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Ep. 20: My Heart in a Vice with Joshua Firman
131 Plays9 days ago
Join Curt and Jamie they pick Joshua Firman’s brain on anything and everything. (Vices and beyond)
The Lone Machinist:
- Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
- Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
- Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists
Jamie:
Curt:
Joshua:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Hosts and Podcast
00:00:09
Speaker
Welcome to the Loan Machinist Podcast, a podcast where it's just you, your tools, and the work. No team, no backup. I'm Jamie from JSpec Engineering, and every episode we're tackling the highs and lows of flying solo in the machining world.
00:00:22
Speaker
And I'm Kurt from Confound a Machine, here to chat about everything it takes to make it as a one-man show in the shop. From grinding and turning to the struggles of running a one-person operation, we're sharing the stories, the tricks, and the challenges that come with going it alone.
00:00:34
Speaker
If you're out there in the shop grinding away by yourself or just thinking about taking a solo plunge, this show's for you.
Meet Joshua and His Machining Journey
00:00:40
Speaker
So throw in your ear protection and let's talk about life behind the machine.
00:00:47
Speaker
Good morning, Kurt, and good evening, Joshua.
00:00:52
Speaker
Good evening, Jamie, and good evening, Joshua. You might have to just click your unmute button so you can chat with us. Good evening. Good morning. I'll pretend I didn't just have to unmute myself.
00:01:06
Speaker
Yeah. So this being our 20th episode, it's a guest episode. And this time around, we've got Joshua. Joshua, you like to introduce yourself?
00:01:18
Speaker
Hello. Yeah, I'm Josh from, or Joshua from our Firmworks Limited. And yeah, maker of the firm vice, hopefully coming to you very soon. And yeah, that's me.
00:01:30
Speaker
Okay. Well, yeah. Thank you so much for coming on. It's always fun chatting with people. And yeah, I don't know. Jamie, turn me on to your vices. They look super cool. And yeah I don't know. It's interesting to hear someone's story. And it sounds like you got ah you've been kind of doing this thing for a while. So yeah, totally curious to see how you've made your major way this far.
00:01:49
Speaker
Thank you. Yeah, no, I'm a keen listener. So excited to come on. You listen to our ramblings every week. Yeah. Before we get too far into it, do you prefer Josh or Joshua?
00:02:01
Speaker
ah Josh is fine. Joshua is also fine. eva eat Whatever you prefer. Most people just call me Josh. Okay. Josh it is. yeah
00:02:10
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah. I don't know. yeah How did you get into it Lead the way, Jamie.
00:02:17
Speaker
what might As in, how did I get into machining or how how far back do you want to go? Well, that's always interesting how people get into machining. Yeah, like a quick background. So previously ah i've totally inexperienced in sort of mechanics or anything like that. wasn't that um way inclined. I was going into IT. i was more of a sort of gamer growing up sort of thing.
00:02:39
Speaker
and um ah But I fell into machining, did and a machine in apprenticeship um sorry mechanical engineering apprenticeship. and was at the ah Laboratory of Molecular Biology and in Cambridge.
00:02:52
Speaker
And um I was there for three years, did a really cool apprenticeship, sort of learn learned hand-fitting techniques, you know, filing, sawing, then onto manual machines, then filing onto the CNC machines.
00:03:05
Speaker
And um yeah, really good, um really good proper old school apprenticeship there.
Founding Firmworks and Side Projects
00:03:10
Speaker
um Then I had my first child, so I had to go get some, money try try, go find some money.
00:03:16
Speaker
and So I left there, went to a production machine shop. So I did mostly turn in there and a little bit milling. and That's where I really learnt, I call that going into the real world the sort of machining and really the workplace actually. I learnt some good experience there but then i was there for just under a year and then um found a job as a Chief Technician at the Whittle Laboratory which is for Cambridge University um doing aerospace research.
00:03:47
Speaker
That a really cool job. Got onto a five axis machining, got to do um all kinds of cool rig work and assembly. And I mean, it was massive big, I mean, 10, 12 inch pipe work sometimes on big aerospace rigs.
00:04:00
Speaker
And sometimes it tiny little probes and um doing lots of handwork and soldering and stuff like that. um So yeah, that was really good. And then from out of there is where I started Firmworks. Started doing a bit of work on the side out of that workshop.
00:04:15
Speaker
um And then, yes, I designed the firm vice when I was there as well. And then, um yeah, went on my own as a job shop. And then, yeah, that was sort of ah coming up for five years ago now that i started the business. So, yeah, it's been a bit of a, it's been a good ride, bit of a bumpy ride at times, but um yeah, we're still here.
Transition to Full-Time Machining
00:04:35
Speaker
So that's that's cool. So did you like did you slowly transition to doing your own thing or did you kind of have to jump ship and go or like how did you go about that?
00:04:47
Speaker
It was interesting because um it was during the lockdown that I actually bought my first machine. So it was May 2020. I was on a salary position, but we'd been given like six months off full pay um ah during the COVID lockdown. So sort of two months in, i was, you know, getting...
00:05:08
Speaker
i wouldn't say bored, but I was just sort of looking for opportunities and then um ended up buying a machine, finding a space to put it in. and um And then, yeah, because I'd already been doing work out of that workshop.
00:05:21
Speaker
And because it was a lockdown, I couldn't use that um my employer's workshop anymore. um because you know I was allowed we ah did go in to make some ventilator parts to help out during the lockdowns, but other than that, it was just totally off limits. It was either just telling my customers at the time, right, can't do anything anymore, or I could buy a machine and go for it.
00:05:42
Speaker
Or at least try do it on the side, which was always you know and how I started it off. but um you know initially when I bought my first machine I could afford the rent um um and and everything out of my, sat if all went wrong and I wasn't making any money out of the business, my salary could afford the rent at least and everything else that was bare minimum.
Challenges of Solo Operations
00:06:02
Speaker
So um then I just started sort of building it up from there and then it was about um six months after I'd bought the machine or maybe it might have been 69 months um that I started going part-time, asked to go down to, think I did
00:06:16
Speaker
I don't know I went straight three days a week. But then I but ah tapered off over the next sort of um six months and then went full time. So that was about four years ago now. Yeah, so sort of a year after I started the business that I went full time with it. um Oh, yeah that's cool.
00:06:32
Speaker
um
00:06:35
Speaker
I mean, that's nice that you had the the running room during the lockdown to like kind of pursue it a bit while still having salary behind you. like that's That's a nice lucky spot to be in. I felt sort of guilty because I didn't tell my employer that I bought the machine at first cause i didn't know how they were going to take it. And in the end, it was just really supportive. And it my my old boss, he was sort of a legendary boss. He sort so of let us get on with it. It was really good. um But he he sort of said, I could see that you were you always going to either leave to go somewhere else and you weren't going to be happy here just twiddling thumbs and sort of taking easy.
00:07:10
Speaker
Because the you but in academia, in research, it's really like, it's it's not the real world. It really is like... timelines and stuff like that, they're all made up. and know you know You can rush a project, get it done for someone, then it sits on a desk for like six months, a year.
00:07:24
Speaker
but It might never get used, but that's different to like the real world where like you you've got to deliver your pens. Jamie's got to deliver his anchor point. I've got my vices and my custom products. It's bit different to sort of research. so
00:07:40
Speaker
yeah Oh, that's that's cool. So you you mentioned your you do job shop work. So what is your like what is your percentage split between your own product and your job shop work? is it but At the moment, I'd say it's 100% job shop. And then on the side, I have sold these pre-order devices, which are thats for behind me now. Last step they've got to do now, and plus some extra drawers I've got is to go off for black oxide.
00:08:03
Speaker
and But, well, I've actually been doing lot of research this week, and I wanted to ask you boys, maybe you could have some advice on... on finishing tool steel components, basically, because, you know, I've looked at black oxide. I'm worried this is going to not come back like a consistent finish. I've looked at plating potentially, but obviously you got the thickness of the plating to worry about. So Yeah, i mean, that's the next step of that, really.
00:08:28
Speaker
But yeah, my main sort of um my daily thing of what I'm doing with ah with with my customers, I've got um like mainly local customers, but I do ships and parts up and down the country as well.
00:08:39
Speaker
But um some of it is a prototype work, which is a A lot stainless steel and and and stuff like that, sometimes mink and nail stuff like that from a one local customer. um Another customer has loads of turning work, it's lot of shafts, long shafts and sort of mild steel and some some small plastic parts and stuff like that. um And then I'd say yeah and another mix of work I get is motorsport, aftermarket motorsport components.
00:09:07
Speaker
um And then, yeah, I have some customers that dip in and out and then I've always just sort of looking for, always the hardest thing is finding work fond and um yeah, keep keeping customers, but also managing, being a solo, you know what it's like being by yourself, getting working while doing the work, managing everything, it's always a juggle. so Yeah, always find I get really busy because I've been quiet and I've been finding work and then when I'm busy doing the work, I haven't been looking for works and I have quiet spells so it's tricky.
00:09:41
Speaker
Yeah, that tends to be a lot of guys where they they tend to porpoise where you're really busy and then you're quiet so you go find a bunch of work then you're really busy. Yeah, that's That is why people through Xometry. I mean, that's all I hear is Xometry, Xometry, Xometry.
00:09:57
Speaker
And it's for that reason. It's because i don't want to go out and find the work and get it. Because it is such not saying it's easy mode, but it is very convenient, isn't it? It definitely is. I don't know if you guys have seen
Machines and Maintenance
00:10:10
Speaker
the latest... Well, I doubt you guys would have seen the latest from...
00:10:14
Speaker
the Taps and Patience guys. I just started listening to it before. Yeah, I'd listened to about half hour of it before we come on here. So yeah yeah, I didn't get too far into it. But it's quite interesting.
00:10:26
Speaker
Basically starting up a Zometry competitor. Right. thought that's what it might be. That's an interesting in play. Yeah, it's interesting play. It's not going to like they're not going to just let anyone on right now. But it's ah it's an interesting play because I think the guys are getting a bit fed up with Zometry, especially with them pushing the payment terms out to 40 days.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's a bit scummy. So yeah, i don't know. we'll We'll see what happens there. But they there's another episode, 116, which is on um early access at the moment.
00:10:56
Speaker
And I got a shout out at the end of that one, which was pretty sweet. Nice. Since AJ a beta units of the anchor points and it arrived just to go to all his teaching things.
00:11:09
Speaker
It ended up at General Motors in one of his classes. He was using it as an example for could change palette stuff. i was like, that's very good. Yeah, that's a good example.
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, works.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah, so you're based, and I think that's ah kind of a cool reference, for not cool reference, but interesting reference for the listeners is, as far as I understand, like, Zometry is a US thing. Like, we don't have access to that in Canada. Jamie, I'm sure you're not in that circle. And then, Joshua, you're based out of England, so you're not in that circle either, correct?
00:11:42
Speaker
No, but there is a Zometry UK, and there is a Zometry Europe as well. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, I've never used them. you're as much as Europe, are you? okay Yeah, I spoke to the guys at INTS and I was told to get and get hold of the Europe guys for it. And I'm like, eh, I could not really be bothered.
00:11:59
Speaker
I have enough of my own dumb shit going on here.
00:12:06
Speaker
Cool. So you I was going to ask your industry, um like, i don't know if you can speak to it, but like, what is it what is it primarily centered around? You said some motorsports stuff, but like, is is there kind of like one overwhelming kind of area? Yes, of scientific research stuff.
00:12:20
Speaker
um Unfortunately, I haven't broke into the aerospace research side of things because I'd love to do some work for the university and all of the sort of universities, but... um ah It's getting onto the order system and yeah, that seems to be the stumbling block there.
00:12:35
Speaker
But um no, I haven't pushed that too hard really, but yeah. but yeah yeah Oh, that's cool. So you said you started you started with one machine. what was What was the first machine you started with?
00:12:48
Speaker
Started with a free access machine, which is behind the sign there. But it's XYZ Mini Mill 560, which is a ah free access machine. it's got a 10 position umbrella tool changer on it. BT40 spindle had a 12,000 RPM Siemens control, Siemens 810D.
00:13:09
Speaker
and No probing, unfortunately. and But no, good little machine. Boxways, so it's rigid things, 20 meters a minute rapids on it.
00:13:21
Speaker
No, it was a good starter machine, solid machine. ah The reason why I bought that was because the five-axis machine, or the first five-axis machine I ran was one of these exact machines.
00:13:34
Speaker
and except with an 8,000 RPM spindle on it, but with a Nikon 5-axis trunnion on it. and And I'd repaired the machine quite a lot. Well, say repaired it, you know, kept it going, just sort of air leaks and stuff like that, but nothing major had gone wrong on the machine. So... um I was quite confident.
00:13:52
Speaker
ah Well, i I wasn't confident on working on machines at the time ah as much as I am now. So I wanted something I was familiar with. And then I found one of those for sale during the lockdown, paid way more than it than I should have. Looking back now, being inexperienced, sort of. um But yeah, yeah, got it. And then off we went.
00:14:11
Speaker
But originally, at that time, I was doing and a lot of jet ski parts, aftermarket jet ski parts. um which is sort of originally what I really wanted to do. I wanted to do work holding and jet ski parts.
00:14:23
Speaker
wanted to do both of them and sort of really, that wanted to be my two niches, if you know what I mean. but um But I sort of got away from the jet skiing industry just because I don't have a jet ski anymore. So I used to do um to competitive freestyle, so doing back flips and all that kind of stuff.
00:14:38
Speaker
and a smile and but yeah um I made a lot of the aftermarket parts for my competition ski and I wanted to sell those but it didn't end up really working out. but and yeah ah so yeah and Other industries really, sort of general engineering really, a lot of it I don't actually know where it's going. I'm doing work through ah but Not really a middle man, but for larger machine shops a lot of the time um because I'm focused on the lower quantity staff they and their more production set up. So they kick some work my way.
00:15:11
Speaker
um That's been a good source of work as well. That's cool. Well, we can I can see the one mill behind you, but it looks like you have significantly more machines now. So what are you what are you up to now? Yes. So I've got um that machine as yes. So the X was at minimum 560.
00:15:26
Speaker
And then um after that, I did get another X, Y, Z machine, but but it was a two axis lathe, but um not with a tarot on it was a bit like a haste to a tool room late.
00:15:37
Speaker
um So it was a two with a quick change tool post on it. It was c andnc obviously, but just two axis. and Looking back, wrong machine to get, didn't have a tool changer. I ended up putting a gang tool had'd set up on it and running a little bit production on there, but I say production, you know, 100 or so spaces and washers, really simple parts of stuff like that. but um Then I sold that and I bought, got opportunity to buy this. It's in the back over there. We've got a Hitachi Siki. It's a HT20S.
00:16:11
Speaker
to two axis heavy duty CNC lathe. So it's got Yasnac LX3 control on it, which is basically like a green FANUC, green writing FANUC style, FANUC, as you guys say. How does Jamie say FANUC?
00:16:29
Speaker
It's FANUC. Yeah, FANUC. Oh, your boat. And Kurt, are you FANUC as well? I'm waffles depending on the day. Yeah. how's this but I always find that an interesting one.
00:16:40
Speaker
But um yeah, so that's um that was the first proper production turning center that I got. Heavy duty to actually slave. It's got hydraulic tailstock on it. um Had an eight inch chuck on it, and which I then destroyed actually um at one point.
00:16:57
Speaker
Then I had a 10 inch chuck on it, that was too big. I've gone back to an 8 inch chuck now, so all is well. um And then after that, I got the the big mill, which you can see just there. um That is a um That is a Mitsubishi Meldus 520 AM control and it's a Hartford 850 BMC.
00:17:19
Speaker
So it's basically a Taiwanese made cheap, um well that's what I thought actually, a cheaply made um CNC mill. But got it in, it's had a it's got a 4th axis on it, but um haven't been able to use that simultaneously, although it has got...
00:17:36
Speaker
nice servo mitsubishi same servo and and encoder that are on the rest of the axis so i don't know i think it must be a parameter setting something like that um but that is a full box way machine 8 000 rpm bt40 spindle on that as well um but no it is a beast and it cuts accurately and um it's still flat and and um sounds great so that was a really good buy of that machine and And that also allowed me to take on bigger work because no no matter what you do.
00:18:07
Speaker
So I bought them, first ma machine I bought was a milling machine and then all the work I needed was turning work. So i obviously got CNC lathe, got the wrong CNC lathe, then got the right CNC lathe and then had that covered. and Then all the work I was getting was bigger than what the mini mill could do.
00:18:21
Speaker
So ended up with
Optimizing Production Workflow
00:18:23
Speaker
a bigger mill. And then from then i've been I've been able to cover quite a wide range of parts really. and But then after that I also got this lathe here which is ah another two axis CNC lathe, that's a Colchester CNC 350.
00:18:39
Speaker
um And I haven't said the ages of any of these machines actually, I'm wondering if people can guess what sort of vintage these machines are.
00:18:49
Speaker
But yeah, that's that's ah that's all of them except for machine here, which are the last machine got, which is a twin-palate horizontal machine center. It's got a BT30 spindle, 30-positioned chain ATC on it. so It's a beast.
00:19:06
Speaker
Currently, it's just a dead machine at the moment. Someone deleted the parameters out of it, and I am someone. But I have made some progress of it. I've managed to get the parameters back into it.
00:19:19
Speaker
and But um I still can't get it release from EastUpstate. Oh no. Yeah, but that's that's the current state of play with the machines, really, yeah. Are you running all those by yourself?
00:19:33
Speaker
Absolutely, it's all me. ever everything fin Everything is all me. That's it. The only help I've ever really had was my other half, my ah girlfriend, my fiancée, I should say. She um used to come in and help, but she's too inundated with our children now. so yeah yeah Other than that, it's only ever been me that run these machines. It's me to blame for everything that's wrong and right.
00:19:59
Speaker
Okay. Oh wow, yeah, that's that's a full shot for sure. Lots to play with. Well, yes, the the reason why...
00:20:10
Speaker
Oh, I think we yeah we lost yeah we muted you. Yeah, why did you mute? I didn't mute him. Is that better? Yeah, you're all good. and might It might have been me, to be honest with you. I've moved my mouse away now, sorry.
00:20:25
Speaker
No sweat. where did you where Where was where were where was i I just saying that's a lot of gear to run.
00:20:34
Speaker
Yes, yes. but Oh yeah, that's what I was saying. I've got quite a few machines to have some redundancy. So like two axis lathes.
00:20:42
Speaker
and two meals, anything goes wrong, which has happened. yeah When you're down and you've got to get it up and running, it's is's hard. So having some redundancy, hopefully they don't all go at once.
00:20:55
Speaker
Although that has also happened. But there you go.
00:21:03
Speaker
well
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think yeah redundancy is the main point. like that's That's the one thing I'm freaked out about, having only one lathe. If this goes down, like um I'm fairly hosed um until I get something new. and it i It depends on your area. it depends what you can get access to. seems like you can I'm assuming a lot of those machines were second-hand purchases. All second-hand, yeah.
00:21:24
Speaker
My newest machine is 2004 machine. 1994. machine so um oldest isnt nineteen ninety 1990, which is at Colchester Lave, so that's three years older than me.
00:21:36
Speaker
That's cool. Yeah.
00:21:40
Speaker
yeah But it's a decent machine. It's got a collet chuck on there, nice clean. It's ah actually got dovetail whales on the x-axis, but it is a slant bed CNC Lave, a hydraulic tailstock on it, a FANUC control, load it, you know, post straight straight from Fusion, run stuff on there, do bar pulling on there, done some cool stuff with that, so...
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's good. I like lot to try to bit more with the older machines because they are all quite capable. As soon as I figured out you could get Fusion with a post processor to run cam on pretty much any machine, i was off to the races.
00:22:17
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. I think think that's kind of the hack that maybe people don't understand is like some of these industrial machines you can buy for like dollars on the pound. You just have to have a place to put them. But like they can be very inexpensive and still extremely capable.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yes. For example, this twin-palate horizontal machine there, yeah, I bricked it, but and if that didn't get out of where it needed to get out from. So they said, if you because it costs like a grand to get it, so a thousand pounds to get it from...
00:22:46
Speaker
where it was, which is only an hour and a half away. um And that was with, that was doing it cheap actually. That was with us doing the moving on out of the building to the, and lifted onto the lorry that side and then ah lifted off this side as well. So, and and moved in ourselves as well. so and But if you're willing to do that, if you or you know if you pay double that to move it, and that's the cost of the machine, basically. But yeah, ah that that is an older machine, but is that is the nuts when it's running. And that's my favorite one.
00:23:16
Speaker
So I'm gutted, I think. I don't know if you can tell. oh she So I assume that was running before you held the wrong buttons in. Yeah, the background on that what it that machine is it was one one owner from noon.
00:23:31
Speaker
You'll laugh when I say this. because It's run plastic all of its life. so Genuinely, though, the company was called Carville Plastics, and all they did was machine plastic. Yeah.
00:23:45
Speaker
and um um I'm sure it had machined like the tombstone phase and stuff like that, but from what I was told and from what I can figure out, what what was on the control as well, it's run one job like his whole life.
00:23:57
Speaker
um And it was just to running these manifolds on two tombstones on each face and then running four sides, swapping the tombstones and off it went. So but it had been turned off for um a month or so before we got it out, but then got it in, powered it on,
00:24:13
Speaker
And it was all good to go. its had to learn how to use the ah control. the only problem i ever The only problem I had with it, which is what I was actually trying to sort out, was the as a problem with the palette changer logic. So when I first got the machine, I've never run a palette changer, so I didn't really know what I was doing, but following in the the manual as you do,
00:24:31
Speaker
and um or maybe you don't i don't know but i was um making way through it and um got it to cool up a palette actually what i did was oh i wanted it to just run the program that was already in there because i was like right that's all you've ever done let's just let you just run it prove what's going on i've done some tool changes through
Finishing Techniques and Advice
00:24:48
Speaker
mdi and stuff like that but um so run the program that was in there and it it swapped the palettes around and then wouldn't run the pallet. It was giving me a logic alarm, a pallet AB judgment alarm.
00:25:01
Speaker
So basically telling me, ah, I'm not expecting that pallet to be there. And then from that day on, could never get it to swap back to the other pallet. Whenever I did a manual, no matter if I did it manually in MDI, no matter what I did, it would lift up the pallet, spin round, but do a full 360.
00:25:17
Speaker
So you ended up with the same pallet each time. And no matter what I did, ah couldn't figure it out. I was checking, you know, limit switches and it was all pneumatic. um was, had that all apart, i was looking everywhere. So I know the full construction of the machine now, but still couldn't get that sorted. So i was like, right, the only thing it can be now is and something in the parameters or the key prelays, something like that.
00:25:43
Speaker
And, um ah ah I think I was just trying to cancel the soft overtrave alarms when i was ah I was resetting it. And um yeah, so I powered on powered on the control.
00:25:54
Speaker
and I'd run loads of jobs. I'd run two or three jobs through the machine. It'd been great, but only as a single pallet machine. So um it was still running. and But then, yeah, I turned on, holding reset and delete.
00:26:05
Speaker
And then ah that obviously clears the parameters. But yeah, there we go. Yep. I did that to the Kitsamora where i used to work. Hmm. Yeah. But you said you got that running again.
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah, and I got that running. We had a backup. We had system machines. So we had backups of the, I think I might've actually just pulled the parameters off the other machine. But yeah, I had it talking over, what's it? NC LART or whatever it is.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I'm using. Yeah. So that's what I've done so far. I've got the main parameters back in. the The ladder seems to be there. got like I've got the full backup on a floppy, but yeah.
00:26:42
Speaker
I can't seem to, it's telling me there's over travel alarm on B positive and B minus. So I think there's still some parameters to be set for the pallet changer itself. but I don't know where they've got to go basically.
00:26:56
Speaker
So I have reached out to Roku, Roku, the the manufacturers. and Well, I originally reached out to Whitehouse Machine Tools who serviced the machine where it was at the previous place. so And they basically said, anyone who worked on that machine is now retired. We don't really know nothing about it I was like, I know, but I also know that you've definitely got all the documentation that i need because I've got printed out emails from, and actually some faxes, that's how old they were, um of like instructions on how to recover the palette changer and how to recover the tool changer.
00:27:30
Speaker
But um they did send me a couple of the pages I was missing, but they basically said, we can't really help you. So um I did reach out to Roku, Roku. I got an email back. The other day, which is, you it's been a few weeks and I got an email back the other day and I thought it was because they called me Joshua San, which I thought was cool.
00:27:48
Speaker
like that. That's the Japanese way of doing things. So, yeah, so hopefully they're going to help me out. They have said they can, if not FANUC, I could get a local FANUC tech to do it, which probably is the case, but just begrudge paying someone to load parameters in, which I know I can do myself if I just know where they've got to go. It's kept...
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah, so we'll see. If I have to I'll pay to get it sorted because ah it's ah it's a nice machine. But I'm holding out for Roku at this point.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yeah, well, I suppose if it's if it's a machine that's just sitting and you're not currently pushing a bunch of work through it, whatever. 100%. If it was one of my other machines, I'd be worried because, they are like I said, I'm running them every day. That was an extra machine I got.
00:28:34
Speaker
Opportunity came up. It wasn't the greatest timing, really, but I couldn't say no to it, really. And then, you know, if and if it is still running, it has already paid for itself. You know what The first few jobs it ran through paid for the the and getting it here. So, and yeah, so we'll see.
00:28:52
Speaker
We'll get there. Oh, that's cool. yeah i mean a palette change would be nice especially being a single guy up like just being able to really set up so i've got zero point on each palette and i can swap in tombstones that are just firm vice components and then it's smaller tombstones maybe that way i can have a you know all the stuff ready to go be running overnight that's you know this is a dream scenario um Right.
00:29:20
Speaker
And yeah, or or not dream scenario, this is long-term thinking scenario. That's what would like to make happen. Trying to reframe my thinking wording there. This is the goal scenario. Yes, exactly. Yeah. yeah So yeah, that's what I'd like to do with the machine, but we'll see. If I have a job come up that can just run production on it and always be set up for it, that'd be great too.
00:29:43
Speaker
sir
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that's awesome.
00:29:51
Speaker
so you So you were wanting to chat about the coatings or lack thereof on the vassals. Yes, i don't know. be honest with you, I've only ever sent parts out for anodizing previous places and and here.
00:30:06
Speaker
ah for some customers, but, and I've done a bit of DIY anodizing, but nowhere near as a good setup as what you yeah that el have, Jamie. yeah um But obviously these are P20 tool steel components and they look beautiful. They're shiny, lovely, beautiful machines and ground finish on them.
00:30:22
Speaker
But based on the prototype one, the latest prototype I've been using, no matter how good it is, if it's in a machine, it's goingnna you're going to get a bit of surface corrosion eventually. If you get your mix off, if it's it's going to rust eventually. and Me personally, I have rusty hands, so I will leave rusty fingerprints on anything I touch. so ah i want to I've got some quotes for Black Oxide. I've got a supply lined up, which I'm about to send off next week. But I'm just considering some other options, maybe. that
00:30:55
Speaker
I've looked at nickelplatin, and but I don't know. i think black oxide is the only thing that's going to give a It's not going to grow too much, obviously, because it is changing the layer rather than growing it.
00:31:11
Speaker
Well, that's what I've been talking about. Passivation's only for stainless, eh?
00:31:17
Speaker
It kind of looks weird, though, like yellowish. Yeah, I mean, I'd really like Just a solid black finish would be great. I'd love it if they could be green, because that's my favourite colour. I'd love them to look green.
00:31:31
Speaker
And I've done a lot of research looking at how I could do that, but ah there's no... but Powder coating or Cerakote or something like that, but it's um it' too thick too thick a coating, basically.
00:31:42
Speaker
and And, you know, you could mask it off and do stuff like that, but... Yeah, i was just going to what about masking, but then you've got masking issues. Yeah, you can have edges that flake. and need to And I think yeah like the curve you get, I think the castings, I don't know if they're painted or powder coated, but they tend to chip and flake off. Yeah, my chart of us is the paint is gone now.
00:32:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, less than ideal. So yeah, black oxide is probably your your best bet there. Just hopefully it comes back uniform.
00:32:20
Speaker
That's my my worry, I mean... Well, the other option is use the end blue. don't have asked him... To hot blue. Yes, and I've done some parts, in fact, I've got a... I've asked you all here that I made black.
00:32:32
Speaker
But again, it's... I mean, this is pretty good, to be fair, but it's this is just sat there on the side. this It's a bit... I just, long term, I know that. If you don't keep it over, it's got to rust.
00:32:44
Speaker
Exactly, yeah, it doesn't. And it's not, um I think it's got to be a hot black oxide solution for it to be. I mean, I think if you wanted to, you could rub this off with your hand if you kept rubbing it sort of thing. so Yeah. i mean it does, it does work. It does make them black, but it's, I mean, I don't, you can't see very well in here, but it's a bit patchy on this bit here and it's just, you know, I'm not a finisher. Super finicky. like Any oils or anything will make blotchiness. Like I've, I've changed some of the parts I make for one of my customers. We make it out of stainless because it's literally cheaper than bluing it just from a labor perspective. Looking back, I think maybe I should have done that. Um, or, but
00:33:24
Speaker
and gone just stainless but um yeah that's got its own just harder for grinding them yeah like it's stainless has its own pros and cons
00:33:37
Speaker
so kurt just says everything out of titanium Yeah, that's my problem. I've genuinely thought about, what what about titanium vice base? What would that look like? i mean, it'd look cool, but would it actually be hot or would it be too soft?
00:33:52
Speaker
And what about me what about going a route similar to the Light Vise from 5th Axis, where you've got two hardened rails and a green anodized body?
00:34:05
Speaker
Yes, I've considered doing that, but I think... um
00:34:11
Speaker
I don't know. I just think if you're buying a vice, you don't want it to be aluminium. That's just what I think. Well, I was considering doing something similar, but making it a pneumatic vice.
00:34:22
Speaker
but Oh, 100%. A pneumatic vice. I mean, I know Gimbal, I think he's well i think he's working on one. ah But there's definitely a gap there. um yeah With the cobalt load and everyone's going for, it's the way to go.
00:34:37
Speaker
and That or hydraulic, but I think people will find pneumatic easier to integrate, don't they? Yeah, the issue with pneumatic is just your grip force. You're never going to have the same grip force as even a small screw because you have such a limited surface area on your pistons.
Balancing Job Shop Work and Development
00:34:56
Speaker
like There's some shenanigans you can get away, like get to to make make it have a bit more force, but then you end up having this vase that's a freaking meter tall and 100 by 100.
00:35:07
Speaker
To have decent clamping force. Like I have some some dodgy plans to get around that. Where I'm going to... Where I'm not looking to hold the part down with friction. I'm going to taper my Vast Jaws so it holds it down.
00:35:22
Speaker
So it literally contacts at the top and forces the part down. Accuracy is not super critical on the specific part that I want to run like that. So that'll be fine. But it'll let me load and unload quickly. As in you'll dovetail your parts? No, I'll literally my jaw will... You'll just have a pull down knife edge sort of thing.
00:35:40
Speaker
Well, I was going to have a very shallow dovetail on my jaws and then just square bar stock. But the jaw exceeds over the top of the bar stock. So the jaw is actually touching the top of the bar stock and trying to push it down.
00:35:52
Speaker
Because then if you want to try and rip it out, you're fighting. It's not just friction. It's a bit of actual mechanical force you're having to fight.
00:36:05
Speaker
Yeah, but we'll see. how that well like got The way Lang does it, they're saying don't clamp it hard, stamp it, make the indentation and then grip it loosely but securely and don't put the force into the part, which I think is a great good way of doing things. Just expensive.
00:36:22
Speaker
I love my little my little self-centering vases. Those things chop into the material and hold it super rigidly. 100%, yeah. In aluminium and sort of mild steels and stuff like that, there's no need for to go straight in as a g gripper make and just grip straight in. and' well I've got standard jaws of grippers on my vases. Yeah, your vases look really spiffy. Kurt, I just hold it in a grinding vase.
00:36:50
Speaker
Yeah. My stuff is all tiny. I can hold it with my fingers. like I don't need clamping force, but it's it's so interesting to understand other people's problems. and Yeah. Well, I read it the way I um ah do the piston and the backer for the anchor point.
00:37:06
Speaker
I put them onto pallets because I can't hold them in advance because they're flipin they flex and then they chatter and the job becomes a whole thing. So like the backup plates, I put three threaded holes in that on the underside, no one's ever going to see them.
00:37:20
Speaker
And it locates on the bolt holes and then I bolt from the back using the knife maker method through the pallets. Cause then it's super rigid. Doing the same fixture like that the the other day. Yeah. It's a good way of doing things for for flatness.
00:37:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. That works really, really well. And with pallets being cheap, like, Yeah, I've got... actually are running low on pallets. I need to actually pack them and do a stock take tomorrow because we've got the last five of batch one or up for sale and I want to make sure that I have enough blank pallets to go with them.
00:38:00
Speaker
Absolutely. some people know I think we limited it now to only six blank pallets with your starter kit.
00:38:07
Speaker
Only
Utilizing Machines for Future Projects
00:38:08
Speaker
six. Only six, because then the package becomes just over 10 kilograms and fits in a stock box three double wall.
00:38:17
Speaker
So it's designed pack around the specifics of our shipping things. Also, no one paid import duties, which was quite exciting. Nice. Don't know how long that's going to be. Because it stayed under the $800 amount. Well, apparently that was going away, but apparently it didn't.
00:38:36
Speaker
Right. Everyone's parcels just pitched up.
00:38:42
Speaker
Take that as a win. Yeah, 100%. like I'm just concerned that we're spouting this and then the next batch got and, hey, sorry, guys, you've got to pay import duties. But, yeah, not really. Listen, even if they have to pay import duties, it's cheap. It's really affordable, but it's still a good price, you know? Exactly. Look, the shout-out to...
00:39:03
Speaker
in that episode of Taps and Patience was quite entertaining. AJ at the end. And then I went posted on the Discord, um ah posted a picture of the new version, because he's got the beta version, same as Kurt.
00:39:17
Speaker
And I posted a picture of the production version. It looks so much better. The production version is much nicer. looks It looks less prototype-y, if you know what I mean. Although it did look like a finished product still. It just looks that much sort fancier. 100%. Just that shape that you put on the outside.
00:39:34
Speaker
It looks sexy. It looks right. yeah Yeah. No, it's really nice. I'm waiting for a hard case to arrive for my demo unit so I can go around to the local machine tool guys and say, hey, check my demo unit.
00:39:46
Speaker
but yll with It's a good thing to be able to demonstrate with your with your slide valve. and Yeah, 100%. That's a good little demo, that is. Yeah, so i've got the I've actually got the first um the first production version.
00:40:00
Speaker
It came off my machine. It's going to be the demo unit that I carry around. yeah, going to go door-to-door salesmaning that to all the machine tool guys. I actually had a guy here last week, um and we're just guy he repairs CNC machines locally. And he's like, no, he's got a couple of customers in mind that this would work for.
00:40:18
Speaker
But the vast majority of the guys, it's put vast, put big part machine. They're not interested in small parts. That's not what they do. Like we are in quite niche ah in South Africa with the size work we do.
00:40:33
Speaker
Here I find people doing smaller components here, they're doing it on a bar fed lathe with live tooling or a b-axis head machine, you know, really expensive machines, but they're just doing a lot of them.
00:40:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. No, it makes sense for for that kind of work. you know what mean? Instead of doing the palletized work holding sort of thing, they're doing it but bar fed sort of lathe milling as it were. Those machines are silly expensive.
00:41:02
Speaker
Hmm. like ah ya a gaka I'd say we all want Willemans. I mean, that's... Absolutely. That's exactly what I want for that reason alone. Just load a bar in and make whatever part you want. Yeah.
00:41:17
Speaker
yeah Because it's that easy. Of course it's that easy. like Press the green button, walk away. Right, right. Green button, walk away. Come back in 12 hours and yeah collect parts and keep them going. Yeah.
00:41:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:31
Speaker
So where do you, you're doing what you're doing now. um Where do you see yourself in the next year or two years or six months or whatever timeline works for you? Like, are you happy with the way you're going or do you want to move into different avenues? No, um it's it's taken way longer than I wanted to get the firm vices out there. But I mean, I did change, I improved the design slightly, added a couple of features. I did let design creep get hold of me.
00:41:54
Speaker
um as i made the production versions um i basically um i went with the two-piece jaw design i i was just joining the jaw carrier to the jaw tops we've just bolted on and with um two dow two dow pins very simple Similar to like a fifth axis vice or like as in don't know if there's in down biases like that But you know just pin and bolts simple as you like but I think give me a way to actually pull the ah the Dovetail up so that's Incorporated a dovetail into the jaw system as well, which then makes it quick change jaws so Loosen two screws on the back and you can change the jaw tops and
00:42:34
Speaker
but those jaw tops themselves have a dovetail that, uh, like a pull down dovetail similar to like a, uh, a Kurt star bias or anything like that. Um, that pulls, yeah. So you've got pull down force of pulling the jaw down, but it's also putting the jaw carriers up into the dovetail.
00:42:51
Speaker
So you're basically negating jaw lift as much as you can by clamping the, as it clamps this way, it's also pulling down this way. Um, just sort of working the way you want it to.
00:43:02
Speaker
and And that's why I keep my my vice jaws quite short as well, because the taller that you make them, you're just sort of, the only way you get jaw lift then is it's actually springing back rather than sort of lifting up, if that makes sense.
00:43:15
Speaker
and Right, yeah. But yeah and yeah, a year from now, I'd really like to be, um I'd love to the ratio to be, I'm doing 50% job shot, 50% firm vice. I'd love that to be the case, but we'll we'll we'll see how we get on.
00:43:28
Speaker
and But yeah, I'd like to yeah like like to be here doing what I'm doing. Keep going. Be more busy. I'd like definitely like to have a more consistent flow of work because that has been and always been the hardest thing.
00:43:44
Speaker
and but yeah yeah, that's it really. Yeah, nice. it kind of yeah it's always ah It's a toss-up between like I think the people that are doing a lot of prototype work want to do their own products and then people that are doing products.
00:44:01
Speaker
Like I think, not the grass is always greener, but I mean the nice thing about doing your own product is you get to kind of stipulate your timelines a little bit better as opposed to job shop land.
00:44:12
Speaker
yeah Yes. But in that instance, job shop land might pay better in certain instances. And I mean, if you have the work, you don't have to you don't have to design the work. The work comes to you. But yeah, don't know. I could see both things being attractive.
00:44:24
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, the the ideal scenario was what I was thinking with the business was I could do the job shop work. Okay, that gets quite brilliant. We're gonna we're just going to run more firm bias components now while it's quiet, while we find some more work or more comes in.
00:44:36
Speaker
um And then you can either shelve it or whatever you can set whatever you can do. but And then eventually that takes over and that's 100% of the business. That's what I really want. um but But yeah, we shall see.
00:44:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool. um For your pallet changing machine, ah you said it has two pallets in there. is it like are you able to like Can you put more pallets in the pool or are they just large enough? It's just a twin pallet horizontal. so You've got machining area here with a tombstone here.
00:45:08
Speaker
and there' They're both sitting on an arm actually. there's One here, one here. and It literally just lifts up, spins 180, drops down. So yeah, it's not like it's bringing it from a pallet pool or anything like that. Right. But like, would you or could you offline? Like, could you have extra, let's say, tombstones?
00:45:23
Speaker
100%. Yeah. on this Okay. and that's what So that's what I want to do. i'd like to So at the moment, you have a pallet base and then a tombstone goes and bolts on top of that. What I'd really like to to is have a ah zero point um on that base and then ah build smaller tombstones that go on top of that.
00:45:40
Speaker
and And then yeah, that's the way to do things. um Then you can put in some bigger, bit put bigger tombstones back on for bigger parts. But because of the travels of the machine, it's a 200 millimeter tombstone machine.
Flexible Production Methods
00:45:54
Speaker
and And I noticed that you lose a lot of the Z by the Z travel by the size of tombstone. so It's got some 200mm ones on there at the moment. I'd like to do some or 125mm, because the time you've got a firm base on there, you've got more room to play, basically. You can then put pallets on top of that, etc.
00:46:18
Speaker
Or taller drawers, whatever you need. right nice got those Those two pallet machines are not super common, especially in BT30.
00:46:29
Speaker
No, so really rare it's a weird setup. So yeah, got mo spindles here it's got It's the fastest tool changer I've got in the machine in the workshop as well. It's very fast, two second tool change, magazine style.
00:46:44
Speaker
And then the tool changer is a chain. So this rotates around like this. And then they come around, then they flip down, chains around. But it also puts them anywhere, like a you know random position tool changer. but But it's quick when the the chain spins around. 30 tools, so that's pretty good.
00:47:06
Speaker
That's that's a decent number. ah Your firm base, there's not much information on your website about it. I know, to be honest, um and I need to update everything. ah need to really get some product photos on there, which is why I'm waiting for the black oxide, or whatever coating I go with.
00:47:24
Speaker
and But yeah, stay tuned. That will all be coming soon, and I'll really you know i'll already start pushing it then, um and start selling them from stock, as it were.
00:47:36
Speaker
Okay. And those you need a bit more time you've built the firm bases already. I'm assuming it's something, uh, along the lines of a laying base or something to that effect. Ah, so that that, yeah, I mean, so the fern vice itself can load a pallet on top. So I spoke about the dovetail that um engages on the jaws.
00:47:57
Speaker
Basically, you pull a draw pull your jaws off, then in the center, there's two locating holes, and then you'll drop your pallet on, which has got dovetail features in it.
00:48:08
Speaker
So I've done it so you can either machine dovetails in, or I've got some components, I'll call them the... I've got a new hand, but they're behind me there. but um Dove wedge, which you can um machine ah a blank pallet with just a pocket, three holes and then three tapped holes, and then you bolt this in, and and then this will be hardened steel dovetail that goes against the jaw carriers.
00:48:35
Speaker
But basically you can whip the jaw straight off, put a pallet straight on to the base itself. um Yeah. And that is sort of the how the product has changed from the initial initial initial launch of ah trying to do a separate separate zero point base, 96mm style, which I have made and designed, but I just think as a...
00:48:58
Speaker
I can't add anything there to be honest with you so I don't think there's any point in really doing one whereas on devices think there's a bit more but must be added we added Yeah, a multi-purpose base, effectively.
00:49:13
Speaker
So you've got your varsity. Absolutely. But the the main thing is just being able to use hard jaws and then soft jaws. Like, in a job shop, if you're doing stuff all day long, like, you know what it's like. You want to be able to put jaws on.
00:49:25
Speaker
lot of stuff I do is soft, op one, hard jaws, flip it around in soft jaws, and that's done. That's an easy, consistent way of doing things. Like, yeah, I could normally do an op two with, like, parallels and a stop and, like,
00:49:39
Speaker
and and I've got to figure out what parallel height I need or whatever. Or you could just whack it into soft drawers and off you go. And know if you've got your template and infusion set up nicely, you can do it fairly quickly. I mean, it's like you were talking about, I don't know if it was last episode about,
00:49:53
Speaker
dropping in your modeled component of your, ah where you can't go. And you
Community Engagement and Support
00:49:58
Speaker
have the money. man You just, yeah might buy things that. It just, yeah, it just removes the pain of doing it. So it means you can do it quickly. And it means like, ah, maybe I might make a palette for a 20 off where I wasn't, sorry, not a palette, soft jaws for a, for a five off or a low quantity. I'll do it because it's easier.
00:50:16
Speaker
And I know I'm going to get, ah consistent process whereas sometimes you try do it like a second second up in hard jaws or whatever it's a ricky set up and you end up scrapping it starting again and not doing the soft jaws anyway so just yeah just uh go for it yeah i was making i was actually had to recut my so i don't own parallel well let me refer to our own parallel singular uh i generally clamp something between my aluminium jaws and then i just machine a ledge onto my jaw. Me too. So I was making sample for a Smith & Western plus two shoe last week.
00:50:55
Speaker
And I machined the jaw that I could see the step. And then the one that was towards me, I dropped the profile by like a millimeter and a half, the the depth of the of the ledge.
00:51:08
Speaker
But I didn't touch the wall all the I'd left like the stupid little comma three of a millimeter step. My part didn't, I didn't pick it up because I've dropped the part in and it's got a giant chamfer, like a two and a mil chamfer.
00:51:20
Speaker
So I tightened it. I did what I needed to do. It was fine. Went to put something else in and I'm like, is this thing at an angle? Drop it down. Why is there a gap? So I recut it today, making another Smith and Western base because yeah' obviously credits making samples for guys.
00:51:36
Speaker
But yeah, everything I do is in an aluminum soft jaw or my hard jaws. And currently my vases are lined up. So tomorrow morning I am designing some stuff that requires my vases to be lined up before I break that setup down.
00:51:50
Speaker
because I'm the juggling act, isn't it? Right, this job's coming up or this job might be not actually next in the queue but this setup's here so I'm doing it next. 100%. I've got, my two vices are aligned. If I put the hard jaws in they are aligned to each other and I've got to do two 400 by 150 plates for a lathe conversion.
00:52:12
Speaker
It's a little bolt-on unit that you bolt onto to the way of the lathe and then you've got a two axis CNC lathe using the existing spindle nice So the idea is to convert a manual lathe to CNC for a guy to get into CNC without having to buy up a big-ass lathe.
00:52:34
Speaker
Although he's going to probably buy Bertha from me when I sell Bertha.
00:52:44
Speaker
Awesome. Should let's do the shout-out shout out all the lovely yes say all the lovely people that make this thing go? Firstly, I was told categorically by our producer to tell everybody that the shirts that are currently on the website will only be there till the end of the month.
00:53:00
Speaker
And then the new designs are dropping. If you follow my Instagram stories, you may get to see the new designs ahead of time because I'm going to be getting some of those, including the end mill, not end mill, the face mill shirt.
00:53:13
Speaker
Although I think that might be up there already. And the Chip Fans shirt because we like to confuse people. But yeah, there are a bunch shirts. You asked me to please shout that out. The shirts are available ah either through the podcast website, which is theloanmachinists.com.
00:53:29
Speaker
That will, if you go and look at the merch there, it'll put you through it to jspeceng.com. Our online store there is where all the podcast shirt things are hosted. And then to shout out our lovely Patreons, we're going shout out our top tier Patreon. Well, top and second to top to our Patreons, Jade from Benchmark20 and Fabtastic.
00:53:50
Speaker
Danica said she did message Fabtastic to find out if you want any more information and he hasn't responded, so Fabtastic it is.
00:54:00
Speaker
And we also got another Patreon this week, new member, that would be Sorry, I'm being super... I feel like I'm channeling my inner AJ right now.
00:54:12
Speaker
That would be Jacob, who joined the Patreon this week. Might have been last week, but anyway, close enough. Thank you kindly. Yes.
00:54:22
Speaker
sir that So... So, should we do the Googling? No, more importantly... You go ahead, Jamie. How old is the Iron Lung? I know we've discussed this, but I've forgotten.
00:54:35
Speaker
oh my uh 80 ish somewhere in the 80s somewhere in the 80s okay yeah emco's 89 i can't oh yeah i think it's a little bit older than that it might even be late 70s i can't quite remember she's she's ancient yeah yeah Yeah, the Emco actually shoved the servo drive into the cabinet today. Took a grinder to the bottom of the cabinet so the wires could stick out and shoved it all in the little electrical cabinet.
00:55:02
Speaker
So it's no longer a servo drive sitting on top of the electrical box. Nice. Is your Emco the same Emco that Titan is pedaling now? It is the same brand.
00:55:14
Speaker
and It is actually the same brand. Yeah, they've been around forever. I was built in Austria. Smaller machines. I didn't know they did big boy big boy stuff like they seem to. Yeah, no, neither did I. ah um I wasn't aware that they did giant stuff. I know they did all the smaller stuff back in the 80s and 90s.
00:55:32
Speaker
yeah but Yeah. The the whole Titan story is quite entertaining.
00:55:38
Speaker
Yeah. Especially, v did you catch the latest with Intolerance? Yes, I did. With with Zap? he got and they got They got a little bit into it, which is kind of cool.
00:55:50
Speaker
Always nice hearing other people's perspectives. Yeah. I love hearing Zand go off. And to be fair, Dylan was going off as well. yeah I know. That was a good one. I was i was like, go on, Dylan. That's it. He's in dad mode now. That's it. it's yeah More rage, yeah. Yeah, that's it. He's got the dad rage already.
00:56:09
Speaker
Yeah, the whole Tartan story is a tad controversial there. But you had two of the guys leave there recently, which is interesting. I've heard rumblings of that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:22
Speaker
I wonder if that is a start of more things to come and maybe at the beginning of the end, I don't know. But my opinion is, is someone's doing, at least he's doing something that is like, that you know, I know it's like viral and it is clickbait and it's a, it's almost mis misrepresenting what the industry actually is, but it's to get people
Industry Trends and Knowledge Sharing
00:56:41
Speaker
in. That's the whole point.
00:56:43
Speaker
That's how you get in front of people these days is by being like that, which is unfortunate. Yeah. no at least he's like, yeah, it is click bitty. It is sensationally. It is like, you're not going to do what he does, but it's getting over that like image of a greasy, dark, dank machine shop where it's like, no, there's like really high end equipment. Like it can be incredibly clean. It can be very like high tech. It's not like oil cans and, you know, or old, old lathes or, you know, janky old,
00:57:11
Speaker
Bridgeport. It's a totally different world. Something very interesting. I don't know which episode of Taps and Patients it was. i don't know if it was the latest one that's released now or the one that I've got early access to.
00:57:22
Speaker
um Harrison toured a bunch of shops in his area. and his line yeah it was interesting hearing what he said that uh they're basically you know not that great dingy compared to sort of what yeah dingy and and i we all know the type of machine shop is talking about i've you know i've worked in one personally but i worked in one i know people who work in them yeah so it was interesting i mean him having a five access seems to be um like really uh advanced for his area by the sound of it but
00:57:54
Speaker
it's to i waited till you So you guys know of the glass cannon that is his deuce on.
00:58:02
Speaker
Wait until the next episode. Oh no. He may have killed his third spindle. Oh no. yeah so So you know he replaced the one a while back that exploded. yeah and yeah so yeah it was a lot like When you say third, I thought it was only on number two. Two weeks after that, they replaced that spindle.
00:58:25
Speaker
same thing happened and yeah he broke so this time the spindle deserves to die like he broke half inch rougher and then he didn't have tool break to take because evenve they've never broken that tool he then proceeded to break like six more tools into the job oh no so yeah and it was interesting interesting to listen to like yeah episode 116 is going to be a good episode Man, I'll tell you, though, I've I've crashed.
00:58:53
Speaker
I've done some crashes. I've witnessed some crashes yeah and I've only ever seen one spindle destroyed. And that was the most expensive spindle of all. I told that story on intolerance. But um but that should not be breaking like that.
00:59:07
Speaker
No, I mean, shots you should be able to slam a tool holder into into the side of a part into a vice it's not great yeah yeah but it should so it should be out to cut parts still after that like yeah you might start to see some bad finishes down the road but yeah it should survive more than that yeah no that's uh but yeah i don't know if you guys saw this my stories today i had my machine well actually you wouldn't have seen that the whole way cover system was open
00:59:35
Speaker
yes so yeah It was on the list of shit to do because just annually I want to pull that back and make sure there's not chips building up and stuff. And mushroom looking fungus crap growing from old coolant.
00:59:47
Speaker
um like got literally I literally pulled back the way covers and there's this white shit that looked like mushrooms. So I grabbed the vacuum cleaner, just vacuumed it up and cleaned everything out. But that yeah that old coolant reacted with the whey oil and would make like a white waxy buildup.
01:00:05
Speaker
So I kind of knew I might have to do this, but yeah, i ended up hitting my tool set while I was in there. So 40 minutes of stuffing around with the tool set that are accidentally melted a while ago, but it seems to be working again. and i think on things i still got and i think I'm going to buy a China special on one of those because they're not expensive.
01:00:27
Speaker
but Actually, my imperializer is not going to be right now because the dollar is busy falling through its arse.
01:00:36
Speaker
um yeah it's like $200 for a 5-way toolsetter that's so inexpensive yeah that's including do you need did it need the diameter? for you ah no but I don't know how to calibrate the position without being able to measure the diameter I assume it's just a change in one of the one of the parameters but I currently have a 5-way so I'm just going to put a 5-way in anyway Fair play, because I've got a two-way, just a cheap... Yeah, I had one of those. onto the
01:01:08
Speaker
right yeah I had two of those. They're not exactly waterproof. um No. They would get coolant in after about eight months, and then I replaced it, and then I got given this TS-27R that was broken.
01:01:21
Speaker
um I proceeded to unbreak it, and then it was running for a while, and then I proceeded to melt it. So then I ground out the pogo pin and Jamie fired it. And yeah, it's working. But yeah, just a little bit little bit annoying when you hit it with a cover that you shouldn't have to take off.
01:01:40
Speaker
But there's one. The cover's got notches out of it for three of the four screws.
01:01:49
Speaker
So three three of the four screws are cap screws and one is a button head. And the button it doesn't have a cutout, so I had to take the stupid cover off. It was a little bit little bit infuriating.
01:02:02
Speaker
But yeah, I got the machine cleaned out today and then still trying to figure out why I don't have air through my spindle. Like I can't figure out what's going on there. I can see where the little thingy is contacting.
01:02:15
Speaker
i know there's air coming through there. It's just not going through the actual spindle and I don't want to pull the spindle out. Is that the purge? The bearing purge? or is No, the bearing purge. It's the taper purge.
01:02:28
Speaker
Sorry, that's what I mean. Sorry. Yeah. As far as I can till the air is getting to the coupling, it's just not going through the spindle. Right.
01:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, so I need to still figure out I'll just go about some tins of tool in a can and spray that thing fucked up till it works again. It's like WD-40. Does it move or doesn't it move? Is it supposed to move? Yes, but WD-40.
01:02:53
Speaker
I literally just threw a whole can at it. But it looks like the oiler on the air system. Yeah, there we go. just That's a big boy can. That's right, baby. He's always a different man.
01:03:05
Speaker
It looks like the oiler on the air system isn't working. And the oiler only leads to that that one system. So I think the oil has been dead, well, at least for a year and a bit since I've had the machine, because it still has the same amount of oil as when I got it.
01:03:21
Speaker
So i was messing around with it today. going to have to pull it off and see what the hell's going on.
01:03:27
Speaker
I've recently been working oil lines on the ah ah my big mill. The cable chain had like disintegrated, and it's it's a cable chain with just this oil line that goes from the Y-axis to the X-axis manifold for the way loop, and that had sheared off.
01:03:44
Speaker
Where the chain had disintegrated, the thing had got caught in the axes. I've been running dry for, I don't know how long actually, but. Well, yeah that was one of the reasons for me to pull my way covers back because about a year ago, there was when I got the machine, there was ah an oil line coming out the front.
01:04:00
Speaker
Like it really didn't look OEM. And then that broke and started like leaking oil everywhere. And I think that might be part of the reason that I had such a fungus looking growth inside the machine.
01:04:15
Speaker
So when I replaced that about a year ago with a four millimeter line with the that spring stuff over it. And that's why I was in there as well, just to make sure that's all still good. And it's all still good.
01:04:26
Speaker
Like I don't want my machine failing unnecessarily. but
01:04:34
Speaker
Oh, that's awesome. well Cool. Anything... gentlemen of your awake We haven't heard from Muspigana with you. What have you been up to? have you been up to, Kurt?
01:04:47
Speaker
Me? Oh, just production and fixing shit and yelling at people and yeah, nothing too horribly entertaining. Sounds like a week in a machine shop, yeah. Yeah, no, exactly. It's kind of the kind of the standard jig, yeah.
Technical Problem-Solving and Innovations
01:05:01
Speaker
I got all this no those ah very inexpensive tools coming. they should Actually, i think i keep getting notifications that they're delivered, so thought it'd be nice to mess around with those and see how they compare to the rather spendy ones I've been playing with. Yeah.
01:05:13
Speaker
yeah Is that more heat shrink children? Is it more holders? These are those DC holders. that and And everybody I've talked to, they're kind of like a collet holders, long, long nose. And they have like a little itty bitty collet at the end. And you tighten them from the back. So you kind of disassemble the entire tool. seen those, yes.
01:05:29
Speaker
yeah everyone i've talked to they're like they're insane they're like i've seen like less than a tenth run out on mine so i was like yeah okay sk collets has got a different taper angle on them is that dc yeah ac dc taper but yeah yeah super super shallow taper right yeah so i'm curious i mean they were cheap enough that if they don't work like me and jane were saying to throw drills in them and not worry about it but uh if they do work that'd be slick because i don't need the rigidity for 90 of my stuff so kind of excited to play with those yeah i actually posted uh the guys someone got a er 11 collets on the taps and patience discord and then i got so cute so this morning i went on and posted a picture of er8 next to an er 11.
01:06:12
Speaker
ah your eight takes it yo eleven at The an ER11 at the ring, at the next retaining ring. It takes it there. And it can take up to... Does ER8 go up to one millimeter or something? No, it goes up to one eighth.
01:06:27
Speaker
Wow. Up to one eighth. I got two of them with spindle, ah little 100 watt spindles I bought a while ago.
01:06:37
Speaker
Right, right, yeah. hello Josh, did you see Kurt's post just before we went live on Instagram? I did not. You need to quickly go look at it because we need to discuss the stupidness that is that pneumatic cylinder. Oh, I'll just fill you in. It's nothing nothing special. It's just it really dark. It seems like on the... I think it's it's an intelligent way to do it for for a low cost. The whole thing is you...
01:07:08
Speaker
you know that Yeah, the break for the fourth axis. Yeah, they want they wanted a way, obviously, to sense if the break is turned on or off. um besides just driving the solenoid. Like, you drive the solenoid, you know you turn it on, but you don't you don't have physical back feed of, like, it did indeed turn on.
01:07:24
Speaker
So instead of trying to, like, weasel a sensor in where the actual, like, pneumatic piston brake mechanism is, all they did is they put an inline cylinder outside of the fourth, like, kind of where the stepper motor mounts, or the servo mounts, and it's just a little itty-bitty piston that goes back and forth. There's that piston I can see moving in and out. I was like, I'm on, I'm off.
01:07:42
Speaker
yeah I'm like, what the hell are you here for? And i'm like, and then they put two sensors on it. And I'm like, oh, you're the feedback. So when air is put, it knows that if that piston moves, there's a high likelihood that the internal one did as well. So I'm like, oh, that's a clever way to, I mean, you probably you know shaved off a ton of money um to produce that way, but it's just like clever little, I love that stupid, like dumb little engineering when you're trying to get to a cost. It's just yeah it's a really clever way to do it because you know that there's air on the on the device because it has actuated.
01:08:11
Speaker
But yeah, just a very clever, it's a clever um integration or implementation. Thankfully, it was, is it? And it made replacing the sensor way easier. Like if I would have had to tear into like where the worm drives were and like into the, oh, that would have been a nightmare. But this one is like, oh, it's right here.
01:08:30
Speaker
ah Yeah, I'm very curious to see how your fourth is going to go now. I think it'd be very happy. I think it'd be much happier now that I realized I didn't just... Once I took away all the things that I messed up, I think it'll work better. so All the things you optimized. you've not been able to run the fourth match on the Sol then? I've been able to run it just fine, but i took ah when I was altering my post, I turned off tool center point because for most of my stuff, I don't need to do like TCP kind of work on the fourth. and But by doing that, I also killed all of the synchronization code that it runs.
01:09:02
Speaker
So it was doing fourth axis synchronization, but not smoothly. It was very... very jerky. um And now that i put those back in there, like they should have been, because if someone knew what they were doing with the post, they wouldn't have done this. um And now it's like glass smooth again. So it's oh, okay.
01:09:18
Speaker
So that's a current problem. You have to start getting into inverse time feed rates and stuff like that. So it's normally just trying to feed too fast. Right. Yeah. Exactly. It's balancing inverse time of the rotary with the inches per minute of the other linear axes and then, yeah, doing them all so they're all uniform so you don't get...
01:09:37
Speaker
Jerky motion, which kind of makes sense. But yeah, I had no idea what I was doing wrong until I realized what I was doing wrong, which is cool because it was actually an Instagram person that was messing around with an AI. Like ah they were actually actually using Claude.
01:09:49
Speaker
um They just put my a story in and it took some screen grabs of it. And he messaged me back. He's like, have you tried these things? I'm like, that's actually super helpful. And it ended up leading me down the path. But. We live in a wild world. I love that.
01:10:02
Speaker
I love two parts of that. One is that someone on Instagram helped you because I've had a lot of help through to Instagram DMs that have sort of pointed me in the right direction or literally told me some really specific info that I've been like, there's no way I would have found someone to tell me that. Totally.
01:10:15
Speaker
There's no way. Totally. That's good. I forgot what my second point was. like Yeah. Well, yeah, shout out to HogtownPens. I don't know if he follows this, but you go check out his stuff. But yeah, he's like, he's not familiar with the Siemens control at all. And he's like, dude, he's like i don't know if this helps you or if this is just gobbledygook. And I was like, no, dude, like you don't like that actually helped. And it took, yeah, just.
01:10:38
Speaker
It's a wild world. It's wild world. Sorry, that was my second point. Using ChatGPT to troubleshoot machining is sort of a secret. Well, not secret, but it's like a little hidden power that I've been using lately because it does it can read all the manuals that you're using.
01:10:53
Speaker
it can It just knows every it knows more than me than the subject I'm trying to figure out. So it can find forum posts. It can literally do... and I've been using it to give me... Literally, I'm like, right, give me some instructions on what to do next. And it will...
01:11:05
Speaker
Yeah, it'll break it down. I mean, that was the only way I was able to get um the parameters loaded back into that twin palette horizontal was I said to ChatGPT, find the manual, find any forum posts, and give me instructions on how to set the RS232, and I want step-by-step with a like breakdown. And it gave me it, and I printed it out, and off we went.
01:11:29
Speaker
That's wild. That is so cool. Yeah. I know Zap was saying with the Google's and notebook LM, he pushed whole lot of manuals and then told it generated as a podcast. So he's got this podcast.
01:11:43
Speaker
Have you heard about this G50? And he's like, he's cracking up because it's it's trying to make this technical content sound like a podcast. but But yeah, that's like, Danica put something in there.
01:11:57
Speaker
the other day and it's like, it's an interesting way to take in information because a lot of us listen to a hell of a lot of podcasts and we used to that format. So it's a very interesting way to take take information.
01:12:09
Speaker
And those ones don good us so yeah they don't because they don't look at the internet internet. They look at what you've given them only. So if you give it all the manuals, that's the only context that has, it's not going to go and on yes yeah ill find some random crap on the internet.
01:12:26
Speaker
But yeah, I've got a funny story about my Google speaker for the after show. Cool. yeah I walk into my workshop say, well, I'm not going to say the the command word, but it's ah enable Ironman mode and my lights turn on.
01:12:39
Speaker
And when I leave, I disable Ironman mode and my lights turn off. It's the small things in life that bring you great joy. Yeah. i's ah yeah It didn't confirm it was, yeah, but we'll get into in the after show because it was a little bit...
01:12:53
Speaker
little bit funny and that will be a hook to the after show so what have you guys been googling this week
01:13:04
Speaker
You go ahead, Josh. I'll go. Mine's quick. I've already said mine, basically. I've been Googling and black oxide plating, nickel plating, DLC coating.
01:13:15
Speaker
yeah. All kinds of plating. ah Parkerization. Obviously, cold blue. I've been asking ChatGPT to give me a breakdown of a ah hot caustic, doing a black hot black oxide setup myself.
01:13:33
Speaker
and and that is sort of really it but yeah and i haven't really got any good answers from that one yet still so besides black oxide so what about a ppd or one of those like a tool coating yeah that that yeah that yeah i think that's what the dlc option was was a diamond like coating because you could go t-r-n or one of the one of the tooling coatings as well i just don't know what that yeah exactly that's literally yeah exactly and and um but i just don't know i don't know enough about it to be honest with you and
01:14:05
Speaker
Yeah. go Interesting.
Exploring Podcasting and Production Solutions
01:14:07
Speaker
Kurt, what have you been Googling?
01:14:11
Speaker
I've been Googling stuff that you actually told me to Google. I've been looking at those little Arduino, pl like the industrial hardened PLCs. Yeah, they don't have digital outputs. It's really annoying.
01:14:24
Speaker
Like they have digital relays, but not actual digital outputs that I can drive a stepper with. Gotcha. Yeah, very important. ah They're kind of an interesting applications. I've kind of been reading a little bit into those.
01:14:37
Speaker
And then I was, weirdly enough, looking at ah actually listening to the, with Intolerance Podcast, looking at different podcasting host solutions. because there's some that do on the fly.
01:14:48
Speaker
um Like this one does, obviously, local backups and then an upload. But there's one, I think it's Squadcast. Yeah. And it does, it records locally, but it also does sequential uploading.
01:14:59
Speaker
So you don't have to wait at the end for a big upload. Oh, OK. Yeah. yeah i just that's gonna be interesting to like nobody's upload um oh is it okay yeah i'm watching my my thing and it looks like it is doing sequential upload oh yeah that's true yeah no my cloud just the last little bits that it that it syncs yeah right right right yeah because we now on the fancy zen caster where we can actually maybe get video podcast out
01:15:27
Speaker
So we will see. We'll know tomorrow. You just got to pedal faster for your internet. Oh, yeah.
01:15:33
Speaker
The internet story is a little bit sore. But yeah. How about you? What's in your browser history, Jamie, that you can talk about?
01:15:44
Speaker
Getting there, getting there. Yeah, Rand dollar, watching it fall through its ass. My ISP, because my phone had internet and my internet didn't have internet.
01:15:55
Speaker
um And then, oh, looking up time zones, because reasons. ah Oh, look, Rand dollar again. And then ah looking up competitors, pallet systems, how much their hardware costs per pallet.
01:16:11
Speaker
Oh, and a pH chart because my pH, yeah, very. My pH meter is shot and it's causing me to get incorrect colors in my ano setup.
01:16:21
Speaker
Yeah, which is a little, I think I've now nailed down why my colors are so inconsistent. My pH meter is drunk. If I put it deeper in the water, I get a different reading or in the die, get a different reading to it's at the surface and I've just stirred it. So that shouldn't be the case.
01:16:36
Speaker
Do you can fifty plan to continue to do the anodizing long term? Unfortunately for now, yes. Now that you've outsourced a bit? or So going to, some of the stuff I do, I'm going outsource more of just because consistency.
01:16:52
Speaker
um Also, financially, I'm now at a point where I can afford to make 150 mag bases and send them out for anodize. Whereas when I started doing them, there was no way in hell I was going to be able to afford that.
01:17:07
Speaker
no Danik and i were discussing it today. She was busy packing an order of 16 mag bases. And I'm like, these haven't had a price increase because they used to take me 16 minutes. They take me under six minutes now.
01:17:21
Speaker
We just have a much better machine. We have better processors. So we don't actually need to put the price put the price up. We're probably not going to sell more. or we're not going to sell any because we're going to price ourselves out.
01:17:31
Speaker
So rather we just leave it as it is. We only move about a hundred of them a year, maybe 150 a year. So ah don't try to sell them like that. There's one customer who buys the Glock, uh, Glock CZ and ARs from me.
01:17:47
Speaker
And he just places the order every month or two. And it is, it's extra money. Like I don't go actively try to sell them because I don't like talking to people.
01:17:57
Speaker
that's what a rule of learning
Future Plans and Gratitude
01:17:58
Speaker
machinists yeah exactly yeah yeah no I'm not a fan of selling things to people because yeah you get paid everyone's like oh no I'll take a bunch and then they just never place orders like the last gun shop I went to the guys were super keen gave them a card and I have not heard from them and I'm not going to waste my fuel driving back there but yeah cool cool cool so well yeah yeah Do you have anything you want to plug or say, Master Josh, there before we end up closing this thing Nothing to plug at moment, really. Just soon we'll start plugging the firm biases as these ones get out to their very, very loyal early supporters.
01:18:41
Speaker
And then, um yeah, i just want to say thank you to you guys for doing the podcast because, listen, every week being a loan machine is is just nice. hearing in the ins and outs of other people, especially being Canada, South Africa is, is cool. Um, so yeah, keep it up guys. Really appreciate it. So thank you for inviting me on.
01:18:59
Speaker
Yeah. I appreciate it. and if people, if people want to find you on, uh, Instagram, you're, you're what? Uh, yeah. Firmworks, which is F I R M W O R X underscore L T D on, uh, on Instagram or just, uh, www.firmworks.co.uk.
01:19:15
Speaker
Um, soon to be updated. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. When you have spare time, yeah. exactly So, Kurt, where can people find you?
01:19:26
Speaker
Oh, confoundermachine.com. find all the weirdness and wares. I'm taking the lead on Jamie and should have some t-shirts up in the next couple of weeks. They're all going to be pen related, not so much related to this podcast. We'll still have the the stupid ones that Jamie will have on his store because ah yeah, it's more fun to have them over there. So how how about you, Jamie? Where can people find your wares? You can find us at jspeceng.com.
01:19:50
Speaker
There are still a few anchor points left at the time of recording. These are for batch one. There's also the pre-order for batch two. So if you guys can't get a batch one anchor point, get a spot for batch two that will be still targeting the end the month for the release of batch two.
01:20:08
Speaker
And yeah, a whole bunch this. I think it feels update to the website this afternoon. bit more information on the anchor point page just to make it a bit more clear what it is and what it does because apparently I wasn't clear enough.
01:20:24
Speaker
Sweet. oh Thank you everybody for listening. Please, if you did enjoy the show, consider sharing it with someone else who might enjoy it. ah You can find us on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
01:20:37
Speaker
If you would like to give us a review or a thumbs up or a subscribe, please do. And until next time, have fun in the shop.
01:20:48
Speaker
Take care, Al.