Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

If dad wasn't working us we would help other farmers, I guess they may have paid dad I don't know. If we got a pack of nabs and a soda for break we were happy.

 

We have some huge crab apple trees out back. Been spending some time watching the deer enjoy them. Little fawns are funny trying to figure out what mom and dad are eating.

 

Havent seen any fawns here

 

We had one of the fawns killed by a car the other night. My wife was devastated.

 

Got a picture of a fawn yesterday.

 

appreciate it Sir! I love seeing what others do/make/create. Everyone here has talent.

Thank you. I try to squeeze in projects of my own as much as I can.. keeps me sane.

some Mic-6 fixture plates or somethin?

 

A guy uses these in a test machine to compress some sort of fabric, the holes are just to let air pass. I've made several over the years, usually just one at a time. He ordered 3 large and 1 small this time

 

Interesting. I'm always curious what the parts are for. Usually, it's one small piece of a larger puzzle that nobody ever sees..

 

That's us. We are a small shop and do a lot of prototype work. 50 to 65 % of the things I make I have no idea what they are for.

 

Nice. the good stuff then imo.

We're technically a job shop.. privately owned and operated... but have grown substantially in the last few years and now have doubled in capacity and personnel since I started. We mostly do Aerospace, Semi-Conductor, Medical and Automotive work, but we'll take on anything, including walk-ins. About half is prototype or low quantity jobs.. some for large, well known corporations, some for small business or private/civilian. The other half has ramped up into production for a few of the large repeat customers with new dedicated machines for the bread and butter jobs. Usually the parts are for some other large machine build... but occasionally we'll get some stuff where we see the direct end result.. usually for the smaller customers. I seem to be the go-to guy here for all the 1-Off and tedious, detailed orientated jobs.. I'm pretty OCD so it works out.. so the 1 and done jobs are pretty fun and satisfying to me.. even if I dont know what its for.. lol

 

This is the ramp that's now cut into pieces small enough to put in the machine to see if there's any bad MOJO on them. It might cost a couple grand to trash them otherwise, if they're clean they can go in the regular metal recycling bin. Behind the cart is a personnel lift and it leaked hydraulic fluid and parts no longer available. So just shove it over there in the machine shop?? There's probably 20 full lengths of conduit and all sorts of other material loaded up on my material racks for shop stock. Irritating.

 

sup

 

A former coworker - who died a couple years ago in his late 80's, used to say

"Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it it goes"

 

My boss mans parents ran this company until their health forced them to stop, one of their sons took it over. He does all our drawings, quotes, errands, etc. There is me and one other guy out here in the shop. I run the 3 axis mill and do all our welding, he runs the cnc lathe(s) and does some mill work (we also have a cnc bridgeport and a regular bridgeport). He and I have been out here 27 years next month. He's in his mid 60's and one of the best machinist I've ever met. I've learned a lot from him over the years.

Our biggest customer is a textile plant that makes fake grass from scratch and also a sister to that company who makes things from hemp. We get a lot of walk ins and one off projects. That's what I like about working here, it's always something different.

 

sup @tacotoe

 

Going to be 55 in 10 days from now. Starting to think more about how fast the last 20 years past and in 20 more what kind of shape will I be in
If I'm lucky enough to even reach 75.
To the younger generation...save now as much as possible. Wish I would have been putting money in some type of retirement account long before I started. SS payments aren't going to be enough and then can't even draw the full benefits unless I wait until 67.5
Former coworker was drawing a pension, drawing full SS benefit and working full time here.
One Monday he didn't show up for work...age 70

 

Very cool! I love small shops. the vibes, the work environment and co-workers, laid back compared to corporate BS. About how our shop was when I started. We're mostly a HAAS CNC shop (but have recently started getting some Doosans though for our bread and butter/high end parts), with a manual room with some converted Jets/Bridgeports and engine lathe. Surface grinders, CNC saws, etc. There were 6 of us total.. now there's 19. Bossman handles some of the quoting and larger jobs, we have 2 other guys quoting, 1 guy oversees the schedule and shop, There's myself and another guy that program the mills. I usually program, setup and run my own programs and mills (I have a little work area with my own 5 and 3 axis mills and my desk in between. The other programmer mostly just programs for the few setup/operators we have here and pumps them out. Then a few lathe guys, a few deburr/shipping guys, a waterjet guy, QC department, office/shop Mom, and the Bossmans Son....

Its about as big and nice as we can be without being a corporate shop. Big, clean newer building with all the toys. We have a reputation as being the nicest, cleanest private shop in the Phoenix area. Had some articles published in a magazine not too long ago either. I do love it here.. I get to enjoy all the benefits and be creative with my work. I really enjoy being able to do the entire process myself. Design/Engineer, Program, setup, mavhine, deburr.... when I turn my parts in.. they are done done and I know my hands did all of it. Good way yo have some quality control too... cuz I'm anal as hell. lol

 

Was making some progress with shop clean-up disposal of a bunch of scrap. I think now (rumor mill) going to be helping rebuild a pump/power-frame

 

pump/power frame?