? Yeah, same way. You know, people don't realize how big manufacturing is, and IMTS is really the definition of something to show us. Like, look, this is how big the community is in manufacturing, and then now we're looking at the next phase of manufacturing as we look at generations, right?
00:22:17
Speaker
Whoever thought like now you know the Millennials or
Growth of Manufacturing Community and Social Media
00:22:20
Speaker
the Zenyos as they call them as they come together and levers the power really like podcasts social media YouTube all these different arenas now is the new outlet a new outlet to learn more about manufacturing So I think I think it's great because you know you look at think about ten years ago ten years ago at IMTS Do you think there was anything like a podcast anything like Instagram ten years up like big meetups like this?
00:22:41
Speaker
There was really no really great form of communication aside from email, but you think about it, right? 10 years is not a long time. No, I've been in this for 10 years now. 2008's when I started, I'd go to the odd little tool show up in Canada, which was awesome, but my gosh, I feel like I'm interwoven with the whole community now. It is, and it's such a...
00:23:03
Speaker
You already feel connected even though you haven't physically met that person and that's the best thing about what this whole group is about is Everybody can relate to each other because you've already connected through a social platform, which makes the conversation even easier to have Yes, correct me if I'm wrong. Absolutely. There we go. Amen, baby. Amen. All right, I'm gonna see who else we can chat with
00:23:24
Speaker
Boom, you're on the podcast. Hi, John Grimsman. So I listen to the business of machining, usually when I'm commuting to and from town, which I don't do often because my shop is right by my house. But it's really helpful, and it's a sanity check for me to listen to guys who are in a similar position with small shops, making lots of decisions every day, and keep reminding myself to fail fast, fail cheap, and do my important decisions early in the day, and then not sweat it. Nice. Andrew Henry from Henry Olsters. It's awesome.
00:23:53
Speaker
We're thinking, okay, how are we going to do a podcast? Let's just do it on the walk over here. Nice. Did I give you a wallet? I don't think so. Sweet, free wallet. Look at this. What am I looking at here? Kydex. These are an aside for fun thing that we make. Looking through a bag of wallets. I got different colors. Black and black is kind of...
00:24:18
Speaker
I'm gonna go with the blue. These are killer, dude. What one? I can't remember. Dude! Good to see you. How's it going? Good. Wallet? You know what I mean? That is so cool of you, man. So, I made these wallets from another company. But you're online. I'm not cutting this. They don't sell any of these colors. These I made from extra stuff. So these are freebies. But I don't sell this product myself. Sure. Awesome. So, I'll put card stuff inside. Cash on the outside. The elastic never has to come off.
00:24:46
Speaker
You just slide things in. I like it a lot. Morgan Olives, you're on the podcast. I'm on the podcast, finally, long last. I'll listen to myself this Friday, I suppose, when I'm circling the parking lot. How's IMTS? It is insane. Two years ago, I was impressed by seeing machines. I didn't know really what I was looking at. I'm new to machining. I've only been cutting chips of any kind for seven years now.
00:25:11
Speaker
But seriously, where do you work? This is cool. I work for the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. So we're a research facility that has the most high-powered magnets in the world, and we have visiting scientists that fly from all over the world to use them. So we're funded by the National Science Foundation, and we're run by Florida State University. Awesome. But yeah, so I make all the parts I need to keep everything running, and it's a wonderful job stock type experience. But for one customer, it's beautiful. That's awesome.
00:25:38
Speaker
What kind of things are you gaining from this year's IMTS and, you know, meet up like this?
Personal Growth and Business Challenges
00:25:43
Speaker
Just being able to meet up with people and talk about ideas and things. Some of the Autodesk folks talking about CAM, talking about tooling, how they solve problems, and just exposure to how things are held. Workholding is a big deal for us. And sometimes you learn more about workholding at the booths of the machines showing a demo than you do the workholding guys. And that, man.
00:26:04
Speaker
It's so cool. Last time I didn't know what I was looking at and now I know what I'm looking at. My head is trying to explode just as much because it's so much more information to take in. It's like the more you know the more you want to know and then the more you want to know. That's right. I didn't know what I didn't know so like hey that's moving, that's moving. Now I realize that is a pallet pool. That means I can chuck up this many things. I can do this many things.
00:26:24
Speaker
You get to the level where you just look at something across the room and it sparks an idea. There have been a couple machines where I didn't even go near because let's just not even start that. The one I fell into was a Sugami Laser. There's a Swiss machine, but they thought, let's add a laser. Yeah, you showed that to me. That was over the top. That was over the top. It was like a 2,000. 2,000 curve. 2,000 curve. Our wire EDM doesn't even do that. It was nice. Yeah, very cool. Cool.
00:26:51
Speaker
All right, let's see who else we can chat with. I'll go with John. Badminton position. Nice to meet you. Bad Machinist. Oh, yeah. Yeah. How's it going? The 3D printed, who is it geeking out of the 3D printed stuff? Of course. Well, you're on the podcast right now. Oh, sweet. Awesome. So what are you gaining out of MTS? Mainly in-person experience on machines. Yeah. I mean, I've seen a couple of machines in person before, but it's being able to walk up to like an Okuma and like
00:27:21
Speaker
Look at it and touch it and feel it. Oh my god, yes. Like, watch it cut, Okuma, Brother, Robo Drill, Haas. I was at the Haas booth earlier. I spent a lot of time at the DMG Morey booth. Even though I don't know if I'll end up getting one. I know, I know.
00:27:39
Speaker
the CMX1100B, which is the super session of yours. It is, yeah. Less eco-line, more awesome durability. Exactly, right? But it's a melt, because right now all I run is a lathe, so I need to get some type of 3X or so that I can like... You can learn 3X's really? I know! Yeah. And you know, I have a friend of mine who's letting me borrow his VF2s.
00:28:03
Speaker
Like if I ever need one, I could drive up to the shop and be like, right, which is good. Yeah. But I do need I need something in my shop, especially if I want to grow and continue to be successful and to do what I want to do. I need that three axis machine in my shop and combining that with the lathe that gives me a lot more capability than
Importance of Networking and Community Building
00:28:22
Speaker
than having another lathe. Absolutely. Yeah, you want to gain as much skill as you can well-rounded. You don't just want to be the lathe guy. Exactly. Some people do. I have five lathes right now, so I need a three-axis something. Like one of my buddies here has 150 Swiss lathes. He is Mr. Swiss Lathe. Yeah.
00:28:42
Speaker
But then again, if you're running 150 surpluses, you really don't need a robo drill. You really don't need much of anything else. Exactly, right? Especially if that's your job work. Things have been so overwhelming here. I know, right? This is like the first time I've been with more than like two people. Yeah. So it's like kind of something crazy. But it's really cool, you know, meeting everybody and seeing what everything's all about. Meeting you guys, you Saunders, and the guys from Meritool, everybody. Yep. It's crazy. Awesome. It was a pleasure meeting you. Cool.
00:29:11
Speaker
Do you think I could see the pen? Yeah, I'll let you play with the pen. Just give it back. Oh my god. And then, who am I talking to? Hello, world. We're talking with Tyson Lamb from Lamb Crafted. He's on the podcast. I was just telling them we're out of space at 800 square feet. We got another VF4, and then we just got a Kaser compressor, which has actually been down for like three months. It's brand new. But we don't have enough power either. So same boat. These guys are just telling me they're in 1,000 square feet, and they don't have any power. You've been there.
00:29:40
Speaker
We've grown up to 1,800 square feet, I think, and it's still not enough. You're looking at buying a building, we're thinking about buying a building at some point. You just gotta jump off and find your wings on the way down.
00:29:54
Speaker
We started out at, all right, we're going to spend half a million dollars. And then it turned into, well, you can't get anything. So then it's like three quarter. And then we got to the point where finally we were all the way up looking at two million bucks. And I'm like, holy crap, this is insane. So we've been down, gone down a little bit since then. But my thing is, is I don't want to pay rent if we don't have to. And the economy is good right now. So I'd rather use my money to go towards something else. So here's a technical question.
00:30:18
Speaker
in your position is it a is it like a financial decision or is it a bank will only approve us for this kind of decision we can as long as the building appraise you can get pretty much doing our picture
00:30:38
Speaker
and and meeting with me and meeting each other which is more important because this social media thing it's crazy right I mean there's a community that shares that helps each other out and we're all learning and we're getting to see inside of each other's shops right
00:30:59
Speaker
Back in the day, you couldn't... Who's taking tours, right? I'm not going to John's shop. I'm not going to John's shop. But now we can see that. You guys can come into our shop. I can go into Zodiac's shop, Ken's shop, you
Final Reflections and Community Appreciation
00:31:16
Speaker
know? Although it's not often. We need to see more of that action. And Tony's shop. So that's the cool part, right? We get to see all that.
00:31:25
Speaker
But now, we also get to meet everybody. Tony gets to say, hey, I know you. I met you. Donny gets to say, hey, I blew up that counter, remember? Yeah. Yeah. So there's all sorts of cool stuff like that. So I really, I'm so grateful for everybody to come out here. I know you didn't all come out to see me, but I wanted everybody to come out and meet each other and say, hey, isn't this a great community? Let's give them a round of applause for this community.
00:32:02
Speaker
Curtis will always talk. I need somebody to get him a higher chair. You know what, this is all about AB tools. You know, we got to thank them for organizing this meetup. Now see if we, if we had thought of this booth, we would have beer.
00:32:21
Speaker
I'm just joking. I'm just joking. You know what? At the end of the day, he's the one that started this song, and we really appreciate him doing this. You know, we all know each other by name, but we don't know each other by face, right? And I think it's great to finally find out, I think, you know, there's some people that sort of reveal themselves, right? Like, I think badass machinists finally reveal themselves. Different people sort of reveal themselves.
00:32:44
Speaker
right but it's about the community at the end of the day so we thank you guys for coming out we thank you guys for all the contributions we thank you guys for using all the different types of hashtags out there today brought not only the people but you know sponsors like Tormach to Haas to Maritul
00:33:00
Speaker
And if you guys do follow us, if you are familiar with the honored us cam challenge, we have a lot of fun with that. So we hope to continue to grow these things out there because this is how we learn more and more about the community, right? Just to kind of give you a fun fact.
00:33:16
Speaker
as John is a distracter in my presentation. But it's about, you know, we started these challenges on Instagram with only 25 people, and now we get close to 150 people. And it's not just people making little boxes with holes. They're actually taking the time out of their day away from their families, buying material out of their own pocket to contribute to the community. So we thank you from Autodesk. I'm sure, you know, the rest of the team out there thank you.
00:33:44
Speaker
Go ahead. Come back up. One last thing. I'm going to fly. Come here. You. Yes, you. Come on. I can't do this. Tell him about tonight. Oh. Yeah. Do you want to stand up here? Not really. OK. Then talk loud. All right. All right. Let's go to the bar and drink.
00:34:17
Speaker
We're going to Henry's. Henry's after the show. So they've got beer. They've got food. There's pool. So if you like to play pool and there's other games, play some darts. So yeah, after the show. Now we can continue this in a more relaxed environment. So come on out.
00:34:45
Speaker
If I haven't met you, I want to meet you. So come over and say hi. Tell me who you are though because I won't know from your hand. But once I hear your Instagram or Facebook or whatever it might be, I might
00:35:02
Speaker
Yeah, come on over. I really want to meet everybody. I can't. I'm John. Cool. Nice meeting you. That was awesome. Your turn. What's that? Your turn. Oh, I'm good. I'd be trying to pass this off to Saunders.
00:35:21
Speaker
Jon, Jonny, nice to meet you man. Good to meet you man. Couple times on Instagram. Cool, let's see. Alright, so we are still here. Let's see who else we can find the chat with. Sucks like a...
00:35:40
Speaker
neat, weird experience, and it's kind of weird to try to record this. Just audio, no video. I don't want it to detract from people's actual in-person interactions. Thanks for taking a check of your hand. Thank you. Probably every week, man. Yeah? Good to see you. Yeah, for a long time. Since the garage days, for sure. Wow, that was good a while ago. Yeah, yeah, that's good.
00:36:01
Speaker
I love the podcast. Nice to see you guys. You're on it right now. Oh, great. We're doing a live episode. Oh, are you? Yeah. Cool. Very cool. No, it's like every morning, Friday morning. All right. That's the routine. Okay. Take the dogs for a walk when you guys keep jibber jabbering too long. Yep. Yeah. So while Phil's driving around the parking lot, waiting for us to finish. No, I'm walking my dogs and picking up dog food. Yep. All right.
00:36:24
Speaker
Yeah, I'd appreciate everything you guys do. Really appreciate the community. Thank you very much. Welcome to Chicago. This is where I'm from. There you go, hometown. Yeah, that's right. Cool. Cool. All right, thanks. Nice to meet you, John. Nice to meet you too. Let's see if my buddy Dave will let us interview here a little bit. Since you won't show your face. Yeah, how's it going? Hey.
00:36:47
Speaker
This is Mr. Oran's glove. You can just, what is it? You can just blur me out, right? Yeah, I'll blur you out on the podcast. All right, sweet. How's it going, guys? How's the show? Great. Good? Great? I was talking to you. I don't know. I was talking to you. We're doing our podcast right now. Oh, OK. Is that how it works? You just asked? Hey, how's it going? Good? I'm going to have an Instagram. OK. Oh, check this out. We're here at the show. We're podcasts. We've got a whole group of good people here. Everyone came on down.
00:37:17
Speaker
This guy, Mr. Dave Curcice, here in the studio. That's Dave Curcice. Nice to meet you. I'm trying to figure it out. What's going on? Nice to meet you. All right, right on. This is what happens when you don't give your alias away and then someone actually finds out who you are. Does that not see all in? No. Back to hiding at the Mayzac booth.
00:37:43
Speaker
So this is the Business of Machining podcast, right? You got it. So people probably want to hear about business things. Sure. Maybe. Absolutely. Relating some machining. So have you listened to it? I've listened to a few episodes and after hearing you guys. OK, so you and John Saunders, if you guys don't know who are listening, John Grimsmo, John Saunders and Jay Pearson did this really cool event on Sunday before IMTS. And it was fantastic. They talked about great things.
00:38:13
Speaker
And it actually turned me on to listening to this podcast way more often. So I'm going to be doing that for once. So listening to this is good, but you guys already know that, obviously. One thing, what do I know? Oh, during the event, these guys were talking about ERP systems. And I guess it's little known at this point, but I've been working on implementing an ERP system. For the last few years, it has
00:38:41
Speaker
It has been a long time, yeah, ever since I started machining. It's kind of been a big research project of mine. I think ERP systems are great. I'd almost already forgotten about the speech that we gave like five days ago because just so much has happened. But what did you get out of it or what did you remember us talking about?
00:39:00
Speaker
I mean, just the fact that you are working on yours as well, and then is Saunders working on putting one in? Saunders is avoiding ERP. He's avoiding it. It's the way that he wants to run his business. Yeah, yeah. Doesn't apply. It doesn't fit with the way he sees ERPs right now. OK, that makes sense. And like I visited Jay last year. And Jay's kind of the same way. He's got his own little system going on. Exactly. And so the discussion on Sunday just made me want to talk about it more. Right.
00:39:29
Speaker
Right? Because, you know, I want to explore these ideas and figure out why people would want to prefer one way or the other. What are the advantages? What are the drawbacks? And I think talking about it openly and publicly, you know, more people can give input and I think everyone can kind of work on this problem together and hopefully help solve each other's problems. So, yeah, just the fact that you guys were talking about it and you're working on yours.
00:39:59
Speaker
Yeah, and as I was walking around the show, there are a lot of ERP systems out there. Yes, yes. So, picture time. Chris Fox from Tormax is standing up high. Wait for the smile. Dave's got his orange glove on.
00:40:17
Speaker
There we go. I guess I can still talk while he's taking a picture. All you guys who missed IMTS, I mean, if you're into manufacturing, you guys... Listen to that. I mean, just listen. You guys missed a good show.
00:40:31
Speaker
It was amazing. We tried to get registered for it, but couldn't get into the city in time. It was all in York. Watch your YouTube channel, appreciate what you do. Can I get a picture with you? I'm filming a live podcast right now. It's kind of a neat perspective into like just what it's like to walk around.
00:40:58
Speaker
Still fuzzy. There we go. Yeah, good to meet you. So you're looking at robot drills for your annex.
00:41:08
Speaker
I don't know, yeah. I have so many crazy ideas, so many plans. A robo-drill or a speedio would fit really well. Or we'd go bigger and get a 5-axis instead. I want to Swiss first. Swiss-laid. Yeah, Swiss would be the way to go. Yeah, so we used to run citizens, sitcom machines, fantastic machines. Yeah. Get a bar feeder, set them up, run 600 parts in a couple of hours.
00:41:30
Speaker
Nothing beating it. What kind of industry are you in? I work in aerospace in the fence. It's all the stuff we can't talk about on a public podcast. It's all ITAR restricted and I can't take pictures. Don't get to have any fun. Don't get to do the Instagram thing. Just get to learn.
00:41:49
Speaker
It's challenging, so it keeps it interesting. I get the machine hero medal aluminum. You want to be on the podcast? What is it for? It's our buddy Devin. This is our business of machining podcast. Basically, Sondras and I, we just talk about what's going on. Yeah, I'm familiar with that. I've listened before. There you go.
00:42:11
Speaker
So Devin's got a shop in Chicago here. Yeah, close by. Bunch of DMG machines, five-axis aerospace work. Allegedly. Allegedly, yeah, not allowed to talk about it. Crazy, but like, intro kids, you love your products. Oh, yeah. You love the work that you do, right? Yeah. I just love machining, so. Yeah, right? It makes it like it's not even work at all, you know? I mean, when you get to do what you love, it's like I come in, I just play, and then eventually I have to go home. Right, you get tired. Yeah. Yeah. Because the wife calls me home, so I gotta go.
00:42:40
Speaker
You want to be on the podcast? Sure. Okay, you guys listening to the podcast are still listening. We talk about Phil a lot. We're standing with Phil right now. Phil from MJK Performance makes fancy motorcycle cool parts.
00:42:57
Speaker
Yeah, they're all right. Yeah, some of my favorites. You've got five-axis machines, you love your toolpaths, and you're making functional decorative parts. Yeah, right. That's what we do, too. And you guys make your own line of products. Yeah, absolutely, make our own high-performance motorcycle parts.
00:43:14
Speaker
Or just for Harley-Davidson. Sweet. Anything we can do to make designs insane. We need the equipment to do it. They, like, built parts for an entire motorcycle in like four days. Yeah, like one-offs. We're very good at short times. Fantastic. Is there anything you want to share business-wise that might help, like, that comes to mind?
00:43:42
Speaker
I know you might have a lot. The best thing I find for our business is just never stop exploring and learning. It might not be a good business or financial sense, but it's just
00:43:56
Speaker
Look at everything. Watch other people do things. Look at Instagram. Just get so much inspiration as much as you possibly can. Always ask and learn. Meet new people. Talk to them about making things. Inspiration is everything. Yeah, it's a huge key. Yeah, the connections of friendships you make. Like, if you have a problem, you know who to ask, right? Because you've developed friendships.
00:44:17
Speaker
Exactly. If you can find yourself a little group of instant machinists to hang out with and talk to, it changes your life. Or a big group. Or a big group. 100 plus people we're standing around right now. Awesome. Alright, I think we're going to wrap this up. Thank you all for listening. Have a great day. We've got a lot more show to do.