Above 1200 Sq/FT Eastern Washington Workshop

[slodat]

One of the challenges with the projects we are working on is adding a hinged door to various manufacturer’s gear where the door was fixed mount prior. Meaning bolted in place, a cover. I took my first whack at this in 2023 for a different client/projects. In that case I attempted to machine dimensionally same/similar to a formed sheet metal hinge they provided. The parts looked nice, but it just didn’t work.

This time the client designed a more universal hinge. It can work with three different mounting hole spacings. I was short on available time, so these are being made out of A36. The next batch will be 1018 or maybe stainless. Plan is to have future batches plated.

The fixed leaf was pretty straight forward for the first two operations. This is the end of day 1:





Fixed lead only has pin hole boring left, and OP1 of moving leaf is done. Boring the pin holes was on my mind the whole time. I finally came up with an idea…





The mounting surface is in a pocket on the front soft jaw. The tower that needs a hole poked in it is sitting on a plain rear jaw. Then I realized I could do the same for the moving leaf. One way to gain some efficiency is reusing setups. This one setup was used to bore both fixed leaf holes, the moving leaf holes, then some additional work later.

Family photo after machining is complete:


The first time I slid the pin in place was really satisfying. Because of the 4.5 outside length, I couldn’t line bore the holes.



The setup worked really well. The pins are 0.245 and I use a letter D drill (0.246). The pins slid and were a little snug. I reamed the holes with a 0.249 reamer. Now the pins drop in place. Exactly what the part needs. The moving leaf is bored with a D taper length bit. It worked out really well.





Next is tumbling, then quick sandblast, then powder coat. Install is this weekend.

I’m well aware this is an enormous amount of work “for a hinge”. This is an enormous project for the company and it all makes sense for the business. Now that I know how I want to make them, I’ll most likely set the orange vises up double station and run 8 parts per cycle.

For anyone interested in the tooling. This Haas 5 flute end mill is really impressive, even on my smaller machines.

 

[slodat]

The hinges turned out really nice. After machining they were tumbled with ceramic media. This does a great job of deburring and getting rid of tooling marks from machining.



Then a quick trip through the sand blaster.



Then powder coat.



The smaller oven is perfect for stuff like this. The silicone plugs are a must for keeping the powder out of the pin bores.

Then the final product.


I used the deburring wheel to remove powder on the mating surfaces. It worked well it didn’t take much time at all. Long term plan is to send these out for plating.

These are some expensive hinges if that’s how a guy chooses to look at it. I see it as a solution to a problem and rounding out a packaged solution for the client and end user.

The guys and I are doing some rare out of the shop work supporting the install on this project. I don’t think we will do it often, generally speaking. It will be great for the guys to see the parts we make being installed. The whole process soup to nuts.

As far as the hinges go, much more dense fixturing is in order. I’m leaving toward running the orange vises dual station with two of each part OP1 and OP2 at once. Should yield a nice cycle time.

Thanks for following along!

 

[slodat]

Can you elaborate on this? Is there more machinery you're adding or do you mean the machinery you've already bought has been expensive and will take a while to pay off?

Edit: This is what I get for getting halfway through a post and then asking a question a day later... I see you already answered my question above. Carry on!

It’s crazy when I stop and think about the machinery and processes I’m now looking at. The bus machines will be a ways out. I need square footage and power first.

Steven...perf'in metal without distortion is not for the timid...when using heat, ie: Laser or Plasma adds to the challenge.

We have a couple of jobs running right now...lots of perf'in. I think the proto's were done in the Laser and Lanced in a Press Brake while the Turret Tooling was being developed. After bit of of head scratching and chin rubbing the guys got it done...





If you want to do a lot of Perfs or Shapes you need a Turret Press. I know a guy that might have a couple of used ones he might be willing to part with...LOL...

In my opinion LVD Strippit makes the best Turret Presses. Built 100% in house at the old Buffalo Arm Plant in Akron NY. Built like a tank and almost every part/weldment is heat stress relieved throughout the build process.



Love your work!!! Not to mention your ambition.

Pat- you aren’t kidding about the challenges with the slots! I’m really happy to have come up with a workable solution for this project. What a pain in the *** it was!

I’ll give you a call about turrets. Today, I don’t have the floor space. I have something I’m hoping I can pull off that will alleviate that for at least a while.

The laser I bought is what I can afford. I know it’s very much a temporary stepping stone type of machine. I also think it will really be a step up from plasma. And a whole new set of problems!

Thank you for the kind words and encouragement. You more than most know what this involves. The 16 hour days are definitely adding up. It’s 3am and I’m wide awake because my body is a little sore and my mind is solving problems.

Steven a word of caution when purchasing a used Boschert, if it is not the current series they will not give any support (maintenance program is $30k per machine per year) I'm not in the other 2 shops here so I don't know the exact number but believe there is at least a dozen of them. I guess the difficulty getting plated buss is from us(IEM) buying it all. Between Siemens breakers and cradles and **** loads of buss the shop I'm in is packed all 150,000 square foot of it, don't know about the other 380,000sq.ft. We are slammed until 2030. I can see your future being VERY promising

Don- I appreciate the info! When I talked to the US rep, I liked what he had to say on the phone. Lots to consider on machines like this. I’m not there yet. I’ll pick your brain before that time comes. With regard to copper I’m told Sq D and Eaton bought up almost a year of allocations. So far I’m able to source rounded edge plain bar. I’m really happy with the plating company so far. My supplier is saying they may have some plated in early spring. There’s plenty of work out there for everyone. I’m grateful to be doing what I’m doing. Thanks for contributing to the conversation! It’s really cool hearing your perspective from within the industry.

 

[GeddyT]

Did you notice warping from the A36 when machining that much material off? Fighting warpage was the biggest challenge when I used it for my son's sword blade.

I'm actually doing a similar project right now in the sense that it's a batch of assemblies, only my project is more silly and less professional. Although a silly project, it's still 20 parts, four assemblies, something like 90 setups. It's really kicking my ***! I'm still suffering from bad part lines to the point that I'm wondering if my Haimer probe is off a bit. A tenth of a millimeter is more than enough. If I don't machine the soft jaws en situ and use them right away, there's no accuracy. Last night, I was at the point of machining soft jaws to hold soft jaws, which was when I started to wonder if I have a problem...

I understand your 16 hour days and lack of sleep. I was in the shop until almost 2:00 last night, then went to bed and tossed and turned. All over a stupid project for myself and not for a customer. Setting up for a production run is nine-tenths of the battle, as you know. Spend enough time and thinking up front (or in the middle of the night when sleep should be happening) to get your fixturing right, and the machine will take care of the rest. Sometimes the plan doesn't work, though, and needs tweaked and re-tweaked, which is so time consuming.

I'm still here for every post, man. I love what you're doing!

 

[slodat]

I didn’t do this to prevent/control material stress causing the parts to move.. the material was never forced into a setup though. I faced stock so I could hold it in Serrajaws. Then all setups after that held or referenced previously machined features. I didn’t have any perceivable movement or distortion. I’ll be honest. It was a mad dash and I didn’t really think about it either. I’m happy with how they turned out. We will know more later today. Getting ready to head to the jobsite now.

I really appreciate that last two sentences, Tom! This thread and GJ in general continues to be a great form of support for my shop endeavors. Thank you all for following along and contributing to the conversation!

 

[slodat]

January was one hell of a month, in a good way. Haven’t had a true day off since the holidays. Taking a little longer getting going this morning as a bit of a break.

The install of the parts I previously posted about was last weekend. My guys and I were there for on-site support. One of them had never been on an outage like this before. At one point he mentioned feeling like he was drinking out of a firehose. All in all they both did a great job helping get it all done. Couldn’t be happier with my team.

We did seven breakers all told. My company made all the parts - bus, steel, and GPO3 (“glastic” - the red supports). This project went so well we were all a little taken aback. Plenty of room for improvement, tuning, etc.. but no major problems, no enlarging holes with step bits or that sorta thing. It went together really well.

First each section is stripped of the old breaker and everything back to the main bus. Then we start install. Breaker sits on a shelf.



The bus is loosely assembled, then the breaker cradle is slid in place and everything is bolted up, torqued to spec, etc.



Once we saw this first one got over as designed and planned we knew we were in a good place.





The mains and tie were larger double breakers (4000A). This is what the big doors were for.



When that door closed and everything was aligned the engineer gave me a huge hug. It was a lot of work and effort culminating in that one detail. And it was spot on!

Let’s just say the hinges were well received. And they worked just as we needed.









Photo of one of the lineups as the last covers were getting buttoned up.



Great projects with some really good folks. It all came together as we’d want and expect.

Many more of these in the works.

Thanks for following along!

 

[Finallygotit]

Nice work, Steven!!!

It's interesting for me to learn how high voltage/amp installations go together. Thanks for posting all of this.

 

[zanyad]

Wow, I have no idea what I'm looking at, but I do recognize some pieces you showed earlier. I can only imagine the sense of relief (and accomplishment!) you got when everything went together exactly as designed. Congratulations, that was some impressive work!

 

[don miller]

January was one hell of a month, in a good way. Haven’t had a true day off since the holidays. Taking a little longer getting going this morning as a bit of a break.

The install of the parts I previously posted about was last weekend. My guys and I were there for on-site support. One of them had never been on an outage like this before. At one point he mentioned feeling like he was drinking out of a firehose. All in all they both did a great job helping get it all done. Couldn’t be happier with my team.

We did seven breakers all told. My company made all the parts - bus, steel, and GPO3 (“glastic” - the red supports). This project went so well we were all a little taken aback. Plenty of room for improvement, tuning, etc.. but no major problems, no enlarging holes with step bits or that sorta thing. It went together really well.

First each section is stripped of the old breaker and everything back to the main bus. Then we start install. Breaker sits on a shelf.



The bus is loosely assembled, then the breaker cradle is slid in place and everything is bolted up, torqued to spec, etc.



Once we saw this first one got over as designed and planned we knew we were in a good place.





The mains and tie were larger double breakers (4000A). This is what the big doors were for.



When that door closed and everything was aligned the engineer gave me a huge hug. It was a lot of work and effort culminating in that one detail. And it was spot on!

Let’s just say the hinges were well received. And they worked just as we needed.









Photo of one of the lineups as the last covers were getting buttoned up.



Great projects with some really good folks. It all came together as we’d want and expect.

Many more of these in the works.

Thanks for following along!

Nice buss work Steven. Manual Tie Braker? I don't see a kirk key. Any in place retrofit LVSB or medium voltage like this is never a walk in the park, likely 99% that we do would be complete line replacement, then the field guys get the hard work. Curious as to the use of grade 8 fasteners rather than grade 5. Good job

 

[loganb]

Wow awesome work! I can imagine the relief once that first set was in and it all lined up and all the planning, prep, cad details, scanning, measuring paid off! Congrats to you and the team and appreciate you letting us follow along and learn!

 

[slodat]

Nice buss work Steven. Manual Tie Braker? I don't see a kirk key. Any in place retrofit LVSB or medium voltage like this is never a walk in the park, likely 99% that we do would be complete line replacement, then the field guys get the hard work. Curious as to the use of grade 8 fasteners rather than grade 5. Good job

Thank you. Yes, manual tie. My customer did the design. My role is to make the parts and support install. From photos the grade 8 stuff I see is existing.

 

[rvieceli]

Wow very nice work and install.

Ron

 

[slodat]

On my press brake control a 180° bend is no bend. From there we start to close a bend. I’m assuming this is how bends are typically represented on press brakes. Customer asks me if I can do a 45° bend. Meaning past 90.. an acute bend. All of my tooling is 86° / 88° for doing up to 90° bends.

I called my tooling supplier and bought what he recommended- a 35° punch with a 5mm radius (I’m bending 1/4” bus), and a 45° 50mm V die. Here they are:



A 20mm section of the straight punch that came with the brake is next to it for reference. The first thing that came up is this punch is a lot shorter than the others I have. About 2”. Hold that thought..

When I talked to the tooling supplier I mentioned I had a 2” die that sat on the quick change rail. He said he’d never seen that, would I send a photo. I did. This is what I have been using for 1/4” material.



The bottom L sorta shaped part is a die riser (I think that’s an acceptable name). On top of that is mounted an inverted T shaped rail. The slot and groove make up a quick change setup. The dies just sit on that rail. I have a double V that’s 1/2 on one side and 3/4” on the other as well as 1”, 2”, and 3”. This came with the brake. Not ever having seen or used a brake I had no other reference. After 2.5 years of having this thing and reading a LOT of catalogs I finally understand this stuff a bit more. It’s so cool! That setup is sitting on a very standard 60mm wide base. The new 45° die sits on that base in place of the quick change setup with riser. A few SCHS secure the clamps that hold it.

The first round of tooling ended up being about 2” shorter on the punch and the die. A second call to the tooling supplier and I got a die riser and a different (taller) 35° punch. Turns out they run into this request enough the precision ground tooling manufacturer makes this punch for them based on their specs.

The part with the 45° acute bend is part of a bus order we are working on this week. I got everything but the parts with this bend in them done.



Now to sort out that 45 with the tooling. The updated setup:





This is the first time I’ve bent past 90°. It’s a trip seeing the punch and the material going that far into the die.



And it worked! Pretty cool stuff. I really enjoy forming.

 

[4 FN 27]

The price of a Press Brake is one thing...but the Tooling is a whole new dimension.

Risers, Holders, Adaptors, Specials. It never ends. After 28 years we have racks of this stuff and now we are moving towards common shut height tooling. A transition that will take time and money.

Keep up the great work!!!

 

[slodat]

Some of what we’ve been up to.. customer designed meter buckets. These turned out really nice.



This is during final assembly. We made them from flat sheet. Weld nuts on most of the holes, studs to mount the circuit breaker, tabs for the barrier with a removable GPO3 insert.



Buttoned up ready for shipping.


More bus. Lots of bus work. Our process is working well for the time being.


I feel like I’ve finally hit a good stride with the plasma. It’s always satisfying when I get things nested and cut the skeleton and drop in the same program.



The parts and skeleton lift off and the drop goes on the wall. We cycle through the drops quickly. The vented covers are tricky as previously discussed. On plasma I have a working and reliable setup. Cut the part with plenty of weight on all four sides.



This gives the plasma a consistent material height. The torch height control has an intentional delay to allow the voltage to stabilize. On these small squares the THC never turns on due to that delay and the small amount of cut time. The weight keeps it all down.

Once the holes are all cut, then the outside profile is cut in a separate program.



There’s still stress in the material. The heat input is doing that. A few trips through the wide belt sander and most of the sins of plasma cutting are gone. The parts look nice.



There’s a small roll in the part from the cutting. Next it’s formed on the brake. Then powder coat.



After forming there’s a small amount of spring but it readily will sit flat if a light pressure is applied. It’s more than adequate for the intended use.

 

[slodat]

Most recent retrofit project was for a different manufacturer’s gear. This means a different hole spacing on the posts. In this case the previous more universal hinge isn’t universal enough for this application. This hinge is kind of opposite the other. The moving leaf straddles the fixed on this hinge. It’s sort of flipped. These were again a mad dash last thing prior to the install.

Because of the good results on the last hinge run I went with more hot rolled mild steel. It’s working really well for these. I’m very happy with the parts. The mill scale is definitely wrecking havoc on the roughing end mill. We are using an insert face mill to square up the stock prior to machining in the Serra Jaws. I suppose I could face the mill scale off as well. Now that I’ve typed that, I’m going to order cold rolled going forward. There’s a little more lead time for it. Anyway..

One of the design intents was to allow for a small amount of adjustment of the hinge/door. This resulted in slots in the fixed lead for vertical adjustment and in the door holes for horizontal adjustment in the moving leaf. The big screw heads are to cover the slots in the door. This is the first hinge on a chunk of OEM corner post.





The parts laid out.






I forgot to take photos of a lot of it. I worked about 75 hours Monday - Friday. Let’s just say my brain was mush at the end.



This is the moving leaf after OP1. I made a soft jaw for machining the other side. These parts turned out really nice. Looks like I forgot to take a photo of the finished parts.

Here they are halfway finished.



Once we have all the details, design, etc finalized these will be palletized and ran on the VMC 8 or so pairs at a time.

 

[Finallygotit]

Mill scale (we called it bark) on the hot rolled plates I dealt with in the past would eat high speed cutters with ease. (And we got some pretty gnarly plates) We decided to use carbide insert fly cutters and face mill everything first. Surprisingly we went through a lot of inserts on that bark too. But that was many moons ago. I'm sure carbide technology has progressed since those times.

Great work there Steven and good looking parts! Looks like you have a good handle on the processes.

 

[slodat]

Mill scale (we called it bark) on the hot rolled plates I dealt with in the past would eat high speed cutters with ease. (And we got some pretty gnarly plates) We decided to use carbide insert fly cutters and face mill everything first. Surprisingly we went through a lot of inserts on that bark too. But that was many moons ago. I'm sure carbide technology has progressed since those times.

Great work there Steven and good looking parts! Looks like you have a good handle on the processes.

While I’m sure cutter technology is on a steady arc of improvement, what I’m seeing is much the same as what you worked with. It’s hard, crusty, and mean. I’ve grown to really appreciate the modern tooling. The 5 flute end mill I’m using is great. On this run I added a duplicate tool to the carousel. One as a rougher the other a finisher. New end mill starts life as the finisher. There’s a very audible indication when it’s time to replace the rougher. I was surprised how loud it gets.

When I first started tooling up the Tree mill five years ago, I didn’t know how to buy tooling. I got a lot of inexpensive import inserts. They are perfect for stock prep. That’s what I’ve been using. Alas, stock prep doesn’t make any money. I’m going to give 1018 a go once we’ve worked through the A36. I know it will be great. It’s a hinge.

I had originally thought I’d have them plated. After what I’ve spent on plating recently, we will powder coat the hinges. It looks great and they lack nothing.

 

[GeddyT]

Do you drill/ream the holes for the hinge pin first prior to machining back and front?

 

[slodat]

Do you drill/ream the holes for the hinge pin first prior to machining back and front?

First operation (not counting stock prep) is to machine the surface that mates to the post/door. On the moving leaf, it is bored after that OP1 while the part is still quite thick. The thickness helps the part register in the soft jaw. This also means the drill is going through a solid block instead of the two sections with a gap in the middle. This took some figuring to get it all dialed in and sequenced. I made several scrap parts sorting out the moving leaf.

On the fixed leaf, it is bored last after OP2. This allows me to only bore the part of the material that has a hole. I used the same soft jaws as the other hinge. I really like to reuse setups, work holding, etc. That was a goal with this hinge.

The reason the holes are bored the way they are is the hole is referenced to the surface that mates to the post/door. This ensures that spacing is correct and the rotational axis is correct. It's working out!

Now that we have a working solution in vices, the whole thing will be moved to pallets for machining in the VMC. This will/should have a huge reduction in the impact on the shop when making these parts. It's all a process

 

[slodat]

I know you guys appreciate new machine day as much as I do.. This one hit a little different. I'm definitely happy to get a laser in the shop, but it feels more like.. work I suppose. It's obviously an import machine. It was made to work on single phase power. It will be a big improvement over plasma.

Machine came in on a very nice curtain side trailer. We moved the compressor to the rear of the trailer with a pallet jack.


That went really well. Then I picked the crate with the forklift with the extensions. It was biased to the rear, so repositioned and we were good to lift.


Once I got it clear of the trailer and backed up a few feet, the driver pulled forward. Then I lowered the crate.


At this point I stepped off to get a lay of the land.


Set it up on the curb.




From there we broke down both crates to check for any shipping damage. Everything made it in great condition. Some forklift driving and it was up by the building.


Once it was in front of the door I lifted the machine off the crate and the guys pulled the crate out from under it with the shop truck. Worked well. At that point it was two pallet jacks to slide it inside and into position. It went really well.



Then we set the compressor inside.


We have quite a bit of work to do before the technician comes out for startup and commissioning. The compressor goes in the basement, some plumbing and what not.

I'll attempt to answer some of the more obvious questions... it's 5' x 10' cutting envelope, 2kW source. There's a water cooler for the source, and a voltage stabilizer. These will live along the wall on the far side of the machine. The compressor is 230 psi. It will live in the basement. That air is laser only. I plan to only cut with air, even though the machine will be setup to cut with oxygen and nitrogen as well. Plan is to only cut up to 11ga thickness (0.1196 inch) on air. It can cut much thicker with gas.

 

[customh]

Looking forward to the installation and startup on this one! Going to build an enclosure? If not for laser safety alone you'll want one along with a dust collector to keep the incredibly fine red dust from settling on everything in your shop.

 

[SamYoung]

From someone who used to remove a lot of mill scale on the mill, my best piece of advice is avoid low entry angles if entering on the mill scale surface like when facing. Don't do full width as the rubbing and crushing is when the scale does the most damage. Light depth with a 50-70% stepover with the highest feed your insert can take is normally the best for tool life. I found this good general practice, but especially on scale.

The other think we used to do which goes against traditional CNC practice is conventional milling to clean up the side rather than climb. First pass conventional will initially engage the tip under the scale and flake it out/off vs driving the tip into the scale with the steel backing it. Keep the pass light from a stepover %, but make sure its fully under the scale. This was huge on endmill/insert life. On some of the hammer forged parts this would get us multiple times the tool life due to the thick scale and surface work hardening. Probably less gains on hot roll, but it should still be noticeable.

 

[slodat]

It has been a really busy few months in the shop. A lot of parts going out. Feels good to be busy. We got the laser air compressor in place.



This is how I had pictured this area in the basement working out. Now to get it powered up.

Some of the stuff that we did this week. Some aluminum bus:


Seeing nested parts fit so nice is really satisfying. A friend of the shop is putting finishing touches on his race car. We powder coated the bumpers on a sponsorship deal. He was stoked when he picked them up.





We continue to dial in the powder coating. It’s going well. Just finished the second 44# box of powder. Granted a decent amount ends up in the filters. For reference the first box lasted six months. The second didn’t make it all the way through Q1.

Had a deal where some bus was stolen from a switchboard on a construction site. We duplicated what they had. These turned out really nice.



Customer doing a protection and controls modernization on some on-site generator switchgear. We reverse engineered their sample and made new doors with appropriate cutouts for the new devices.







We machined the hinge barrels and got it all welded up. These turned out really nice.

 

[Finallygotit]

Man, this just keeps getting better!

 

[SilverJimmy]

Too bad they don’t energize those bus to keep the varmits out of them! When the lights dim for a bit you can just smile, knowing that someone, somewhere, had their Karma kick in!

 

[georgiadave]

It has been a really busy few months in the shop. A lot of parts going out. Feels good to be busy. We got the laser air compressor in place.



This is how I had pictured this area in the basement working out. Now to get it powered up.

Some of the stuff that we did this week. Some aluminum bus:


Seeing nested parts fit so nice is really satisfying. A friend of the shop is putting finishing touches on his race car. We powder coated the bumpers on a sponsorship deal. He was stoked when he picked them up.





We continue to dial in the powder coating. It’s going well. Just finished the second 44# box of powder. Granted a decent amount ends up in the filters. For reference the first box lasted six months. The second didn’t make it all the way through Q1.

Had a deal where some bus was stolen from a switchboard on a construction site. We duplicated what they had. These turned out really nice.



Customer doing a protection and controls modernization on some on-site generator switchgear. We reverse engineered their sample and made new doors with appropriate cutouts for the new devices.







We machined the hinge barrels and got it all welded up. These turned out really nice.

Ta

It has been a really busy few months in the shop. A lot of parts going out. Feels good to be busy. We got the laser air compressor in place.



This is how I had pictured this area in the basement working out. Now to get it powered up.

Some of the stuff that we did this week. Some aluminum bus:


Seeing nested parts fit so nice is really satisfying. A friend of the shop is putting finishing touches on his race car. We powder coated the bumpers on a sponsorship deal. He was stoked when he picked them up.





We continue to dial in the powder coating. It’s going well. Just finished the second 44# box of powder. Granted a decent amount ends up in the filters. For reference the first box lasted six months. The second didn’t make it all the way through Q1.

Had a deal where some bus was stolen from a switchboard on a construction site. We duplicated what they had. These turned out really nice.



Customer doing a protection and controls modernization on some on-site generator switchgear. We reverse engineered their sample and made new doors with appropriate cutouts for the new devices.







We machined the hinge barrels and got it all welded up. These turned out really nice.

That is impressive. You reverse engineered those parts from existing damaged ones?

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

It's nice to see you grow your business with your investments in equipment.
Thank you for allowing us to follow along, keep up the good work.

 

[slodat]

Man, this just keeps getting better!

Thank you!

Too bad they don’t energize those bus to keep the varmits out of them! When the lights dim for a bit you can just smile, knowing that someone, somewhere, had their Karma kick in!

You’re definitely not the first to suggest this!

Ta

That is impressive. You reverse engineered those parts from existing damaged ones?

In this particular case, I had some outside help with reverse engineering these doors. Generally speaking yes, I reverse engineer the parts as needed. As the business has grown I’ve been fortunate to find some folks that are willing to take on some work to help me out.

It's nice to see you grow your business with your investments in equipment.
Thank you for allowing us to follow along, keep up the good work.

Thank you! It’s a wild ride for sure.

 

[slodat]

Customer sent photos of the first door hanging in the gear. Sounds like minor adjustment on the hinge and they are fitting like they should





We coated the nose of the local racer’s car. Really blown away at how nice it looks.


Even better on the car.




Thanks again for following along and contributing to the conversation!

 

[slodat]

A bit of a cross post… Ryan has a couple of threads on ringed shop notebooks. The most recent one lit the lightbulb for me. I started with an inexpensive Amazon binder a week or two ago. It was effective in giving the whole small ring notebook a trial run.





At that point I ordered a nice Plotter binder and several of their refills and accessories. I also ordered some of the paper and other stuff Ryan suggested. I was out of town this week at a trade show. I took the Amazon binder with me to see how I used it. It worked out well. The cheap binder left me excited for the Plotter I had waiting for me when I got home. It was all there waiting for me.



Their archive/refill storage book is interesting. Jury is still out on if I’d get more over time. I suspect I’ll go with the inexpensive binders I previously showed.



I think I will prefer rings, and this will be nice for keeping the refills in order. The Plotter refills, paper, all of it is really nice.



The refills are glue bound on the left edge. They work as a notebook on their own, and the pages are easily removed for use in the ring binder. It’s a nice approach, but I don’t see me using them as a separate notebook. The rings are the appeal for me. The significance of the small 11mm rings can’t be overstated.



Even the largest A5 size is really compact and portable.



I’m excited to see how this integrates into my days in the shop! I’m really liking the tactile part of it all.

My basement photo studio has been a really nice retreat from work. A creative space that I’m enjoying when I have time. The original Husky workbench that I was using as a computer desk proved to not work out. The top wasn’t deep enough to get the screen far enough away for my glasses to work effectively in a comfortable position. As things go, that sent me down a bit of an adjustable height desk rabbit hole.

I settled on a Deskhaus Apex Pro legs with their high pressure laminate top.



In my looking for something that would do what I wanted, I came across this company. The legs and top are made in America, which I like. They are really high quality, and the legs are very stable. Definitely not the cheapest version. After getting it all together, I can see it lasting for decades. I also picked up an inexpensive set of drawers from Amazon. Very happy with that. And a nice Hon Ignition chair again from Amazon thanks to some rewards point.



The original reason I even started down this path was for more depth and to get the height where I need it for my bifocals. Little did I know the standing position is perfect for studio work.



The height controller has a really trick memory feature for the sit and the stand position. Overall really happy with the setup.

 

[slodat]

Whelp.. adding more machines to the shop. First up is the new Bambu. Supposed to be here around the end of the month. I'm looking forward to the Bambu print quality with a bigger envelope and some of the other features that should make printing ABS even better.

This should be here in a week or so:


It's the 8' 145T version of the brake I have. Gary has made a lot of refinements on these machines in the 2.5 years since I bought my first brake from him. We need the 8' length. The additional tonnage will come in handy occasionally.

Lastly, what I can share is.. I'm adding a lot more square footage. More to follow once the ink is on the paper.

 

[zanyad]

Lastly, what I can share is.. I'm adding a lot more square footage. More to follow once the ink is on the paper.

I'm excited for you!

 

[Finallygotit]

Lastly, what I can share is.. I'm adding a lot more square footage. More to follow once the ink is on the paper.

Whelp.........FANTASTIC!!!!! Good for you!

 

[Finallygotit]

I'm excited for you!

^^^^^^

What he said.

 

[Chrisb62]

Building 3……or addition?

Either way congratulations and we (GJ lookieloos) are ecstatic for you.

 

[rvieceli]

Congratulations.

Ron

 

[slodat]

I’ve had some offline questions about why I bought this machine vs one from one of the major manufacturers. It came down to support, availability, static price, and my existing relationship with the seller.

Support: when I’ve had questions, or the time or two I had a problem, I’ve received a response in minutes. On a weekend, well after business hours in his time zone, etc. I had never seen a press brake when I bought the first one. Back then he flew out to commission the brake and give some training. That was included in the <$50k purchase price 2.5 years ago. He also stocks spares of the components that would typically fail, settings files, etc.

Availability: machine was paid for Wednesday, was prepped yesterday morning, is loading as I type this, and will be here Tuesday morning. It’s Tuesday at my request because we have some client work to get out Monday. The shipper has been in contact with me, etc. I’m getting a press brake in my shop in under a week.

Static price: I had been in a holding pattern for an 8’ brake for many months. Once the tariffs started going nuts Gary was not changing his price with the tariffs. I don’t have the funds to throw at the dynamic price thing that’s going on. Also, the price itself. This was the machine I could afford that will do what I need, now.

I think the relationship has been well described. With that said, Gary is the one that suggested I look at the major manufacturers once you get over a certain dollar amount. Trumpf has a really nice 10’ 2000 series that I think would be great for the parts we make when the time comes.

I knew the tariffs would be coming in November. That’s why I bought the laser I did, when I did. It will get me cutting and off plasma. That laser will make the money to buy a much better laser.

With all that said, we started reworking machine layout in Bldg 2 yesterday afternoon. One of my guys is coming in to work this morning with me on prepping for the brake arrival. I’ve decided the existing 5’ 70T brake will stay where it’s at for now. It will crowd the space in Bldg 2, and there’s not enough power to run them both at the same time. It’s going to be rather cozy anyway. I think we can make a lot of parts in there. At least that’s the plan!

Just received these photos.









I’m undecided on a name for the new building. I think Headquarters, but I’m not sure. Time solves these little things. Some more details: 9600sq ft, fully finished interior, 800a of 480v three phase power, plenty of HVAC. Looks like a 60 x 90 chunk for sheet metal and bus fabrication, at least double what we currently have for machine shop, offices, conference room, packaging and shipping area, and most importantly- we can do more than one process at a time because there plenty of power. The purchase is going to be a lengthy process. I’m not concerned with moving at this point. Just getting it bought.

 

[slodat]

I bought the first press brake September 2022. Over the time since I’ve made a lot of parts with it, learned whatever it is I know on it, and as I type this I realize I’ve become comfortable with it. Press brakes, to me are VERY intimidating machines. There’s a lot of mass and a LOT of force. The first brake is 60” bend length, 70 tons and 6000 pounds. The new brake is 99”, 145 tons and 14,500 pounds. 14,500 pounds is a very different rigging operation compared to 6000 pounds. I raised the door opening beginning of the year so I could even get it inside. The size of this machine can not be understated!

I was able to get a rental 20k telehandler delivered. This is a serious machine. Makes the 10 and 12k’s look smallish.



The hot shot driver was waiting for us when we started yesterday morning. He pulled in front of the shop so the brake was a somewhat straight shot to the door. Everything arrived in great shape, as it had left Gary’s shop.





The new slings were exactly what we needed. Simple basket on each side over the fork and the loops on the lifting pins. This aspect is very well designed and worked great. Once the slings were settled and the slack out, we lifted the machine.



We got it clear of the trailer deck and the driver pulled the trailer forward. These curtain side trailers really make this a lot easier to unload. From there we lowered the load and got it in front of the door.



In order to get the taller door installed the header has to be raised to create the taller rough opening. The header’s job is to provide a mounting surface for the spring mostly. We cut things free from the goofy internal framing. Then the cribbing stacks and screw jacks made short work of lifting the header up to the steel supporting the block at the top of the opening.





I knew this aspect would take some time. It went really well. The header is now through bolted to the steel on each side. From here set it down on 2x6 and repositioned the telehandler to pick from the bottom.



This is still my favorite view- the machine coming toward me into the shop.



This worked pretty well.

 

[slodat]

The placement in the door opening was a little biased to the right. We had around 6-8” total the play with. That big telehandler had very well functioning controls that allowed for very fine movements. As these things go…



I popped that little rotation indicator cover off the crowning device and we snuck it by the steel! Clearance is clearance, Clarence!



From here we used the boom to start moving the brake toward the far wall.



Had to reposition the telehandler a few times as we moved across the floor. Initially I didn’t want to deploy the outrigger in the shop.



Turns out physics still work as taught in school.





We were keeping the dunnage under the brake as we moved across the floor. This was way more comical than dangerous. Got the *** back down, deployed the outriggers on some scrap wood, and moved it in.



The guys and I work really well together on stuff like this. Nice slow pace. No one is in a hurry. Really proud of the team. We got the forks to the back wall and set the machine on the 2x6’s.



At that point we put the roll up door back together, covered the gap in the opening, and cleaned up for the day.





I ordered the next size up toe jack to help get the machine on the floor. It will be here in a couple days. This is going to work well for us.

Almost exactly a year ago I decided to start the process of transitioning this building into sheet metal fab. I have to get the phase perfect setup to power the brake and fill the hydraulic oil reservoir. Then we can power it up and start dialing things in. It feels good to have an idea of how we want to dial things in. This has the same Delem DA-53T 2D control as the other brake. I need to get a die coming for the parts we make. The four way universal isn’t going to work for these parts.

The laser tech is coming out next week to get the laser commissioned. I’m excited to see it all come online and get to making parts!

Thanks for following along. This one was a big day in the shop!