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Ep. 40: Fine, I’ll Do It Myself with Noddy’s Performance
223 Plays7 days ago
Join Curt and Jamie as they pick the brain of the man behind Noddy’s Performance Products.
The Lone Machinist:
- Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
- Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
- Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists
Jamie:
Curt:
Noddy’s Performance:
- Noddy’s Performance Products: https://www.noddysperformance.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noddysperformance/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noddysperformance
Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Loan Machinist Podcast
00:00:13
jamie peacock
Welcome to the Loan Machinist podcast, where it's just ah you, your machine, and the work. I'm Jamie from JSpec Engineering. And today, we've got Kurt as usual, as well as Noddy from Noddy's Performance Parts, or Noddy Performance.
00:00:26
jamie peacock
He makes jet ski things, and that's really cool. So how are you guys doing today?
00:00:31
Curt
Oh yeah.
00:00:31
Noddy
I'm good, how are you?
00:00:32
Curt
I'm
00:00:32
jamie peacock
There we go.
00:00:35
Curt
say this is going to be like a game of like all talking over each other. Cause I think we're all on three opposite sides of the world. Um, so I appreciate you making time for us.
00:00:41
Noddy
Yeah.
00:00:41
jamie peacock
yeah
00:00:42
Curt
Um, but yeah, it's, I'm super excited to get to chat with you. If people haven't looked you up, go find his Instagram. Cause you're doing some super, yeah, super, super cool work on a very small mill.
00:00:49
jamie peacock
there will be a link.
00:00:55
Curt
And like, I wouldn't have expected you can make half the things that you're making on that. So that, that blows my mind. And I'd, Yeah, there's questions that are going
Noddy's Journey into Jet Ski Parts
00:01:02
Curt
relate to that. so But yeah, if you want to...
00:01:03
Noddy
It might be a little bit of a little bit of too dumb to say no to the job and smart enough to figure it out as I go.
00:01:11
Curt
It's awesome. That's awesome. i mean like what what i mean, you can cover as much of your story as you want here. So ah what what is Naughty Performance? And yeah, tell us about you. Tell us about your wares.
00:01:22
Noddy
and Pretty much I like had started um just fixing jet skis. It was just an obsession to go jet skiing myself, and this is free ride jet skiing, so not like you sit down skis, go out and stand up, skirt and surf, do flips and rolls and break a lot of stuff.
00:01:39
Curt
Yeah. OK.
00:01:41
Noddy
So I'd actually gotten a job overseas, and I'd actually gone and um i was in china so i was like oh this is you know can sort of start manufacturing and i started just doing design and getting all made there and pretty much got it was doing a little bit and i was just sort of getting issues with um the likes of like they weren't doing to the quality i wanted so then id had gotten um
00:02:06
Curt
okay
00:02:10
Noddy
you through COVID it got even harder. I couldn't make, couldn get couldn't get the stuff even made, let alone to the quality I wanted. So I thought I'll buy my own manual mill, manual lath, and I'll be able to do the prototyping, get it to the stand I want, and then send them a picture or whatever. Like, this is what I really want you to do.
00:02:28
Noddy
and what a couple a little opti mill converted cnc will will come up for sale i'm like i'll just get that and then that pretty much turned everything into ah can make this all myself i don't need to outsource anything and then it sort of all just turned on its heads to just now i just try and make everything i can and yeah do it on a machine i probably shouldn't be doing it on
00:02:34
Curt
it Yeah.
Manufacturing in Australia
00:02:50
Curt
thoughts So you're passionate, obviously, about jet skiing. And like were you making these parts for yourself initially, or were you making them for sale? OK.
00:02:59
Noddy
Yeah, pretty much every product that I've had has started from the need that I have needed that part to start with.
00:03:07
Noddy
Or I've just got some mates that are like, I need this part and they can't get it all otherwise or it's really expensive made by somebody else. So I've been able to work out ways to make it a bit cheaper and and sort of...
00:03:07
Curt
okay
00:03:19
Curt
Right.
00:03:19
Noddy
and And within Australia too, is getting everything from outside the country. So being able to make everything in Australia is really to support our sport within the country.
00:03:30
Noddy
And now we're sort of starting to ship a bit more and more.
00:03:30
Curt
right
00:03:33
Noddy
Just sort of started getting bigger and bigger in the US and then we get hit with tariffs.
00:03:37
Curt
Well, that's that's kind what I was interested too. I'm like, how much of your market is local and how much of your market is worldwide? Because I mean, some of your products would lend well to to shipping across the world. And some of them, like your your hyper engine that you're making or like the the block for it, I imagine that would be a little annoying to ship across across the world.
00:03:48
Noddy
Hmm.
00:03:53
Noddy
Yeah, I haven't quite got the right quotes for it yet on how much it's going to cost the ship. But the silly thing is the crankshafts are like made in Taiwan. So we're shipping the crank from Taiwan into Australia and then shipping it out.
00:04:05
Curt
Right.
00:04:05
Noddy
So sort of in the end, long run, would probably actually ship the motors out in pieces because in America and Europe, they're going to have the crankshaft already and they can just build the engine themselves.
00:04:11
Curt
Okay.
00:04:16
Noddy
And the motor was built around using Honda CR500 pistons that aren't modified.
00:04:20
Curt
Okay.
00:04:21
Noddy
So you can get them all over the world as well.
00:04:23
Curt
Oh, cool.
00:04:24
Noddy
I've only got to send some of the parts yeah
00:04:24
Curt
Cool.
00:04:27
Curt
Yeah, that's that's awesome. I was i like surprised how compact that is, but I'm like, I guess jet ski, like you're you're trying to make everything as light and as small as you can, especially for the type of skiing you're doing or whatever the correct terminology is.
00:04:34
Noddy
yeah
00:04:39
Noddy
out. Yeah.
00:04:40
Curt
It's
00:04:40
Noddy
Yeah, the skis are virtually the size of a surfboard, a small surfboard.
00:04:43
Curt
Yeah, it's insane. Yeah.
00:04:44
Noddy
Yeah.
00:04:45
Curt
Oh, wild. Yeah.
00:04:47
Noddy
Yeah.
00:04:48
Curt
That's so cool.
Challenges in CNC Milling
00:04:49
Curt
ah So you mentioned that you converted your ah little OptiMill or like basically a little benchtop machine. um Were you using...
00:04:58
Noddy
I had bought it board it converted. Yeah.
00:05:01
Curt
Oh, okay.
00:05:02
Noddy
So it just popped up. I didn't, I wasn't even looking for a CNC.
00:05:05
Noddy
I had been running, I was actually had a job running a CNC router at the time and I was just doing plastic and foam, basic stuff.
00:05:05
Curt
Oh, perfect.
00:05:13
Curt
Mm-hmm.
00:05:14
Noddy
And I was like, God, yeah. CNC milling can't be that hard. Yeah.
00:05:19
Curt
Right, yeah. ah Same thing we all think. Yeah, yeah.
00:05:22
Noddy
Yeah.
00:05:23
Curt
Cool. So did you do ah any, like, did you do do production on that? Or was that just primarily just at the start to try to solve your supply chain issues you were encountering?
00:05:32
Noddy
Yeah, was sort of, yeah, at this point, sort of wedding't really didn't even really have a product line.
00:05:32
Curt
Or just for, like, prototyping?
00:05:39
Noddy
I'd been attempting to get it going and I'd been making parts and i I'd made this um flyboard part and that was the one that sort of took off, but that was sort of dwindling out and I'd had a few Jetsy parts made and it was all prototype stuff and a never nothing really took off well.
00:05:56
Noddy
Every time I go, like I might get a good prototype, I might get some sales. As I do the production run, they would the whole production run was a failure. I've even got boxes in my shed from eight years ago that I just never opened them because I opened the first box up, all these parts are bad, and just never opened the second box and just put them away they're still there.
00:06:16
Noddy
But the...
00:06:16
Curt
gotcha.
00:06:18
Noddy
It yeah i didn't have a tool changer. So it was the same sort of thing. The CNC router I was running didn't have a tool changer. So it had a tool measurer. You change the tool out. It did the measurement and you keep going. It was all easy.
00:06:31
Noddy
Whereas this was now I'm trying to run yeah alloy parts, don't really understand how I'm meant to be touching tools off or anything properly manually. So I was working all that out.
00:06:43
Noddy
I ended up going like putting that the Tormac tool system on it, like getting the tool holders and doing that way. The silly thing is that that mill cost me seven grand.
00:06:55
Noddy
The very first job that I went to do on and learn all this was nine grand. It was um ah like uprights for a Cobra kit car.
00:07:01
Curt
Okay.
00:07:06
Noddy
So it was a full aluminium that holds the wheel and everything on the car.
00:07:06
Curt
Okay.
00:07:11
jamie peacock
Oh, shit.
00:07:11
Noddy
and I'm doing straight away. It doesn't fit on the machine to start with. so very first job. I think I'd maybe did like, I'd done like a little plaque practice run on some stainless steel.
00:07:23
Noddy
And that was sort of a failure, sort of like, I think I did another part and then I did like one of my steering systems and then it was onto this job. It was like very first job was more than the machine costs.
00:07:32
Curt
Wow.
00:07:35
Noddy
And it was, I think it was about three grand and alloy. And I had to buy an end mill that was like $400, this end mill. It was like 125 mil stick out. I'm like, yeah, that'd be right. And just, just, just had no idea what I was doing.
00:07:48
jamie peacock
Uh, yeah, that's, that's the general rule of thumb. You buy a machine, the first job you get is bigger than your machine's travels.
00:07:54
Noddy
Yeah, pretty much.
00:07:54
jamie peacock
Like, that's always the case.
00:07:57
jamie peacock
geez.
00:07:57
Curt
Oh, but that would be that would be rough on a benchtop.
00:07:59
Curt
So you were abusing the size limits of your machines right from the jump.
00:08:00
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:08:03
Noddy
Yeah, so i it went through, in that job, it went through four or five sets of um brushes in the motor because it was running that hard, like just constantly cutting. It was probably...
00:08:17
Noddy
40 hours of cutting on this machine.
00:08:20
Noddy
And it yeah went, I replaced the spindle motor and the brushes in it and like just continuously just replacing it.
00:08:20
Curt
Wow.
00:08:25
Curt
Wow.
00:08:28
Noddy
Had the fan blowing out it constantly. And I just got like the first time I burnt it out, It sort of like smelt like going to catch on fire. Then it sort of seized. Then i broke it all free and got it going again.
00:08:38
Noddy
and just figured out i could I could watch the temperature on the spindle motor and it would sort of hang around.
00:08:38
Curt
ah
00:08:43
Noddy
think I could get up to about 70 degrees and you get about a few hours out of it 70 degrees. The moment it hit 80, I knew I had to stop the machine and let it. I would just pause the cutting and let it spin and keep the airflow, get it back down to 70 degrees and then go again.
00:08:55
jamie peacock
Uh... Uh... Yeah.
00:08:58
Noddy
Because at about 85, the brushes burn up. So just figured out the hard way. And then I started having issues with losing steps.
00:09:04
Curt
That's
00:09:06
Noddy
And then also even the ball screw come at...
00:09:10
Noddy
and then i also even ah the ball screw coming like the coupler, the screw the grub screws holding to the shaft, they come loose at 1.2.
00:09:17
jamie peacock
yeah
00:09:20
Noddy
It's just all these things went wrong. And the job ended up coming out of it. I finished the job without any, you know, it was all happening when it was roughing. So was able to finish the job still.
00:09:30
Noddy
it It's two of the same billets.
00:09:30
Curt
Wow.
00:09:30
jamie peacock
see
00:09:33
Noddy
And it was, yeah, same thing, coolant getting up into the Y-axis motor. And that was causing issues on the encoder.
00:09:39
Curt
Right.
00:09:40
Noddy
So while the machine is still powered up so I could try and maintain the coordinates, I'm pulling the encoder apart and cleaning the encoder on the front of the machine, putting it back together again and just just just figuring out as I go, really.
00:09:52
Curt
Wow.
00:09:52
jamie peacock
fixed it.
00:09:55
Curt
That's, well, it's just, that's, that's intensive.
00:09:56
Noddy
Yeah.
00:09:59
Curt
Like that's, that's struggle busing the whole way through. And like, that's one of the first, first jobs you picked up on it.
00:10:02
Noddy
Yeah.
00:10:04
Curt
That's intense.
00:10:04
Noddy
Yeah.
00:10:05
Curt
Yeah.
00:10:05
Noddy
And I, like, I literally quit my full-time job to go, cause I'm like, I have, I've got a machine now and it's going to make me money.
00:10:05
Curt
Right.
00:10:11
Noddy
And it was like that. This was the first month was that just constantly fighting this machine.
00:10:12
Curt
Oh, man.
00:10:17
Noddy
And then after that job had gone, ah started the actually making parts for myself.
00:10:18
Curt
Wow.
00:10:23
Noddy
And that, that actually was working because I learned all these things about the machine, how to pull it apart and pieces without moving anything.
00:10:27
Curt
Right.
00:10:31
Noddy
And, It was just slowly working out how to make things to the accuracy I needed.
00:10:37
Curt
Sure, yeah. I'm impressed. you So that's that's when you jumped ship from your full-time job into this. was
00:10:43
Noddy
ah The first time, yes.
00:10:45
Curt
yeah So you added that stress to the equation as well.
00:10:48
Noddy
This is the third runner going full-time.
00:10:51
Noddy
So this time it stuck, but yeah, when two other times went full-time and then had to go back to work a year.
00:10:52
Curt
Oh, right on.
00:10:52
Curt
OK.
00:10:57
Curt
Oh, I mean, that's it's a good way to learn.
00:10:58
Noddy
Actually, no, that was the second time, second time with the mill.
00:11:03
Curt
okay
00:11:03
Noddy
with that style, yeah.
00:11:05
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:11:05
Curt
And that was always like a like, you were always going towards like ah the same business plan, I should say, like the same products.
00:11:11
Curt
You weren't like branching off into something crazy, selling hot dogs or something.
00:11:12
Noddy
it was ah It's always been around jet skis.
00:11:16
Curt
Yeah.
00:11:18
Noddy
Just the first time I'd sort of finished up in China and moved back to Australia to build the actual hull, so all the fiberglass.
00:11:18
Curt
Okay.
00:11:26
Noddy
So I'd done all the molds and everything and sort of made the first hull. And it was sort of I knew right when I'd finished the prototype, I had three line up to sell. If they didn't take them, I pretty much i knew I had to get a job. I was running out of the savings from finishing up doing the full-time shows. And then it was, yeah, pretty much I just went back, got a job.
00:11:26
Curt
Okay.
00:11:49
Noddy
bounce around a few different jobs for a bit and then bought the mill, went full-time again. And then I had to, we had bought a block, built a shed to put it all in as well. And then we needed to build a house.
00:12:03
Noddy
So it was I had to get back to full-time work to build a house because the banks don't like when you work for yourself.
00:12:08
Curt
Yeah, no. Yeah, fair. Totally. Yeah.
00:12:09
Noddy
Yeah.
00:12:12
Curt
that's That's intense.
00:12:13
jamie peacock
So un you're making the jet ski hell and all, like ground up, you're building jet skis.
00:12:13
Curt
Like, yeah.
00:12:19
Noddy
Yeah, so the only thing I haven't really built and successfully built is probably lead electricx ah the the drive shaft.
00:12:20
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:12:27
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:12:31
jamie peacock
No, that's...
00:12:32
Noddy
That's about I've pronounced everything else i I've made.
00:12:34
jamie peacock
So you've made the impellers, you've made all the all the fun stuff.
00:12:37
Noddy
yeah Yeah, I haven't made the impeller, but I have plans to make the impeller.
00:12:40
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:12:43
jamie peacock
Nice. Well, you've got a fourth axis.
00:12:44
Noddy
It's just, yeah, yeah.
00:12:47
jamie peacock
Yeah. You can always lean it over.
00:12:49
Noddy
should be possible. Yeah, I'll figure a way out.
00:12:51
jamie peacock
that like some of the stuff Some of the stuff you're doing on that X3 is insane.
00:12:51
Noddy
Don't worry.
00:12:56
Curt
Well, I definitely...
00:12:59
jamie peacock
I've been following you since that... Sorry, X5. Since the X5 came out, I've been yeah i've been following following your Instagram channel a since it just came out.
00:13:03
Noddy
Thanks.
00:13:05
Noddy
Yeah, I pretty much...
00:13:07
jamie peacock
You're one of the first to get one.
00:13:09
Noddy
Yeah, yeah I bought one of the first ones, tried to buy a single phase, got sent a three phase.
00:13:15
jamie peacock
ah
00:13:15
Curt
Oh...
00:13:16
Noddy
So that was the first drama. Yeah.
00:13:18
jamie peacock
Yeah. So are you running on a phase converter or what are you?
00:13:20
Curt
Huh.
00:13:20
Noddy
And that, I was, i was but i I'd ordered the machine as a single phase and ordered with LNC because that was how it was advertised.
00:13:22
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:13:30
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:13:31
Noddy
But it's only the controller itself that is actually single phase. All the drives everything it was still three phase. It was a three phase machine. So I'd been waiting. I ordered and waited six months to get the machine.
00:13:43
Noddy
It shows up. I've taken time off because was full-time at the time to pretty much go grab it, put it in my shed, and hook it all up.
00:13:48
jamie peacock
yeah
00:13:53
Noddy
And I'm looking at the thing and that says 380 volts on the back of it. I'm like, this is not a single face. So... Pretty much they were like, oh, you didn't order a three a phase changer? I'm like, no, i didn't know i needed a phase changer. I ordered a single phase machine. So I don't really know what the what the drama there was if they just sort of ditched the ah single phase after I'd ordered it or they forgot it to tell me that I needed the phase changer.
00:14:19
Noddy
But it just happened to... one of So at the same time that the site had shown up, the OptiMill was for sale because I knew I couldn't run production well on it and wasn't not going to keep up. So pretty much I was selling that machine.
00:14:32
Noddy
And one of the guys that showed up to have a look at it, to he was involved with the colleges and he was trying to buy it for the colleges for a starter machine for them to get into.
00:14:44
Noddy
And he had a whole engineering workshop running on phase changes and generators just around the corner from me. So he was the first call like, hey, have you got a spare one?
00:14:51
jamie peacock
Okay. Okay.
00:14:52
Noddy
He goes, I just sold my spare one. But the guy I sold it to, he now has a spare one that's a little bit, a smaller version, but it's not working. It's like, I don't care.
00:15:04
Noddy
I need it because you can't just order the phase changes here that you've got to get them. They're made to order. So it's like another three-month wait to get it all so get one And so I'd gone and picked up this broken down one and sent it back to the man. I i tried to have a look at trying to fix it myself, but there was just a spider web of wires that didn't really make sense to why things were going in different places. I'm sure it was done like that to confuse you so you can't copy it.
00:15:32
Noddy
But I'd sent it back. I sent it put on a pallet, sent it back to the manufacturer and I got it back with like a week. And it was one wire out of place that electrician had moved apparently. So... They got it fixed, sent it back to me and got the machine running. So it was pretty much a seven month wait sort of thing to get the style.
00:15:32
Curt
Sure, yeah.
00:15:50
Noddy
It was one of the first sort of ones. And yeah, and then it was pretty much just another learning curve because I still had no idea what i was doing. Just like, we'll figure this out as we go.
00:16:00
Noddy
Yeah.
00:16:02
Curt
and So at this point, you still were working full-time. so Or did you like give an ultimatum?
00:16:06
Noddy
Yeah.
00:16:07
Curt
like where Did you have plans to quit? or
00:16:08
Noddy
No, no, it was... No, so when I sort We were sort of looking at that. um We built the shed and we built a livable part in the shed.
00:16:19
Noddy
And to pay that bill, I went to the bank. They were like, yeah, but you work for yourself. So they didn't want to give me the money for that. And at the same time, I was looking at like to go to the next sort of steps with the machining, needed to buy a better machine compared to the Chinese copy converted machine.
00:16:38
Noddy
So the bank was literally like, go get a job and first week we'll give you all that money. So they pretty much, one week they wouldn't give me a wouldn't give me anything. I applied for a fair few jobs, had a job next week, got the first payslip and then got 70 grand loan to me straight away to buy the sile, pay for the bill for the building inside the shed to live in it and So I pretty much just stayed on that job. was sort of like, at that stage, it was sort of like, I'll stay employed to get the house built as well.
00:16:38
Curt
Sure.
00:17:09
Noddy
And this was all just, it didn't end up, we ended up taking two more years to build because building supply shortage.
00:17:09
Curt
Sure. Right. Right.
00:17:17
Noddy
So we couldn't even build. So um I ended up staying employed because it was sort of that, I still yet didn't have a product base out there.
00:17:26
Noddy
I was sort of just still starting. So I wanted to, the the job the job was backing up the payments on the machine and I thought i was just working nights and weekends.
00:17:26
Curt
right
00:17:33
Curt
right
00:17:35
Noddy
And we like like a my bed was probably five meters from the machine for the last two years. So I was right near the machine the whole time. So the machine normally ran till nine, 10 o'clock every night for a long time.
00:17:48
Curt
Wow. Wow. I mean, yeah.
00:17:49
Noddy
But and even even last night, it was meant to run till 10 o'clock last night, but it broke down.
Machine Maintenance and Breakdowns
00:17:57
jamie peacock
Speaking of the breaking down, did you sort that out?
00:17:57
Curt
I mean, yeah.
00:18:00
Noddy
Yes, it's currently running again.
00:18:02
jamie peacock
Okay, good.
00:18:03
Noddy
So and it was it was pretty good. You think about Saturday night, 6.30, or 7 o'clock, I've come home from dinner. The machine was meant to be running, red light on it when it was as we'd come back home.
00:18:15
Noddy
I've pretty much got on WeChat, sent Mr. Chen a picture of my screen, and he's just five minutes later, he's like, go check this, check this, check this, and pretty much within the hour, we'd found the problem.
00:18:21
Curt
That's awesome.
00:18:29
Noddy
And I think of I'm getting a new power cable.
00:18:29
Curt
that's awesome
00:18:32
Noddy
Just what ended up happening is between the three phases and the earth. It had obviously gotten cooling in there over time. And it's it's sort of arced across to the earth from one phase.
00:18:43
Noddy
But it what it when it done that, it actually burned the plastic away that was insulating it. So it just kept on arcing you out every time I'd start the machine up, it would arc out. It wasn't until I actually unplugged the motor and it was actually faulting with the motor unplugged.
00:18:58
Noddy
So then I sort of figured that was in the cable. And I just booted the machine up while I could watch the cable one time and I actually saw the puff of smoke come out of... where the actual join was.
00:19:08
Curt
Oh.
00:19:10
Noddy
I thought it had jumped out of a wire, but it was actually it was actually in the terminal block. And all I ended up doing was actually pulled the earth terminal out. And that it was like on like a little U shape like that. And I just trimmed one of the corners off so that there's ah enough gap that it didn't spark across, fill it for a dialectical grease and put it back together.
00:19:30
Curt
Right.
00:19:30
Noddy
And it's yeah currently running and should it should keep running.
00:19:37
Curt
it's That's awesome. OK.
00:19:38
Noddy
That's probably three years and it's currently I'm in getting into 1300 hours. That's the first actual issue with the machine that's stopped it. So it's...
00:19:49
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:19:49
Curt
And if anyone looks at the photos on your Instagram, like you are working that machine. like I routinely have seen pictures where it is full.
00:19:55
Noddy
Oh, yeah.
00:19:57
Curt
You're putting, what, 20 kilo blocks of aluminum into that machine and machining tons of it away.
00:20:03
Noddy
Yeah, it your hurts to lift them sometimes.
00:20:06
Curt
like Yeah, ridiculous.
00:20:07
Noddy
some Some of them even, like there's some of them there that the block starts at six kilos and it's left with 300 grams at the end of it.
00:20:16
Noddy
And we'll do like that's done, like I just did that product and I've just done eight. Like I do eight of them and I'll probably do another eight of them pretty shortly. Like they just constant, a sort of constant circle of the products that just keep getting made.
00:20:16
Curt
It's a lot of Madu.
00:20:24
Curt
Wow.
00:20:29
Noddy
But I do wear out the, i don't, I wouldn't say wear them out, but I do get like threading up on the taper of the tool holders. So my roughing tool holder, I'll cycle it out to something else every couple of months.
00:20:41
Noddy
just to keep a nice nice taper on it.
00:20:42
Curt
Sure.
00:20:44
Noddy
But yeah, they get marks on them. and
00:20:46
jamie peacock
Yeah, I end up with the same when I stick things out stupid far in my machine, because it's also BT30.
00:20:47
Noddy
I haven't.
00:20:52
jamie peacock
They run out of rigidity rather, rather quickly.
00:20:52
Noddy
Yeah.
00:20:55
Noddy
Yeah.
00:20:57
Curt
Wow. That's, yeah. That's impressive.
00:21:00
jamie peacock
Yeah, those blocks are those blocks look like they're bigger than your machine's travels for the engines.
00:21:00
Curt
I'm going to, yeah.
00:21:05
Noddy
Yes. Oh, yeah. yeah
00:21:06
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:21:07
Noddy
It's... um'm I'm shopping for a 5-axis purely around that product. And I've been...
00:21:14
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:21:15
Noddy
the the moment I bought the OptiMill, I'm like, I'm going to make an engine. And it was sort of like...
00:21:22
Curt
Haha.
00:21:23
Noddy
Yeah, I had no idea. So I even bought the tools that I thought I was going to use to do the engines straight away. First shopping list, I'm like, I need this to do this part of the motor. And it took me three years to actually get around actually building it.
00:21:36
Noddy
but I kind of got to the point where I was like, once I was learning the machine, I was like, I actually need to do this on a five axis. This is silly to try and do this and do many of them on on a three axis, let alone an X5.
00:21:50
Noddy
So I'd sort of been telling everyone like, i am I'm going to buy five a five axis and then I'm going to do the motors. And it just got to the point one day, one of my mates in Gold Coast, he's like, I need the the bottom end of the motor, the cases. He's like, I need them now.
00:22:04
Noddy
And I'm like, yeah, okay, I'll make them for you. And this time I'd been... I was really getting fed up with the job I was in and this is coming up to the Christmas just gone, just just just before the motor sort of got it sort of developed.
00:22:18
Noddy
And I'm like, yep, I'll order it, but you need to pay me up front because this is a big job. And I don't know if it's going to work, but I'll give it a go. I'll figure it out as I go.
00:22:27
Curt
okay
00:22:27
Noddy
So I bought the blocks. Like I knew sort about what the blocks I needed to buy. So I just measured up some OEM styles and, got the blocks ordered and I'm like, right, I'll make a set for myself because I'd always had this, I was always going to make the top end of the motor and I was going to use whatever most people were doing.
00:22:47
Noddy
They use, they make a billet top end but they use the cast alloy bottom end of the motor but then they JB weld all the holes up from the casting of production then they machine it all out and die grind it and there's nothing left of the OEM cases, just chunks of JB weld but what happens every time they fall out.
00:23:05
Noddy
So I thought I was going to do the same thing.
00:23:06
Curt
Right.
00:23:07
Noddy
So once my mate's sort of gone, I need billet cases, don't need a mare. I'm like, cool, I'll get onto it and I might make myself my own set. And I'm like, well, I might well order the top end as well.
00:23:18
Noddy
So I ordered the blocks for the top end. And that was sort of over the Christmas time, i pretty much over the week or two break there, I just got in, got all the cases done for him and then per got onto the top end and made myself the top end as well.
00:23:33
Noddy
But the yeah the first sets that I made, um manually aligned each part on the machine, overhanging one side.
00:23:42
Curt
Right.
00:23:43
Noddy
And then I would spin it around and then sit there and and just try and get it within a couple micron back aligned. And it kind of worked out because the line boring is done at the end.
00:23:53
Noddy
And that's the line boring is the most important part.
00:23:54
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:23:56
Noddy
Once you get all full sorted, you can be about a half a million the whole, the rest of the time. long as your ceiling faces come in good and the line borer is in the correct spot, it works.
00:24:06
Noddy
So, So I'm only trying to get it within a couple micron, like realigning it.
00:24:06
Curt
Well,
00:24:08
Curt
well
00:24:11
Noddy
The second batch I did on them, I actually made up, I would stock prep with keyways in the stock that was later going to be removed.
00:24:19
Curt
Mm-hmm.
00:24:20
Noddy
And that way I could i had a jig on the table that had the keyway in it and I could put it down one way, clamp it, and then I'd spin it around, clamp it down, and I sort of just give it a little... sort of tighten the mighty bike clamps up certain orientation to get the last little bit of alignment and sort of try to always aim for about five micron to just try and eliminate any deviation between each each run but it worked
00:24:45
Curt
um
00:24:45
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:24:45
Curt
but but That's a good segue there. You said line boring. And ah so from what the pictures I see, you're doing the line boring on the lathe. So when did when did the lathe come into the picture?
00:24:54
Noddy
yeah um geez i don't know probably a year after I had the style.
00:25:03
Curt
OK.
00:25:03
Noddy
Yeah, i was still, yeah, that's right. i was still employed at the time and it was sort of almost my always a thing as well. i always thought, I need a mill and I need a light to go out on my own again. That was sort of the goal to get to that.
00:25:17
Noddy
And it just happened that a local business, they had bought a new spec lathe. They had sold, was bit of a long story, but they sold one machine.
00:25:29
Noddy
Then they wanted to buy that machine back. And I said, well, I'll buy this machine because they needed the space. I bought the little, it's a YMC Supermax.
00:25:38
Curt
okay
00:25:38
Noddy
And the idea is when I bought that one, it was meant to be running and he was meant to give me some training on how to use it. And it was tooled up like it was meant to be fine, but it actually had a spindle drive had gone faulty.
00:25:55
Noddy
It had gone faulty and FANUC had actually come and replaced it. And then it was, they replaced it with a faulty one. So then it went, so then it actually just had a communication issue in the in the one that FANUC replaced it with.
00:26:03
Curt
Oh no.
00:26:11
Noddy
So they, While this was going on, he's he's we've done the sort of thing that I'm going to buy the machine. So he's moved out of the workshop to his home, got the other machine and got it running again until I was ready to buy the machine.
00:26:25
Noddy
So then in the meantime, the drive had gone back to FANUC to get ah communication board replaced. And then we moved it to my place and went to fire it up and it didn't work at all.
00:26:38
Noddy
So then was... production set of me getting trained on how to run the lay then had a hand program. Cause it's the old, it's a 1992 or 95 machine. He, the idea was he was going to give you some tips on how to hand program.
00:26:52
Noddy
Cause that was how, just how he done had run it all the time was hand program.
00:26:56
Noddy
So,
00:26:56
Curt
Right.
00:26:56
Curt
Ha ha.
00:26:58
Noddy
the instead of the training of, you know, how to run the machine, I've got pretty much two months of training on how to fix the machine. And with FANUC on the phone pretty much every week and how to test everything to do with the drives and the computer and everything.
00:27:14
Noddy
pronoun out We ha edited every by hand hand-checked machine. every parameter in the machine just because we didn't trust the backup was working. And then we got, so it was, yeah, it was a lot of time and then I ended up getting, was sort of staying out of a little bit because it was sort of the, I purchased running machine. So i was sort of the old owner was there trying, he was trying to get it running.
00:27:36
Noddy
And I ended up just getting bored with it and Google it and found on a forum, someone else had had a similar issue.
00:27:36
Curt
right
00:27:43
Noddy
there's one parameter you had to change and it would let it rewrite the parameters to what you'd entered into that parameter. It had its, the and what it what what ended up being was that the software that was in the new drive was updated, it was ahead of what everything else was in there.
00:27:51
Curt
Okay. Hmm.
00:28:00
Noddy
And that's where they'd gone wrong. They had the wrong. Wrong software and it ended up, nothing would talk to it. And it was, yeah, a bit of a drama getting it sorted, but it runs good. I do have a bit of bar pusher set up on it as well, which is a meter long air cylinder that's aligned with the bore.
00:28:20
Noddy
And then it has a bearing on the end and it pushes the bars through.
00:28:24
jamie peacock
nice yeah yeah yeah
00:28:24
Noddy
then just have a tool that's a stopper and it it lets it.
00:28:24
Curt
Okay, yeah, cool.
00:28:26
Noddy
Pretty similar to what you were showing the other day with your PVC pipe setup. Pretty similar to that, but it's sitting outside the machine, so it pushes through. But yeah, some days there it'll make 400 or 500 parts, just bar feeding the parts. so
00:28:42
Curt
That's awesome.
00:28:43
Noddy
yeah
00:28:43
jamie peacock
yeah no bar feeders are great nice
00:28:46
Noddy
I think it was probably another one too. I purchased a machine for 20 grand and the first job on it was 20 grand.
00:28:53
Curt
That's awesome.
00:28:53
Noddy
And I had no idea how to run the machine.
00:28:54
Curt
That's awesome.
00:28:58
Noddy
So I pretty much, just worked it out and just played with it and got yeah got through the job.
00:29:04
jamie peacock
Yeah, pokes it with a stick that did what you want.
00:29:05
Curt
are you
00:29:07
Noddy
Yeah.
00:29:09
Curt
Are you still doing like, is the programming on that still all just like ah hand coding on machine?
00:29:14
Noddy
No, i I don't believe in hemp programming now.
00:29:15
Curt
No.
00:29:18
Curt
OK, nice.
00:29:19
Noddy
I've even tried to do it with someone... as someone I've gone into business with now and I'll sort of shine him like, I'll show you hand programming. And I like went to write the first, first line and I'm like, actually, I don't even know what I'm doing.
00:29:32
Noddy
Let's go to fusion and just, um, yeah.
00:29:34
Curt
Nice, OK.
00:29:35
Noddy
And then it's just, it has the, the old light has a laptop plugged into the printer port. So it just, it just transfers a code over like that.
00:29:41
Curt
OK.
00:29:44
Curt
Perfect, OK.
00:29:44
Noddy
It works.
00:29:44
Curt
Yeah, I was wondering.
00:29:45
Noddy
Yeah.
00:29:45
Curt
yeah
00:29:46
Noddy
yeah i yeah i look at the hand program even conversational i just look at this too hard because like i can just have the model there exactly what i want and fusion is just going to do it and i don't have to think about it and i click simulation it gives me a green light and i literally press the green button and walk away
00:29:46
jamie peacock
yeah
00:29:57
Curt
No.
00:29:59
jamie peacock
Yeah. No,
00:30:05
Curt
Nice.
00:30:05
jamie peacock
so I had the guy who bought Bertha from me here last night, and we were programming parts.
00:30:06
Curt
Nice.
00:30:10
jamie peacock
He's like, Yeah, no, we needed to add like three more part numbers. So it took all the five minutes to get all the pins modeled, programmed and sent to the machine. I'm like, Yeah, just even if you're doing it with the the free version of fusion for a lady, that will be fine.
00:30:19
Noddy
Yeah.
00:30:24
Noddy
Yeah.
00:30:25
jamie peacock
He's looking to just get started with running running a lathe. Yeah.
00:30:30
Noddy
and And that was a bit when i when I bought the mill, I knew I needed to buy a modern mill.
00:30:35
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:30:35
Noddy
Because there's always old mills come to sale, but it it was never going to have... Some of my programs, even on small parts, are six megabytes.
00:30:44
Noddy
And that is more than the actual memory of some machine.
00:30:44
jamie peacock
yeah
00:30:45
Curt
Yeah.
00:30:47
Noddy
so
00:30:48
Noddy
But I knew when I bought the lathe, I'm like, an old 30-year-old lathe is not really a problem because it's it's just two-axis lathe. There's not a lot of not a lot of um memory needed there.
00:30:48
jamie peacock
Oh, way more.
00:30:57
Curt
yeah Yeah, no, exactly.
00:30:58
jamie peacock
funny business. Yeah.
00:30:59
Noddy
Yeah.
00:31:00
jamie peacock
Well, yeah, i I ran a program yesterday, two and half thousand lines of late code.
00:31:06
Curt
That's decent for Laidland, yeah.
00:31:06
jamie peacock
Because I was using picking. Yeah, picking.
00:31:08
Noddy
Oh yeah.
00:31:08
Curt
Oh.
00:31:09
jamie peacock
Yeah, so just so I can just shits out a million lines of code. It's great. But yeah, that the fusion is the way to go with programming of, of which of machines.
00:31:19
Noddy
Yeah.
00:31:19
jamie peacock
There's no point to programming shit behind.
00:31:20
Noddy
Yeah. I don't worry' really want to stand in a machine all day. So I pretty pronoun simulate simulate it, watch the first tool go in, and I'll upstop the tool changes if I want to on the very first part just to make sure everything's been measured right.
00:31:27
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:31:32
jamie peacock
Yeah Yeah Yeah
00:31:34
Noddy
and I just like The X5 the x five doesn't
00:31:37
Curt
yeah Yeah, no doubt.
00:31:41
Noddy
The biggest tool I've really ever run is a 16mm, but most of the time using a 12mm end mill.
00:31:47
Noddy
I'm like, the the cost of just breaking that if something is actually wrong is not worth me standing at machine for hours.
00:31:47
jamie peacock
yeah
00:31:53
jamie peacock
yeah
00:31:54
Curt
No doubt.
00:31:55
jamie peacock
I actually went down to a 10 millimeter rougher because I get better material removal with the lower spindle horsepower than I was getting on a 12 millimeter because your your radial or your diamonds are smaller.
00:32:02
Noddy
Yeah.
00:32:07
jamie peacock
So it requires less talk and you'll get like silly material removal rates of 10 millimeter rougher.
00:32:09
Noddy
Yeah.
00:32:14
Noddy
i don't I don't seem to have any issues with torque on the side, like on the X5.
00:32:18
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:32:19
Noddy
So I'm like running that 12 mil. um can if If it gets to about 80%, 90% spindle load, if there's a blip in the coolant, it just explodes the tool.
00:32:27
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:32:31
jamie peacock
Oh, yeah.
00:32:33
Noddy
But that's normally at that loads, I'm sort of about 35 mil deep and about 2 mil width of cut.
00:32:39
jamie peacock
Step over, okay.
00:32:40
Noddy
And I'm moving about 0.2. ah point two At 0.2, it'll explode the tool. 0.2 of a tool.
00:32:47
Noddy
Um, tooth.
00:32:47
Curt
So how many, like, what, all the RPM, I assume?
00:32:47
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:32:50
Curt
Because aluminum?
00:32:51
Noddy
No. No, you with the 12 mil, I sort of run about 7,000 RPM. Yeah. Yeah. It...
00:32:55
jamie peacock
Yeah, that's...
00:32:55
Curt
Oh, OK, OK, so reasonable. Reasonable SFMs, yeah.
00:32:56
Noddy
yeah yeah
00:32:58
jamie peacock
Yeah, so I run, I've got that rough, I run 12,000 rippums, 4.3 meters a minute, 3 mil step over, 30 mil depth of cut.
00:32:58
Noddy
it
00:33:06
jamie peacock
Puts it at 99% spindle load. Figured out exactly how hard I can go with it.
00:33:12
Noddy
Yeah.
00:33:12
jamie peacock
And I run it right to the limit. But I mean, that tool will, ah the last one I broke, I broke after 250 kilograms of aluminium, of shavings.
00:33:22
Noddy
Yeah.
00:33:23
jamie peacock
ah It then broke because it threw apart because I was doing a favor for somebody. So no good D goes unpunished.
00:33:30
Noddy
Yeah. Yeah, most of the tools I break in alloy are not because of the tool wearing.
00:33:35
jamie peacock
No.
00:33:36
Noddy
It's mostly because i I've made a mistake or I've pushed it too hard. Yeah.
00:33:39
jamie peacock
Yeah, ID 10 Tierra.
00:33:42
Curt
Well, you're my canary in the coal mine when it comes to that spindle then, because I think you're giving it a harder workout than most people are going to be giving that machine.
00:33:49
Noddy
yeah even when the fretting started happening on the taper um was pretty much on the soil about it like there's just an issue and he pretty much just got me to put a dial in the indicator up in the spindle and and and he's it was you could maybe see half a micron there of the needle moving and he's like no you're good keep going they just sort of just thought it they thought it might be a bit of water in the um
00:34:01
Curt
Yeah.
00:34:08
Curt
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
00:34:11
Curt
just
00:34:11
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:15
Noddy
in the air coming through and as sort of putting water droplets in the in the, in the wall it's running. And that was sort of making it look a bit rusty as well, but it's, yeah, it's, it's after a lot of work that it, it does that.
00:34:24
Curt
Sure. Yeah. yeah
00:34:29
jamie peacock
yeah
00:34:30
Curt
Well, that's, I mean, I've been on this podcast and I kind of, I definitely like talked about the poor quality control of style.
00:34:36
Curt
But the one thing I will tell, say that is if you email them in the correct business hours, they're actually super responsive. Like I've talked to Mr. Chen a few times and he's, he's crazy helpful considering probably how many emails he gets from how many people.
00:34:43
Noddy
Hmm. Oh, yeah.
00:34:48
Noddy
I just get it to him on WeChat.
00:34:50
Curt
Or yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. Like WhatsApp or whatever.
00:34:51
Noddy
Yeah, I just...
00:34:52
Curt
Yeah. yeah Yeah.
00:34:53
Noddy
um I pretty much had him from the start with the machine because I had started to have some issues with um the tool changer throwing tools.
00:35:04
Curt
Yeah.
00:35:04
Noddy
And sort of like, know, was never at the machine to actually see the issue happening. And it was actually someone else... feel like his name's Soon, he's in Taiwan or Thailand or somewhere.
00:35:15
Noddy
He actually got it on GoPro where what was happening was this spindle was not lifting and the tool changer was spinning and just knocking all the tools out.
00:35:24
Curt
yeah
00:35:24
Noddy
And I've pretty much, I've even got a WeChat group chat with Mr. Chen and two other people that are the engineers for LNC and the engineer for the tool changer, all one group chat to sort that problem out.
00:35:38
Noddy
And it pretty much, it took an email of pretty saying to Sol, like, if you're not going fix it, you need to buy the machine back because I can't sell it like this.
00:35:45
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:35:45
Noddy
and it was from the first year it was pretty much like every time i thought i was starting to make money they would throw tools and destroy everything
00:35:54
Curt
I wonder if you were the ah if you were the guy I saw in the Facebook group, because I came across that thread where he's like, and you it was just like a picture of the machine, like the coolant trays, where there's tools in it, and I was like, oh, that looks ragged.
00:36:03
Noddy
yeah yeah
00:36:05
Curt
And it's the one reason I avoided that control, but um um' I'm glad you got solved.
00:36:06
Noddy
yeah
00:36:09
Curt
That's good.
00:36:10
Noddy
Yeah, it was it was literally just an update. That's what fixed It it was just an odd, it was just and a glitch somewhere that they'd seem to have found and fixed.
00:36:13
Curt
That's awesome.
00:36:20
Noddy
um And it hasn't done it since.
00:36:20
Curt
That's awesome.
00:36:22
Noddy
It's probably been a good 12 months. But I've still got the group chat. So it's like whenever I need something, I just, if it's to do with the controller, I just post into that group chat and I normally get an answer.
00:36:32
Curt
Perfect. That's cool. So, um, jet skis. I also was poking on your Instagram page. I noticed you have a ton of car stuff. So is your world primarily like, is your current focus jet skis and your future focus jet skis or are cars your interest to, or like, how's, how does that play into it all?
00:36:43
Noddy
Yeah.
00:36:49
Curt
Or is it just your, you just like cars?
00:36:50
Noddy
You know, I'm definitely, definitely interested in cars and everything.
00:36:51
Curt
Yeah.
00:36:54
Noddy
Like, pretty much... Jet skis are just my main focus just to niche down on that. And that's that's what I do as a sport. Like I just have the jet skis that I build and and I ride. Like I just ride any chance I sort of can get when I'm not fixing machines.
00:37:13
Noddy
But the i do I've got mates that are into cars and I've got customers that are making car parts. And it's sort of like... I sort of say to them, it's like, I'll partner them with you to make, do your manufacturing, but I'm not the person to run the websites.
00:37:29
Noddy
You know, if I went and started like another car brand, you know, then you're spreading yourself across two brands and trying to manage two different sorts of things. I have thought about it, like doing some car stuff myself and even work holding.
00:37:42
Noddy
I was even looking at getting into that, but it's sort of just like the same thing is like, if I just keep the focus into the one thing and just keep growing that,
00:37:45
Curt
Mm-hmm.
00:37:52
Noddy
that just does just as well as if you were to try and spread yourself across two or three different brands. And even yeah I'm already sort of spread across a business and then the the website is sort of the jet ski side of things and then trying to keep the business side running as well.
00:38:09
Noddy
And all the like customer work, just general work around as well.
00:38:13
Curt
Oh yeah, no, I couldn't agree more with you. i think I think niching down in your industry that you're good at is absolutely the way to excel and sticking with it.
00:38:19
Noddy
Yeah.
00:38:20
Curt
So that's that's awesome.
00:38:22
Noddy
So I do have to remind myself to do that a lot. Because every self is like, I could make this. I could just make this. and It's like, oh, I should really just concentrate on one thing.
00:38:33
Curt
Yeah, no doubt. So um like what's your... ah what's your your biggest bottleneck in your production right now? Is it just, is it your time or is it, uh, it customer sales?
00:38:44
Curt
Like what's, what's your main sticking point?
00:38:44
Noddy
Oh.
00:38:47
Noddy
It probably is just at currently my time just being spread too thin across the and the entirety of it.
00:38:55
Noddy
um I sort of do need, I'm pretty much ready to take on ah on a worker to sort of just even just run the machines and run the anodizing.
00:38:56
Curt
Mm.
00:39:05
Noddy
if Someone just to keep, empty the chip bins on the freaking side because it just fill up four times a day. So it's just a constant job on that. And then while I'm doing, running the machines, I'm not sort of doing any more new design work or, you know, sort of keeping up with the business side stuff.
00:39:05
Curt
Mm.
00:39:22
Noddy
So, yeah.
00:39:22
Curt
Totally, yeah.
00:39:23
Noddy
Yeah, I do try to even sometimes I do run it. If I have a full week in the workshop, I'll pronounce this evening mean like Monday is pretty much run the bandsaw, run what I want to do that week. And that sort of sets the goal of what I want to finish that week.
00:39:37
Noddy
Because I'll get all the, cut all the stock, put it on the shelf in front of the machine.
00:39:37
Curt
Right.
00:39:40
Noddy
And it's like by the end of the week, i want that empty.
00:39:43
Curt
Yeah.
00:39:44
Noddy
It doesn't always happen, but it sort of does start that. gets gets it all stuck, saw and cut, and then while the saw is running because it's a bit slow, I'm setting up the machines, getting them ready to run.
00:39:56
Noddy
By the end of the week, it's yeah and the saw is finished and it's just the machines are now just running. It's getting up on top of the anodizing. And then my problem really is getting it anodized and packed and on the shelves. I don't really do that. I sort of just actually get all the machining, anodize what I need to get out in the way of products that are sold, like customers that actually already purchased or they're waiting for it, I'll get them anodized and shipped out and I'll just leave the other stuff sitting there raw.
00:40:24
Noddy
And because that way i I can, because I offer so many different colors, if I was to try and like stock it all, you know, I'd have to stock a hundred parts, not 10 parts. Whereas at the moment, I sort of stock 10 raw items, put on the website that there's one or two in stock of each sort of item of each color.
00:40:35
Curt
yeah
00:40:44
Noddy
And then as I sell, I'll just hand it up. like because he can I can get a sale, hand it out and send it the next day pretty much. So you can keep on top of it.
00:40:53
Curt
I think that's a perfect segue.
00:40:53
jamie peacock
So you your, your, your anno setup, would you like to elaborate on that?
00:40:55
Curt
Oh, go ahead, Jamie. Yeah.
00:40:58
Noddy
yeah Elaborate on it.
00:41:02
Noddy
What do you mean?
00:41:02
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:41:02
jamie peacock
I know what size, what are you, yeah.
00:41:03
Noddy
Like what it is? ah
00:41:05
jamie peacock
How have you built your setup?
00:41:05
Noddy
So it keeps it keeps on. um It's been updated three times now, but it started off in 10-litre buckets.
00:41:11
jamie peacock
Nice.
00:41:13
Noddy
Then I've gone to the 20-litre buckets, and I'm currently in 20-litre buckets, but my acid is in a 45-litre square truck tub sort of thing, and I've got 40 amps power supply.
00:41:13
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:41:23
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:41:27
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:41:31
Noddy
It's all Caswell gear, Caswell dyes,
00:41:32
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:41:35
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:41:36
Noddy
Amazon heaters.
00:41:38
jamie peacock
Okay, yeah.
00:41:38
Noddy
It's pretty much pretty basic setup, really.
00:41:40
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:41:42
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah, they're phenomenal.
00:41:42
Curt
I mean, your results you're getting out of that are very nice.
00:41:44
Curt
so
00:41:46
Noddy
It's all camera angles. There is there is some blemishes and stuff that I had chased for a long time and I've sort of just been told, like, hey, you stop worrying so much about it.
00:41:58
Noddy
I was pretty much always trying to hit the start, always trying to absolute perfect quality and it was sort of scrapping parts in anodized because I was trying, like a little blemish. I'm like, no, can't have that.
00:42:10
Noddy
So it's now, the blemish I get now, you can only really see it on the LED lights in the right angle.
00:42:10
jamie peacock
yeah
00:42:16
Noddy
So it's sort of, once it goes on a jet ski, it doesn't really, they don't really care anymore.
00:42:16
Curt
Mm-hmm.
00:42:19
jamie peacock
no one's ever gonna see it um the blemishes you're getting i'm assuming they're around holes not so yeah that that's easy to fix you just watch the thing yeah you just blast it
00:42:21
Noddy
Yeah.
00:42:25
Noddy
No, I do get that, but that's that's from, that's the acid bleed here. Yeah. No, i get like, it's almost like it's it's got a thicker anodized layer in a pattern sort of thing.
00:42:40
jamie peacock
Uh... Okay. Yeah.
00:42:42
Noddy
And it's the only reason I think it's thicker, it's either thicker or it's actually been eaten away a wild little bit in areas from another part of the process, which I think is actually in the seal because you I'll see it come and go and I'll replace the the seal and it sort of actually does fix it.
00:42:42
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:42:51
jamie peacock
yeah
00:42:59
jamie peacock
okay
00:42:59
Noddy
It's still sort of there. But it's... it it's a it's sort of really nice and shiny in sections and then it's a little bit duller in sections. and it's it has it It almost looks like a water pat across one edge of the part sometimes.
00:43:13
Noddy
I'll have to try and get an angle and send it to you just because I don't really know how explain it.
00:43:14
jamie peacock
Okay, no, because I know I've had issues with extruded material, where I've bought extruded bar and then you just get streaks through your anodize.
00:43:19
Noddy
Oh, yeah.
00:43:23
jamie peacock
So like everything I do now is plates and I machine everything out of plate that needs to be anodized.
00:43:23
Noddy
Yep.
00:43:28
Noddy
Yeah, one of the parts runs that I've just done, i ordered three lengths of extrusion and one of the and i can see it the part comes through anodized.
00:43:28
jamie peacock
That way I don't end up for that shit.
00:43:33
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:43:36
Noddy
It comes out satin. Just something reacts different in the acid compared to it's not coming out shiny.
00:43:39
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:43:43
Noddy
People still like the part. It just has a different look to it. it's
00:43:46
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:43:47
Noddy
You just got to sort of accept that it's a little bit different from what I was expecting and it's still okay. It's still a good product.
00:43:53
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:43:54
Noddy
Yeah.
00:43:54
jamie peacock
No, Anodaz is a schlep.
00:43:57
Noddy
yeah
00:43:58
jamie peacock
ah Guy Anodaz 60 something parts this week. like six at a time on a rack and then down to two at a time on a rack because they, uh, they're bigger parts.
00:44:08
Noddy
yeah that's a lot of ice bags so did you like my comment do you like my comment the other day about the ice bag so i was listening to think it was i think you mentioned that on uh
00:44:08
jamie peacock
It took me three days to, yeah, it is. Well, actually it wasn't too bad. Um, it was only like seven. Yes.
00:44:20
jamie peacock
Yeah. With intolerance.
00:44:24
Noddy
Intolerance, that's it, yeah.
00:44:24
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:44:25
Noddy
So I don't run chillers anymore. i had run I did run in chillers, but the difference too is I run constant volts, not constant amps.
00:44:29
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:44:36
jamie peacock
Okay Yeah To the next part yeah, okay
00:44:38
Noddy
Because at the start, I was running constant amps, and what was happening was you lose contact on one part, and the amperage just moves to all your other parts in the bath. So whereas constant voltage, that won't happen.
00:44:51
Noddy
It would just... it will just still apply the amps to each part evenly.
00:44:58
jamie peacock
Yes Yeah, and that's I
00:44:58
Noddy
And that that one that just loses contact, just you don't notice until it comes from the die that you actually it actually didn't work. yeah No chillers, because I'm not running the chiller.
00:45:08
jamie peacock
I forgot what it was on to Arsenal. Shit. Oh, well, can't be that important. It was something to do with... Yeah, so yeah are you chilling your acid at all or just running it at whatever room temperature is?
00:45:20
Noddy
No. Well, it heats up because it's like yesterday what I did it ah did six plates at once.
00:45:24
jamie peacock
Yes, you're putting energy in this.
00:45:28
Noddy
It was 35 amps and the acid got up to 40 degrees and the parts were fine.
00:45:31
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:45:34
jamie peacock
Jeez. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Because I've worked very hard to keep mine at like 15 degrees Yeah.
00:45:41
Noddy
Yeah, and i had I didn't know about like because every time I've had issues and I've gone to Caswell, like I'm having these issues they're like what's your temperature and I'm like, I don't like 30 degrees, whatever it is You've got to be 25 or 20.
00:45:53
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:45:54
Noddy
And it was, I sort of see it more as a consistency thing then than actually trying to do it.
00:45:58
jamie peacock
yeah
00:46:00
Noddy
Because in know it is, especially when you're doing constant amps, but with the constant volts, it just adjusts itself with the with the the temperature.
00:46:08
jamie peacock
Okay. And what voltage are you running at?
00:46:12
Noddy
So it'll be a balance with the acid concentration and you sort of do use the 720 calculator to work out what the amperage should be and I'll then put the part in and I sort of want to be in the between that 12 to 14 range.
00:46:16
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:46:20
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:46:23
jamie peacock
Okay. And then adjust your voltage.
00:46:29
Noddy
I just sort of find works really well.
00:46:30
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:46:32
Noddy
Once I'm sort of getting the 14 volts to try and hold the amperage, I'll actually start to add acid in.
00:46:32
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:46:38
Noddy
But I'll also do it off of... the as I'm going through to production, if if I'm going through, especially when you're doing black, it's the most noticeable, I'll go for an hour 20 and then 15 minutes in the dye.
00:46:50
jamie peacock
Okay.
00:46:51
Noddy
If it's not coming out pure black at that point or just a slight bit of blue is what I'd like to get it to.
00:46:52
jamie peacock
Yeah. Okay.
00:46:58
jamie peacock
yeah
00:46:59
Noddy
If it comes out like a dull blue, like it's not even black, I pretty much start like bringing the voltage up to give like to keep it in that hour and 20.
00:47:10
jamie peacock
okay
00:47:10
Noddy
Because at some points there, I've done it out to like two hours, but it's like, you're just not getting the parts through. Like I want it to run faster.
00:47:16
jamie peacock
Well, that's what I used to, I used to run 45 minutes and I noticed my blacks weren't gray and then I went to an hour and that's more consistent.
00:47:21
Noddy
Hmm.
00:47:23
Noddy
Yep.
00:47:25
jamie peacock
But as my acid concentration changed now on this batch, I just did.
00:47:25
Noddy
Yeah.
00:47:29
jamie peacock
The first parts were black and then the next sets were gray, like run straight after each other.
00:47:30
Noddy
Yeah.
00:47:35
jamie peacock
So it yeah i need I think I need to be a bit more on it with adjusting my acid concentration.
00:47:36
Noddy
Yeah.
00:47:41
Noddy
Yeah, that was sort of one of the things that they Caswell was saying that was my issue with the but the blemishes I was getting because at this stage when I was really chasing it, they bad. Like you were pretty much nearly looked like there was oil on the part still.
00:47:56
Noddy
um
00:47:56
jamie peacock
Oh.
00:47:57
Noddy
And I had dumped my acid, made up a new batch because they told me the way I'd worked it out was wrong.
00:48:03
jamie peacock
ah
00:48:03
Noddy
So I'd redone the calculations and redone all these measurements and got it running. And then first batch of parts coming out and they're dull as anything. And I'm like, this no good. Dumped a bunch of acid in, cranked the volts back And I'm like, let's go.
00:48:17
Noddy
This works.
00:48:17
jamie peacock
Yeah. I bought a hydrometer and then I can check my acid concentration. So actually got it written on the wall, what it needs to be.
00:48:23
Noddy
Oh, yeah.
00:48:24
jamie peacock
And then just drop in and it floats.
00:48:24
Noddy
Yep.
00:48:25
jamie peacock
And you, cause what'll happen, I will not anodize for two or three weeks.
00:48:26
Noddy
Yep.
00:48:30
jamie peacock
then I'll go and the acid tank's that much lower. So I'll top it off with RO water and then it'll bring it back in.
00:48:32
Noddy
Yep. And you top it up.
00:48:36
jamie peacock
And then I've got some diluted acid mixed up like a 1.1 SG.
00:48:39
Noddy
Ah, yeah, yeah.
00:48:41
jamie peacock
And then I'll top up with that to just bring it right. right square again.
00:48:44
Noddy
Yeah. Yeah, that's really good.
00:48:46
jamie peacock
Because our last time I dumped my acid, it was because my heat exchanger failed and pumped cooling water into my acid.
00:48:52
Noddy
Yeah. Oh,
00:48:52
jamie peacock
So we then neutralize that and cooked a square into my grass because I threw caustic soda in to neutralize it.
00:48:56
Noddy
yeah.
00:48:59
jamie peacock
So it got hot as fuck.
00:49:01
Noddy
oh Yeah.
00:49:01
jamie peacock
And then, yeah, got it to basically the pH of drain cleaner and then wooded it down the drain. And then it also stinks.
00:49:07
Noddy
yeah
00:49:09
jamie peacock
And then I mixed up a new batch and I was just short. So had to buy another, think it's a three liter bottle of acid of 98% sulfuric.
00:49:18
Noddy
Yeah, yeah.
00:49:19
jamie peacock
I went, yeah, and that was it. Like one cap is all I needed to bring my acid back to where it needed to be.
00:49:23
Noddy
Yeah.
00:49:24
jamie peacock
So I'm ready to change my acid again if I need to.
00:49:28
Noddy
Are you watching your die pH?
00:49:32
jamie peacock
I am, but my I don't trust my pH meters.
00:49:35
Noddy
Ah, you probably see.
00:49:36
jamie peacock
I think the, I bought little one off like Amazon. It fell in a few times.
00:49:39
Noddy
Yep.
00:49:41
jamie peacock
I bought another one. We calibrated it and I don't, I don't trust it. Like it's telling me my pH of my water is like none of my tap water. And I'm like, there's no fucking way.
00:49:53
jamie peacock
So i bought the strips.
00:49:53
Noddy
Oh, it can be.
00:49:56
jamie peacock
I bought a whole bunch of little strips and check with that and the pH meter and that do not agree.
00:49:56
Noddy
Yeah.
00:50:01
Noddy
Yeah, okay.
00:50:01
jamie peacock
And the problem, the problem with the strips is when you dip them in a colored dye, the color changes.
00:50:06
Noddy
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't work. Because
00:50:08
jamie peacock
Yeah. But it, did yeah.
00:50:11
Noddy
that was a big issue.
00:50:11
jamie peacock
A big thing.
00:50:12
Noddy
that That's probably the biggest issue i had with anodizing was like...
00:50:12
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:50:15
Noddy
dyes just not even working you're putting the part in going there's just no color in it and it would end up being that the ph had gone out so now that's probably the biggest thing i watch
00:50:21
jamie peacock
Yeah. pH is a big thing. Actually, I she ah learned the pH thing from, uh, what's his name, this guy on YouTube, um New Zealand guy made replica of a model engine for an airplane.
00:50:40
jamie peacock
And he was talking about anodizing something on that like the cap of the head. And he was going to check the pH and then I went and actually looked into the pH story because I was having inconsistent anodize.
00:50:48
Noddy
yeah yep yeah and i think that's that's where my seal ends up going bad of it at some point where you can pull it out of the die wash it off and let it sort of dry and it looks perfect and then you seal it and then you come out with this blemish and it's all um
00:50:50
jamie peacock
And then you'll fix the pH and that solved a portion of the issues.
00:51:05
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:51:09
jamie peacock
Okay, I haven't had issues on my sealing side, but i I literally just changed to using a pressure cooker as my sealing tank, because it's better insulated.
00:51:15
Noddy
yeah
00:51:16
jamie peacock
All my parts are small. It's better insulated than the deep fryer that I had.
00:51:18
Noddy
Yeah, yeah.
00:51:20
jamie peacock
And it runs on a PID controller. So I can control it, I hold it one or two degrees below boiling.
00:51:25
Noddy
Yeah. Yeah, I've just got... Are you using the Caswell sealer, though?
00:51:29
jamie peacock
Yeah, the green cocaine.
00:51:30
Noddy
Yeah. Yeah, but do you change it out, like, every month?
00:51:35
jamie peacock
when I have to.
00:51:36
Noddy
Yeah. that
00:51:37
jamie peacock
Like I'm really bad at changing the dots.
00:51:38
Noddy
Well, it might be... I'm not... Yeah, I probably don't wash my parts well enough, and that i get a lot of dye in there.
00:51:44
jamie peacock
Yeah, I've got a hose pipe. So I'll put a lot of dye on mine.
00:51:47
Noddy
Yeah. Yeah.
00:51:48
jamie peacock
Mine goes straight the dye, straight into the sealer. I don't even rinse them.
00:51:50
Noddy
Yeah. yeah
00:51:51
jamie peacock
um
00:51:51
Noddy
Yeah.
00:51:52
jamie peacock
But it doesn't really, if it's hot, it shouldn't really affect. It should seal near instantly and then build up the layer.
00:51:57
Noddy
Yeah. yeah I think I was, when I was getting more issues, I was running about 80 degrees and I was sort of bump, I'm at 90 degrees now and that actually helps a lot.
00:51:58
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:52:02
jamie peacock
yeah
00:52:06
jamie peacock
Yeah, mine boils at 88 degrees, ah according to my PID temperature thing.
00:52:10
Noddy
Right.
00:52:12
jamie peacock
So I set it to 86, like right below boiling.
00:52:12
Noddy
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:14
jamie peacock
Because if it boils, it just boils over all day. You're just forever topping it up.
00:52:18
Noddy
yeah
00:52:19
jamie peacock
So I hold it just below, and then it works really, really well. ah job the biggest The biggest upgrade was that little pump with the ah with a spray gun that you can just clean indefinitely because I had a spray bottle and I had a pump-up bottle, but you never had enough water.
00:52:33
Noddy
Yeah.
00:52:35
jamie peacock
Now I've got a pump that goes to a 20-liter.
00:52:35
Noddy
No, I'm always filling them up.
00:52:37
jamie peacock
Just send it.
00:52:39
Noddy
Yeah.
00:52:40
jamie peacock
Yeah. And are you using distilled water or RO water?
00:52:45
Noddy
ah I have like a activated carbon filter on a water, like drinking water tap that I just get from that.
00:52:50
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:52
Noddy
Like, yeah, straight the tap pretty much, but it runs through a filter, drinking water filter.
00:52:55
jamie peacock
Okay. Yeah, I've got a RO filter set up our boards when I did the bolt belt and that I've used that since I was getting ah lower TDS from RO than I was getting from the distilled water I was buying.
00:52:57
Noddy
Yeah.
00:53:07
Noddy
Yeah.
00:53:08
jamie peacock
Like distilled water was 12 TDS and my system is between four and six.
00:53:08
Noddy
Well, I was...
00:53:13
Noddy
in the In the last acid bath I'd mixed up, I'd actually went and bought distilled water and used it because we're chasing these issues. And I think on one of the Facebook groups where there's a guy who's now retired who's done anodizing all his life, he's pretty much, yeah, but as your...
00:53:22
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:53:30
Noddy
your You know, the 98% sulfuric acid you've bought what's the other 2%? He says, there's probably less of whatever that 2% is in your actual water.
00:53:40
Noddy
I only just sort of look at it that, especially in the seal where you are steaming off all day long, you're constantly topping it up. Your minerals are getting higher and higher.
00:53:40
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:53:47
jamie peacock
Yeah. I'm getting through the roof.
00:53:49
Noddy
Hmm.
00:53:50
jamie peacock
Yeah. But that's all point of that green cocaine is it adds bunch of minerals that help with the seal.
00:53:56
Noddy
Yeah.
00:53:57
jamie peacock
Like it's got a whole bunch of green in Okay.
00:53:57
Noddy
And I do i do get um lots of feedback on the parts that they don't fade.
00:54:03
jamie peacock
okay
00:54:03
Noddy
And I sort of put it down to that using that green nickel.
00:54:06
jamie peacock
Yeah, because I made parts, they faded, the black faded to like a purple color on a guy's motorbike.
00:54:06
Noddy
I think it's called nickel acid though.
00:54:12
Noddy
Yeah. yeah
00:54:13
jamie peacock
um But yeah I mean, my most of the stuff I do is base pads for for magazines for shooting guys, so they're not in the sun all day.
00:54:21
Noddy
Yeah. Yeah.
00:54:23
jamie peacock
So it doesn't really make a difference.
00:54:23
Noddy
No, no. So I've got one of my steering systems on my ski and it's lived outside for about three years.
00:54:30
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:54:30
Noddy
And it's got, when I was up the pole on the jet ski, the, um, was, I had one made in China, my designer made, and it's gone like bronze.
00:54:41
Noddy
Like the black is completely gone.
00:54:41
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:54:42
Noddy
But my steering that since, yeah, I think it's a bit to do with the, yeah, I think it's to do with the dye, like whatever sort of dyes you use, how they fade.
00:54:43
jamie peacock
I've had something go bronze as well. I'm trying to remember what it was. It was something I made for myself, but it sat in the sun.
00:54:51
jamie peacock
Yeah. The UV bleaches out the the pigments in the dark.
00:54:53
Noddy
Hmm.
00:54:58
jamie peacock
But yeah, no that's very, very interesting.
00:54:59
Curt
Interesting.
00:55:00
jamie peacock
Like, because Anodize is a pretty hot topic at the moment. I know John from 2SM Performance wants to bring it in-house because he's waiting like two weeks on parts and it's making it difficult for him to like flow stuff through the shop.
00:55:14
Noddy
yeah yeah
00:55:14
jamie peacock
So we've been discussing bringing that in-house for him because he bought the casual starter kit, but like, I would not recommend the casual starter kit.
00:55:23
Noddy
no you just yeah i did look at it and but once you do the numbers on you're like i just i'll just go get in the buckets and do it myself the um
00:55:23
jamie peacock
It's, yeah.
00:55:27
jamie peacock
Yeah. Exactly. I got so loaded.
00:55:31
Noddy
I sort of started doing it myself because like the first thing I wanted to do, i had one part.
00:55:31
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:55:36
Noddy
wasn't worth sending off to get done.
00:55:37
jamie peacock
yeah
00:55:39
Noddy
um so I didn't even investigate what it's even going to cost. I'm just like, oh, cool. I'll just do it myself, which is pretty much the theme of everything was just trying to do everything.
00:55:45
jamie peacock
Well, that's, that's how I got into it. I wanted to try it.
00:55:48
Noddy
Yeah.
00:55:48
jamie peacock
So I made a setup out the stuff I had kicking around, like literally a bottle of battery acid my father in law had at that time he had been dead for seven years. It was in the garage.
00:55:58
Noddy
yeah
00:55:58
jamie peacock
and'm like Okay, fuck. I did some research on it actually found the data sheets and it was like 40% acid.
00:56:00
Noddy
It's still good.
00:56:03
jamie peacock
So then I could calculate back what my acid needed to be what my dilution ratio needed to be.
00:56:04
Noddy
Yeah.
00:56:08
jamie peacock
And that's how i started anodizing like odds and ends.
00:56:10
Noddy
yeah
00:56:11
jamie peacock
And then yeah as as I had a need for it, I stopped using printer ink and started using casual dars.
00:56:17
Noddy
Yeah.
00:56:18
jamie peacock
because Just because it works doesn't mean you should do it.
00:56:18
Noddy
I am.
00:56:21
Noddy
Yeah. I've sort of been giving a bit of advice to someone else down um in Brisbane and their reasoning, like they were machine shop and they had investigated setting an it out. It was a 17-week lead time on getting anodizing. So they're like, okay, should we set our own system? I'm like, what do you need to do?
00:56:39
Noddy
Little parts. Yep, do it.
00:56:41
jamie peacock
Yeah, 100%.
00:56:41
Noddy
Like learn to do it and it's – oh, yeah.
00:56:42
jamie peacock
ah Because so that's the thing, the racking fee is killer. Like, if I send out mag bases, it's ah just on a $2 racking fee per part. um they don't mean
00:56:52
Noddy
Yeah.
00:56:53
jamie peacock
So every part is $2 on the cost, which apparently is cheap, but they also rack it stupidly and fuck my parts up.
00:56:55
Noddy
Yeah. yeah yeah
00:57:01
jamie peacock
Like, that's the issue. Like, if they're making scrap, it's counterpoint. It's like they scrapped all the anchor point bodies from batch two.
00:57:07
Noddy
Yeah.
00:57:08
jamie peacock
Like that, that was fucking, yeah, that was rough.
00:57:08
Noddy
Yeah, yeah, did hear that.
00:57:11
jamie peacock
They are now just desk ornaments and are making new ones and anodizing them in-house.
00:57:16
Noddy
Yeah.
00:57:17
jamie peacock
Which also lets me do cool things.
00:57:20
Noddy
Yeah, right.
00:57:21
jamie peacock
Yeah, have you messed around with masking at all on your anodizing? Or two-tones?
00:57:25
Noddy
So I bought, when I first bought the kit, I don't know why I bought the masking paint stuff.
00:57:32
jamie peacock
Lacquer, yeah.
00:57:32
Noddy
I'm like, hey, i just but i'll I'll have a go at that. So I bought it. Probably five, six months later, I've opened the tin. It was just completely jelly. and It had gone off, but at the same time, I'm like, i bet you they've sold me a dodgy one.
00:57:43
jamie peacock
ah yeah
00:57:47
Noddy
that it's like cause it I then bought another one, and I actually opened it because I had i kept both of them for some reason.
00:57:54
jamie peacock
yeah
00:57:55
Noddy
kept the old one and then I opened both up and the one was still jelly and the second batch I bought was still good. and i'm like, yeah, I must've got done with the an old stock or something when, when I first bought it.
00:58:06
jamie peacock
yeah yeah yeah i use a rattle cam i learned not to use clear lacquer use a colorful paint so you can see where the fact you're putting it on the part otherwise you clear lacquer and the whole thing's covered
00:58:06
Noddy
and But I didn't know it was meant to be like that. So I was trying to use this like jelly sort of stuff on it and I ended up just giving up.
00:58:19
Noddy
Yeah.
00:58:21
Noddy
I think, yeah i did try to do it actually with um nail polish i thought you could do that but it all just got it it all just got lifted like it all just come off it didn't actually stick so i don't know what i did wrong and then i just yeah
00:58:26
jamie peacock
Yes. Yeah, you can.
00:58:32
jamie peacock
Oh, okay. Yeah, because i I like rattle cans. So I will dye it whatever color, pull it out, rinse it, dry it with a hairdryer so it's nice and warm as well, mask dry it with spray paint, then dry that with a hairdryer, then I go into strip.
00:58:43
Noddy
yep yep
00:58:48
jamie peacock
And then ah put in the acid for like another 10 minutes and then I do my second color. Same thing, dry it, mask it, dry it, then strip it again and then I get three colors.
00:58:57
Noddy
Ah, yeah.
00:58:58
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:58:58
Noddy
Yeah, yeah. Have you seen like the guy that does, and he does like a pen, and it has like Bart Simpson like just completely detailed?
00:58:59
jamie peacock
And it's a normal.
00:59:05
Noddy
It almost looks, I feel like he has to be using a laser, like laser engraving, bleaching the color off and masking it like that.
00:59:06
jamie peacock
No.
00:59:11
jamie peacock
That's Yeah.
00:59:13
Noddy
like It's just so detailed. I don't know how he does it.
00:59:16
jamie peacock
Yeah, oh some of the guys are I'm on the Facebook group for DIY anodizing. And yeah, some of the stuff that I do is really interesting.
00:59:20
Noddy
Yeah, yeah, it's on there.
00:59:23
Noddy
Yeah.
00:59:24
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:59:25
Noddy
But yeah, most of my stuff is the, I just changed the color of one section of the part.
00:59:30
jamie peacock
Yeah.
00:59:30
Noddy
Um, at the start I was like, yeah, I'll do full custom. And then I realized like I'm going be constantly anodizing. So I started just doing most of the parts are done black and then we changed like little, the fascia of the steering system or just the top of some other parts, like just to keep it all simple.
00:59:43
jamie peacock
yeah
00:59:46
Noddy
And then it's easier to stock some of the colored parts and
00:59:49
jamie peacock
yeah no the uh the two-tone stuff just eats up time like you've got to it's a whole lot of extra steps oh yeah so not recommended um have we covered all the questions i didn't have the tiki thing
00:59:53
Noddy
yeah.
00:59:56
Noddy
Yeah.
01:00:05
Curt
I think. I mean, the one one question I would have is, ah yeah, no, no. So we basically know how you're going now. Like, what are what are your plans for the future?
01:00:15
Curt
Like, do you have plans for different machines? You kind of alluded that you might be looking at people.
01:00:17
Noddy
Yes.
01:00:19
Curt
um Like, what's the future have in store for you?
01:00:20
Noddy
So.
Future Plans and Expansions
01:00:23
Noddy
So today is Sunday. Wednesday, I've actually bought out a machine another machine shop.
01:00:29
Curt
Oh, nice.
01:00:31
Noddy
I'm going from my two machine shed at home and we've bought out an engineering. So I've partnered up with another bloke. um He does laser cutting, cheap metal work.
01:00:44
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:00:45
Noddy
and he's sort of been wanting to get into the machining side, with but not really knowing how to do it. And we've both been talking to the same shop about purchasing the same shop. So we've just sort of like, well, why don't we just join up and just both buy the shop? And that sort of helps me financial side and then helps him with the actual running of it.
01:01:04
Noddy
And he's actually going out on his property. He's going to build a so I think it's 1,200 or 1,500 square meter shed. And then eventually it'll all move into one shit one shed space. So both businesses will be in there running together. And then, because I send him work for the laser cutters and then he sends me machine work. So we'll all just be in one shed and it just sort of took...
01:01:26
Noddy
one shed that can do everything pretty much manufacturing um but the new so yeah i take over wednesday it's the first of october i'll take over this workshop and they've got uh
01:01:30
jamie peacock
Okay.
01:01:39
Noddy
two SMEC machines that are fairly new. One's a one meter mill, a one meter wide travels, will a meter and 50, I think it is. And then there's a SMEC with like a 12 inch chuck lathe.
01:01:52
Noddy
And then there's another Colchester older lathe. And my lathe actually come from this shop. I'm gonna move the sile into that, the current workshop it's in. We're just taking a walk in, walk out on the business.
01:02:03
Noddy
And then there's an old like 1950s universal manual mill um a big manual lathe, an EDM sinker, and Prancha's purchased it with the idea that it already has ah customer base of general job shop work that are cont consistent.
01:02:13
Curt
nice
01:02:21
Noddy
Week to week, there's customers that come with work, and it's for like a mine work sort thing. there's The idea is that we can get workers in to continue that work going and then i can keep kind of concentrating more so on the product development side and and get a lot more out because that's sort of what's slowing me down is this constant run around now that I'm just constantly remaking batches of parts.
01:02:44
Noddy
and to make a new R and D part, it's sort of, we've got to put all that aside and try and make a new part in there. And it's not really getting the time to do it as well as trying to keep up with just general drop shop stuff.
01:02:56
Noddy
So going into that, then, um, yeah, hopefully, ah hopefully find a machine has to come in pretty soon.
01:02:57
Curt
Yeah. Right, right.
01:03:03
Noddy
i haven't found them yet, I've got a labor lined up to sort of to help with anodizing and cleaning up. And he might just be the person has to learn to run, run the machines. And, um, and,
01:03:12
Curt
right right
01:03:12
jamie peacock
Yeah, upscale him and go.
01:03:14
Noddy
yeah and then once you get to the um get to the new shed with the bigger shed um ideally that's when we pretty much have a soon as we're moving into the shed i want the five axes to move in as well so sort of talking between a few at the moment which is between mazak akuma and smek is sort of what we're looking at and there's
01:03:27
jamie peacock
Okay.
01:03:35
jamie peacock
Okay.
01:03:35
Curt
OK. okay
01:03:36
jamie peacock
The Mazak firebacks are nice. Nice and expensive.
01:03:39
Noddy
They're just... I'm sort of looking at more so as... I do want to go to like your mill-turn machines as well.
01:03:46
jamie peacock
yeah
01:03:47
Noddy
So I'm sort of looking further down the track of ah depending on which direction the business ends up going in the general machine side, whether we need to get more three-axis mills.
01:03:58
Noddy
If it was to go to the route of getting a Mazec five-axis, the problem is to get the three-axis is about the same money as getting their five-axis.
01:04:06
jamie peacock
yeah
01:04:07
Noddy
So... Whereas if I go to the Akuma way, it's a little bit better priced on the three axis and the SMEC is a lot better as well if I go that way.
01:04:16
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:04:17
Noddy
So I'm looking at sort of what the what's the pricing on the three axis as well and um and the Multis or the Integrex. Like if we were to go that machine, like sort of try and stay with one machine brand and sort of looking at long-term actually how much machine is going to cost.
01:04:30
jamie peacock
yeah
01:04:34
Noddy
and future machines on how much that's going to cost as well. So, cause the, the, the integrates Malta style machine, milter machine, um, cause I'd make the sleeve for the engine with all the porting and that's all on a certain angle and all those angles out of the steel sleeve, that milter machine would actually be ideal.
01:04:55
Noddy
Cause I currently do it in the fourth axis now, but they just sort of done straight. And then I sort of just sort of diagram them the rest of the way to the angle they should be. So,
01:05:04
jamie peacock
yeah
01:05:06
Noddy
Getting that sort of machine would be ideal for that.
01:05:10
jamie peacock
and Okay.
01:05:10
Curt
Oh, that's awesome, yeah.
01:05:12
jamie peacock
Yeah, there's a second-hand integrator for sale here. It's like $100,000.
01:05:17
Noddy
What?
01:05:19
jamie peacock
it ah It's from like the 90s.
01:05:19
Noddy
Is it broken?
01:05:21
jamie peacock
It's not fully functional with tooling.
01:05:23
Noddy
Yeah.
01:05:23
jamie peacock
ah It requires more power than my entire property can supply.
01:05:27
Noddy
Yeah.
01:05:28
jamie peacock
Like those things are thirsty. But yeah, know it's an ASAC dealer.
01:05:31
Noddy
We've got one, there's one Integrex in our local area. There's no five axis. the I'm actually pretty sure and a lot of them don't even use Fusion or anything. There's there's nothing special in my area.
01:05:41
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:05:44
Noddy
So when I'm looking for a machine, it's just like, hey, have you done any of this? No. Cool. You have to learn everything. I
01:05:51
jamie peacock
Yeah, know that's that is a bit of an issue with the older style shops.
01:05:57
Curt
Nice. Cool.
01:06:00
jamie peacock
But yeah, I think that basically, yeah, yeah.
01:06:01
Curt
Well, we're reaching the top of the hour.
01:06:01
Noddy
think.
01:06:04
Curt
you want to start wrapping it up?
01:06:07
jamie peacock
No worries. um So, firstly, thank you to all our Patreons who make the wheels on the podcast go round and round. Special thanks to Jade from Benchmark20, Luke from Fabtastic, AJ from Subtract Manufacturing, and 16 other businesses, EJ from Internal Welding, Jason S, and the Aussie Machinist.
01:06:25
jamie peacock
um You guys are making us not stay in South Chicago for IMTS. Also, my dumbass brother's getting married the weekend after IMTS, so... Yeah, that's tedious. um But yeah, so what have ah what have you guys been Googling this week?
01:06:41
Noddy
Oh, yeah.
01:06:41
Curt
ah you can go ahead and lead us off there.
01:06:43
jamie peacock
Do you want me to get it get us going?
01:06:46
Curt
Either or. Naughty naudier
Tech and Tools Discussions
01:06:48
Curt
or Jamie. Whatever you guys want to...
01:06:49
Noddy
ja Jamie, you go first.
01:06:51
jamie peacock
I think I lost my wordle streak yesterday. Shit.
01:06:54
Curt
Oh, no.
01:06:54
jamie peacock
Okay, anyway. Yeah, dude, I've been a bit stupid. ah Trying to figure out how to put conversational into my Linux CNC controllers. ah Found a green set of tool drawers for the lathe tooling when I rearrange.
01:07:08
jamie peacock
ah Looking up manuals for VFDs. Look up the Rand dollar, which is now sad. um Tracking my tunnel parcel because that teleported over to the US.
01:07:19
jamie peacock
Also some shenanigans there, which I think we'll get into in tune the after show um about what happened there. And i have some thoughts. And then looking at three-jawed chucks, because I need a three-jawed chuck for my milling machine, because I sold the one that is on Bertha.
01:07:35
jamie peacock
So i had to buy a new one.
01:07:35
Curt
Nice.
01:07:36
jamie peacock
And I'm putting it on a pallet that ah can go on an anchor point or onto the 96mm studs of the Jang plate.
01:07:45
jamie peacock
So made a custom fancy pallet. But yeah, so what have you guys been goggling?
01:07:47
Curt
thanks
01:07:51
Noddy
Cut.
01:07:52
Curt
Oh yeah. Okay. Um, a bunch of boring stuff.
01:07:53
Noddy
the
01:07:54
Curt
There's a Canada post strike looming or active, or I think actually think now it's active. Uh, so that kind of, there was a little bit of a wrench into some things, but thankfully this has happened once. So I have a million things in place.
01:08:05
Curt
So can kind of get around that. Um, I have satisfactory open. It's like a game. ah Someone sent me onto it and it looks heinously fun. um DIY keyboards, which is a horrible place to go down because now i'm looking at like machined keycaps and oh just oh, that's a bad, bad, bad thing to look at.
01:08:19
jamie peacock
I don't do that.
01:08:23
Curt
was like, I have all them equipment. I could do it. I could make custom titanium keycaps and anyways. um And then just a bunch of, yeah, boring other stuff that doesn't really pertain to anything.
01:08:33
Curt
So that's majority my Google searches. How would you master naughty?
01:08:37
Noddy
Um, my last Google search was LNC X-axis over current ER 100 trying to, to dose diagnose my machine last night.
01:08:48
Noddy
Um,
01:08:48
Curt
Hmm. Hmm.
01:08:48
Curt
Hmm.
01:08:49
Noddy
Other than that, it's really just the current setting up of new business. just And ah probably I'm probably right down to just the RP software now, just getting involved with building that.
01:09:01
Noddy
And then I'll pretty much just have a tab open, which is thefullgrip.com, which is a local... local um oh is strat not local but australian um who's got a line of vices and zero point blaze pays plates and stuff but the because i've got i've got like the silver cnc on my fourth axis and i'm sure when i bought that it was like 1700 and i was like this is ridiculous it's a hundred dollars of steel so now that same actually even a bigger vice is under 500 australian
01:09:25
jamie peacock
yeah yeah
01:09:39
Noddy
for a zero point advice and I'm like,
01:09:40
jamie peacock
the silver cnc is like 400 500 for a zero point
01:09:40
Curt
wow
01:09:45
Noddy
in US dollars.
01:09:47
jamie peacock
yeah you
01:09:48
Noddy
Yeah, this is Australian, like in stock in Australia, I'm like, so I'm pretty much just waiting till Wednesday when I'm in this new shop to measure up the machine and and look at getting the zero point plates and everything onto that machine or make a plan with that.
01:09:55
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there we go.
01:10:03
Noddy
Because I do need, one of the parts I'm holding off on, I need to make a trunnion table And this it was never going to work on the X5. Actually, no, I'm a lie.
01:10:13
jamie peacock
yeah
01:10:14
Noddy
I could have made it work on the X5. I just realized I shouldn't because would have had a trunnion that was hanging outside of the travels and so I could flip the part around and finish the other part.
01:10:18
jamie peacock
yeah there we go
01:10:26
jamie peacock
Yeah, I'm actually, that's on the list of things, to just make a trunnion for my fourth axis.
01:10:31
Noddy
Yeah.
01:10:31
jamie peacock
Make just a plate that I can put an anchor point on and then pivot it sideways.
01:10:35
Noddy
Yeah, that's what I sort of want to put zero points on that and get that.
01:10:37
jamie peacock
Yeah. Yeah.
01:10:40
Noddy
That would make it life a lot easier.
01:10:41
jamie peacock
But yeah, I'm looking, I need to buy a Lang style zero point for the new lathe for quick changing my gang tooling blocks. So I'm going put all the recurring jobs onto a Lang plate.
01:10:49
Noddy
Oh, yeah, that's a good idea.
01:10:52
jamie peacock
Yeah, then I drop it in, I touch off the first tool, everything else has already touched off.
01:10:52
Noddy
Yeah.
01:10:56
Noddy
Well, would you even have enough tool offsets so you could just leave them set up?
01:11:01
jamie peacock
Yes. So now, now is my opportunity to reprogram everything I do.
01:11:03
Noddy
Yeah.
01:11:05
jamie peacock
So like recurring production jobs are going to have stupid tool numbers. i'm going to make the blocks out of 7075, anodize them, engrave the tool numbers on them, and then they just drop in and I touch off the first tool and the other four are already set.
01:11:13
Noddy
Yeah, yeah.
01:11:20
Noddy
No, what I'm saying is that you could have, like, if the tool block you've got in there, the offset could already be set.
01:11:24
jamie peacock
Yeah. I just don't trust home switches.
01:11:27
Noddy
You don't trust it. Yeah, yeah that's right.
01:11:28
jamie peacock
I don't trust home switches. ah This machine should be better because it looks like the servos I bought support on-drive homing.
01:11:30
Noddy
Ah, yeah.
01:11:36
jamie peacock
So I link the home switch to the drive itself, and then LinuxCNC says, hey, Mr.
01:11:37
Noddy
Yep. Yep, yep.
01:11:41
jamie peacock
the Drive, home, please. It does its homing cycle and then says, I'm over here now and is absolutely positioning.
01:11:45
Noddy
Yeah.
01:11:46
jamie peacock
So, yeah, we will see. That's the thing.
01:11:48
Noddy
The old, my old, the old light that have, that's how that works. And it ah it is all fanning, but it is, it's very accurate.
01:11:53
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:11:55
jamie peacock
yeah oh the lk repeats like exactly um ah but that's also it doesn't have limit switches it is well it's absolute it knows where it is and if you do lose position you jog with these arrows you align them and within a rotation it finds the z pulse and sets your position again that's rare like day to day that machine is spot on
01:11:57
Noddy
Um, yeah.
01:12:11
Noddy
Yep.
01:12:13
Noddy
Yep.
01:12:15
Noddy
Yeah.
01:12:19
jamie peacock
ah Yesterday, I machined that pallet for the chuck, and I put the laying pill stud in, and it wouldn't go in. I'd let go, and it would come up, because I got the ball so tight, it was catching because it wasn't a through ball.
01:12:29
jamie peacock
i was like, fucking A. like They didn't even try. It's great. like I've got the that tool comp dialed in on that tool, and yeah to hold relatively tight tolerance is super easy on a good machine.
01:12:36
Noddy
yeah
01:12:44
jamie peacock
Yeah. On not the slow yo.
01:12:49
Curt
Well, do you have a...
01:12:49
jamie peacock
Oh, cool.
Business Strategy and Social Media
01:12:50
jamie peacock
Yeah, do you have any calls?
01:12:50
Curt
so yeah what's a what's so What's a website that you want to plug or social medias or wherever you want people to to find your wares?
01:12:57
Noddy
um so it's actually i'll have to check what it actually is i'm pretty sure it's just not his performance yeah just yep so that's that's all the jet skiing stuff and that's gonna go away from the machine side of stuff and then the new one is um os os underscore manufacturing
01:13:04
jamie peacock
ah Yeah, there will be a link in the description.
01:13:04
Curt
Hmm.
01:13:06
jamie peacock
I'll get my wife to go find it and then we'll make sure there's a link.
01:13:20
jamie peacock
okay okay
01:13:21
Curt
Okay. Nice.
01:13:22
Noddy
Um, so that'll be, is literally no post or anything on that yet, but over the next few months I'll be building that one into just a pure machine side of things. It'll still see the jet ski parts, but it'll on the notice performance, I won't have, um, the only machining stuff that'll be on there from now on will be just of the jet ski parts.
01:13:39
jamie peacock
chetsky
01:13:41
Noddy
So whereas the car parts and stuff will disappear and that can be become a lot more just but niche down to the jet ski side of things.
01:13:49
jamie peacock
and
01:13:50
Noddy
Um,
01:13:51
jamie peacock
Yeah, we'll put some links in the doobly-doo.
01:13:51
Noddy
ah yeah
01:13:52
Curt
Yeah.
01:13:52
Curt
Yeah. Yeah.
01:13:53
jamie peacock
And then if anyone's interested, they can go check those out and find all your fancy stuff. Because, yeah, your JetSki stuff looks really good.
01:14:01
Curt
yeah
01:14:01
Noddy
Thank you.
01:14:01
Curt
yeah
01:14:02
jamie peacock
yeah know And I like seeing people do silly things on machines.
01:14:06
Noddy
Yeah.
01:14:07
jamie peacock
Brings me great joy. If it's dumb and it works, it's not dumb, but it worked.
01:14:09
Noddy
It's yay-hooing. Yeah.
01:14:14
jamie peacock
Yeah, you've done some very creative setups there.
01:14:14
Curt
yeah
01:14:17
jamie peacock
Kurt, where can people...
01:14:17
Noddy
Actually, even the
01:14:19
jamie peacock
No, no, carry on.
01:14:19
Noddy
Even the line boring setup that I do on the lathe, I actually bought a hold on the machine, a manual lathe, and I was going to build that in to do that on the manual to keep it out of the CNC.
01:14:22
jamie peacock
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
01:14:32
jamie peacock
yeah
01:14:32
Noddy
But I never did it because it was just so convenient.
01:14:33
Curt
Mm-hmm.
01:14:35
Noddy
Because I even have that plate that's mounting the cases to the tool turret. it's got a tool offset and it's just safe. So I can just literally put it back in, bolt the parts up and they just set the Z and then go.
01:14:43
jamie peacock
yeah
01:14:49
Noddy
And it's just convenient.
01:14:49
jamie peacock
I assume you've never tool changed that plate.
01:14:50
Noddy
because i
01:14:54
Noddy
No. And there is a way to like there is a way to lock out the tarant, but I haven't bothered to do that.
01:14:55
jamie peacock
Not yet.
01:14:59
jamie peacock
The turret. Okay, because that would terrify me.
01:15:02
Noddy
i just The code I run,
01:15:05
Noddy
Yeah.
01:15:05
Curt
I didn't even think of that.
01:15:05
jamie peacock
But yeah I had so the guy that bought Bertha from me was here last night to make some parts of it you can use the machine as a manual machines are showing them how to fondle all the knobs. And I'm like, No, you take a cut, you back off if you mark your size, you tell the controller what size it is you jog to the size you want it to be and you take another cut, and it'll cut exactly it's like super easy compared to doing it on a manual machine.
01:15:21
Noddy
and Yeah.
01:15:27
jamie peacock
But like we, I think last night, in two hours, we did like four days worth of work.
01:15:27
Noddy
I actually, yeah.
01:15:34
jamie peacock
Like that he was going to have to do on his manual machine.
01:15:36
Noddy
Yeah.
01:15:36
jamie peacock
is yeah
01:15:37
Noddy
Oh yeah. Yeah. Gotcha.
01:15:38
jamie peacock
He's pretty stoked about getting Bertha in and get it up and running. He's like, oh, can you put a bigger spindle motor? I'm like, no problem. Buy a motor, buy VFD, I'll come and integrate it for you. Like the reason the machine...
01:15:48
Noddy
It's a converted.
Innovative Conversions and Upgrades
01:15:49
jamie peacock
ah Yeah, I bought a scrapped Alex Tech lathe and then CNC converted it, yeah.
01:15:53
Noddy
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:15:54
jamie peacock
But I cut some serious corners. Like, it's got a three-horsepower spindle motor because that's all that's what I knew and it's all i could afford at the time. And, like, he was here last night and I'm like, this is why this lathe is going because I stopped the spindle and then waited, like, 15 seconds for it to stop, which, for him, making 100 parts a month, not a problem.
01:16:14
Noddy
Yeah.
01:16:14
jamie peacock
When I want to make 400 parts a day, that's a huge issue. Yeah. Because he was he was very concerned I was selling him my rubbish. But no, I was not.
01:16:26
jamie peacock
Kurt, where can people find your things?
01:16:29
Curt
ah You can find at confoundermachine.com. There's nothing. But you can sign up on the contact page for notifications of when I will potentially have more ways for people to buy my wares. That isn't just completely locked out.
01:16:41
Curt
As the story is always.
01:16:41
jamie peacock
Ah, fuck.
01:16:43
Curt
so ah what do you What are you guys up to today?
01:16:45
jamie peacock
Um.
01:16:47
Curt
Jamie, what are you doing today?
01:16:48
jamie peacock
I think, well, I just realized that tomorrow is in month end. I thought Monday was the last day of the month, but turns out it's Tuesday. So I'm going to go sleep and feel better. Because I was going to force myself, I was going to go nap for like two hours and then go run machines, but I can push it off till Monday and actually try and not die.
01:17:05
jamie peacock
So yeah, I'm going to go sleep for the day. Yeah, I'm a bit burnt out. It's been two weeks of late nights, early mornings, every day. So yeah, a little bit's a little bit burnt out at the moment.
01:17:05
Curt
It's probably a wise idea.
01:17:16
jamie peacock
So I think...
01:17:17
Curt
Yeah, man. Yeah.
01:17:18
jamie peacock
be wise and don't burn myself out entirely. Don't want to pitch up at my friend's house drunk. Oh, mean he doesn't listen. So i wouldn't hear that dig. Yeah, my mate, my mates.
01:17:29
Curt
About.
01:17:31
jamie peacock
Burned himself out so hard he ended up pitching at my house had a fight with girlfriend pitched up at my house drunk one day. Like, yeah, it was a rough. But yeah, so what are you up to today? You went and drove your jet ski already.
Weekend Plans and Work-Life Balance
01:17:41
Noddy
Yeah, so I went jet skiing this morning. um And then I came back, pulled the plug back off the Y-axis motor because I forgot the little safety that holds the terminals in place. So put that back in together, put all the covers back on it. I pretty much i found that issue last night because I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep if I had not fixed the machine last night. So I was out there till late getting the machine running.
01:18:05
Noddy
And then, yeah, just i come back from jet skiing, washed it, put all the covers back on that machine. it should be it should almost be finished, that part now. it says It's been running while I've been talking.
01:18:16
jamie peacock
Oh, nice.
01:18:17
Noddy
So I'll probably go up there and I'll think about those parts get made on that angle on the fourth axis and then they get flipped over and do the other side.
01:18:23
jamie peacock
Oh, yes.
01:18:26
Noddy
I'll think about it because I was actually, if the machine didn't break down last night, I literally would have turned the machine off and wouldn't even touch it today.
01:18:35
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:18:35
Noddy
But now it's finishing. i've sort ah I've caught up with that sort of parts. The customer is pushing me for to get them out because his customers are pushing him for the parts, which are parts that are still in testing.
01:18:42
jamie peacock
Oh, okay.
01:18:44
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:18:46
Noddy
They're not even not even a confirmed design yet.
01:18:47
jamie peacock
not even production. Out of curiosity, how big is that server on your y axis?
01:18:50
Noddy
No. no
01:18:55
jamie peacock
How many watts? Because it looks quite small.
01:18:59
Noddy
Yeah, it was... I opened the covers up and I'm like, this is a hobby machine.
01:19:04
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:19:07
Noddy
I think it... Did you say watts? Is that what you're asking?
01:19:09
jamie peacock
Yeah, watts, how many watts is it? It looks like a 750 or 400.
01:19:11
Noddy
was 1.1, I think.
01:19:12
jamie peacock
One
01:19:14
Noddy
I did take photo of it. It is...
01:19:15
jamie peacock
kilowatt. Okay, that's that's decent.
01:19:18
Noddy
Yeah, 1 kilowatt, 3...
01:19:19
jamie peacock
I think I'm 1.2 on each of my X and Y and 1.8 on the Z.
01:19:19
Noddy
it is
01:19:23
Noddy
yeah one one kilowatt
01:19:25
jamie peacock
Okay.
01:19:26
Noddy
three
01:19:27
jamie peacock
It's not a big servo.
01:19:29
Noddy
three Yeah, 3.8 Newton meters and 5,000 RPM.
01:19:32
jamie peacock
Yeah, that's general. Oh, wow. Okay.
01:19:37
Noddy
Yeah, it's...
01:19:37
jamie peacock
My 1kW only goes up to 3200 The one that drives the spindle on the Emco.
01:19:41
Noddy
It does...
01:19:43
jamie peacock
Okay.
01:19:43
Noddy
Yeah, it's got 3,000 RPM for the torque rating.
01:19:47
jamie peacock
yeah Yes, and then it'll peak up faster.
01:19:50
Noddy
But it's... It is... it's The machine's ridiculously fast. I don't run it on 100%.
01:19:55
jamie peacock
Yes. I do, but only when I have people watching.
01:19:57
Noddy
i
01:19:59
jamie peacock
It's the best.
01:19:59
Noddy
Yeah, yeah, you turn it up when people watching.
01:20:00
jamie peacock
I've got old who comes past. No, you'll come past. I'll run it at like 20% rapids, do the first part, load the second part, push 100%, hit cycle start, turn around, and walk away. And he's watching the machine, and thing, the head just comes down at 48 meters a minute, and just like jumps backwards like every time.
01:20:10
Noddy
Yeah.
01:20:17
Noddy
Yeah.
01:20:17
jamie peacock
But yeah, i tend to run at 50% these days. And then if I'm running stuff on multiple work offsets, then I got 100% because then it's up, over, down, up, over, down.
01:20:25
Noddy
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:20:26
jamie peacock
And that just, I don't want, ah I want a rocket ship.
01:20:31
Noddy
Yeah, the ah the biggest issue I find is the the tool change is actually done at 100% as well.
01:20:32
jamie peacock
But ja then the light stem.
01:20:37
jamie peacock
Yes.
01:20:37
Noddy
So it sort of bangs in and out with the, the you can see it on the um Kurt screen there that you had.
01:20:41
jamie peacock
Oh, interesting. Mine actually... My tool changer is driven by the by the rapid override. So if I go to 100%, it will feed off slowly and feed up slowly if I'm like 1% or whatever, and it takes forever.
01:20:56
jamie peacock
So my tool change speed actually changes with my rapid speeds.
01:21:00
Noddy
Yeah, it does, but then at 100%, it's too fast.
01:21:02
jamie peacock
Yeah, it's it's violence.
01:21:04
Noddy
Yeah. Yeah.
01:21:05
jamie peacock
It says 100%, you can all 100% of
01:21:08
Noddy
I use that in the spindle, just not the rapid spindle.
01:21:09
Curt
i I thought the exact same, so I changed the the the macro that the tool thing calls. So it rapids up to like 90% of the travel and then slows right down.
01:21:17
Noddy
Yeah.
01:21:17
Noddy
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:21:18
Curt
Does this tool change slow?
01:21:19
Curt
And then comes because same thing.
01:21:20
Noddy
Yeah.
01:21:20
Curt
I was like, this thing is sounding like a car crash every tool change.
01:21:22
Noddy
Yeah.
01:21:22
jamie peacock
when
01:21:22
Curt
So
01:21:23
jamie peacock
Wasn't your machine over traveling Kurt when it was doing the tool change?
01:21:26
Curt
I don't know if it's over traveling or doing something. It still does it occasionally, but putting that little bit of code where just slow down like a millimeter earlier helped a ton.
01:21:30
jamie peacock
Oh, my...
01:21:34
jamie peacock
Yeah. My HMR crashed yesterday.
01:21:35
Noddy
i have changed the i have changed the parameters of the travels like i think that this x5 is meant to be like 300 but it sort of goes five mil one way a little bit extra and 310 the other way so i've got about 320 now
01:21:45
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:21:51
Curt
That's
01:21:54
Noddy
and Because I put, so when I mount those big blocks on the on the machine, if you're out that little bit, I'm like, I am not breaking the set down.
01:21:54
jamie peacock
That's great.
01:21:55
Curt
proper.
01:21:57
jamie peacock
Yeah.
01:22:02
Noddy
Like how far can I push the over travel?
01:22:02
Curt
Yeah.
01:22:04
Noddy
And I'll change the parameter to make it work.
01:22:08
jamie peacock
That's brilliant.
01:22:08
Curt
That's awesome.
01:22:09
Curt
I like that.
01:22:09
jamie peacock
Yeah, I had my my HMR crash on the LK yesterday. It's now the third time it's happened in the year and half for two years I've had the machine. So it pops up an error message, HMI has encountered an unrecoverable problem.
01:22:19
Curt
Oh, Cool.
01:22:23
jamie peacock
You're a power cycle machine.
01:22:26
Curt
oh
01:22:26
jamie peacock
But it's usually when I'm pushing and pulling code and doing stupid shit, like resetting a machine mid-cycle and then trying to load code instantly, and then it goes, eh, and doesn't enjoy it.
01:22:39
jamie peacock
A little bit terrifying. Anyway, um cool. So thank you everybody for listening. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. um There's links in the doobly-doo to find Naughty Performance. And we will see you guys next week.
01:22:53
jamie peacock
And the after show will be recorded at a different time. We're also going to can episode for fun. So it should be entertaining.
01:23:00
Curt
Yeah.
01:23:00
jamie peacock
But yeah, thank you everybody for listening. And we will see you next week.
01:23:04
Curt
Yeah. Thanks aie for giving us your time. And thank you.
01:23:07
Noddy
Yeah, good. Thanks for having
01:23:08
Curt
Thanks. Yeah. As always.
01:23:09
jamie peacock
No problem.
01:23:11
Curt
Take care.