Transcript
jamie peacock: Welcome to the Loan Machinist podcast, it's just you, the work and the machine. Well, and today it's Ben. We've got special guest Ben for an emergency guest episode. ah Yeah, how's it been? How are you this fun day?
Ben: good i i just found out and i'm an emergency guest episode so i'm not sure if i'm supposed to be honored or if i'm like second string but yeah yeah let's do this thing
jamie peacock: Yes.
jamie peacock: Not honored.
Ben: perfect
jamie peacock: ah Normally, it's every 10 episodes. Anyway, we'll we'll come back to covering that shortly. Kurtz, how are you this fun day?
Curt: I'm doing fantastic. Yeah, I said I'm jazzed to talk with Ben. I've been following his journey for a long time.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: So yeah, excited for that. And we'll probably save all of our fun topics for, are we going to speed run them or save them for next time?
jamie peacock: Likewise. I think they're pretty much going to work into the conversation today.
Curt: Probably. Yeah. So anyways, how's your lovely morning coming?
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Very early morning.
jamie peacock: Yeah, it's as ungodly early. I was up at 3 this morning because that's when we could schedule this in. So, yeah, went to bed early last night. I woke up early this morning and ready to do a fun podcast with Ben.
jamie peacock: So yeah, with ah with the recent developments, we were like, Nope, we need to get Ben on so we can have a chat to him.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Because there has been a bunch of ruckus in the community. But anyway, that is about all we're going to cover on that. um So yeah, Ben, um what can you tell us?
Ben: Oh man, that's super broad. I feel like I don't want to get led into anything. tell Tell you about ah just what's going on and in the world of ah black box machining and all.
jamie peacock: Yeah. What's, yeah. What's going on in the world. Yeah.
Curt: Totally, yeah. What's going on in your world?
Ben: Well, um I actually have a little bit more time for Black Fox machining stuff, believe it or not. I've always had this excuse, man, guys, like, I can't do drops. i I got this day job. And of course, I've got three young kids. My my oldest just turned six.
Ben: So I've got just for a little backstory, I've got a six year old and almost four year old daughter. She's super sassy, just like your mom, very strong willed and a two year old.
Ben: So It is a wild, a wild time here at the Engel household. But I'm always like, oh, man, I can't get drops out or anything like that.
Curt: Mm-hmm.
Ben: And usually it'd be like every six to eight months. um But I just recently, maybe most people have heard, I was laid off work at Toolpath and yeah, I mean, it's definitely given me a ah lot more time to reflect, but also more time to make chips. And I've been really enjoying that. So actually had a drop today. So of course, this is going to come out like, you know, a couple of days later, or a week or something, but ah definitely go check the the website to see if there's any more knives available.
Ben: which link in bio in Instagram, I don't even know my own URL.
jamie peacock: Yeah, there'll be there'll be a link in the show notes.
Ben: Yeah. yeah i
jamie peacock: Yeah, make sure there's one there. I was on your site when you took the drop having a look and I'm like, I don't want to ship with USPS. I might need to speak to you closer to IMTS time.
Ben: Oh yeah, yeah.
jamie peacock: Yes, I'm going to be that side of the world.
jamie peacock: It's going to be it's going to be fun, although now I'm not going to get free lunch.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: But anyway, um Yeah, I'm planning on doing a zigzag from New York up to Chicago. Like the week before IMTS.
Ben: Are going to be in Ohio?
jamie peacock: Most definitely.
Ben: Nice. Well, my shop open.
jamie peacock: Yes, we will.
Ben: You should come come hang out.
jamie peacock: We will chat. Yeah.
Ben: yeah
jamie peacock: Yeah, so we... We are planning to fly into New York, spend a day or two there. Then I'm not sure if Danica's going to Yellowstone with her mom or if going to catch a train up through the mountains or some shit and then make our way through Ohio, Indiana, and then to IMDS.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: It's going to be, yeah, going be lots of fun.
Curt: That'd be fun.
jamie peacock: Yeah. No, it's going to be a draw.
Curt: May as well make it worth your flight.
Ben: And
Curt: Yeah, it's a hell of a fly. Yeah, sorry guys.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Maybe day trip.
jamie peacock: And I'm going to have my emotional support, Kurt, with me, so winning. Yeah.
Curt: We'll see. Probably but we'll see. we'll see maybe
jamie peacock: Cardboard cutout, Kurt, is what going to be.
Curt: yeah maybe ah maybe a day trip we'll see maybe probably not but we'll see ah
jamie peacock: Yeah, I was actually just chatting to Kyle from Cursed Machine. He was asking if I'm going to be in Chicago the weekend before IMTS. He's trying to get his wife to come with him to IMTS. So, no, but there's a lot to do in Chicago.
Curt: Oh, nice.
jamie peacock: Like, last year last time we went in the weekend before, and went we went to some – we went and explored Chicago for Saturday and Sunday, and then Monday through Friday, IMTS.
Ben: Nice.
jamie peacock: and Chicago it's pretty bad that's still a few months away and not ah the highest priority at the moment dude
Curt: I'm looking. I'm just, oh, it did go. So yeah, I just, I, sorry, this whole time that I've not been looking at the screen, I've just been secretly trying to navigate my way to your website. Black-Fox-Machining. I was, yeah, I couldn't Google it. I found it now. um Yeah, that's skeletonized brass when I was looking at that and i was was like, that's so sick.
Ben: Yeah.
Curt: It's so, they're all well done, but yeah the skeletonized ones get me.
Ben: Oh, thank you.
jamie peacock: Yes.
Curt: They're so pretty.
Ben: That one got snagged by EJ, our good friend.
jamie peacock: Yes, I was about to say, ej yeah, EJ sent me a message um to tell you I'm just really send it on.
Curt: Oh, perfect.
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: He says not discord. Yeah, he said he snagged that one. I was looking at the the blue on the cobalt blue in the black g10. And I was like, Hmm, yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: and the
Ben: Yeah, they're fun. i The thing about drops, and it's like probably not the most economical thing, but I want this to be, it is very much a hobby, right?
Ben: um
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: But I want it to be fun and I want to experiment.
Curt: Sure.
Ben: And I think you guys you guys get that when you're like creating a product and you're just like, I don't want to make like, 200 of the exact same thing and so that's what's been really fun with the knives is like oh i'm gonna try you know this unique pattern with this different offset and um i like this batch i think i had like the most consistent uh knives that i've done yet so but they'll probably all change like next batch or something
Ben: But I did a lot of stuff with like new colors in G10, which was really fun. um Yeah, um I'm pretty proud of them.
jamie peacock: Yeah, EJ EJ says he's super pumped for that knife and it's never leaving his workshop because if it does, it'll go missing.
Curt: Yeah, no, they look awesome. They
Curt: ah
Ben: Hey, you can just stick it to your machine so you never lose it, right?
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: Because it's got two really strong N52 neodymium magnets in there. And so i've I've actually got, usually I've, I mean, I've got this titanium one stuck to my workbench.
Ben: Well, this one doesn't have a blade in it, but yeah, this one's, this a I don't know if I'm going machine titanium anytime soon.
jamie peacock: Nice.
Ben: I'm not like Kurt in, You know, it's it's not very fun for me. I don't know how you do it, Kurt.
Curt: I think you just get used to it. I think like you totally get used to it too.
Ben: Yeah.
Curt: But I mean, if you're going to compare it with like, uh, like G10 or brass, yeah, it's heinous, but yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: I
Ben: yeah
jamie peacock: actually saw Tom Ascus at my knife supplier the other day.
Curt: Ooh, fun.
jamie peacock: Yes, it was only like $400 for a piece this big.
Curt: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
jamie peacock: i was like, I kind of want it. But yeah, I restrained myself. Because so it's expensive currently.
Curt: Yeah. There's cool stuff out there. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Anyway.
jamie peacock: but I make all sorts of odds and ends for the knife, guys. But yeah, it's a glad see you did a drop. assume it's gone well.
Ben: Yeah, yeah, there's right now, I think there's a couple that are are still left right now.
Curt: Yeah, it looks like it's awesome.
jamie peacock: because it's a wicked little math. And yeah.
Ben: um
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: But they so they seem to go within usually a couple of days, which is always... uh yeah makes makes me feel really good and i i have a feeling it's just because of the demand is so high because it's like the last time i did your drop was in january right almost six months ago or something so um people just wait a really long time and i have a a suspicion that people wait almost too long and then they're like all right screw this guy like i'm never gonna get a knife uh but yeah that's just kind of my m at all
Curt: Sure. Hmm.
Ben: just as as many as I can get out.
jamie peacock: Yeah, the one that Curtis
Ben: um This is not a commercial for JSpec and you know the anchor point and all that, but i Jamie was so kind and I just posted this to my story, some people have heard, but he's gifted me actually several anchor points.
Ben: One that was like the R&D one that I had been using for a while.
jamie peacock: one that cur has got
Ben: Oh my goodness. So like at the tool pass shop, we had ah HWR zero points and those things are just crazy expensive, but I got so spoiled with having zero point work holding that i would get out to my machine and and I'm like, I'm just not inspired.
Curt: Thank you.
Ben: i don't want to make anything cause I have to like set stuff up and do all this. And so the the anchor point has been like a blast to use because i actually created these fixtures that I get, i think it was like two knife parts off of each cycle, um which is obviously how you want to do it, up one and up two.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: And it's just so enjoyable.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yeah. no worries.
Ben: And I've got G10 set up, so it always remembers, like, I don't have to, like, if I fat finger something on the control, um My G10 line always grabs like the appropriate coordinates for like G58 or G59 or something.
Ben: And it's just it's such a joy. And I'm like, this is, this makes me want to make more stuff. So thank you for that. That was, it's a blast.
Curt: you
jamie peacock: ah norris Yeah, no, they're lovely. I've got six of them on my machine. I love it.
Ben: All right. You have to brag. Oh my goodness.
jamie peacock: Yeah, I've got them. The mechanicals are also freaking wicked. The amount of holding force you get on them. Like I was running that spindle gripping stuff this week and my pneumatic vase goes on the mechanical and my tray goes on the four pneumatics. That way I can swap it out super quickly to quickly get it up and running and then go back to running stuff in the morning.
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Like that is the that is the intended use case there.
Ben: Well, right before this, so it's it's like 10 p, no, it's like 10.30 my time, roughly.
jamie peacock: Oh, duh.
Curt: so
Ben: And so I had a little bit of time out in the shop before this. And i actually machined, it's just a block with holes, but it's got some really... accurate locations for two anchor points and then also the, uh, uh, the pulse studs right middle.
Ben: And of course this is a podcast, so it's useless to show, but I'll show you guys check it out.
jamie peacock: Nice.
Curt: Mm-hmm.
Ben: I've got a green.
jamie peacock: Yeah, got the linking plate.
Ben: Yeah, it's awesome. And so this was actually, uh, this was your idea, Jamie, which I appreciate. I showed you a design and you're like, yeah, that's not going work. Nice try. Um, so It's set a little bit nicer.
Ben: But yeah, those are now kind of set in one single spot and then I can just bolt them down and indicate them in and yeah, we should be should be all set, which I'm really excited about.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Now, I've actually got to pull my one off of the machine. So I've got a linking plate like that, and then I've got one that does four. Well, one anchor point is being a bit dumb, so I need to pull it off today or tomorrow and just see what's going on. it doesn't always unclamp.
jamie peacock: It's really frustrating. And then you cycle the air like 20 times, and then it'll unclamp sometimes, or it'll stay clamped for a whole day and then randomly unclamp in the afternoon when you try and unclamp it.
Ben: Gotcha.
jamie peacock: And it's been getting worse and worse.
Curt: Hmm.
jamie peacock: I think I might have just had a shaving in the airline at some point that's gotten into the seal. And I'm going open and see. I'm kind of curious what's causing the issue.
Ben: Does it still have that internal O-ring? Because I remember having to take mine off because it wasn't like... Okay.
jamie peacock: no that is no longer in there.
Ben: Okay.
jamie peacock: I'm trying to remember. so So the batch ones have provision for the O-ring. Batch two does not. Batch... The four point version 4.1 doesn't but 4.2 does because I'm working towards a version five, which you can put a in the top and hold down with more force.
Curt: Cool.
Ben: Oh, okay.
Curt: Alan?
jamie peacock: Yes, so that's in the works, but not at the top of the priority list. But yeah, you'll be able to then clamp down with like 300 kilos of force instead of 150. it'll fail
Ben: I've had no issue mine.
jamie peacock: so it'll fail to I've had issues with mine when I do dumb things. So the the flux vices that I got from Ken, the flex devices, if I drill out on one of the corners, I see a bit of rocking with a blunt drill bit because I haven't changed the drill bit in forever.
Ben: Oh, okay.
jamie peacock: So you just s slow your feet down and it works. Like, oh, you put a new drill bit in, which I have like five of, I just, in my mind, changing a drill bit is difficult.
Curt: Or you buy a sharp drill.
Curt: but ah
Ben: My biggest tool is like a quarter inch end mill.
Curt: obvious
Ben: And that's like what I rough with and stuff.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: and
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: um I mean, you guys saw the crazy stack up with my flush eyes and then a palette and then Jamie's old style.
Ben: What was that? Version one, the anchor point version, version three.
jamie peacock: That was version three.
Ben: Okay.
jamie peacock: That was version three, yeah.
Ben: It's, It's pretty tall, but then I also had to make like a Saunders compatible plate for it. So the stack up was like 12 inches from the actual.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: This wild.
Ben: I got a lot of, there's some things that you just shouldn't post on Instagram.
jamie peacock: a
Ben: You know, like we always want to be transparent, but like something like that, I got a lot of people saying like, dude, what are you doing?
jamie peacock: Engagement is engagement. um
Curt: Exactly.
jamie peacock: Yeah, that the V1 didn't even make it into the machine. I built the V1 and I'd used machine machine down dial pins to make the diamond pin. And then I realized I could buy locating pins.
jamie peacock: So V1 didn't make it into the machine. V2 was in the machine for nearly a year before I made the V3s. And then skipped V3. I built one for myself, sent your guys ones out. And then when I was assembling your guys ones, I was like, no, this is dumb.
jamie peacock: And I went to the V4 square body. so that I didn't have to do the the assembly of the base to the to the top and try and indicate that in.
Ben: Yeah, that was terrifying.
jamie peacock: And that's why I went to a three-way one.
Curt: Right, right.
Ben: i had a I had to pull it apart and those dye springs were fighting me.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: ah Yeah.
jamie peacock: Oh, yeah. No, I use a one-time arbor press to assemble it.
Ben: Thanks.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: think yeah aye Thank you so much for saving my life. I went to take the top plate off because I was like, why isn't this actuating? I'm like, oh I'll just take it off.
Ben: And you're like, no no no no, no, no, no. Don't do that. Put that in a vice. Because every time I like loosened up one screw, like another one got tight.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: And it was those dive springs that were about boom, pop.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yeah, I need to probably a go over the bottom, do not open. But the yeah, that I mean, I love my little anchor points.
Ben: They're great.
jamie peacock: ah The mechanicals have changed a bit now, like I run on the fourth axis. I'm actually busy with waiting for material for trunnions. That'll go onto the anchor point, and then i can put a dovetail vassal, and then I can flip sideways and get access.
jamie peacock: So I'm just gonna make little billets, trunnion pallets.
Ben: Oh.
jamie peacock: So yeah, I've got a couple little copper jobs that I do that that would be useful for.
Ben: Love that.
Curt: So now that you have some extra time, are you are you leaning more into like Black Fox or whatever else you want to elaborate?
Ben: applying for jobs.
Curt: Alive your jobs. OK, I don't know if you're going to like just be like, oh, this I'll push this a little bit harder and apply for jobs or I mean, of course, while you're waiting, but.
Ben: I definitely thought about it. And that was something that I was trying to kind of reassure my wife because the layoff was very sudden. um And so it's just like, okay, you know what are we going to do?
Curt: Sure.
Ben: Financially, you know we're we're okay, but it's not fun to not have a paycheck. And I was like, well, I've got this this machine and I can like make money on it and stuff.
Curt: oh No doubt.
Ben: And so she actually encouraged me to get the knives to a state where it was like ready to you know have a drop. and it definitely lit more of a fire underneath me. And it was fun. It was fun. Like, um you know, after kind of some of the the sting had settled out and I was like, all right, let's go back to the grind. And I went out to the shop and just started making knives. I'm like, wow, this is this a good time.
Ben: ah But in that time, while the machine was running, I was also, you know, applying for jobs and I've had some cool um potential you know people reach out to me with some potential things. So, um yeah, we'll we'll we'll see where it goes. But I think a full time job is is probably in order.
Ben: just because, you know, taking care of my family is first and foremost, the most important thing. um
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: But I did even think about reaching out to AJ and get on like some subtract of deals and stuff.
Curt: Mm. Suck.
Ben: And I actually had. It might have been I forget who it was, but they reached out to me um and they're like, hey, I've got a job and I'd be happy to send it over to you if you want to make a couple extra bucks or something.
Ben: Um, so the, the instant machinist community, man, it is so strong. I'm so thankful for it. And, uh, anytime I get a DM, as long as Instagram does show it to me, I'm happy to reply, man. Like, cause yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Curt: That's awesome. I'm like, I'm i'm glad that's all like tight knit and like gets you on, like gets you moving forward to, you know, wherever next road in life takes you.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yeah.
Curt: But i I think it's a wise decision to like apply for something, get your financials comfortable. And then if you want to pursue this, you can with a lot more comfort as opposed to being like, I have to do this or my family starves.
Curt: And like, that's sometimes not the best way to like move forward.
Ben: Yes.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah. And it's such a grind. I'm, I'm like so impressed with, uh, when I was working at tool path, I, I talked to hundreds of shops, um, and small shops, like guys that were full-time day job and they had a BF two or style like seven or a mini meal in the garage.
Ben: And they're like, man, then I want to go full-time so bad, but I just, you know, for this, this and this, and, uh, it's, um,
Curt: Yeah.
Ben: It's a grind and it's definitely, I mean, as you guys know, it's it's probably tough to take that initial plunge, but um when you're ready for it and you know that you're ready for it, it's it's rewarding.
Ben: But I i was like, yeah I don't know if I can support myself on just knives. So we'll see, you but um with the fixtures that I have, I plan to continue to make more.
Curt: yeah or
Ben: That's, yeah, that's where we're at, so.
jamie peacock: Yeah, it makes sense to go.
Curt: No.
jamie peacock: Yeah, you've got three small kids. It makes sense to ah go get a job and be stable while at least while they are going through the expensive part of life.
Ben: Yeah, turns out startups are not stable, but i
jamie peacock: Yeah, well.
Ben: they're fun. So I'm still looking at startups and and some really fun opportunities where I just, I love this small, like tight knit mindset where it's like, everybody's in this together.
jamie peacock: Yes.
Ben: If you pull a lever, you literally see that like change happen in a day, not in like, six months to a year or never in a bigger corporate company.
Ben: and That's really what gets me excited.
jamie peacock: That is, yeah.
Ben: So, yeah. um
jamie peacock: That's something my wife's really battling with right now. She's been working with me for the last two years or three years or whatever it is. And now she's gone back to a corporate job and the bureaucracy is killing her. It's like, oh, there's a problem. Make decision, fix it. Now it's make decision.
jamie peacock: Speak to this person. Let them ponder on it before they go to their boss. And it's driving her freaking insane because she's used to just move past and break ship.
Ben: Yeah. I'm surprised she worked that long with you, man.
Curt: Yeah.
Ben: That's that's a testament testament to her.
jamie peacock: Well, she might be coming back full time in July to come back on full time with me because we are now moving into a shop.
Curt: yeah
jamie peacock: So we've now got our first actual employee. my little bitch call. Hello, Carl. Also, I found your Easter egg, but I'm not going to tell you you're gonna have to hear in the podcast.
jamie peacock: um He was here this week to machine something on the slow. He turned on, ah i need to go to a meeting or go do something.
Ben: Thank you.
jamie peacock: So I reversed out the driveway, pulled down the road and the slow wouldn't home says well, shit, I'm gonna sweep. So he swept my workshop and found that weird black thing underneath it. um And then I got I got back and he had cleaned. So I got the machine to home just unplugged and plugged in the drive.
jamie peacock: And he's like, No, i left the Easter egg for you. I'm like, Oh, fuck. So eventually I found the Easter egg. But it's my don't touch my shit sign. And then he rose from there. Sorry, you too late and stuck it on the wall.
Ben: um much How much love is your slow-yo getting these days?
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: But yeah, he's Yeah.
Ben: Because I remember the slow-yo days. that's That's like when we met, Jamie.
jamie peacock: Dude.
Ben: That's...
jamie peacock: Yeah. Dude, the slowio, when I look at my Instagram feed, I'm like, what was I thinking doing these jobs on that machine? Like, absolute lunatic, machining injection molds on that machine.
jamie peacock: Like, what the hell? It has been relegated to like four little jobs that I do on a recurring basis, and that is it. It runs for maybe three or four days a month, if that. But now it's going to get a lot more love. So we're moving to the new shop.
jamie peacock: It's going to be used for all of the, like putting flats on shafts and things for the lathe department. So... with the move, we now going to have three lathes, two mils. Carl's going to basically take over running the lathes for me. And then like second ops, he can run on the slow EO.
jamie peacock: And the LK is still going to do all the stuff the LK does. But we're going to take on a little bit of extra work for the LK as well.
Ben: Gotcha. Yeah, I had to ask.
jamie peacock: Yeah, so.
Ben: Right now I'm staring at my NASVFNOW.
jamie peacock: The NAS.
Ben: Yeah. and
Curt: was just going to ask, yeah.
Ben: feel so bad because I mean it was a blast building it and that's really how I got my start like kind of in machining um I was building a electric guitar during shop class in um in high school and uh I mean it was full playing I got a b-minus on it let's not talk about that um the shop teacher did because he couldn't build it and uh he burnt the neck and he gave me a b-minus because the
Curt: okay
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: the neck was burnt. So that tells you something. But like, that's when I got into CNC machining. Cause I was like, man, how are these like made? And from that point on, I just got hooked and I'm like, okay, Arduino and like some, some, uh, uh, older, uh, guy from a maker space.
Ben: Uh, he gave me like a bunch of, think it was like NEMA 23 steppers out of an old ATM. Don't ask me how I got those, but um Yeah, I made a little CNC router and then made probably four or five more.
Ben: And then, you know, each one got better and better. And so I'm looking at this machine and it was a blast to build, but it hasn't been turned on in over two years. Like it moved with me and has not been turned on.
Curt: Thank you.
Ben: And I feel so bad.
jamie peacock: So yeah, but that's because the Sile X7 is easy mode.
Ben: It is.
jamie peacock: You don't have to chase sizes on things like, I mean, i ran 80 parts the other night on the LK.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
jamie peacock: I checked at the end of every tray and everything's within like half a thou, like well within half a thou, without even attempting to to try and hold tolerance. just does it. Like, yeah, that's, yeah.
Ben: Oh, yeah. I hit those bores for the anchor point today. And like dead on, like perfect. um straight Straight off the machine. And i yeah I just occasionally make a glance over to the NAS and I'm just like, someday, someday.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: I just realized that the three people who have awesomely named machines are the podcast together because we've got the Kurt and the Nars and the Slowio.
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah. used my wife's cricket and had to brand it.
jamie peacock: The good old days.
Ben: It's it's pretty fun. i even tagged Haas in it too.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: So yeah.
Curt: yeah
Ben: Those were the days though.
jamie peacock: Kurt, when lost it win last did your machine turn on, Kurt?
Curt: I use it to square up a fixture block. So I think it turned on like a couple months ago.
Curt: that's That's all it does is I like I cut a raw cut fixture and then it just square up the ends on it because it's easier. I use it like a manual machine and that's all it's all it's got used for.
jamie peacock: The Slowio gets used to slit electrical connectors with a slitting saw. I've got a fourth axis fixture I made there. It gets used to cross drill pins and it gets used to machine potting compound out of diesel sensors.
jamie peacock: That is about all it gets used for these days.
Curt: Nice. Nice.
Ben: Yes.
jamie peacock: But hopefully it'll get a bit of love when it moves. We actually, I went yesterday and ordered all the galvanized steel for drip trays. So the Slowio, the Emco, Spinderella and Spindock are all getting drip trays.
jamie peacock: So i just ordered flat, guillotined, half millimeter gale plate.
Curt: Oh.
jamie peacock: And then I had them guillotine all the offcuts into strips. And going to my friend's shop and just bend 90 degree strips that we can just push under with CicaFlex. And then they if we have a leak, it's contained because they all drip oil and coolants because they're lathes.
jamie peacock: And the slowio that has holes in it.
Curt: Yeah. That's a good idea.
jamie peacock: They're either lathes or enclosures I built.
Curt: Yeah. Nice.
jamie peacock: Like, enclosures are a really difficult thing to build. Like, I think both of you know that on your machines. Like, enclosures are not not the easiest thing to build well.
Ben: Mine's still painted plywood held together with ah wood screws, ah hinges, and tape. So, I mean, ghetto as it gets.
jamie peacock: Nice. Yeah. Mine was at least sheet metal, the bottom. And then I went with Correx or the corrugated signage stuff for the side. So when it fucks out, you just go buy a new piece.
jamie peacock: And it leaks.
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Like if you're running a lot of mist coolants, it gathers on the side and then runs down the leg. Oh, God.
Curt: Well, I want it to be fancy. So mine's all HTPE. And then I like I welded it and I was like, I don't want a single fastener on this.
Ben: Yes.
Curt: It has probably boxes of screws in it now trying to hold it together because like I didn't do the proper thing and use the proper HTPE welder. I just like anyways, wrong story.
Curt: But yeah, so enclosure design is is in itself. So yeah.
jamie peacock: it's Ah, it's a proper challenge.
Ben: Just having flood coolant was a game changer for me because I was like, even though I had a tool changer on my NAS, which that was even super finicky because it was 3D printed and held together, i mean, pretty poorly.
jamie peacock: Sorry, just make sure.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: I remember when you built it.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: yeah I mean, I was the one that built it, so I can... i can I can say how bad it was, but um yeah, just sitting there with WD-40 can is not fun.
Curt: You
Ben: And then you just sniff all those fumes and you're just like, what am I doing with my life?
jamie peacock: Yeah, I had a pretty decent minimum quantity system on on the slow, I still do. It's got a peristaltic pump. And then it has an air blast that's programmable. So it's got an Arduino and you'd move the knob so you can go from 30 second intervals down to like half a second intervals.
jamie peacock: So that I could angle it down and blow chips out of deep pockets because I was making mag bases that were like three times D. And you don't want to be recutting chips on a on a machine that is a wet noodle.
Curt: Yeah, fair.
jamie peacock: No. Yeah. But that job that, I mean, the slow year made me lots of money. The things I did on there were silly. I think I made 10,000 Torx bits on it like Torx drivers on that machine. But I know I made at least 10,000 because I invoice 10,000 of them in a year.
jamie peacock: um And I think it's close to 15,000 of them that ran on that machine.
Ben: Yeah, my little homemade machine hasn't been turned on in two years helped fund and pay the pay for the X7.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: So it's it's hard to like say that it was the wrong decision. I mean, it was definitely bootstrapper mode. And um would I do it again? Well, I don't know.
Ben: Probably not.
jamie peacock: Probably.
Ben: it
Curt: the
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: All right. Let me quickly do our Patreon read because we have Patreons and they make the wheels on the train go round and round.
Ben: you.
jamie peacock: ah All the $5 and above Patreons get access to the after show where we discuss super secret things. um The top tier patrons get a shout out every week. And this week we have a new top tier Patreon, Josh from Layton Machine. Thank you very much.
jamie peacock: The rest of the top tier patrons are Jade from Benchmark20, Luke from Fabtastic, AJ from Subtract Manufacturing, and 47 other companies. Yes, I'm just now going with random numbers. jason s ej from nocturnal welding lousy machinist christian olson charles white car from cursed machine matt from off world gear alex b john from tuesday performance and engine tricks and matt from modern fuel thank you patrons you make uh the imts trip mostly possible i'm such fun of danica's paypal is fixed but anyway thank you very much and uh choo choo
Curt: ah So, um last time i watched, or not last time, but I remember watching one of your stories and seeing you inside a little box with your machine to try to keep it warm and keep coolant from freezing.
Ben: Oh my gosh.
Curt: And you've since you've since now insulated ah your shop. So, ah how is ah how has that come along? Has that a increased the...
Ben: Okay, so I was listening, ah kind of playing catch up because I haven't listened to your guys' podcasts as much as I wanted to, but I listened to two podcasts, the most recent ones right before this, all right?
Curt: ah
Ben: So I got my homework done. um Kurt, i actually have on my notepad, talk about how amazing my mini split is because you were just...
Ben: You were just saying how hot it was getting over there.
Curt: i
Ben: And I'm like, I'm like almost cold. This is incredible. It's, ah I don't know. It's probably, it's 80 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't know what that is in Celsius land. ah But it is nice like 66 is what I have it set to.
Curt: Okay. Yeah.
Ben: Definitely get one that control with your iPhone.
Curt: Okay.
Ben: You can turn it on anywhere. It's amazing. So, yeah.
jamie peacock: Nice.
Ben: Yeah, that was that was my commercial. You've got to get one if you don't have one yet.
Curt: ah That's awesome. Yeah, I have a...
jamie peacock: Yeah, we were looking yesterday at putting an aircon in the new shop. But then I have to insulate the roof because it's a steel roof. So if I don't insulate the roof, it's a waste of time.
jamie peacock: So we'll see. That might happen.
Curt: Yeah, I think I have... ah Now that we have AC in our house, I have one of those giant monster floor standers, and i I think I'll just plug it and into the door and just let it take the edge off in here. Because, like I said, it's super insulated, so...
Curt: As long as I can cool down at night, it'll it'll be all right. Actually, it just has to fight the X5. It's the only thing it has to do because usually the night is cool enough to cool things down here. But yeah, it gets it's toasty in the summer.
Curt: So yeah, but I just yeah i just remember seeing you in your little foam box and that just that makes...
jamie peacock: Oh, yes.
Curt: It still brings a smile to my face.
Ben: Yeah.
Curt: hu
jamie peacock: So after me spouting how pleasant our weather is, ah I went to the shop yesterday morning and I had like half an inch of ice on my windscreen or frost on my windscreen and my whole lawn was white.
jamie peacock: But by eight o'clock in the morning, that was gone. So not the end of the world. Yeah, we're having a bit of a cold spell.
Curt: this is
jamie peacock: But yeah, sorry, yeah you're saying your your fancy cooler box.
Ben: No, it wasn't a cooler box. It was ah a heater box, right?
jamie peacock: Well, a heater box.
Curt: Yeah, it was a hot box.
Ben: So when we literally the hot box is what I, what I called it.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: um Yeah. When we moved to this house, ah they've, there was a shop, but it was just like a nasty pole barn with, okay.
Ben: What's that?
jamie peacock: Wasn't me. there we go.
Ben: Did I drop out?
jamie peacock: I know, you throw it. It's fine, done, right? It'll have recorded on your end, so don't stress.
Ben: Oh, cool. I was just gonna say, when moved to this property, had kind of a nasty pole barn. There was no insulation or anything like that. It was just kind of what you would think of as just a ah pole barn.
Ben: And the first winter we were here, I was like freaking out because I came out and there was a sheet of ice on the coolant. And what was more scary was all the internal ah bits and pieces with coolant left in it and expanding.
Ben: So I ran out to Home Depot and I got... probably six sheets of inch and a half EPS foam. And then literally, i think it was a common theme, but I just took duct tape and like taped it all together and threw $30, 1500 watt heater in there and just let it on.
Ben: And it was on the entire winter. I never turned it off and it kept at almost 40 degrees.
Curt: Oh, did we actually lose him now?
jamie peacock: I think so. but there we go like Okay, well, I think we got the story that we're gonna have to listen to it this week. Sorry, we keep cutting out there. But there you seem to be back now.
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: We'll catch it. We'll catch it when we listen to the episode this week.
Curt: Yeah. Sorry, folks. We don't know. We just assume that this recorded locally on his end.
jamie peacock: Yeah,
Curt: And so, yeah, no we we kind of missed a big chunk of that, but we're all goingnna listen to it and learn together. So, yeah, I don't know The hot box just made me laugh.
jamie peacock: there we go. Yeah, the hotbox was great.
Curt: Oh, we might have lost him again.
jamie peacock: We've lost me. like I'm gonna pause so we can try and get them back properly.
Curt: Okay.
jamie peacock: There we go. We back with ah Ben and his startled internet. Yeah,
jamie peacock: I got was pretty much ready. 11 o'clock and the internet cut out.
Curt: Yeah. It's all the saw the illicit movie watching that's crushing the internet.
jamie peacock: Yeah, that's it.
jamie peacock: There we go.
Curt: ah
jamie peacock: yes
jamie peacock: um yeah so your workshop has the best feature ever i kind of want a slide in my workshop
Curt: Ah.
Ben: Yeah, it's still there.
Curt: slide.
Ben: It's it's very half-baked.
Curt: Oh.
Ben: Yeah, i can show you guys here. Watch.
jamie peacock: yeah yeah
Ben: Right there.
Curt: Ooh.
Ben: That's for the kids.
Curt: All right.
Ben: What? Kids in quotations. I mean, it works for adults. I had to test it. i Yeah, it's it's pretty half-baked. I thought that, I don't know why I thought this, but I was like, oh yeah, I'll just make it the exact same angle as the the stairs. And those stairs are really And i i went down it like late at night, so nobody was out here watching me.
Curt: who
Ben: And um i about like broke my neck. It was so stinking fast. And then i changed it, had no ice go down it.
Curt: yeah
Ben: It was still really fast. So um ive I finally got it to ah a decent slope, but the kids were terrified of it for a while. Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Curt: so awesome.
Ben: yeah
jamie peacock: You built that whole upstairs in your shop, eh?
Ben: Yeah, yeah, so, yep, empty barn.
jamie peacock: It was just an empty barn when you moved.
Ben: um I had always dreamed about kind of having like a little office and the ceilings are 14 and a half feet, so you can just barely cut it in half. I mean, if you're if you're a tall person, you may hit like the the ceiling, um but for me, it didn't didn't matter too much.
jamie peacock: Wow.
Ben: And yeah, I catted it all up, just like Kurt did with this fence. See, I'm listening. And exactly like what people I needed and where it was going to go and everything.
Curt: you
Curt: okay
Ben: And I've never done like that kind of construction, especially when it's load bearing and all that, but I got like eight inch long leg screws and it was super fun. I put the whole thing together on my own, except I had a six by six, which those things are those things are wild. For Kurt and Jamie, that's like 150 millimeter by 150 millimeter ah piece of lumber.
Ben: And you like my conversions? I can't tell if Kurt's laughing or not. ah Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah, no, they're fantastic. yeah
Ben: almost fell over. um and, uh, those things are pretty heavy. And so I had my wife come out and, um, she helped me a little bit, but yeah, it's a 24 by 12, um, loft. And then I put, think it's a eight by 12 office up there, which I did a lot of office work up there.
Ben: And, uh, the rest is just kind of a fun hangout zone with a TV, a couple of couches and, Yeah, it's just fun to build it out and have people over and stuff.
jamie peacock: Yeah, very nice. That
Ben: so
jamie peacock: and us
Curt: I'm jealous the amount of space and I'm also jealous that you have an office that you can make quiet and still be like in the shop. That's yeah, that's, that's cool.
Ben: Yeah, that was... It's huge. Working from home, gave me the ability to literally come out to a place that felt like work, but I was still only, don't know, 100, maybe 200 feet from the house. And so I could walk in and have lunch with the kids.
Ben: But there was that separation that's kind of needed when you're working from home and you've got young kids and stuff. um So it's, yeah, it was it was great. I'm really glad I built it.
Curt: That's awesome.
jamie peacock: Yeah, that's my my plan for today was to frame out the office at the new shop.
Curt: Hmm.
jamie peacock: Because again, I want a quiet office. If the LK is running eight-hour cycle, I don't need to sit next to it.
Ben: Thank you.
jamie peacock: I can take my stuff to the upstairs office and sit down there and work in quiet. So yeah, we're busy framing out our office there. But all the stores don't have stock of 2x4s for some reason. I don't know why, but they don't have two buffles
jamie peacock: Yeah, I went yesterday and I'm like, I don't see any 2x4s. Check this out. they've got six in stock. I'm like, what fuck am I going to do with six that's a quest for this week.
Curt: Well,
Curt: when you come up to IMTS, just bring some home with you.
jamie peacock: There we go. Yeah, I'll put them in my interview.
Curt: Carry on. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, there we go. Yeah, I know we're busy with building our office upstairs.
Ben: Thank you.
jamie peacock: Danica will end up in there. We're going to have a little meeting table and then that's where assembly and inspection is going to be. Because like I've got finished machine parts for anchor points. I've got two shelves worth of components.
jamie peacock: I don't want them in the workshop. I want them somewhere clean. Currently, they're in one of my bedrooms in the house. Because, yeah. I commandeer the bedroom.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: As one does.
jamie peacock: I'm kind of curious about Kurt's topics for this week.
Ben: Thank you.
jamie peacock: We're going to shift gears a bit and quickly cover our topics, Kurt.
Curt: Oh, okay. Well, I will fly through these really quick.
jamie peacock: What is the first one? I need to know. no
Curt: Dirty little zine. Okay. So like, I've been a big fan lately of like trying to do more, like more output than input. Like we consume so much stuff. Like we watch Instagram, we doom scroll, we watch YouTube.
Curt: I'm like, it's trying to do more things because I enjoy it. And sometimes I just get locked into like looking at YouTube and I'm like, well, ah yeah, sure.
jamie peacock: Oh, that's cool.
Curt: But like sometimes I want to do something. Anyways, found a website called dirty little zine. I think it's dirty little zine.com. And you can take your like photos. Like I like take pictures, but And you can, it's like a little auto, it's like an app, it's a web app and it runs locally and you can drag photos into it and then it prints it out onto like eight and a half by 11.
Ben: Thank you.
Curt: And then it just shows you how to fold it and you fold it into like a little eight page a little magazine that's like, you know, the size of a deck of a cards. um which is kind of like super cool.
jamie peacock: ah that's cool
Curt: So you can put like all your cool photos in there and like can use it as a business card and give it to somebody. And then you have like all these cool photos. and I don't know. it just really cool. um So I've been doing that with just a bunch of like family photos and stuff and having fun with that. So yeah, check it out if you want.
Curt: it's totally free. Guy in Mexico actually made the software and it's like open source, not open source, but like doesn't ask for any cash. Like, yeah, super cool. Oh, I put out a feeler.
Ben: Thank you.
Curt: This is where I messed up. um I asked people to name that like tumbled, blasted, finished because I don't know. Tumble blast is just a lame way to string words together.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: um But like i wanted to finish all my pens up that. goes with my brand. So I asked people, I'm like, can you name it for me? And I didn't think about this. Then I sent it it to every subscriber that subscribes to my email.
Curt: And then I got a bazillion emails back and i was like, oh, I messed up. And now I like, I spent hours reading emails um and replying back to folks. I was like, okay, i'm not doing this again.
Curt: um But yeah, I got all kinds of cool suggestions. But one of my favorites
Ben: Thank you.
Curt: was ah the confounded uniform machine blast finish, ah which I thought was perfect. And they're like, yeah, you can abbreviate it C-U-M blast. So I was like, oh, perfect.
Curt: The cum blast finish. So it probably won't be that one, but it might be.
jamie peacock: ah love it.
Curt: um
jamie peacock: I think it needs to be that one.
Curt: ah And then...
jamie peacock: ah That's brilliant.
Curt: ah I ordered a bunch of custom springs for the little fidget.
jamie peacock: Ooh.
Curt: I'm going to get them made locally, but I didn't want to commit to a thousand of them, which is what I have to run to get them made locally. So I bought them not locally.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: And ah yeah, I got a run of, I think a hundred, which is probably almost the same cost as running a thousand of them. But, it lets me at least try and make it before I, know, maybe if I want to tweak them just ever so slow, they're tiny. Like they're whatever, what are they like three 32nd diameter and like eighth of an inch long, like a 10th hour wire diameter. They're they're tiny springs.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: um So we'll see if those work.
jamie peacock: Very nice.
Curt: And ah in the meantime of this, I'm going to work on that. I'm working on the fidget next week. um And i was like, oh, I'd love to do production as well.
Ben: Thank you.
Curt: And I was like, wait a minute. I have an anchor point. So yeah, I'm totally going to do that. I'm going to put one pallet on that lovely Ken made. That's going to be working for the fidgets. And then once I'm at a kind of impasse where to cat, I can pop it off and then I can put my production pallet back on and hit go.
Ben: Thank you.
Curt: So yeah, to do that next week. So yeah, zero point is my new religion.
jamie peacock: There we go. You finally joined the cult. ah
Curt: Dude, I see the light. I see the light.
jamie peacock: It is the way to go. um Yeah, so let me quickly cover the shop update. Yeah, I got all the wires and stuff, so we're pulling cable this week. The move is only happening on the 17th because we have a public holiday on the 16th, which means the Monday, the 15th, no one's doing anything.
jamie peacock: So I'm booking riggers for the 17th. The LK is booked out until the seventeenth
Curt: Awesome.
jamie peacock: I'm decommissioning on the evening of the 16th. Like, I have work on the machine until then.
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: I've got a customer who phoned me, oh, those big rings you're doing, can you please finish the order?
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Like, can go ahead with the rest now. And I'm like, I'm moving. How many do you need for this month? I'll make that many, and then I've got to decommission the bill. So, yeah, at least that job's now going to be flowing through.
jamie peacock: But, yeah, planned for the the seven t To move all the machines. And then, yeah, it's ah we still got a lot to do. Got to pull all the wire, put the airlines We're going there today to put in the little kitchenette cabinets. And there was something else we were doing. Oh, fetching the tables. We welded tables yesterday. They're freaking huge. So we're going to go fetch our our work desks, take them through, check they fit, and then start painting them.
jamie peacock: So it's going to be a busy, busy morning. And then, yeah, spindle gripping is magic.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: Quite literally.
Curt: I watched that story, yeah.
jamie peacock: I got it working. Dude, I literally got it working running Remnants, paused the machine, bolted the tray in once I had the material, filled the tray and carried on running the program.
Ben: All right.
jamie peacock: It ran from like half past three in the afternoon till 10 o'clock that evening. It ran two trays. Then I reloaded it, hit go, and I was doing tool break detect on every tool.
jamie peacock: And a chip got stuck on the tip of the drill and I thought of it broke it longer. Yeah.
Curt: Right.
jamie peacock: So the tool was out of tolerance.
Curt: Right.
jamie peacock: So it then powered down at like six minutes past 10. And i I'd gone back in the house already. So didn't notice. So I woke up in the morning expecting a tray of pots and there's one machine pot.
Curt: ah
jamie peacock: So I reloaded that one machine pot into the tray hit cycle starts and went and ran errands for two and a hours came back in the machine was still running. Like it's absolute magic.
Curt: That's awesome. Right, right.
jamie peacock: So like that job I need to put my pneumatic vice on a trunnion so that I can do that job in one operation now. Because I had to do it in three ops. so I manually loaded the six minutes or six and a half minute op, then I had to load it for a 48 second de-hatting, and then a two minute side op.
jamie peacock: So i want to have it i either loaded in, do the six minute op, the two minute op, and then just de-hat it afterwards is probably what I'll go with.
Ben: Thank you.
jamie peacock: But that's future Jamie's problems. But yeah, spindle gripping is magic.
Curt: I like that you're, I like you just like trial by fire. Just like, yeah, this seems to be working. I'm just going to leave now. It's just like,
jamie peacock: Yeah, it's got tool brake detector.
Curt: yeah
jamie peacock: It'll be fine. fuck Worst case, the machine's going to slam down, throw an alarm and power itself off. ah Or crunch my gripper.
Curt: That's
jamie peacock: Oh no, I have a spare cylinder for the gripper. Like it's really not the end of the world.
Curt: too scary for me.
jamie peacock: Nah.
Curt: Too scary.
jamie peacock: I don't. We've got... to I like spindle gripping stuff. It's yeah super...
Ben: Thank you.
jamie peacock: I actually need to set it up now to run knives. I'm going to set up to run my utility knives. going run like 200 of them. I'm just going to order the bar stock, chop the bar stock on the martyr saw, and then just load a tray and just have it put it and do all the op ones.
jamie peacock: And then I've got fixtures for op twos on pallets. And then I can just power through a whole shitload of them while I snooze. because that is literally the machining dream.
Curt: Cool, cool.
Curt: yeah
jamie peacock: Like, oh, that, that story, ah not story, the real I posted has got a lot of engagement.
Ben: Yeah, it's a
jamie peacock: There's some dude in India, like, hey, so you're going get rid all your stuff. Like a man could reload this in five seconds. I'm like, yes, but it can reload it while I sleep. Like, quite literally, was sleeping while it was running.
Curt: And it's true. Yeah.
Ben: Well, usually the thing about like short cycle times is most people are trying not to have short cycle times because you're a slave to the machine.
jamie peacock: I'm like, oh, that's it.
Curt: No, no doubt.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ben: And I've got two knives per pallet, mainly because i could only get so many parts on a pallet without you know going into the danger zone, which is why I'm so excited about having those those two anchor points kind of side by side.
jamie peacock: Yeah,
Ben: ah for you larger palettes, but it doesn't matter if you've got a gripper. It's actually, yeah, it doesn't matter at all.
jamie peacock: exactly
Ben: right Yeah, that's so nice.
jamie peacock: You can afford to slow your cycle down for reliability. Like I slowed my lights up my step overs and whatnot, so so that I knew I wouldn't have any issues. And then I just let it run. doesn't matter. I'm not there.
jamie peacock: It can take three hours to run. It's three hours that I don't have to stand there. Because yeah being slave to the machine, that was me on Friday and nights, like Friday afternoon, Friday nights, I loaded 80 parts into the machine twice.
jamie peacock: Once with the one minute cycle and once with the two minute cycle, it was horrible.
jamie peacock: not my dear of fun, especially now that I was going to but I really don't want to do it.
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: the Yeah, exactly.
jamie peacock: It was bad enough before. Yeah, um yeah what was a thing?
Curt: Cool.
jamie peacock: Yeah, Ben, did you get any questions in on your story that you posted?
Ben: Yeah, 2SM performance. Oh, shoot.
jamie peacock: john.
Ben: One second, let me grab it ah
jamie peacock: No stress. Ah, okay.
Ben: I mean, he just, like, asked mainly what's what's my, like, upbringing and how did I get into machining, um which I tried to knock that out real quick.
jamie peacock: okay
Ben: But, I mean, I'm a mechanical engineer, and turns out, It's not very hands-on when you do mechanical engineering degree. it's um And it was a commuter campus too.
Ben: So I wasn't doing, i was commuting and I wasn't like staying on campus and doing the Baja team and stuff, which is hands-on and looking back would have been super cool.
Ben: ah But that's why I think my hobby became what it was, was because everything that I thought engineering was going to be wasn't. And so kind of supplemented it with my hobby.
Ben: um And then, yeah, started building machines and just got connected in in the industry, or I guess the the ins instant machinist community is what I would say.
Ben: And yeah, I...
Curt: Mm-hmm.
Ben: I don't know. I'm trying to think like the whole story. i used to work at custom water jet company. And what was pretty wild is as a co-op, because the five year program, you got to like go off and do co-op and do a ah work program.
Ben: while you're in school and all the engineers there were like building DIY CNC routers, which was crazy. were all just like scavenging random things out of the scrap bin and the the engineers became ah vultures, I think is what everybody called us on the shop floor.
Ben: on And like this,
Curt: ah
Ben: The same part is like they would throw out like ball screws. I still have them. They're sitting sitting there untouched like high wind ball screws, but they'd be in the scrap bin or they were like getting rid of ah clear path servo motors because it was custom stuff and they couldn't like inventory at all.
Ben: So, I mean, we would come away with some really cool stuff um and that just kind of continued to throw more fuel on the fire for like building machines and just kind of growing the hobby and stuff.
Ben: And I don't know if you guys know, but my first product that I ever tried to make was a little pop-up wallet. It was called the Atlas.
Curt: ye Yeah.
Ben: Do you guys remember it? Oh man.
jamie peacock: Yeah. Oh, yes.
Curt: ah
Ben: What's that?
Curt: I was just gonna I just gonna mention that look at Oh, we got some leg.
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Well, I carry on there, Coach.
Curt: Okay, no, sorry. I say I was just gonna mention that i scrolled back on your Instagram. and I was like, Oh, yeah, I remember about that wallet. So anyways, carry on. Sorry for cutting you out.
Ben: No, it's all good. ah Yeah, I was just going to say that was like the first time I realized how important a tool changer was and talk about slave to the machine. i had this router and I designed this wallet with like
Curt: Mm-hmm.
Ben: four unique parts that all required like three or four tools on a little 1500 watt router with an ER 11. I mean, it was just like, it it was so terrible. Cause I would, I would actually put little um call it clamps or something on my tools. So I never had to touch them off and stuff. And I thought I was, I was getting by, but yeah, it was, it was tough, but it it taught me a bunch and made me realize how bad I wanted a tool changer, which is why i built the mill.
Ben: And I used one of the harmonic drives that we found in old inventory or basically the scrap bin at work, like a harmonic drive.
Ben: And that's actually on the tool changer right now, which is hilarious. It's like a 90 to one or something. um I'll have to like post some pictures or something. Cause I don't think most people have seen the DIY machines lately, but.
Ben: um Yeah, and that's kind of how I got all my jobs.
jamie peacock: Yeah, I DIY machines have kind of fallen by the wayside. like Everyone who had a DIY machine alongside us has now moved on. And I think we should maybe start a trend of this is where we started and this is where we are now.
jamie peacock: It might be kind of cool to show.
Ben: Yeah, I love that. I feel like...
Curt: Yeah.
Ben: um what was that probably uh, yeah, five to eight years ago or so everybody was kind of getting into the DIY.
Ben: Like we wanted something more than 3d printer.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: And, uh, there was definitely a community of people building machines and that's really how I got my start on, um, on Instagram too. Uh, cause I got to meet a bunch of other people in the same,
Ben: the same area trying to do something crazy like build a CNC machine. So, yeah.
jamie peacock: Also, back then, the cymbals weren't a thing. They weren't really a thing. They were around, but they weren't what they are today. What they are today is like a really decent little machine.
Ben: Yeah, but I will say, 7, I was, like, before Titans, um i said well, Servin Solutions, this is their style.
Curt: Yeah, no.
Ben: And, like, ever since I saw it, because they got theirs, like, right after the Tormach and stuff, and Titans wasn't doing anything with them for a couple years um until after that, so...
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, I mean, this was always the dream machine for me, or a Tormach, but I'm glad I chose this one. um Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
jamie peacock: I think the 1500 is on par with the x7 but everything before that there are in different classes. The x7 versus the 1100 and the 770.
jamie peacock: Like, yeah, actual industrial machines, not running dovetails.
Curt: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Curt: Exactly. Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah,
Curt: That's awesome.
jamie peacock: I feel like that that machine build, there's still guys building machines. They still come across my feed every now and again. ah But I don't think it's what it was. Like, if I look at what the amount of money we put into our DIY machines, you pretty much could have bought a second-hand style at this point.
Ben: let's Let's just not talk about it
jamie peacock: Yeah, no, we don't we don't do that maths.
Curt: yeah
jamie peacock: It makes us sad. Yeah.
Curt: That's what...
jamie peacock: No, that maths makes us very sad.
Ben: it.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: People always ask me too. They're like, why don't you sell your machine? And I was like, uh, like the amount I would like, if I sold it for like anything reasonable, I would just cry. Cause I know how much money I put into it.
Curt: So i'm like, until it is literally in my way for something important, it'll stay because like, what do I get? Like, even if I sold for $10,000, like I've put more and than that into it.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: So I'm just like, no, and no one's going to pay $10,000 for a hobby mill. So and anyway, yeah.
jamie peacock: That's the thing. like it's a It's got sentimental value to you and that's what's that's what yeah that's why you keep it.
Ben: Thank you.
jamie peacock: It's useful every now and again.
Ben: The other day i considered selling my homemade machine and I was looking at it I was like, wow, there's still an F clamp holding the proximity sensor so that the spindle orients correctly.
Curt: Yeah, exactly.
Ben: I mean, it was supposed to be temporary, which is obviously it was very permanent, but, and then you also have to use a very special post-processor because the way that I set up the spindle orientation,
jamie peacock: Okay.
Ben: was i mean I don't know if this is kosher, but I took one motor and attached it to both step and direction and zero to 10 volts, the same motor.
Ben: And then when you are running in spindle mode, it's zero to 10. But then after it stops, hopefully it comes to a complete stop. There's like some crazy dwell in there.
Ben: And then it switches over to stepper and it it does like a G 28.1 B zero. And it like goes and finds that, that homing switch. But if you don't have that before your, your tool change line, bad things happen.
jamie peacock: Okay.
Ben: So it's just
jamie peacock: Oh, yeah.
Ben: like, how do you sell that to somebody?
jamie peacock: That's brilliant.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: du So true. Yeah. It's just like, that's the thing is,
jamie peacock: Yeah, the the um solutions you come up with that work for you don't really work for other people.
Curt: Yeah, that's what I was just going to say is like you build these like same thing.
Ben: thank
Curt: It's like when I when I power on my my lay that I've retro like and it's got like one quirk, but I know how to get around it. But like if you ever sold that somebody you'd be like, oh, yeah, by the way, when you power it on, make sure you turn this air on simultaneously while doing a tool change because then that makes everything happy.
Curt: It's like, what is it? so What are you talking about? You crazy person? It's like, no, it just works. Trust me. Just always do that. And it's like, it's just like yeah super janky sounding.
jamie peacock: to think what I was doing with it was you had to like hit something and then everything worked.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Oh, i was at commiss yesterday trying to get his machine to communicate. And when it powers on as a Siemens controller powers on, but the drives won't initialize because the contact is sticky.
Ben: yeah
jamie peacock: So you turn on and off the chip auger, and then the vibration of that contact to let's the other contact to kick in. It's like the most weird thing, but it works.
Curt: Right.
jamie peacock: um I had a customer, the customer who helped with the the shop move come past the shop yesterday while I was there.
Curt: Totally. Yeah.
jamie peacock: And he's like guy it's got a he's got a job they're currently manually running it. If I want to take the job, I can take it to press job, pressing point three millimeter material, you reckon you pick up the coil by hand, they've got to order for a million of them.
Curt: Hmm.
jamie peacock: So I'm like, I'll automate it, I'll straight up automate that. But it needs to be something I'm nearby. So if there's a problem, I can address it straight away. Whereas if it's off site, I can't, and have stop what I'm doing and drive there to sort it out.
jamie peacock: So I'm like, send the work. I'll build a press for it and we'll run a little hydraulic press, kachunk kachunk kachum and we'll just shit a million parts out. fuck Yeah, so we're taking on little odds and ends of press work as well.
Curt: Nice.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: But john like that's the kind of thing that I can make run and I can keep running, but I can't palm it off on somebody because a sense is going to go bad and then the lion stands. Or as someone spills a cool drink on it and the lion stands.
Curt: Yeah.
Ben: Thank you.
jamie peacock: So we're trying to try to find all these stupid things that we can automate and have just print us money, but require just that little bit more knowledge to make work reliably.
Curt: Cool.
jamie peacock: Um, what is in your guys' Google boxes?
Curt: Ben, do you want to lead us off?
Ben: Yeah, so I was just looking at my search history and it's mainly researching companies that I've found on Indeed or have reached out to me um and let's just like applying to jobs. It's it's super ah not exciting. I was like, wow, is this all I've been doing for the past few weeks? I'm like, I guess so. Yeah.
Ben: And then how to install, I think, like Fusion and FTP because I've i've got a new computer out in the shop, so I had to do all that nonsense.
jamie peacock: you you
Ben: But, yeah, sorry, I don't have anything exciting.
Curt: Okay, well, no, this would be interesting. Assuming that i you apply, like wherever you apply, let's assume they just say yes, they have openings. um And it don't worry about location.
Curt: What would you be most interested? Like, what do you where do you want to work? What do you want to do? Like, what field do you want to be in if you had like every opportunity?
Ben: I've yeah so I've thought a lot about this and. I, I was discussing this with my wife and I said, you know what? I don't want to go back into some mechanical engineering job.
Ben: And I know that that's like, you know, my um my background. But I'm not like a typical engineer. I definitely was kind of the the black sheep. I mean, most people didn't even want to carry on a conversation I'm telling them about some dumb CNC lathe that was building or something.
Ben: um And so with Toolpath, what I was able to kind of do was, ah you know, you wear a lot of hats at a startup. which I really loved and kind of thrived in and didn't realize I was going to.
Ben: And I got to run the machine shop, do content. You guys have probably seen my face way too many times on Instagram. I've i've seen it. I open up the app and I'm just like, ah, man, like what is going on?
Ben: So content, ah content like marketing, customer success, and then like the sales side of things, which is very like technical, not like just, salesy and uh i found that i really loved just like building relationships with people especially like it's ins instant machinists it's all these like younger guys that are kind of coming up and uh my next role i would love for it to be at a startup type feel where you take true ownership of everything you you gotta to wear a couple of different hats
Ben: um and you're given real authority to make change that was the one thing that i felt like al our ceo at toolpath did a really good job was he trusted me with what i was doing um and gave me like the ability to to be successful by like kind of being hands off um so i really appreciated that and most importantly i just love getting to know other other people and building relationships so All that said, um I've been looking at like, I'm going to the dark side. I've been looking at like sales kind of positions where it's not just like your traditional like salesperson, but it's like very technical and you have to have really good understanding of the background, but it's also like leading people through customer success and making sure that they're successful. I mean, it very similar to what I did at Toolpath and
Ben: and I'm sure it's risky to go back to another startup, but it's it's really, I think what I enjoy. So hopefully that answers it.
jamie peacock: technical sales position.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah. which
Curt: Yeah. No, that, that answered perfectly. Yeah.
Ben: Yeah. Cool.
Curt: So folks out there, if that's what you're looking for, hit up Mr. Ben.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: All right, master Jamie, what's in your Google boxes? You're taking a drink of water.
jamie peacock: Uh, yeah, dungeon crawler call, checking the book order because they're not labeled properly.
Ben: Yes.
jamie peacock: um I was looking up coffee robots because I needed a coffee machine for the workshop. Looking up time zones to arrange this whole shit show. um Looking at UPSs for the, or inverter backups for the RT stuff at the new shop.
jamie peacock: And then there's a catering supply ah place in the business park I'm in. So I'm going to see if I can buy one of those dishwasher trays there.
Curt: Oh, smart. Yeah. Good thinking.
jamie peacock: Yes. Yeah, i was driving around when I went there last time I went the long way around to go and see what else was in the was in the complex.
Curt: Yeah.
Curt: Cool.
jamie peacock: So exciting stuff.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: And it's familiar.
Curt: Yeah. My sim. My Google box isn't crazy. That dirty little zine that's in there.
Ben: Thank you.
Curt: Letter mail rates because I was just curious to see if I could send my stickers cheaper. But honestly, it doesn't make much sense. Going up to a box is just especially internationally. It's like a dollar or two different.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: ah Image, which is like the image server I use on my local network here. It kind of had issues with me. So, uh, I just reinstalling it and, uh, green river.
Curt: That was the drink I was drinking tonight, which I think is actually classified as like a folk soda. Um, cause it's like a hundred plus years old. So yeah, fun drink.
jamie peacock: Ah, okay.
Curt: I think a smarter every day did a whole episode on folk soda. So I think I've now almost drank every single one of them or sourced them all out. So yeah, pretty good.
jamie peacock: Was that... that wasn't Wasn't that the podcast? No dumb questions that did that.
Curt: Or sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: No dumb questions. My mistake.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: That's what it was.
jamie peacock: NDQ.
Curt: Yeah. I like that one.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Yeah, lots of cool, cool drinks there.
jamie peacock: I haven't been listening to them lately.
Curt: Nor have I, but I did in the past.
jamie peacock: Yeah. nothing' Nothing they've done has really caught my attention. Okay.
Curt: Yeah, I just kind of fell out of favor and
jamie peacock: Also, business and machining, there's been no episode for the last two weeks. It's been very disturbing. Ruined my Friday routine.
Curt: I know I've walked in a complete silence for a few nights now because i'm just like, yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Curt: Anyways.
jamie peacock: No podcasts. There was no parts to department this week either.
Curt: Bummer.
jamie peacock: Yeah, know. Consistency, guys. Consistency. You're ruining my train enthusiasm here.
jamie peacock: It's the thing.
Curt: So.
jamie peacock: Sorry. There we go. Yes. What are you guys up to tomorrow?
Curt: Or next week in your case, Ben, or however long you want to be because...
Ben: think tomorrow
Curt: you You don't have to do this again in a week. So you could say whatever you want.
Ben: Tomorrow's in a half hour me. um Well, I've got I've got church church in the morning and then we've got us some family get together on my wife's dad's side or something.
Curt: Right.
Ben: and There's like three Tyler's there and I never know who's there. Like it's it's a it's a thing. I don't ever learn their names. I just know the retailers. So I tend to just be like, hey, Tyler, and hope they're Tyler.
Ben: And then yeah, just follow-ups with ah with the job search and stuff. I'm gonna be working on getting the knife orders out to people, which is really exciting. And I'm excited to see those land.
Ben: So i'm I'm really proud of these. these have These have been probably the highest quality knives. Like every time I make something, I try to change something on it or fix a tolerance or do do something different.
Ben: And i'm I'm very proud of these, the way that they all kind of assembled, because there's a lot of moving, a lot of parts on them. a Yeah, I'm really happy with them. So I'm excited for people to hold them and play with them and not cut their self, because they don't me accountable.
jamie peacock: It's enough. It's sharp. Don't be an idiot.
Curt: How about you, Master Jamie? What's your today looking like?
jamie peacock: I'm going to go and do workshop things this morning. Then I've got a farewell from my brother-in-law at, I think, one o'clock. Whole family get together. with It's going to be great. I'm super excited.
jamie peacock: I'm picking up a cabinet while I'm there. That's the main reason I'm going. I've got a steel cabinet I'm picking up for in the new shop. I've got family. Family grab this afternoon and then some workshop stuff this morning. we're going to go assemble the cabinets and fetch tables and things.
jamie peacock: So expect a story on Instagram of a really stupid load on my my little truck because the tables are, the shortest dimension is 2.1 meters. So it's going on my truck and it's sticking up 2.1 meters.
Curt: It's a big table.
jamie peacock: It's either that or 2.1. So we're going to go 2.1 probably and then ratchet strap it down and try not to hit any trees on the way to the workshop.
Curt: awesome.
jamie peacock: It's going to be fun. Now, what are you up tomorrow, Kurt?
Curt: uh i don't entirely know what i'm gonna be it's like been a monsoon here so i haven't been able to do anything outside so today i just spent like all day doing stupid yard stuff because my yard is destroyed from the equipment that had to build a fence um but tomorrow if it's nice i will do that and if it's not nice and don't know i'll play with the rats and just uh yeah see what they want to do little people hang out with them that's it
jamie peacock: Nice. Yep.
Ben: How old are your rats?
jamie peacock: Sunday family day yeah
Curt: ah Two and, oh sorry, almost three and now almost five. So yeah, right around your right around your mix. And I only have two because once you go to three, oh, now you're outnumbered.
Curt: So i props to you because that's ah that's a dangerous proposition to jump into. ah Oh.
Ben: Yeah, our our third kid, I mean, it's such third kid problems. We're just like, where is Shepard? I have no idea. like it just Like, he's just off doing his own thing. or something We love him, of course.
Curt: Yeah.
Ben: It's just like, yeah, being outnumbered is wild thing.
Curt: and
Ben: Yeah.
jamie peacock: My wife went with with her brother and her and his two boys to the air show to asesher yesterday.
Curt: i
jamie peacock: And I phoned her when they got back to to my brother-in-law's house. And on the phone, she's like, Roald, are you meant to be doing that? Because the boy's busy destroying something. I'm like, figures. It's my favorite nephew.
jamie peacock: Like, turn your back and next thing, there's rocks being thrown at cars and shit.
Curt: Nice.
jamie peacock: Like, they are savages.
jamie peacock: So it should be...
Ben: You know, what is super fun though, is having them at least be exposed to this.
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah.
Ben: I don't, I don't care what they decide to do, um, you know, for a living when they're older, but, uh, watching my son come out and like talk about the coolant and cycle start and like spraying stuff off and like, Oh, this is a piece of aluminum dad.
Ben: And I'm like, yeah, you're right. Nice job, man. Like, I didn't know that when I was six. That's cool. So, um, that's super fun.
jamie peacock: Yeah, the nephews also come and play in the workshop and want to push buttons. And it's quite fun having them in there every and on again.
Curt: I'm actually kind of worried about like a problem that I think is going to be when she goes to school. because like like I have a garage full of all kinds of printers, laser cutters, CNC mills, lathes. like We can make stuff out of wood. We can make stuff out of metal. We can do almost anything.
Curt: Um, and she just assumes that's what garages are full of. Cause she hasn't seen garages. She just thinks garages are full of machines and she thinks that everybody has this shit.
jamie peacock: uh,
Curt: So when like i have two girls, um, so yeah, like she's going to go to school and be like, well, why don't you just, why don't you just make that? It's like, well, no, our garage isn't full of crazy shit.
Curt: It's just like, it's just a trippy thing that I'm like, oh yeah, you have your, you know, your experience is like one. So it's just like, oh, this going to be weird. Anyway, it's good. I'm glad.
Ben: Her like projects, her school projects are going to be absolutely wild, right? You're going to be like, we can make that.
Curt: Dude, I'm going have... I'm going to try so hard to stay hands-off for that stuff because like that infuriated me when I was little and I was like, I built a volcano and some kid comes in and is like, oh, your dad built that for you. like That's baloney.
Curt: It's going to be so hard, but i'm going to sit on my hands just watch and be like, yeah, you just sure, tape it together.
Ben: Thank
Curt: Glue, sure. that's you yeah eat Whatever you think.
jamie peacock: I was that family member. there were When I moved to Joburg, there were a bunch of the kind of disconnected nieces and nephews that I ah stayed with their grandmother.
jamie peacock: So then every time they had school projects, Jamie, can you help us with this? Next thing, these arcs have these like fully automatic projects and go to school.
Curt: Oh, so you were that asshole. Yeah.
jamie peacock: I was that asshole. It was great. Yeah.
Curt: That's awesome. That's awesome.
jamie peacock: Yeah, because obviously all the toys. Yeah, that was great fun.
Curt: Exactly. That's a problem.
Ben: I see a billet machined volcano in Kurt's future.
jamie peacock: Oh, sweet.
Ben: That's what I'm saying.
jamie peacock: that'd
Curt: Dude, I'm...
jamie peacock: be so good.
Curt: kind of off topic, but we just had like my, my older one, she's had her preschool graduation. um so i was, they all come up to the microphone and they ask them what they want to be when they grow up and like,
Curt: 80% them were all like firefighter, firefighter, firefighter. It's like, it is funny how the princess and then ah my, my old eldest walked up and she's like, what do you want to be? And she said, astronaut. And I was just like, I was like, Oh, like everyone was just like, well, she wants be an astronaut.
Curt: I just melted. I mean, of course I'm influencing her cause I'm into space and we were watching all this shit. So she thinks it's really cool, but yeah, it just, yeah. Big holding back tears.
Ben: yeah
jamie peacock: yeah that's great ah sweet guys thank you very much for the coming on the episode Ben and to our listeners if you enjoyed the episode
Curt: It was pretty, it was pretty cool. So yeah. Yeah.
Curt: Yeah.
Ben: yeah you
jamie peacock: please consider liking, subscribing, all those things. um If you really enjoyed it, share with someone you think will enjoy it or that won't enjoy it because a Rage Listen is a listen to. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
Ben: um
jamie peacock: If you want audio only, go to Spotify because they're the audio only option on YouTube is too much effort for our lovely producer. I did ask her about it. um Oh, wait, we we skipped a step.
Curt: I was going to say, yeah, we got to plug Ben's shit.
jamie peacock: Where can people find you? Yeah.
Curt: Yeah, for sure.
jamie peacock: Exactly.
Curt: Thank
jamie peacock: yeah We skipped the calls to action. Ben, where can people find you and your things?
Ben: Oh man, I'm really bad at this because anytime I need to get to my website, I literally go to my Instagram and then go to link in bio. So maybe do that. um If you want to get ah
jamie peacock: There will be a link in the show notes.
Curt: but
Ben: Yeah, I made sure to send it to you guys. So there you go. But if you guys ah want to ah get in on like a knife or a drop, I hope to get away from drops eventually.
jamie peacock: Okay.
Curt: thank you
Ben: i don't know if I ever will, but it would be cool to have some in stock. um You can sign up, link in bio in Instagram. That's about all I can help you with ah for email notifications.
Ben: And that's great because I'll send out just one email right before a drop, let you know what's what's going on, what's in there. um And I won't bombard your email, I promise. Sometimes I forget to email you guys. So ah anyway, that's I would say if you if you're trying to find me, Instagram is the best place. But here's the disclaimer.
Ben: I make sharp pointy things and Meta does not like that. So you must type out black fox machining, all one word. You're going to see like a black circle with a little fox logo or whatever. So If you can't find it, just hop on Jamie or Kurt's Instagram and you can you can dig in from there.
Ben: So, yeah, that's me.
Curt: Sick.
jamie peacock: Kurt, where can people find you?
Curt: ConfoundedMachine.com. Links to everywhere else. yeah i don't know. People have heard this a thousand times. so Or maybe you haven't.
jamie peacock: have. Well, they've heard it.
Curt: Maybe this is your first episode. And if it is, thank you for making it this far for your very first. the
jamie peacock: They've made it a maximum of 76 times. um
Curt: Yeah.
jamie peacock: Yeah, you can find all my stuff at jspeceng.com.
Ben: Thank you.
jamie peacock: There's links to everywhere on that landing page now because apparently reading out things for six weeks is boring. Also, the barnacles are now available on nauticalwh.com.
Curt: Exactly.
Curt: Yay.
jamie peacock: Yes.
Curt: Cool.
jamie peacock: Yay. Risers will be added probably by the time this episode comes out. The prices on risers will be on there for a rower and for 52mm. Yes, because
Curt: Sick. Nice.
jamie peacock: those are designed and just need to be machined. But yeah, anyway. Thank you everybody for listening now that it's actually the end of the podcast. um Yes, all the things that I said earlier except better.
jamie peacock: And we'll see you guys next week.
Curt: Yeah, thanks for making time for us, Ben.
Ben: No, of course. was blast. Thanks, guys.
