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Eumach Runs Spindle Warm-Up, Machining Rask Lockbar Inserts & Receiving Custom Tombstones for the KERN, Saying goodbye to the Datron NEO and Fanuc RoboDrill, Fixturing Techniques, Capto Tool Holders, Faking Tools in Fusion 360, and More!
285 Plays5 years ago
The guys have been at this CNC machining thing for over a decade now and the amount of development in both shops in the past few months is surprising!
FACING If you thought this was about face mills and decking parts, you're wrong. This is the first time the Johns have been able to video chat (reliably) during podcast recording in over a year all thanks to a sweet 220MB internet connection.
EUMACH ME SO HAPPY! Grimsmo gets into detail about the Eumachs, while one is warming up its spindle, the other has a funky VFD issue and is about to have its spindle removed in order to reach the "tool unclamp" sensor. That being said, they're closer than ever to becoming a productive part of Grimsmo Knives!
Spoiled Rotten When you go from the helm of a KERN to watching an old 2002 Eumach ramping up, things look...slow. Saunders is also spoiled by the lightning fast spindle and intuitive Next Control of the DATRON Neo.
Phase 3 - Implementing & Evaluating Processes
With the entire SMW team working on Phase 3 of rebuilding the shop, all eyes are focused on making processes easier, faster, and mistake proof. That, in turn, means it's time evaluate current machine tools and decide if they fit into the plan. Right now, the DATRON Neo is too much machine for what SMW needs and the FANUC RoboDrill (with its lack of probing and through-spindle coolant) just doesn't fit the shop right now, so it's time to let go and get the right machines!
3D Printed Poka-Yoke Hardware Counter Boxes Based on Ryan Wenner's idea of counting trays, Saunders thought of a way to count mulitple pieces of hardware, minimize human error, and pour them into poly seal bags without spills. Lost Hardware 0; Saunders 1.
Check out Seneca Woodworking YouTube Channel Here!
Click Photo Below to View Post!
NEW TEAM MEMBERS There's so much work to do and that means Grimsmo and Saunders need more hands on deck. Two interns; one from a local robotics team and the other from a machining program have massively increased the manpower since they began a few weeks ago. The third person, who shall remain a mystery for now will be zeroing in on the benchtop/hobby machines and pushing them to their limits! The goal is to add tons of new speeds and feeds data to ProvenCut!
KERN + Window Machining + Adding Additional Material To Serve As Workholding = YES.
Grimsmo was able to window machine the fixture for the Rask lockbar inserts and it's just--beautiful! The guys discuss fixturing, probing, updating tool wear offsets, custom tombstones, capto holders, livetooling, and more!
MariTool may not make HSK 40 holders BUT they do know exactly what to send with your order of toolholders. Something that goes really well with lathes.... BTW, MariTool, when all this Covid stuff gets better, would you be open for a visit? Asking for a friend!
CAPTO Tooling: Is Through-Spindle Coolant A Good Idea? In theory, it sounds logical to buy Capto tools that have this functionality but there's a sticking point you may want to hear before taking the plunge!
Speaking Of Coolant, That Hose Is Lookin' Real Nice! Angelo is overjoyed when "garden hose" sprayers are added to the machines. MORI? No garden hose? #UNSUBSCRIBE. Saunders and Grimsmo share their plans for a central coolant/water delivery system.
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Transcript
Introduction and Weekly Check-in
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning and welcome to the Business of Machining, Episode 184. My name is John Saunders. And my name is John Grimsmo. This is the weekly check-in between two friends who are growing their manufacturing businesses. We've both been doing this for over 12 years and still trying to figure it out every day.
00:00:17
Speaker
Actually, I got a fun story. We're starting some work at our house, which actually been fun to do some of the demolition work. Minimalist art has been a huge part of my personal life. I very much enjoy it. In particular, an artist named Donald Judd and another artist named Saul Luit. Is that what you named your dog, Judd?
00:00:38
Speaker
It is. Oh, nice. Which I almost feel like is borderline disrespectful, but there's so many wonderful memories to me, including in 2006, I was in an art gallery in New York looking at this beautiful
00:00:55
Speaker
sculpture. The artist Judd actually hated the term sculpture, but nevertheless, and the tag on it said, baked enamel on aluminum. And I was like in love with the coloration and how this metal looked and they use what were called cheese head screws and they were all lined up. It was like full Grimm's bow. And I go start googling baked enamel on aluminum, which yield like nothing. And eventually I find out that that's what artists call powder coating.
00:01:25
Speaker
Anyway, I took off this wall sculpture that I machine on my tag, which was a version of a Soluit cube sculpture. A lot of people would look at that and say, yeah, big deal. But what he did was pretty cool. Anyway, the underside of it had engraved in it in August of 2008.
00:01:47
Speaker
So 12 years ago, everything that's where you have to put the data. That is so cool. I think I saw that in your house when I was there last time, right? Yeah, it was on like hallway when you walk in. Yeah, exactly. So that was like a just a little like just put a throwback. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Anyways, you were saying.
00:02:06
Speaker
Well, a lot
Network Issues and Solutions
00:02:07
Speaker
of things going on. I just did a quick speed test on my computer even though I'm still Wi-Fi right now got like 220 megabytes down So we decided to turn the video back on for like a private, you know video conversation We haven't had video in a year. I don't know. I've had internet problems We're like the podcast would just stop recording for whatever reason. So we're like, okay, no video But yeah, it's nice. Nice to see you again. It's a real treat agree. Yeah, you know Right now
00:02:36
Speaker
The UMAC, one of them is doing a spindle warmup. No way. Yeah. And I just this morning transferred a foam cutting code onto the control. Service guys were in the past two weeks, basically. They got it all fixed up. One machine works great. The other one has two problems. But the fact that I have one machine going is just killer.
00:02:56
Speaker
And then I'm sitting there trying to put a file onto it. I've got network cables plugged in. We did our whole network system. So there's actually a hard wire for each machine. I tried that. Didn't work. Couldn't ping the machine. Tried to connect directly with the crossover cable. Still couldn't ping the machine. Ping the other machine. Couldn't get anything to work. So I had my hide and hide expert come in this morning. And he was here for like three minutes. And he's like, oh, inside the control, the network cable is unplugged. Stop.
00:03:25
Speaker
And I'm like, wait, but on both machines? Yeah, on both machines. So the service guys must have used it or unplugged it or something. And it was just hanging there. And I was like, you know, I briefly thought about tracing it back because there's an outside connector. But I just didn't because it's messy in there. The wiring's a mess. And anyway, that's the problem. So now there's a program on my computer called TNC Remo, which is like the hide and hide transfer program. And I can see both machines. I can transfer files onto both.
00:03:53
Speaker
Right after the podcast, we're going to throw the Mighty Bite vacuum palette on
UMAC Machine Setup
00:03:57
Speaker
the U-Mac. We're going to load up four tools. We're going to manually touch off the tools. We're going to manually do a fixture offset and just eyeball it, because there's no probes on the machine. And we will be cutting foam probably by the end of the day. That's awesome. I'm so pumped. That is awesome. Tool changer works, like jogs around. Yeah, it's got 16 tools. It's got a 30,000 RPM spindle, HSK 40.
00:04:22
Speaker
We ramped it up to 30,000 and then we slowed it down except I think it broke a popped a fuse or something because it took like five minutes to spool down from 30,000. Because like when you turn it off, I guess it applies, I don't know if it exactly applies power backwards or whatever to break the spindle to slow it down. Should short out the two leap varieties.
00:04:42
Speaker
It generates a lot of heat. Exactly. But that just slows it down quickly. And I think from 30,000, it was too much force or whatever. So he's like, it's safe at 23,000 for now until we figure out whatever's wrong. But I'm like, sure, 23,000 is awesome. Let's go. Got it. Yeah, there should be an external, effectively large heat. I don't know if a heat sinker, heat dissipator, one of those sort of terms, which shorts the leads together. And then it has to dump that heat somewhere. And you should be able to see that and make sure they didn't unplug that thing too.
00:05:10
Speaker
Right. Actually, that's a great PSA. We have hardwired most of all of our machines and we've moved some around and we've changed our networking cable a few different times. And I have had a few times where there's been an instance where there's been a problem with
00:05:25
Speaker
There's one of those cheapy female to female connectors that they put in the sheet metal punch out that connects the gas six or the RJ45 on the inside to the outside. Then there's a little jumper cable inside. Sometimes for reasons I never really dove into or diagnosed, we getting rid of either that female to female or the short cable. Ethernet cables shouldn't really go bad, especially ones that are protected inside sheet metal, but nevertheless, trace it to the source on the motherboard.
00:05:54
Speaker
What's wrong with the other UMAC? We actually ended up switching VFDs from machine to machine. One of the VFDs just isn't reading right. So the guy's trying to get spec sheets and whatever from the company to get all the parameters and settings and stuff. That's not making sense. So one machine has a weird VFD and a tool unclamped sensor within the spindle. So they're actually removing the spindle because the sensor is deep inside there. That stinks.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah. But otherwise, I mean, like I said last week, I'm in it for like $700 in parts plus whatever their labor cost is. I'm happy. I'm very happy. The concern is though, for us, that labor costs. If I had a machine repair guy here for a week, that would be five to 10 grand. Yeah, I don't think it'll be that much, but I don't know.
00:06:46
Speaker
But yeah, it's still worth it. It's going to be awesome. I'm so pumped. That's great. Oh, man, to cut foam on those will be sweet. And because the higher RPM, I can go faster. Yes, sure. If the machine can move that fast, can keep up. Oh, you think that could be an issue? I don't know. I was watching it run a program and wrap it in stuff, and it's not as fast as the Kern, or maybe even not quite as fast as the Maury. So we'll see. You've been totally spoiled, John. I know.
00:07:15
Speaker
This is a 2002 Taiwanese, uh, you know, three axis VMC, but I don't care. Oh, it is 2002. Okay. Wow. Got it. Yeah. One of the machines, the one that's running now, um, has been running graphite for, I don't know if it's its whole life, but it's, it's black in there.
00:07:33
Speaker
Oh, got it. Got it. Sweet. Yeah, so we are very much into that phase three out of four of our kind of shop overhaul. I got, like I said, kind of, well, for sure sidetracked last week with a pretty cool project opportunity. Worth it, but man, distracting. So now I'm back into
00:07:54
Speaker
Phase three and boy, it's going incredibly well and some really good updates to share. Phase four was supposed to be when we kind of reevaluate machine tools and our workflows and what does what for us.
Decision to Sell Robo Drill
00:08:06
Speaker
And I huddled with Ed and the short of the long is the Robo drill is not the right machine for us anymore.
00:08:12
Speaker
It doesn't have through spindle coolant. It doesn't have probing. The robot is not useful for us right now. I wish it was so much, but the honest answer is it's not, hasn't been, and it's not going to be anytime soon. And for the price now with what Haas is doing, we could replace it with a, something like a DT with through spindle coolant with probing. We are using probing in some creative ways, much like you are. It's not just like coordinate systems and tool offices. I don't care about that.
00:08:41
Speaker
We're just using that a ton for process reliability. We switched the VF2 between jobs in under 10 minutes. I switched the lathe between jobs in five minutes, like complicated jobs. And it's like no stress. We're setting up the Haas visual M130 screens for graphical references. We've got NC comments at the beginning of the program that clarify
00:09:02
Speaker
how you clock a collet or how initial stick out is. We've got our bin set up. So this is a genius point that Ed came up with, which is so many of our parts are OP1 and OP2. When you finish the day's run, or let's say you're done with a batch of parts for a week or two, leave the OP2 in their un-machined state.
00:09:23
Speaker
put them in the blue box that we use as the part setup that has the QC sheet, the information sheet, the metrology tools, anything else. And then in a week from now, when you go to start running that job again, guess what? Your raw material that just came in from the supplier goes in OP1 and your OP2 stock is already there for OP2, which means you don't have to go post the custom version that only runs OP1. Yeah. Love it.
00:09:47
Speaker
It must feel weird if you're not used to it. It must feel weird to leave half-finished work for next time, because you're like, well, you can just finish it now. But it's better. I totally agree with you.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah. So punchline is we've got the Robo drill. We actually decided to sell it through a dealer. So it's like one of those machine reseller websites or whatever. Yep. Yep. So, um, the sort of quid pro quo is that they've got quote unquote exclusive rights for like three months. So, um, we'll see, you know, I'm a little bit, um, bummed that I think the fact that Robo drills, the machines seem to be on sale in 2020. Um, and it's a 2014 has 130 hours. So it's,
00:10:26
Speaker
old, but from a depreciation standpoint, it's going to go for a good price. It's a little bit hard to admit to go through that, but the reality is if I could snap my fingers, I'd much rather have a control that we know with code that's interchangeable. A better suited machine. Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:45
Speaker
But I thought about doing a video, kind of a clickbait video on things I hate about the Haas, which is it's clickbait because I love the platform. But the robo drill and seeing other shop tours makes you realize the quality of the wash down system. And there's a number of other things I will give other machine tool builders a lot of credit for that Haas doesn't do. And that's okay. We're doing okay without it. But anyway, that's the plan.
00:11:12
Speaker
Nice. We're also going to lose our Datron soon, and we need a router or a Datron-esque machine. I'm trying to find one that's 2x2, 3x3, preferably that has a tool changer. It's like the grail.
00:11:33
Speaker
Well, so I didn't really think about the Tormach 24R until I was like, well, actually that does kind of do that. Except it's an ER collet. I'm like, guys, what are you doing? Even if it's not an automatic tool change, you got to have the ability to do tool change.
00:11:51
Speaker
Yeah, like build it around that. Um, yeah, I kind of just learned about that Tormak router and I still don't know too much about it, but, um, I love how Tormak is still innovating. Like they've got their automatic bandsaw thing. They've got the router coming, the MX machines, like good for them. I'm really happy. They allow, they launched a plasma this week. Apparently I just saw the Facebook and blog posts news on it. Um, and I don't know why, but they call it the 1300.
00:12:20
Speaker
And I'm like, how can you- That's just the 1300 was. I'm like, wait, you have a 440, you have a 770 at 1100, which are sequentially larger mills. And then you come out with a 1300 that's a plasma? No. Yeah, I agree. Whatever. Yeah. Must've been some marketing meeting about that. Right, right. So I'm trying to figure out, does anybody else make a quality, and there must be a bajillion companies out there. Talk to Brett Cottle, New Zealand guy.
00:12:47
Speaker
Does his verticals have tool changers? He's working on it. Got it. That's a good idea. OK. Yeah. I'll reach out to him. Yeah, his are $5,000 to $10,000 or something. Yeah, that's OK. Maybe a bit more. But they're really nice. And he's working on a tool changing spindle and some other automated stuff.
00:13:08
Speaker
The guy's, I mean, he's like us. He's in it to be in it. And he loves it. And he wants to provide for the customer. And he listens. And yeah, him and I have been chatting on WhatsApp every now and then. And he's like, what else should we do? And I'm like, tool changer. And he's like, yeah, I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Yeah.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah, but yeah, like I'm, and then now that I have the UMAX, I don't really have the need for something like that. Cause the UMAX mill is now my router basically. Um, but otherwise I would, I would want one. I mean, we have the shape OCO, but it's like, you know, we need something more than that. Exactly. We need something more than that. And the fact that it's a tool changer and you know, a good spindle and, uh, yeah. Yeah.
00:13:49
Speaker
Okay. You're spoiled with the day drone. I'm just saying. Yeah. It's more machine than we need for what we need to use it for. That's an interesting perspective because it's a very expensive machine, but it's amazing. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah. But you're someone like Ed Kramer where you're in your garage and that's your machine. That's your only machine and he's killing it with his and perfect.
00:14:11
Speaker
Great. Somebody sent us a shop job, which we quickly passed on that was a daytron. Perfect. Lots of surfacing, really intricate small parts. They were going to go, it's inserts for dye. It wouldn't have been that hard, and it totally was a daytron. Not insane tolerances, but you need the blending and the repeatability that that machine would afford you. I needed to cut out foam and cardboard and acrylic and some template type stuff.
00:14:38
Speaker
not surfacing on Uber precision right now. Okay, I told you we had a lot to catch up on. You ready for this? You ready for this? Okay, talking with Ryan from Seneca Woodworking the other day, and we both were just jumping off of each other on this idea
00:14:55
Speaker
he mentioned that they use counting trays when they go to fill orders or like sub-assembly, so 10 screws. So it's kind of like the pharmaceutical thing where you like count them into it and then the bottom left corner of the tray is a little chute and you can pour that into a bag.
00:15:10
Speaker
So, okay. So then the brain starts going, our quarter inch mod vice has four screws, four now, I'm making this up, you know, four washers. So 3d print the tray for a screw. The 3d print will have like a quarter of the screws profile into the tray. So it's, it's a Pokeyoke feature because we have different screws of different lengths.
00:15:30
Speaker
So, that gives you a place to put one, two, three, four screws. It gives you a confirmation that they're the correct length. It also keeps the screws motion arrested while you're filling the rest of the tray. For the washers, we will just 3D print a pocket that is the depth of four washers and then like poker chips, you just put the washers in, scoop off the extras. The Lex number can be 3D printed next to each item so you know what goes where.
00:15:56
Speaker
we will 3D print a hinged lid. We don't know whether we're going to push a little piece of wire in for the hinge or whether we can 3D print dimples and recesses to just snap a lid in. What the lid will let you do is shut the lid. You can then hold it like a clamshell, turn it over to drop anything out of the, you know, Pokeyoke features and then also more easily get it into the baggie without anything ever falling out.
00:16:23
Speaker
Only problem is we couldn't 3D print one yesterday because the 3D printer was busy making other cool stuff like that. And that's why people have multiple 3D printers. I literally thought about was like, because we're printing, we're actually just printing extrusion covers for our VF6s, which are, they're a weird size. They don't make perfect. And so they're going great, but we need a bunch of them. So yeah. And that's the funny thing. Like, like we have the Prusa, the MK2 now, I gave away my little, um, mono price printer. So I only have the one printer. It's at home right now.
00:16:54
Speaker
And when you have work for it, when I want to print 100 shallower bins or something, it just goes and goes and goes. And then you're like, but I want to print this one thing right now.
00:17:04
Speaker
It's like you need a backup printer for your backup printer. I need to actually make sure I get into the queue when there's a break on those to print out a test one. Yeah. But how awesome is that? It solves so many problems about counting screws, making sure it's not the wrong length, clarifying what the part number is, got to fill them. It drops them right into the polyseal bag. It's pure pokeyoke. Cheap. That's excellent.
00:17:30
Speaker
The other exciting news is we have three new team members. What? Yeah. Someone in anticipation of school starting with which would affect one of our current employees, potentially all those who knows what's happening at school right now. I said, hey, can you talk to your high school peers or friends or people that you knew or the robotics leader because we could use another intern.
00:17:54
Speaker
And so we had one intern start, and then shortly thereafter, Ed said he could really benefit from having somebody that was a little bit more focused on the machining side as an intern. And so I reached out to the local machine program that we've worked with over the years, numerous times.
Team Expansion
00:18:08
Speaker
And we ended up having two different high school students start almost the same week, and both are working out quite well so far.
00:18:15
Speaker
doing or everything from running the host machines, to sweeping them out, to packing orders, to QC, showing them the micrometer, showing them how live tooling works, showing them how to clean chip bins. It's been a welcomed addition of manpower and it's really forced me to realize where we're great and where we need to do work on
00:18:36
Speaker
that McDonald's strategy of if your average employee duration is 40 days, you've got to get someone, you've got to expend as little skilled labor as possible to get somebody up to speed. So things like those sorting bins, there's no education required. You should see that and almost immediately realize what to do. Yeah, and it's setting up the whole business like that in hundreds of different ways. Yeah. Setup sheets for the machines, tooling bins, carts, everything.
00:19:05
Speaker
It really does make me excited and proud because these are younger kids. It gives them a chance to earn some money, see what an engineering or manufacturing career is like. That's a good thing. Then the third person, I'm not going to name them yet, but we're tentatively working out something where they're going to step in and do a lot of work on Provencut around the hobby machines.
00:19:30
Speaker
Okay. Like the routers and the little- Yes. Okay. I was wondering how that was going. We have a pocket in C. We have an excess tech. We're getting the new Bantam machine. We have work to do and we need to show what these machines are capable of. Provencut is a great platform for that. I need somebody who loves that and who can focus on it. This person came by the shop. It sounds like they're going to work out great. We're starting that process, which I'm very excited about. Fantastic.
00:19:58
Speaker
So, okay, so with those three, what's your number now? What are you guys up to? I don't know. You don't even know. 88. Okay. Maybe, I mean, yeah, the interns are, they're full time until school starts and they'll probably be part time or whatever, however that works out. So yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
Wonderful. Yeah, and the same story here. Well, similar story where we are ready to hire a machinist, another person, bring another person possibly to depending on what what turns up. So I created a listing last night on like on our website. That's live. I'll do an Instagram post today.
00:20:36
Speaker
And we'll start blasting, and we'll do a YouTube video soon. And basically, I keep saying I want to shake the tree and see what comes up. So I've got two roles listed. One is a junior machinist. One is a senior machinist with various skill sets required, depending on who turns up and will hire the best candidate that we like the most. So I'm excited because, like you said, we have work to do. We have so much work to do.
00:21:04
Speaker
It's exciting. Good for you. That's great. Ryan Wenner also had a really good phrase just resonated with me that as an entrepreneur, you need to focus on product, marketing, and systems. I think you and I are probably both pretty good at focusing on the product, like the manufacturing, the CNC side, but the marketing and the systems, I don't mean to criticize you. You do an excellent job with social media and so forth.
00:21:32
Speaker
But the systems part, we have done a lot of in the last month and it's showing how much that can pay in dividends. For sure. Yeah, that's, I get it. Tony Robbins says innovation and marketing are the two core aspects to every growing business. Yeah. Yeah. So what else you been up to? What's going on?
00:21:55
Speaker
I've been playing on the Kern a lot. I made my window machining fixture for my lock bar inserts and turned out amazing.
Machining Innovations and Automation
00:22:04
Speaker
So machining 56 Rockwell stainless that inserts turn out beautiful. I get to cut them from both sides. And as you suggested a couple of months ago, I made a second off clamp that goes onto the window fixture and supports the part completely with two screws on each part. So in each little two by two window, I'm making four inserts.
00:22:25
Speaker
And the second fixture will hold all four inserts separately so that I can fully profile them. So they come off 1 million percent perfect chamfers on both sides. No, no tabs, no nothing. They're done. So I made the first one. It fits in the knife, but the geometry is a little bit off. So I got to tweak a couple angles because when you flick the knife open, the lock is sticking.
00:22:47
Speaker
So I could look under the microscope, and I could see where the wear patterns are. And I can be like, I know what that is. I've been there before. So tweak this angle back like one degree or something, and now I'll make the next one. And then the second insert that I made, the holes are too small. So I don't know if the tool is wearing between the first part and the second part, or if something's wrong. So I spent last night learning how to do a hide and hide probing.
00:23:12
Speaker
where you go in the hole, you probe the hole, and you update the tool wear offset for next time. How big is the hole? It's 100 thou. Oh, your probe tip's that small? Yeah, it's a 39 thou. It's a one millimeter probe tip. Oh my god. That's insane. Yeah. So one of those things, I know it's possible, but to be able to probe and to update the wear, it just took me like an hour to sit down and focus after everybody left. And I was like, I got to learn this. And I figured that out, and it's epic. It's so amazing.
00:23:41
Speaker
That's all. Have you tried it yet? I haven't run the next part yet. No, maybe today or tomorrow. So I'm going to machine it undersized, like a couple of thou undersized, and then tell the probing program that it's undersized. And then I can go back and machine it with the proper wear, and it'll be like dead nuts. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Is the workflow on the window clamp to just pull the pallet out, leave it in the aroa, and then whenever somebody comes by and adds a clamp, and then it gets put back into the system queue?
00:24:08
Speaker
Exactly. So if I had, say, 10 of those fixtures, then ideally the probe will check to see if the clamp is there, and that will tell, or if there's material, and that'll tell the program whether I'm running op one, op two, or it's done. Because there could be a scenario where it grabs the pallet and it's finished already. And ideally the machine can probe it and be like, hey, this is done. I'm just going to put it back. If it comes to that.
00:24:37
Speaker
Are you still using the, what were they like, uh, stud screws on the orange pallets and the Maury to check what the engraving pattern should be? Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's great. It's awesome. It probes like what five holes and it figures out what the Morse code or like SOS equivalent is of the. Exactly. It's like if you want a machine honeycomb pattern, there's a screw in the honeycomb position.
00:25:01
Speaker
So there's one screw in the honeycomb position. So it goes, nothing, nothing, nothing, honeycomb. And then it goes, oh, I'm running honeycomb pattern. So it tricks a little macro variable. And then it gives it number five or whatever. And then as the code's running through, it's got all of the patterns in the code, but it does a bunch of skips and go-to's saying run section number five, which is honeycomb. And then at the end of that, skip to the end and skip all the other ones.
00:25:23
Speaker
And that's been running flawlessly for like two years now. And I'm going to put that on the current too, because that's just, it's the best. So then the operator, as they're loading, they're like, yeah, I want this pattern. Because Ed and I were talking about that with some of our Pokeyoke and quick change thoughts here. And I was like, well, you should be able to do a really small like three by three grid, which gives you nine holes. And nine, I think the math would be nine factorial.
00:25:52
Speaker
which would be nine times eight times seven times six times five times four times three, because all the different combinations of having, you could have all seven screws. Yeah. The fact that is what it is. Cause you could have, you know, you could have six screws in, but in one, two, five, seven, eight, nine or whatever, like all the different combinations of a three by three grid is a huge number of possibilities more than we would ever need.
00:26:11
Speaker
Yeah, if you wanted to put multiples and math it together, which is just math, it's totally possible. Like I'm just doing, is it there or is it not there? It's kind of a one solution. But yeah, you could definitely get complicated with that. I wasn't trying to get complicated. I just wanted to.
00:26:29
Speaker
We may need more options than you have screw holes available. If you did even a four screws, it should be four times three times two, it should be 24. That's 24 different variants. I had thought of that. By just controlling, it says, okay, there's nothing in zero, there's something in one, nothing in two, something in three. That's this permutation. That's really cool.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah, and it would just be math and logic on the back end to figure out what that means. So the math would just say, screw two and four in that equals number value of whatever eight. It's almost like a hex or binary. It's not even that complicated. Just literally, you have a four character array or string, and it's 0101, and that is the code logic. 001 is this macro. 0001 is this one. 0010 is this one.
00:27:24
Speaker
The trick will be, is it more complicated for the operator to load that? You need a little map, basically. You would need a cheat sheet, yeah. Which wouldn't be that hard. Like right now, we just have the one position with the word honeycomb written next to it, the word diamond written next to it. That's very easy. Sure. Actually, on the current, I might try your hexadecimal idea just for fun, or I might just go with smaller screws or something.
00:27:51
Speaker
to pack more in the same space. Yeah. You're right. There's a user error, for sure. Still a killer idea. The other thing we had delivered yesterday was 25 custom-made tombstones for the car that my buddy Matt made for us. He came by and delivered them. And oh, they're so nice. They made out of P20 mold steel. And he bored this whole three-inch hole down the center all the way deep.
00:28:20
Speaker
I just look at that and I go, thank you for doing that because I didn't want to do that. Yes. Also, they're lighter than my little clamshell tombstone type that I made before, and they should be much better. And I'm pulped. Yeah, good. That sounds like that was a great experience. Yeah, exactly. So what's next? Next is locked bar inserts. Let's call them 95% done. I just got to make the next one with the new tweaks in it. And then blades.
00:28:50
Speaker
I got to work on milling and grinding the hard blade. That's really the last big project for the Rask. And then it's just grow. Handles and other parts are perfect. I haven't touched a clip yet, but the clip will be a cakewalk. And then it's just the blades. Don't get cocky. But it is fairly simple. No, no, no. I agree. But it's like that's when you also goof.
00:29:14
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Oh, in fact, that's what led us to this Pokeyoke on the studs was Ed Goofed. He was probing off of coordinates on the bottom of heart and he used a one, two, three block and then forgot to do the one inch offset. It's not like a forbidden thing, but I don't do that anymore because there's just so much risk.
00:29:38
Speaker
I'll go far out of my way to add a similar thing or I'll do something weird. I'll clip a piece of steel. I'll put a five-pound piece of steel in my pocket. Something super weird that forces you from ever forgetting to go into that offset and update it. Why did I mention that? Sometimes you think, okay, I've got all this hard work done now. It's easy and then that's when you...
00:30:02
Speaker
You miss something obvious and silly. Yeah. No, that's true. And we do that too still sometimes. I guess the goal is to minimize that down to almost zero because we're all human at the end of the day, but simple mistakes. Ideally should not repeat themselves, you know, even in, in similar concept. Yeah.
00:30:24
Speaker
Luckily, we had to align the spindle encoder, but the machine was fine. It wasn't a- Which machine was that? The F2. It just pushed the face mill onto the side of the part. It's not like, what do you call a hard crash where it's spindle on metal or anything like that. Not fun to do. Yeah.
00:30:43
Speaker
I had a favor. I was trying to set up a Micro 100 boring bar. I want to try. It occurred to me that on a part we make on the lathe, I have a live tool end mill that does outside work, and I've been using it to do the inside, but the hole's already drilled. I'm like, I'm going to get a better finish if I use a boring bar than interpolated end mill.
00:31:02
Speaker
Do you have any fusion tool libraries of small solid carbide boring bars that I can just piggyback off of? Yeah, I could probably send you one. I don't use the boring bars. I use the ID threading tools. Oh, that's totally what I should do. That's easier then. Yeah, and I was talking with my buddy Brad Southern about drawing that up in fusion.
00:31:23
Speaker
And fusion doesn't always cooperate when you're making a weird small lathe tool. You just have to fake it. Right. You have to like take a CCMT insert and just make it as tiny as it'll let you. Right. And then angle it the right way and it doesn't look right but it does the right job. Like, yeah, you know, it's because it's not as.
00:31:39
Speaker
It's going in like a point four inch hole and the first I pulled up the boring bar and it's again It's like a half inch insert on a huge bar and I was just like this is like 945 and I thought I'll just ask him so if he's got a But if I'd be threading tool will be fine because I can fake the lead angle just fine and it's an open It's not a tight. There's no tight clearances. So right won't matter Yeah, so just know know what you're cheating know what your distances are versus what it thinks they are and then I
00:32:07
Speaker
Yeah, get that figured out. In the dumb question, you just use the toolsetter on the knock to set the XY of that tool or the XZ. Because the micro 100 site, which I've really never spent any time on, has a center line offset value. But I don't know that I would need that unless you had the sheet. No, it's a boring tool.
00:32:29
Speaker
Why would you need that? Oh, I know the center line offset from like for the boring edge to the center line. I assume if you knew the center line of your tool. It's helpful. It's helpful when you have a very small hole that you're fitting an insert into barely. Got it. So you could be attracted. It doesn't crash the tool. Right. Okay. That's what happens. You need to do stuff like that. Okay.
00:32:53
Speaker
Yeah, I don't care about that. I was thinking, yeah. Okay. That makes sense. It's like when we're doing our ID threading, the threading tool is almost kissing the backside of the wall just to clear itself out of the hole. And yeah, you really got to be on your game for that one. Yeah, I've never rubbed on the backside of a boring bar in a lathe part before. Never. Never? No, never.
00:33:14
Speaker
I have video now, I can see your face. Yeah. Mari Tuos has sent us one of their little lighters. We've been buying a lot of holders because it's just like buy three a week and it helps build out the S tools. They kindly threw in one of their new lighters. I was like, this is perfect for the lathe. I haven't seen them. I haven't seen their lighters. It's like a Zippo.
00:33:39
Speaker
That's awesome. They love their lathes too. Yeah, they do love their lathes. I actually was hoping when COVID comes down to ask if they'd be up for another factory tour because I think they took a whole other bay and have added some new machines. Yeah, I wish they made HSK40 holders because I just bought 10 Technics holders for the UMOC, which are great, but I would have rather supported Maritool if they made them. So I checked their website twice and I was like, oh, they don't make them. Yeah.
00:34:09
Speaker
I don't know if they'll get into that or not. I don't know if it's harder or I'm sure they could do it, but. Yeah, because I thought, gosh, I want to say in that video tour, we did with them a couple of years ago, we were talking about cap toe, but I don't. I'm pretty sure you have to grind cap toe because it's not a trilobed shape thing. It's not. Yeah.
00:34:34
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. Speaking of Capito, we did have the Sandvik guy come in late last week and kind of suss out Capito and price it out. The static holders are not ridiculously expensive. They're within region. The live tool holders are like $5,000 or $7,000 for each block for a live tool, which is up there.
00:34:58
Speaker
Well, but they, look, I can't speak for Sandvik, but usually if you can give them a serial number of a machine that you've purchased within the last year, they'll let you have a discount and the discount usually is not, it doesn't seem like they audit that the tool you're buying is for that machine. We did talk about that in various ways.
00:35:21
Speaker
So that could be an option for sure. I bought a Kern, bro. Let's go. I need some capital for that. Yeah, I actually haven't mentally looked at the price sheet with that in mind, which changes a lot. Yeah.
00:35:39
Speaker
Interesting. But even just for some of the static holders, for the drills or the boring bars or things like that, Angelo and I were talking, it could take setup from a while to minutes. And that could be very much worth it. Yeah, so we'll probably end up getting some of that stuff soon.
00:35:58
Speaker
Yeah. There's a, there's a little learning curve to the language of the terminology. And, um, Laura, do you know what C you guys have on yours? It's C three. Oh, yeah. That's what he told us to get to. It's like the smaller one. I think they run small. They are, they have steep smaller ones as well, but, um, yeah, yeah, it's been great. I mean, I just, um, buy once it's a, it is a truly a buy once cry once. Like I wouldn't undo it. Um, the, the only thing that I didn't like.
00:36:27
Speaker
is actually on the live tools, both the radial and the axial, you have to decide when you buy that, whether you're getting it with through spindle coolant or without. And if you get the one that has through spindle coolant capable, you always have to use through spindle coolant because that's the cooling mechanism for it. And that's BS. For live or for static holders? Only for live. Okay, I get it though.
00:36:56
Speaker
But I don't, I don't like that. Like I want to, I want to have it support through spindle coolant, but I don't always want to have to use their spindle coolant. Interesting. You got some live tools for it. So we went, I have to look, I'm pretty sure I went, Oh, we have, we for sure have capital live. That was, that's like the most important part. Um, and I'm pretty sure I went without the through spindle because, um, you can still.
00:37:24
Speaker
Don't quote me. The external coolant isn't. I mean, it just depends on what you're doing it for is the answer. If you've got lots of, if you know you need to set up for a drill, you got to, or something where you need it, then go ahead and do it. Cool. Oh, that's what it is. Most of the live tooling stuff that we're doing is not, it wouldn't be drilling because things like drilling where you need the through spindle coolant for the ID reasons, that could be static and then you're fine. So that's what I do. I went without it because we're not using a lot of live tool type.
00:37:55
Speaker
And I think it was quite a bit more expensive for the through coolant live tool version. I don't. Yeah, maybe it's not hugely different. I mean, we only bought the cap toe holders, but they only were bought through the machining discount. I've never, I bought a budget cap to a sense in for little stuff, but not like the blocks itself was like under $200. I think that's fine, but cool. Yeah. Sweet.
00:38:26
Speaker
Very cool. Our central coolant system is done on two machines.
Central Coolant System Installation
00:38:32
Speaker
Awesome. And then they're finishing up to the current right now. So real quick. Who's today? Angelo and Steven. Got it. They have been my guys, not me. Perfect. Here's the direction, guys. Then they come back a couple days later, it's done. And I'm like, show me. That's awesome. So cool.
00:38:50
Speaker
So we've got RO water in a big IBC tank with a Grundfos pump that holds the pressure to coolant guns at each machine that give premix to each machine. So Angela is just like a pig in heaven washing down the machines now because we've never had a cooling gun on these machines. Yeah, that's ridiculous.
00:39:07
Speaker
I know. They should all come with that. Even just after two days of washing them down, he's like, they are so much cleaner. They smell better. They look better. Everything's better. Yes, we should have done this years ago. Your Maury Dura Vertical doesn't have a garden hose on it? Unsubscribe. I know. So your pumping premix
00:39:29
Speaker
from a physically static location, you're pumping it pre-mixed to each machine. Yep. Okay. We're not storing the pre-mix except for whatever's in the line. It goes through the mixture on and then straight to the guns. Okay. Yeah. I am excited about our system, which is different. Which is like push a button and you get five minutes of water flow or something, right? Yeah. That's not...
00:39:57
Speaker
That's not, I don't think that's what necessarily makes it a differentiated. I mean, it is different, but, um, we are, we have a different mentality, which is most oftentimes I only care about water and quality chem seems to handle getting water mixed in straight water. Okay. Without it needing to be super agitated. Um, so our plan is same thing where we have an IBC tote and the pump at one physically the location so that we're the same there. And then we have a control panel that will pump.
00:40:27
Speaker
water to any of our machines based on that little control panel diagram that'll let us tell how much and where. What's cool though is we'll then have our collicam on a barrel roller, which is super easy. A full 55 gallon barrel is still easy to roll around. The mixatron will be on that with QD couplers. So the machine, the control panel always pumps water, period.
00:40:52
Speaker
But there'll be two ball valves and quick disconnects. And if you want to run mix instead of straight water, all you do is roll the quality cam over to whatever machine you need to plug in the two hoses, adjust the Venturi premix to whatever you want. And that lets us not store premix in the lines. It lets us use different coolant for different machines. And it just, to me, is, I think it's, well, we haven't set it up yet, but I'm excited about it. Cool. That's excellent.
00:41:22
Speaker
Yeah, the next version for us might be, I mean, we have the same coolant in every machine, but everyone's going to need different levels of premix. I think I mentioned it before. The expensive all-out version is putting a mixture on each machine with a five-gallon bucket under each machine. You can have different coolants for each machine if you want, and you're just pumping water throughout the shop. And we can upgrade to that from here. We've set up the systems in place to move to that if we want to.
00:41:50
Speaker
Well, it was just a thing that to be binary, you could add a second mix of trying to the most commonly top off machine. Only if you have water going everywhere. Oh, right. That's true. But like, we should add a ball valve adjuster so that you can either run pre mix or straight water.
00:42:10
Speaker
Yeah, you can do that. That's easy for sure. But now that we've run the PEX lines through the shop to each machine, all the infrastructure is there. The RO is there. The tank is there. The pump is there. All the hard work's done. There's float levels in the IBC tank, so it auto fills with all the water. Yeah, I'm pumped. Awesome.
00:42:29
Speaker
to battle. Yeah, this could be good. Ours is sitting on the back of the shop. We had some high school college students help design it for us. It's like an engineering project. I have absolutely told them I'm not focusing on it right now because of the discipline of, okay, this is where we are in our phasing. My next step, I just bought two new
00:42:48
Speaker
What are they called? Sky hooks, that cart. Our VF six is now we'll have dedicated sky hooks at each machine that are little mini, mini jib cranes. That's going to be a huge improvement. I bought a stacker that's going to help us with our pallet racking. And then the next stage, which we'll probably start tomorrow is, um, taking figuratively, taking everything off our pallet racking. And can we just kind of threw it all up there to get it off the floor? And it's honestly not bad now, but now going to.
00:43:22
Speaker
I need more pallet racking. I've been paralyzed by being concerned that I buy too much. And I'm kind of realizing just buy what we think we need, err on the side of getting too much, and you can sell it for a very small loss if you end up truly having too much. Like, just get over it. Just get on with it. Well, good to see you again on video, dude. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. And when the governments start behaving, we can actually finally visit each other. That'll be fun, too. Exactly. Yeah. I got to come sticker bond this current again. Oh, yes.
00:43:41
Speaker
Hey, where are we keeping the raw material? Where are we keeping finished goods?
00:43:52
Speaker
Yeah, you haven't seen the new shop. You haven't been up here in a while. I know. Yeah, that's good. Good. All right. Take care. All right, next week. Take care. Bye.