It would be impossible to overstate how important what you guys are doing is to makers and creators everywhere. The journey you've documented and the lessons you've shared are quite literally priceless. YT has its problems and boy that fact is all too obvious, but here you see what good YT is capable of.
As far as stereo microscopes go, make sure you go for a trinocular one if possible. It lets you use a camera without loosing stereoscopic vision as you do with binocular microscopes.
I think its a good thing John doesn't know hownto run everything. Alot of small machine shops the owner stretch themselves so far that they loose quality of work they go crazy because of the work load. Being confident in your employees is big and trusting them to do the work and not hovering around them.
Your energy and excitement has really been a huge inspiration to me. Thanks brother. You have a way of taking the smallest thing into something huge! Great channel. Amazing videos. You rock! Thanks so much brother. God bless u and your family. 😀👍🇺🇸
I know I'm a little late to the party but I was a machinist for over 20 years, for a worldwide earth moving mfgr & in cabinetry; and have a suggestion, as far as your packing foam situation is concerned. I operated and programed 3 different types on CNC machines at the cabinet shop and there's one in particular that might help in your production. It's a vacuum table nesting CNC center made by HOMAG; a BOF 311/30 (I'll leave a link to a vid for it). It's not a small machine by no stretch; will accept a 5' X 12' sheet of MDF or "spoil board"; but I'm suggesting it because of it's versatility and high efficiency. It would allow you to increase your production of the fitted foam for the cases by nearly 200%; cutting time & costs. You would be able to eliminate the router table step also by using a 2 step program. You would first use a convex router bit to do the chamfer then flip to finish off the fitted part. You could do that for an entire piece of 4' X 7' foam sheet or use half the table for the foam & the other half for milling handles, branded leather patches or belt holders etc. The versatility will pay for itself in a year if your volume is large enough. The 311/30 is about a 10 y/o model, so they shouldn't be that expensive. They're cheap to maintain in your case, since the stresses you'll put on it will be minimal. You could even call Stiles Machinery Inc. 3965 44th St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512 Phone: 616-698-7500 for other suggestions &/or used machinery that might be better suited for your situation. BTW, one way to stop the roll-up on your pocket routes would be to plunge the corners prior to starting the profile pass or using the 3mm for the profile and a 5 mil to do the waste pass. That's the same way we used to routed 5 & 7 layer marine grade plywood; to prevent low out, chatter & breakage of thin wall sections. Hope this helps; if not now; maybe in the future as you grow your company. VIDEO- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Zp1vJTRbztY.html
John, you are probably small enough that this idea wouldn't be usable but as you get larger your mill time value goes up but you already know that. Maybe one of those cheep chinese 3 axis tabletop mills would be good enough for foam. You will probably want to tear it apart and upgrade it but that would have the lateral strength for doing case foam. I hope your mill time value goes way up fast;o) It's good that you are friends enough to ask the hard questions like are you making money by storing something. Good friends are so valuable. Hang onto them. Would a pneumatic cylinder do a good job for your quenching? Us a pedal raise with default press so the operator can do something else like make the next one ready or the like. Not sure it would work for what your doing though.
I got my first 2 mills and 1 lathe about 3 months ago NYC Cnc! It's a good feeling getting your first machines! I don't know if you remember me talking to you a while back about this :)
yep and the walls of the tumbler. My first time trying a blade in mine without a zip tie it got stuck on teh side and totally ruined the blade as one side got way smoothed out
A little more modern then what I used to certify hardware for helicopter rotor heads. That was at the end of 2002. John.....will be headed to Ohio to see family in Coshocton. Would like to come talk with you next Spring/Summer if possible.
The IT Pro in me says that remote access to centralized computational resources would be beneficial to the machine-side IT experience. Why have redundant physical computer(s) with sufficient horsepower to make Fusion usable beside the machine(s)? Why not just have a low-end machine that can remote into a primary, high-power on-prem machine over the local network? It allows you to relocate any expensive IT assets (eg machines with GPU-accelerated computation for faster CAD/CAM) to a safe location off the shop floor away from harm, reduce redundant systems, expand accessible endpoints at lower cost, and allows for a continuous user experience as you move from endpoint to endpoint.
A "tombstone" refers to a big pillar-shaped block to which you can attach multiple workpieces, vises etc. to each side(s) and then machine them all. Or machine parts on one side while a robot is loading the other side, things like that. Picture half-way down this page shows a tombstone in position on the rotating table with vises on four sides: www.fluidpowersales.com/whats-new/general-news/setting-up-the-new-cnc-machining-center/
The zip ties work like feathers on a dart. They keep the blade oriented in the continuous tumbling action so the finish is consistent between lades. ..?
love the 3dp airgun handles, but have a lame question. What do you do about the airgun tips? (mine get mangled, and I've been using the gun without, but I see maybe you have solved this.
You should relay have people write down how to run their machines, at least to the point where somebody else can fairly quickly learn to perform the basic tasks. Having a bus factor of one seems rather risky to me
