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Ep. 76: The Billet Volcano Arms Race with Ben from Blackfox
1 Playsin 1 hour
This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie drags Ben from Black Fox Machining into an emergency guest appearance after recent developments sent the machining community into full rumor mode. Running on almost no sleep and questionable amounts of enthusiasm, the guys dive into everything from home-built CNC machines to the strange reality of becoming accidental role models.
Ben shares how a burnt guitar neck, a B-minus shop project, and scavenging parts from scrap bins somehow led to a career in machining. Along the way, the conversation wanders through DIY routers, waterjet shops, engineering school disappointments, and the fine art of becoming a professional shop-floor vulture.
Meanwhile, Curt and Jamie discover that raising children in workshops might create unrealistic expectations. Apparently not every garage contains CNC mills, laser cutters, 3D printers, and enough machinery to casually build a billet volcano for a science fair. Curt nearly melts when his daughter announces she wants to become an astronaut, while Jamie confesses to being that guy who helped nieces and nephews turn ordinary school projects into unfair competitions.
If you've ever rescued expensive components from a scrap bin, worried about accidentally building your kid's science project to aerospace standards, or looked around your workshop and thought, "Wait… normal people don't have this stuff?", this episode is for you.
The Lone Machinist:
- Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
- Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
- Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
- Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists
Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/
Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/
Jamie:
Curt:
Ben:
- https://black-fox-machining.square.site/
- https://www.youtube.com/@blackfoxmachining
- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4Um8tm8DH7WqR94WgeMwjHXlDi9R2GvSe3ayuYfPUHFVreQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0
Recommended
Transcript
Special Guest Ben's Unexpected Appearance
00:00:00
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?
00:00:12
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
00:00:17
jamie peacock
Yes.
00:00:21
jamie peacock
Not honored.
00:00:23
Ben
perfect
00:00:23
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?
00:00:29
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.
00:00:33
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:00:36
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?
00:00:43
jamie peacock
Likewise. I think they're pretty much going to work into the conversation today.
00:00:47
Curt
Probably. Yeah. So anyways, how's your lovely morning coming?
00:00:47
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:00:49
Curt
Very early morning.
00:00:51
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.
00:01:03
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.
00:01:04
Curt
Yeah.
00:01:09
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?
00:01:23
Ben
Oh man, that's super broad. I feel like I don't want to
Ben's Black Fox Machining and Knife Drops
00:01:28
Ben
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.
00:01:33
jamie peacock
Yeah. What's, yeah. What's going on in the world. Yeah.
00:01:37
Curt
Totally, yeah. What's going on in your world?
00:01:39
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.
00:01:57
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.
00:02:12
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.
00:02:19
Curt
Mm-hmm.
00:02:21
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.
00:02:57
Ben
which link in bio in Instagram, I
Travel Plans for IMTS and Exploring Chicago
00:03:00
Ben
don't even know my own URL.
00:03:00
jamie peacock
Yeah, there'll be there'll be a link in the show notes.
00:03:01
Ben
Yeah. yeah i
00:03:05
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.
00:03:16
Ben
Oh yeah, yeah.
00:03:17
jamie peacock
Yes, I'm going to be that side of the world.
00:03:22
jamie peacock
It's going to be it's going to be fun, although now I'm not going to get free lunch.
00:03:22
Curt
Nice.
00:03:25
jamie peacock
But anyway, um Yeah, I'm planning on doing a zigzag from New York up to Chicago. Like the week before IMTS.
00:03:36
Ben
Are going to be in Ohio?
00:03:39
jamie peacock
Most definitely.
00:03:41
Ben
Nice. Well, my shop open.
00:03:42
jamie peacock
Yes, we will.
00:03:44
Ben
You should come come hang out.
00:03:44
jamie peacock
We will chat. Yeah.
00:03:46
Ben
yeah
00:03:47
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.
00:04:04
Curt
Nice.
00:04:05
jamie peacock
It's going to be, yeah, going be lots of fun.
00:04:05
Curt
That'd be fun.
00:04:07
jamie peacock
Yeah. No, it's going to be a draw.
00:04:08
Curt
May as well make it worth your flight.
00:04:08
Ben
And
00:04:10
Curt
Yeah, it's a hell of a fly. Yeah, sorry guys.
00:04:10
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:04:11
jamie peacock
And I'm going to have my emotional support, Kurt, with me, so winning. Yeah.
00:04:11
Curt
Maybe day trip.
00:04:15
Curt
We'll see. Probably but we'll see. we'll see maybe
00:04:18
jamie peacock
Cardboard cutout, Kurt, is what going to be.
00:04:21
Curt
yeah maybe ah maybe a day trip we'll see maybe probably not but we'll see ah
00:04:25
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.
00:04:35
Curt
Oh, nice.
00:04:36
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.
00:04:47
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
00:04:47
Ben
Nice.
00:04:56
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.
The Popularity and Challenges of Black Fox Knives
00:05:06
Curt
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.
00:05:13
Ben
Yeah.
00:05:17
Curt
It's so, they're all well done, but yeah the skeletonized ones get me.
00:05:18
jamie peacock
Yes.
00:05:18
Ben
Oh, thank you.
00:05:21
Curt
They're so pretty.
00:05:22
Ben
That one got snagged by EJ, our good friend.
00:05:25
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.
00:05:26
Curt
Oh, perfect.
00:05:26
Ben
Yeah.
00:05:32
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.
00:05:42
Ben
Yeah.
00:05:43
jamie peacock
and the
00:05:44
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?
00:05:54
Ben
um
00:05:54
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:05:55
Ben
But I want it to be fun and I want to experiment.
00:05:55
Curt
Sure.
00:05:58
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
00:06:30
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.
00:06:39
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.
00:06:39
Curt
Yeah, no, they look awesome. They
00:06:47
Curt
ah
00:06:47
Ben
Hey, you can just stick it to your machine so you never lose it, right?
00:06:51
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:06:51
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.
00:07:04
Ben
Well, this one
Impact of Layoff and Future Opportunities for Ben
00:07:05
Ben
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.
00:07:05
jamie peacock
Nice.
00:07:13
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.
00:07:21
Curt
I think you just get used to it. I think like you totally get used to it too.
00:07:24
Ben
Yeah.
00:07:24
Curt
But I mean, if you're going to compare it with like, uh, like G10 or brass, yeah, it's heinous, but yeah.
00:07:25
Ben
Yeah.
00:07:31
jamie peacock
I
00:07:33
Ben
yeah
00:07:34
jamie peacock
actually saw Tom Ascus at my knife supplier the other day.
00:07:39
Curt
Ooh, fun.
00:07:40
jamie peacock
Yes, it was only like $400 for a piece this big.
00:07:43
Curt
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
00:07:44
jamie peacock
i was like, I kind of want it. But yeah, I restrained myself. Because so it's expensive currently.
00:07:49
Curt
Yeah. There's cool stuff out there. Yeah.
00:07:53
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:07:54
Curt
Anyway.
00:07:54
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.
00:08:01
Ben
Yeah, yeah, there's right now, I think there's a couple that are are still left right now.
00:08:02
Curt
Yeah, it looks like it's awesome.
00:08:02
jamie peacock
because it's a wicked little math. And yeah.
00:08:07
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:08:07
Ben
um
00:08:08
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
00:08:26
Curt
Sure. Hmm.
00:08:39
Ben
just as as many as I can get out.
00:08:40
jamie peacock
Yeah, the one that Curtis
00:08:41
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.
00:08:58
Ben
One that was like the R&D one that I had been using for a while.
00:09:02
jamie peacock
one that cur has got
00:09:03
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.
00:09:16
Curt
Thank you.
00:09:21
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
Machining Techniques and DIY CNC Experiences
00:09:38
Ben
and up two.
00:09:38
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:09:39
Ben
And it's just so enjoyable.
00:09:39
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah. no worries.
00:09:40
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.
00:09:57
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.
00:10:04
Curt
you
00:10:05
jamie peacock
ah norris Yeah, no, they're lovely. I've got six of them on my machine. I love it.
00:10:09
Ben
All right. You have to brag. Oh my goodness.
00:10:13
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.
00:10:33
Ben
Yeah.
00:10:33
jamie peacock
Like that is the that is the intended use case there.
00:10:37
Ben
Well, right before this, so it's it's like 10 p, no, it's like 10.30 my time, roughly.
00:10:37
jamie peacock
Oh, duh.
00:10:38
Curt
so
00:10:44
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.
00:11:01
Ben
And of course this is a podcast, so it's useless to show, but I'll show you guys check it out.
00:11:07
jamie peacock
Nice.
00:11:08
Curt
Mm-hmm.
00:11:08
Ben
I've got a green.
00:11:09
jamie peacock
Yeah, got the linking plate.
00:11:11
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.
00:11:26
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.
00:11:26
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:11:38
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.
00:11:51
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.
00:11:53
Ben
Gotcha.
00:12:01
jamie peacock
And it's been getting worse and worse.
00:12:02
Curt
Hmm.
00:12:02
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.
00:12:12
Ben
Does it still have that internal O-ring? Because I remember having to take mine off because it wasn't like... Okay.
00:12:19
jamie peacock
no that is no longer in there.
00:12:19
Ben
Okay.
00:12:21
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.
00:12:42
Curt
Cool.
00:12:42
Ben
Oh, okay.
00:12:43
Curt
Alan?
00:12:43
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
00:12:54
Ben
I've had no issue mine.
00:12:54
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.
00:13:10
Ben
Oh, okay.
00:13:12
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.
00:13:15
Curt
Or you buy a sharp drill.
00:13:22
Curt
but ah
00:13:24
Ben
My biggest tool is like a quarter inch end mill.
00:13:24
Curt
obvious
00:13:26
Ben
And that's like what I rough with and stuff.
00:13:27
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:13:28
Ben
and
00:13:28
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:13:29
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.
00:13:39
Ben
What was that? Version one, the anchor point version, version three.
00:13:42
jamie peacock
That was version three.
00:13:45
Ben
Okay.
00:13:45
jamie peacock
That was version three, yeah.
00:13:46
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
00:13:53
jamie peacock
Yeah.
Ben's Career Journey in Machining
00:13:54
Ben
inches from the actual.
00:13:58
jamie peacock
This wild.
00:13:59
Ben
I got a lot of, there's some things that you just shouldn't post on Instagram.
00:13:59
jamie peacock
a
00:14:03
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?
00:14:11
jamie peacock
Engagement is engagement. um
00:14:14
Curt
Exactly.
00:14:14
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.
00:14:26
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.
00:14:41
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.
00:14:50
Ben
Yeah, that was terrifying.
00:14:50
jamie peacock
And that's why I went to a three-way one.
00:14:51
Curt
Right, right.
00:14:52
Ben
i had a I had to pull it apart and those dye springs were fighting me.
00:14:52
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:14:55
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:14:56
Ben
ah Yeah.
00:14:57
jamie peacock
Oh, yeah. No, I use a one-time arbor press to assemble it.
00:14:58
Ben
Thanks.
00:14:59
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:15:00
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.
00:15:11
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.
00:15:15
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:15:18
Ben
And it was those dive springs that were about boom, pop.
00:15:19
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:15:21
Ben
Yeah.
00:15:23
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.
00:15:31
Ben
They're great.
00:15:32
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.
00:15:45
jamie peacock
So I'm just gonna make little billets, trunnion pallets.
00:15:46
Ben
Oh.
00:15:50
jamie peacock
So yeah, I've got a couple little copper jobs that I do that that would be useful for.
00:15:50
Ben
Love that.
00:15:56
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?
00:16:06
Ben
applying for jobs.
00:16:08
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.
00:16:15
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?
00:16:24
Curt
Sure.
00:16:27
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.
00:16:33
Curt
oh No doubt.
00:16:36
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.
00:17:04
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.
00:17:26
Ben
just because, you know, taking care of my family is first and foremost, the most important thing. um
00:17:32
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:17:32
Ben
But I did even think about reaching out to AJ and get on like some subtract of deals and stuff.
00:17:38
Curt
Mm. Suck.
00:17:41
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.
00:17:55
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.
00:18:11
Ben
Yeah.
00:18:12
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.
00:18:12
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:20
Curt
But i I think it's a wise decision to like apply for something,
Balancing Work and Family Life
00:18:23
Curt
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.
00:18:30
Curt
And like, that's sometimes not the best way to like move forward.
00:18:31
Ben
Yes.
00:18:35
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.
00:18:55
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,
00:18:59
Curt
Yeah.
00:19:04
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.
00:19:17
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.
00:19:27
Curt
yeah or
00:19:31
Ben
That's, yeah, that's where we're at, so.
00:19:34
jamie peacock
Yeah, it makes sense to go.
00:19:35
Curt
No.
00:19:35
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.
00:19:43
Ben
Yeah, turns out startups are not stable, but i
00:19:47
jamie peacock
Yeah, well.
00:19:49
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.
00:19:51
jamie peacock
Yes.
00:20:01
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.
00:20:12
jamie peacock
That is, yeah.
00:20:12
Ben
and That's really what gets me excited.
00:20:14
Ben
So, yeah. um
00:20:16
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.
00:20:32
jamie peacock
Speak to this person. Let them ponder on it before they go to their boss. And it's driving her freaking insane
Jamie's Shop Updates and Logistical Challenges
00:20:38
jamie peacock
because she's used to just move past and break ship.
00:20:39
Ben
Yeah. I'm surprised she worked that long with you, man.
00:20:43
Curt
Yeah.
00:20:45
Ben
That's that's a testament testament to her.
00:20:48
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.
00:20:49
Curt
yeah
00:20:55
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.
00:21:07
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.
00:21:13
Ben
Thank you.
00:21:15
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.
00:21:32
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.
00:21:45
Ben
um much How much love is your slow-yo getting these days?
00:21:45
Curt
Nice.
00:21:46
jamie peacock
But yeah, he's Yeah.
00:21:49
Ben
Because I remember the slow-yo days. that's That's like when we met, Jamie.
00:21:52
jamie peacock
Dude.
00:21:54
Ben
That's...
00:21:54
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.
00:22:07
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.
00:22:22
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.
00:22:38
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.
00:22:46
Ben
Gotcha. Yeah, I had to ask.
00:22:47
jamie peacock
Yeah, so.
00:22:48
Ben
Right now I'm staring at my NASVFNOW.
00:22:51
jamie peacock
The NAS.
00:22:52
Ben
Yeah. and
00:22:53
Curt
was just going
Building Machine Enclosures and Spindle Gripping
00:22:54
Curt
to ask, yeah.
00:22:54
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
00:22:55
Curt
okay
00:22:58
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:23:21
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.
00:23:41
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.
00:23:56
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.
00:24:04
Curt
Thank you.
00:24:07
Ben
And I feel so bad.
00:24:07
jamie peacock
So yeah, but that's because the Sile X7 is easy mode.
00:24:13
jamie peacock
You don't have to chase sizes on things like, I mean, i ran 80 parts the other night on the LK.
00:24:13
Ben
It is.
00:24:13
Ben
Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:21
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.
00:24:32
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.
00:24:47
Curt
Nice.
00:24:48
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.
00:24:53
Ben
Yeah.
00:24:57
Ben
Yeah. Yeah. used my wife's cricket and had to brand it.
00:24:59
jamie peacock
The good old days.
00:25:03
Ben
It's it's pretty fun. i even tagged Haas in it too.
00:25:04
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:25:06
Ben
So yeah.
00:25:09
Curt
yeah
00:25:10
Ben
Those were the days though.
00:25:11
jamie peacock
Kurt, when lost it win last did your machine turn on, Kurt?
00:25:17
Curt
I use it to square up a fixture block. So I think it turned on like a couple months ago.
00:25:23
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.
00:25:32
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.
00:25:43
jamie peacock
That is about all it gets used for these days.
00:25:47
Curt
Nice. Nice.
00:25:47
Ben
Yes.
00:25:48
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.
00:26:01
jamie peacock
So i just ordered flat, guillotined, half millimeter gale plate.
00:26:01
Curt
Oh.
00:26:06
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.
00:26:20
jamie peacock
And the slowio that has holes in it.
00:26:21
Curt
Yeah. That's a good idea.
00:26:23
jamie peacock
They're either lathes or enclosures I built.
00:26:23
Curt
Yeah. Nice.
00:26:29
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.
00:26:38
Ben
Mine's still painted plywood held together with ah wood screws, ah hinges, and tape. So, I mean, ghetto as it gets.
00:26:49
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.
00:27:02
jamie peacock
And it leaks.
00:27:02
Ben
Yeah.
00:27:04
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.
00:27:11
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.
00:27:15
Ben
Yes.
00:27:18
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.
00:27:28
Curt
But yeah, so enclosure design is is in itself. So yeah.
00:27:33
jamie peacock
it's Ah, it's a proper challenge.
00:27:36
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.
00:27:37
jamie peacock
Sorry, just make sure.
00:27:39
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:27:50
jamie peacock
I remember when you built it.
00:27:51
Ben
Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:52
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:27:52
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.
00:27:59
Curt
You
00:28:02
Ben
And then you just sniff all those fumes and you're just like, what am I doing with my life?
00:28:07
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.
00:28:23
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.
00:28:38
Curt
Yeah, fair.
00:28:38
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.
00:28:54
jamie peacock
um And I think it's close to 15,000 of them that ran on that machine.
00:29:01
Ben
Yeah, my little homemade machine hasn't been turned on in two years helped fund and pay the pay for the X7.
00:29:01
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:29:07
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:29:09
Ben
So it's it's hard to like say that it was the
Podcasting, Community, and Workshop Improvements
00:29:13
Ben
wrong decision. I mean, it was definitely bootstrapper mode. And um would I do it again? Well, I don't know.
00:29:22
jamie peacock
Probably.
00:29:22
Ben
Probably not.
00:29:24
Ben
it
00:29:24
Curt
the
00:29:27
Curt
Yeah.
00:29:28
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.
00:29:33
Ben
you.
00:29:37
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.
00:29:52
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
00:30:23
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.
00:30:37
Ben
Oh my gosh.
00:30:37
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...
00:30:45
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?
00:30:46
Curt
ah
00:31:00
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...
00:31:11
Ben
You were just saying how hot it was getting over there.
00:31:12
Curt
i
00:31:13
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.
00:31:25
Curt
Okay. Yeah.
00:31:31
Ben
Definitely get one that control with your iPhone.
00:31:31
Curt
Okay.
00:31:33
Ben
You can turn it on anywhere. It's amazing. So, yeah.
00:31:37
jamie peacock
Nice.
00:31:38
Ben
Yeah, that was that was my commercial. You've got to get one if you don't have one yet.
00:31:43
Curt
ah That's awesome. Yeah, I have a...
00:31:46
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.
00:31:57
jamie peacock
So we'll see. That might happen.
00:32:01
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...
00:32:13
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.
00:32:23
Curt
So yeah, but I just yeah i just remember seeing you in your little foam box and that just that makes...
00:32:27
jamie peacock
Oh, yes.
00:32:30
Curt
It still brings a smile to my face.
00:32:30
Ben
Yeah.
00:32:32
Curt
hu
00:32:33
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.
00:32:45
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.
00:32:51
Curt
this is
00:32:53
jamie peacock
But yeah, sorry, yeah you're saying your your fancy cooler box.
00:32:57
Ben
No, it wasn't a cooler box. It was ah a heater box, right?
00:32:59
jamie peacock
Well, a heater box.
00:33:01
Curt
Yeah, it was a hot box.
00:33:01
Ben
So when we literally the hot box is what I, what I called it.
00:33:03
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:33:06
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.
00:33:18
Ben
What's that?
00:33:20
jamie peacock
Wasn't me. there we go.
00:33:23
Ben
Did I drop out?
00:33:24
jamie peacock
I know, you throw it. It's fine, done, right? It'll have recorded on your end, so don't stress.
00:33:28
Ben
Oh, cool. I was just gonna say, when moved to this property, had kind of a nasty pole barn.
Unique Workshop Features and Business Expansion
00:33:35
Ben
There was no insulation or anything like that. It was just kind of what you would think of as just a ah pole barn.
00:33:41
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.
00:33:56
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.
00:34:18
Ben
And it was on the entire winter. I never turned it off and it kept at almost 40 degrees.
00:34:25
Curt
Oh, did we actually lose him now?
00:34:27
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.
00:34:36
Ben
Yeah.
00:34:38
jamie peacock
We'll catch it. We'll catch it when we listen to the episode this week.
00:34:43
Curt
Yeah. Sorry, folks. We don't know. We just assume that this recorded locally on his end.
00:34:46
jamie peacock
Yeah,
00:34:46
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.
00:34:52
jamie peacock
there we go. Yeah, the hotbox was great.
00:34:58
Curt
Oh, we might have lost him again.
00:34:59
jamie peacock
We've lost me. like I'm gonna pause so we can try and get them back properly.
00:35:00
Curt
Okay.
00:35:05
jamie peacock
There we go. We back with ah Ben and his startled internet. Yeah,
00:35:11
jamie peacock
I got was pretty much ready. 11 o'clock and the internet cut out.
00:35:17
Curt
Yeah. It's all the saw the illicit movie watching that's crushing the internet.
00:35:18
jamie peacock
Yeah, that's it.
00:35:22
jamie peacock
There we go.
00:35:23
Curt
ah
00:35:23
jamie peacock
yes
00:35:26
jamie peacock
um yeah so your workshop has the best feature ever i kind of want a slide in my workshop
00:35:27
Curt
Ah.
00:35:34
Ben
Yeah, it's still there.
00:35:34
Curt
slide.
00:35:35
Ben
It's it's very half-baked.
00:35:36
Curt
Oh.
00:35:37
Ben
Yeah, i can show you guys here. Watch.
00:35:39
jamie peacock
yeah yeah
00:35:40
Ben
Right there.
00:35:42
Curt
Ooh.
00:35:42
Ben
That's for the kids.
00:35:43
Curt
All right.
00:35:43
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.
00:36:05
Curt
who
00:36:07
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.
00:36:14
Curt
yeah
00:36:15
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.
00:36:28
Ben
Yeah.
00:36:29
Curt
so awesome.
00:36:31
Ben
yeah
00:36:31
jamie peacock
You built that whole upstairs in your shop, eh?
00:36:35
Ben
Yeah, yeah, so, yep, empty barn.
00:36:35
jamie peacock
It was just an empty barn when you moved.
00:36:38
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.
00:36:48
jamie peacock
Wow.
00:36:56
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.
00:37:05
Curt
you
00:37:08
Curt
okay
00:37:11
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.
00:37:39
Ben
And you like my conversions? I can't tell if Kurt's laughing or not. ah Yeah.
00:37:43
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:37:44
Curt
Yeah, no, they're fantastic. yeah
00:37:47
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.
00:38:07
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.
00:38:15
jamie peacock
Yeah, very nice. That
00:38:18
Ben
so
00:38:23
jamie peacock
and us
00:38:23
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.
00:38:30
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.
00:38:48
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.
00:39:01
Curt
That's awesome.
00:39:01
jamie peacock
Yeah, that's my my plan for today was to frame out the office at the new shop.
00:39:02
Curt
Hmm.
00:39:06
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.
00:39:09
Ben
Thank you.
00:39:12
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
00:39:27
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.
00:39:35
Curt
Well,
00:39:38
Curt
when you come up to IMTS, just bring some home with you.
00:39:40
jamie peacock
There we go. Yeah, I'll put them in my interview.
00:39:43
Curt
Carry on. Yeah.
00:39:44
jamie peacock
Yeah, there we go. Yeah, I know we're busy with building our office upstairs.
00:39:47
Ben
Thank you.
00:39:49
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.
00:40:00
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.
00:40:12
Curt
Nice.
00:40:12
jamie peacock
As one does.
00:40:19
jamie peacock
I'm kind of curious about Kurt's topics for this week.
00:40:21
Ben
Thank you.
00:40:21
jamie peacock
We're going to shift gears a bit and quickly cover our topics, Kurt.
00:40:25
Curt
Oh, okay. Well, I will fly through these really quick.
00:40:29
jamie peacock
What is the first one? I need to know. no
00:40:31
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.
00:40:43
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.
00:40:49
jamie peacock
Oh, that's cool.
00:40:50
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.
00:41:02
Ben
Thank you.
00:41:09
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.
00:41:17
jamie peacock
ah that's cool
00:41:18
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.
00:41:29
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.
00:41:38
Ben
Thank you.
00:41:40
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.
00:41:47
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:41:49
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.
00:42:00
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.
00:42:11
Curt
um But yeah, I got all kinds of cool suggestions. But one of my favorites
00:42:14
Ben
Thank you.
00:42:15
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.
00:42:25
Curt
The cum blast finish. So it probably won't be that one, but it might be.
00:42:27
jamie peacock
ah love it.
00:42:31
Curt
um
00:42:31
jamie peacock
I think it needs to be that one.
00:42:33
Curt
ah And then...
00:42:34
jamie peacock
ah That's brilliant.
00:42:35
Curt
ah I ordered a bunch of custom springs for the little fidget.
00:42:39
jamie peacock
Ooh.
00:42:40
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.
00:42:46
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:42:49
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.
00:43:11
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:43:12
Curt
um So we'll see if those work.
00:43:12
jamie peacock
Very nice.
00:43:14
Curt
And ah in the meantime of this, I'm going to work on that. I'm working on the fidget next week.
Future Plans and Technological Strategies
00:43:18
Curt
um And i was like, oh, I'd love to do production as well.
00:43:19
Ben
Thank you.
00:43:20
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.
00:43:36
Ben
Thank you.
00:43:37
Curt
So yeah, to do that next week. So yeah, zero point is my new religion.
00:43:41
jamie peacock
There we go. You finally joined the cult. ah
00:43:44
Curt
Dude, I see the light. I see the light.
00:43:46
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.
00:44:04
jamie peacock
So I'm booking riggers for the 17th. The LK is booked out until the seventeenth
00:44:11
jamie peacock
I'm decommissioning on the evening of the 16th. Like, I have work on the machine until then.
00:44:11
Curt
Awesome.
00:44:17
jamie peacock
I've got a customer who phoned me, oh, those big rings you're doing, can you please finish the order?
00:44:17
Ben
Yeah.
00:44:17
Ben
Yeah.
00:44:21
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.
00:44:32
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.
00:44:59
jamie peacock
So it's going to be a busy, busy morning. And then, yeah, spindle gripping is magic.
00:45:02
Curt
Nice.
00:45:05
jamie peacock
Quite literally.
00:45:07
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.
00:45:07
Curt
I watched that story, yeah.
00:45:13
Ben
All right.
00:45:19
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.
00:45:29
jamie peacock
And a chip got stuck on the tip of the drill and I thought of it broke it longer. Yeah.
00:45:36
Curt
Right.
00:45:36
jamie peacock
So the tool was out of tolerance.
00:45:36
Curt
Right.
00:45:38
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.
00:45:49
Curt
ah
00:45:50
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.
00:45:59
Curt
That's awesome. Right, right.
00:46:01
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.
00:46:19
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.
00:46:20
Ben
Thank you.
00:46:28
jamie peacock
But that's future Jamie's problems. But yeah, spindle gripping is magic.
00:46:32
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,
00:46:39
jamie peacock
Yeah, it's got tool brake detector.
00:46:40
Curt
yeah
00:46:41
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.
00:46:51
Curt
That's
00:46:51
jamie peacock
Oh no, I have a spare cylinder for the gripper. Like it's really not the end of the world.
00:46:57
Curt
too scary for me.
00:46:58
jamie peacock
Nah.
00:46:58
Curt
Too scary.
00:46:59
jamie peacock
I don't. We've got... to I like spindle gripping stuff. It's yeah super...
00:47:02
Ben
Thank you.
00:47:05
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.
00:47:18
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.
00:47:27
Curt
Cool, cool.
00:47:30
Curt
yeah
00:47:32
jamie peacock
Like, oh, that, that story, ah not story, the real I posted has got a lot of engagement.
00:47:32
Ben
Yeah, it's a
00:47:36
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.
00:47:45
Curt
And it's true. Yeah.
00:47:50
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.
00:47:50
jamie peacock
I'm like, oh, that's it.
00:47:51
Curt
No, no doubt.
00:47:58
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:58
jamie peacock
Yeah,
00:47:59
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.
00:48:15
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.
00:48:21
jamie peacock
exactly
00:48:22
Ben
right Yeah, that's so nice.
00:48:25
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.
00:48:37
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.
00:48:49
jamie peacock
Once with the one minute cycle and once with the two minute cycle, it was horrible.
00:48:56
jamie peacock
not my dear of fun, especially now that I was going to but I really don't want to do it.
00:48:56
Curt
Yeah.
00:49:02
Curt
the Yeah, exactly.
00:49:03
jamie peacock
It was bad enough before. Yeah, um yeah what was a thing?
00:49:12
Curt
Cool.
00:49:14
jamie peacock
Yeah, Ben, did you get any questions in on your story that you posted?
00:49:18
Ben
Yeah, 2SM performance. Oh, shoot.
00:49:22
jamie peacock
john.
00:49:22
Ben
One second, let me grab it ah
00:49:25
jamie peacock
No stress. Ah, okay.
00:49:27
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.
00:49:35
jamie peacock
okay
00:49:37
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.
00:49:49
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.
00:50:00
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.
00:50:12
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.
00:50:26
Ben
And yeah, I...
00:50:28
Curt
Mm-hmm.
00:50:29
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.
00:50:47
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.
00:51:04
Ben
on And like this,
00:51:06
Curt
ah
00:51:06
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.
00:51:27
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.
00:51:45
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.
00:51:54
Curt
ye Yeah.
00:51:55
Ben
Do you guys remember it? Oh man.
00:51:56
jamie peacock
Yeah. Oh, yes.
00:51:58
Curt
ah
00:52:02
Ben
What's that?
00:52:02
Curt
I was just gonna I just gonna mention that look at Oh, we got some leg.
00:52:02
Ben
Yeah.
00:52:07
jamie peacock
Well, I carry on there, Coach.
00:52:13
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.
00:52:21
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
00:52:33
Curt
Mm-hmm.
00:52:36
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.
00:53:06
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.
00:53:17
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.
00:53:33
Ben
um Yeah, and that's kind of how I got all my jobs.
00:53:36
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.
00:53:51
jamie peacock
It might be kind of cool to show.
00:53:57
Ben
Yeah, I love that. I feel like...
00:53:58
Curt
Yeah.
00:53:59
Ben
um what was that probably uh, yeah, five to eight years ago or so everybody was kind of getting into the DIY.
00:54:09
Ben
Like we wanted something more than 3d printer.
00:54:09
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:54:13
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,
00:54:27
Ben
the same area trying to do something crazy like build a CNC machine. So, yeah.
00:54:35
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.
00:54:47
Ben
Yeah, but I will say, 7, I was, like, before Titans, um i said well, Servin Solutions, this is their style.
00:54:49
Curt
Yeah, no.
00:54:59
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...
00:55:00
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:55:09
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:55:12
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.
00:55:20
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:55:23
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.
00:55:35
jamie peacock
Like, yeah, actual industrial machines, not running dovetails.
00:55:36
Curt
Yeah.
00:55:40
Ben
Yeah.
00:55:41
Curt
Exactly. Yeah.
00:55:42
jamie peacock
Yeah,
00:55:44
Curt
That's awesome.
00:55:45
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.
00:56:01
Ben
let's Let's just not talk about it
00:56:04
jamie peacock
Yeah, no, we don't we don't do that maths.
00:56:06
Curt
yeah
00:56:06
jamie peacock
It makes us sad. Yeah.
00:56:10
jamie peacock
No, that maths makes us very sad.
00:56:10
Curt
That's what...
00:56:10
Ben
it.
00:56:11
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:56:13
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.
00:56:23
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.
00:56:29
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:56:32
Curt
So I'm just like, no, and no one's going to pay $10,000 for a hobby mill. So and anyway, yeah.
00:56:39
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.
00:56:47
Ben
Thank you.
00:56:49
jamie peacock
It's useful every now and again.
00:56:51
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.
00:56:52
Curt
Yeah, exactly.
00:57:06
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,
00:57:08
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:57:20
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.
00:57:31
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.
00:57:42
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.
00:57:51
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:57:55
Ben
So it's just
00:57:56
jamie peacock
Oh, yeah.
00:58:01
Ben
like, how do you sell that to somebody?
00:58:01
jamie peacock
That's brilliant.
00:58:05
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:58:06
Curt
du So true. Yeah. It's just like, that's the thing is,
00:58:08
jamie peacock
Yeah, the the um solutions you come up with that work for you don't really work for other people.
00:58:17
Curt
Yeah, that's what I was just going to say is like you build these like same thing.
00:58:18
Ben
thank
00:58:21
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.
00:58:34
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.
00:58:45
jamie peacock
to think what I was doing with it was you had to like hit something and then everything worked.
00:58:46
Curt
Yeah.
00:58:49
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.
00:58:56
Ben
yeah
00:58:59
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.
00:59:06
Curt
Right.
00:59:08
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.
00:59:09
Curt
Totally. Yeah.
00:59:15
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.
00:59:27
Curt
Hmm.
00:59:29
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.
00:59:42
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.
00:59:54
Curt
Nice.
00:59:57
Curt
Yeah.
00:59:58
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.
01:00:08
Curt
Yeah.
01:00:09
Ben
Thank you.
01:00:11
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.
01:00:23
Curt
Cool.
01:00:25
jamie peacock
Um, what is in your guys' Google boxes?
01:00:31
Curt
Ben, do you want to lead us off?
01:00:33
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.
01:00:56
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.
01:00:57
jamie peacock
you you
01:01:04
Ben
But, yeah, sorry, I don't have anything exciting.
01:01:10
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.
01:01:21
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?
01:01:30
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.
01:01:45
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.
01:02:04
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.
01:02:19
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?
01:02:34
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
01:03:08
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
01:04:04
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.
01:04:15
jamie peacock
technical sales position.
01:04:17
Ben
Yeah. Yeah. which
01:04:19
Curt
Yeah. No, that, that answered perfectly. Yeah.
01:04:22
Ben
Yeah. Cool.
01:04:24
Curt
So folks out there, if that's what you're looking for, hit up Mr. Ben.
01:04:31
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:04:34
Curt
All right, master Jamie, what's in your Google boxes? You're taking a drink of water.
01:04:38
jamie peacock
Uh, yeah, dungeon crawler call, checking the book order because they're not labeled properly.
01:04:41
Ben
Yes.
01:04:43
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.
01:04:59
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.
01:05:07
Curt
Oh, smart. Yeah. Good thinking.
01:05:08
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.
01:05:09
Curt
Yeah.
01:05:16
jamie peacock
So exciting stuff.
01:05:16
Curt
Cool.
01:05:17
Curt
Yeah.
01:05:18
jamie peacock
And it's familiar.
01:05:19
Curt
Yeah. My sim. My Google box isn't crazy. That dirty little zine that's in there.
01:05:24
Ben
Thank you.
01:05:26
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.
01:05:36
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:05:37
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.
01:05:48
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.
01:05:56
jamie peacock
Ah, okay.
01:05:58
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.
01:06:05
jamie peacock
Was that... that wasn't Wasn't that the podcast? No dumb questions that did that.
01:06:09
Curt
Or sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:06:09
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:06:10
Curt
No dumb questions. My mistake.
01:06:11
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:06:12
Curt
That's what it was.
01:06:12
jamie peacock
NDQ.
01:06:12
Curt
Yeah. I like that one.
01:06:13
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:06:14
Curt
Yeah, lots of cool, cool drinks there.
01:06:14
jamie peacock
I haven't been listening to them lately.
01:06:17
Curt
Nor have I, but I did in the past.
01:06:18
jamie peacock
Yeah. nothing' Nothing they've done has really caught my attention. Okay.
01:06:25
Curt
Yeah, I just kind of fell out of favor and
01:06:26
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.
01:06:33
Curt
I know I've walked in a complete silence for a few nights now because i'm just like, yeah.
01:06:38
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:06:39
Curt
Anyways.
01:06:39
jamie peacock
No podcasts. There was no parts to department this week either.
01:06:43
Curt
Bummer.
01:06:44
jamie peacock
Yeah, know. Consistency, guys. Consistency. You're ruining my train enthusiasm here.
01:06:52
jamie peacock
It's the thing.
01:06:52
Curt
So.
01:06:54
jamie peacock
Sorry. There we go. Yes. What are you guys up to tomorrow?
Weekend Plans and Personal Reflections
01:06:59
Curt
Or next week in your case, Ben, or however long you want to be because...
01:07:03
Ben
think tomorrow
01:07:03
Curt
you You don't have to do this again in a week. So you could say whatever you want.
01:07:08
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.
01:07:13
Curt
Right.
01:07:23
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.
01:07:40
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.
01:07:54
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.
01:08:07
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.
01:08:27
jamie peacock
It's enough. It's sharp. Don't be an idiot.
01:08:31
Curt
How about you, Master Jamie? What's your today looking like?
01:08:33
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.
01:08:46
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.
01:09:02
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.
01:09:14
Curt
It's a big table.
01:09:17
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.
01:09:27
Curt
awesome.
01:09:27
jamie peacock
It's going to be fun. Now, what are you up tomorrow, Kurt?
01:09:32
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
01:09:38
jamie peacock
Nice. Yep.
01:09:56
Ben
How old are your rats?
01:09:56
jamie peacock
Sunday family day yeah
01:10:00
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.
01:10:11
Curt
So i props to you because that's ah that's a dangerous proposition to jump into. ah Oh.
01:10:18
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.
01:10:29
Curt
Yeah.
01:10:30
Ben
It's just like, yeah, being outnumbered is wild thing.
01:10:31
Curt
and
01:10:33
Ben
Yeah.
01:10:34
jamie peacock
My wife went with with her brother and her and his two boys to the air show to asesher yesterday.
01:10:35
Curt
i
01:10:41
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.
01:10:52
jamie peacock
Like, turn your back and next thing, there's rocks being thrown at cars and shit.
01:10:52
Curt
Nice.
01:10:56
jamie peacock
Like, they are savages.
01:11:00
jamie peacock
So it should be...
01:11:00
Ben
You know, what is super fun though, is having them at least be exposed to this.
01:11:01
Curt
Yeah.
01:11:01
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:11:05
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.
01:11:20
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.
01:11:27
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.
01:11:35
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.
01:11:52
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.
01:12:00
jamie peacock
uh,
01:12:02
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.
01:12:12
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.
01:12:22
Ben
Her like projects, her school projects are going to be absolutely wild, right? You're going to be like, we can make that.
01:12:28
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.
01:12:41
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.
01:12:45
Ben
Thank
01:12:46
Curt
Glue, sure. that's you yeah eat Whatever you think.
01:12:47
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.
01:12:58
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.
01:13:05
Curt
Oh, so you were that asshole. Yeah.
01:13:07
jamie peacock
I was that asshole. It was great. Yeah.
01:13:11
Curt
That's awesome. That's awesome.
01:13:12
jamie peacock
Yeah, because obviously all the toys. Yeah, that was great fun.
01:13:16
Curt
Exactly. That's a problem.
01:13:18
Ben
I see a billet machined volcano in Kurt's future.
01:13:19
jamie peacock
Oh, sweet.
01:13:25
Ben
That's what I'm saying.
01:13:26
jamie peacock
that'd
01:13:29
Curt
Dude, I'm...
01:13:29
jamie peacock
be so good.
01:13:31
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,
01:13:43
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.
01:13:56
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.
01:14:04
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
01:14:04
Ben
yeah
01:14:05
Curt
It was pretty, it was pretty cool. So yeah. Yeah.
01:14:14
Curt
Yeah.
01:14:14
Ben
yeah you
01:14:18
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.
01:14:30
Ben
um
01:14:31
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.
Finding Ben and Kurt Online
01:14:42
jamie peacock
Where can people find you? Yeah.
01:14:42
Curt
I was going to say, yeah, we got to plug Ben's shit.
01:14:45
Curt
Yeah, for sure.
01:14:46
jamie peacock
Exactly.
01:14:46
Curt
Thank
01:14:46
jamie peacock
yeah We skipped the calls to action. Ben, where can people find you and your things?
01:14:51
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
01:15:03
jamie peacock
There will be a link in the show notes.
01:15:03
Curt
but
01:15:05
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.
01:15:10
jamie peacock
Okay.
01:15:11
Curt
thank you
01:15:18
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.
01:15:29
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.
01:15:52
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.
01:16:12
Ben
So, yeah, that's me.
01:16:17
Curt
Sick.
01:16:17
jamie peacock
Kurt, where can people find you?
01:16:20
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.
01:16:26
jamie peacock
have. Well, they've heard it.
01:16:27
Curt
Maybe this is your first episode. And if it is, thank you for making it this far for your very first. the
01:16:32
jamie peacock
They've made it a maximum of 76 times. um
01:16:36
Curt
Yeah.
01:16:36
jamie peacock
Yeah, you can find all my stuff at jspeceng.com.
01:16:40
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.
01:16:40
Ben
Thank you.
01:16:46
Curt
Exactly.
01:16:50
Curt
Yay.
01:16:51
jamie peacock
Yes.
01:16:52
Curt
Cool.
01:16:52
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
01:17:01
Curt
Sick. Nice.
01:17:02
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.
01:17:13
jamie peacock
And we'll see you guys next week.
01:17:16
Curt
Yeah, thanks for making time for us, Ben.
01:17:19
Ben
No, of course. was blast. Thanks, guys.