Above 1200 Sq/FT HQ - Eastern Washington Work Shop v3

[slodat]

I bought a used/rebuilt horizontal CNC press brake recently. It took some diagnosing and troubleshooting with their engineer.. it’s up and running.



This is a whole new class of machine. New, as it’s equipped it is exactly double what the 8’ vertical brake cost. They gave me a substantial discount and deal. Then when the included measuring v die looked like what was wrong, they discounted a new one in consideration of the time and effort I’d put into getting the machine going. I’m proud to say I never got truly frustrated. The new measuring die arrived today. One small parameter change and it is up and running.

This is a big deal for the company. No more test coupons for vending bus. The roller die faces mean no tooling marks on the parts. They also won’t obscure the engraving should it fall in the die area. Lastly, it’s in the newest building, completely dialed in and commissioned, and it’s really simple to use.

 

[Graham08]

Nice! I haven't seen a horizontal brake in action. I can see how that would be much better for long, skinny bus profile vs. a press brake.

Someday I want to own a press brake. I think what you're doing with the cabinet work is fascinating.

 

[slodat]

Thank you! I’m having fun with it all.

I cut eight 4x8 sheets worth of parts on the laser yesterday. Biggest batch I’ve ran so far. Going to track how long it takes. Sheet metal work is wildly satisfying to me. It’s just so cool to form metal and make parts that fit together. My advice is get a brake!!

This particular horizontal brake is really common in bus fabrication from what I’ve seen. Laying the part on edge means the bend axis are parallel without having to hold it perpendicular to the back gauge.

 

[slodat]

Been chipping away at lots of infrastructure stuff while the guys are off two weeks for the holiday break.. network, cameras, security, access type stuff. As things transition and move to this building the auxiliaries and support stuff has to keep up. The next one is air. It’s surprising how many things use air. For example the measuring v block on the horizontal press brake has two pneumatic cylinders to zero out the die halves after each cycle of the ram.

I’ve used RapidAir FastPipe in the last two shops. It goes together nice and has worked out well. I have been looking at compressors and driers for a while. I had thought I’d go with one that Haas offers. Yesterday I found a used Champion 480v 10hp piston compressor on Marketplace. I stopped at the one place that I know sells good stuff before I went to look at the used Champion.

Ended up leaving with this:


New Kaeser 10hp AirCenter. Fully packaged, plc controlled, drier, etc.



This one feels like some big boy ****. I’m really excited to get it up and running.

 

[RickP]

New Kaeser 10hp AirCenter. Fully packaged, plc controlled, drier, etc.

Nice! That really eliminates a lot of work setting up and connecting multiple units to get dry air in a small footprint. I'll bet it's quiet too.

The pace of growth of your business is almost unbelievable -- you must struggle to keep up when the orders are coming in fast. Congratulations on envisioning it and building it from the ground up!

 

[slodat]

Thank you for the kind words!!

You know, I had not come to that point yet. The air comes out of this tower ready to put to use. You are so right! I also like how compact it is. I guess these screw compressors will put tiny amounts of oil out over the life of the unit. I’ll have Motor Guard filters at the points of use where that could be an issue- co2 laser, powder coat, etc. I’ve done the same at the other shops. I’ve checked the filters here and there and they still look new. Really cheap insurance where it’s needed.

As far as the business goes… it’s crazy and amazing. The growth feels organic most of the time. Day to day it doesn’t feel like it’s too much. When I look at metrics for the year.. that’s another story.

We went through 20.2 tons (1169 sticks, 2.66 miles) of copper and aluminum bus material this year, and 9 tons (146 4x8 sheets) of steel. That blows my mind! In the market segment we’re in, a lot of companies process that or more in a matter of days. All in due time

 

[Finallygotit]

........ Yesterday I found a used Champion 480v 10hp piston compressor on Marketplace. I stopped at the one place that I know sells good stuff before I went to look at the used Champion.

Ended up leaving with this:

Funny how that happens sometimes! Awesome compressor.

Congratulations! And Merry Christmas.

 

[slodat]

It is. They used to sell a lot of Champion compressors. Sales rep said since they sold to Gardner Denver he's had issues they never had in the past. The used compressor came out of a Costco, WalMart, etc. We depend on these things to pay the bills. The Kaeser comes with on-site startup. They can come through and do the service when needed. This is what pushed me over the edge.

Thank you, and Merry Christmas!

 

[loganb]

Had a similar design 200 HP Kaeser at the last factory, was a very nice machine with less maintenance then a IR next to it with similar hours. Should serve you well and let you focus on what matters!

Merry Christmas

 

[slodat]

Had a similar design 200 HP Kaeser at the last factory, was a very nice machine with less maintenance then a IR next to it with similar hours. Should serve you well and let you focus on what matters!

Merry Christmas

We had a compressor room in the powerhouse at the dam. It had eight 500hp Atlas Copco screw compressors. The receivers were in the 20' diameter 30-40' long range. They were massive. Air was used to blow the water out of the scroll case when going into synchronous condense. The turbine spins in air with the wicket gates closed, the generator is synchronized to the system and is used for VAR support/stabilization and voltage stabilization. Anyway.. my shop dealt with the control system on those compressors. My only other exposure to screw compressors is the high(er) pressure laser compressor. I think this thing is going to be great. I don't see us outgrowing it in this square footage. At least not at this point.

 

[Finallygotit]

Talking compressors, one place I worked at had 2 screw compressors and one piston. Then we/they upgraded to a three stage turbo compressor. WOW what a difference and boy was that thing a beast.

Every year at Christmas shut-down, I would have my maintenance crew come in and we would fire up the compressor and leave all the other machines off and listen for air leaks. After fixing the leaks, it was AMAZING to see the duty cycle drop on the compressor. Surprisingly, those little leaks added up to a lot of lost air.

 

[Finallygotit]

We had a compressor room in the powerhouse at the dam. It had eight 500hp Atlas Copco screw compressors. The receivers were in the 20' diameter 30-40' long range. They were massive. Air was used to blow the water out of the scroll case when going into synchronous condense. The turbine spins in air with the wicket gates closed, the generator is synchronized to the system and is used for VAR support/stabilization and voltage stabilization.

As I re-read this, that is an enormous amount of air that I find difficult to comprehend. WOW!

 

[GirchyGirchy]

Every year at Christmas shut-down, I would have my maintenance crew come in and we would fire up the compressor and leave all the other machines off and listen for air leaks. After fixing the leaks, it was AMAZING to see the duty cycle drop on the compressor. Surprisingly, those little leaks added up to a lot of lost air.

We have several large IR units with leaks all over the damn place. It's one of those PMs that just never ends up being done.

@slodat, looks like a very nice unit, enjoy! Good service is an important part of capital purchases.

 

[macgyver37]

In my past job I worked with an energy auditor and I helped do some of the data collection at a couple plants local to me. Anyway, I bring it up as he would run the numbers for the clients with actual power costs for them from their power co, not generic values, and give them real world savings based on doing specific things.

One of the things he proved out more than once was that in our area one 1/4" dia hole in an air line would cost $9,000 per year. This was 15 years ago, so likely more costly now.

Now, most people will fix a 1/4" line running full out but they will let a hundred or more small leaks go for years. The last place I helped on had 600 hp in compressors and walking through the place it was a constant sound of air leaks. We figured up if they would fix the air leaks they would be able to shut off 2/3rds of the compressors. I wasn't on the job the full time so I am not sure how far they took the advice in the end but it always stuck with me how costly compressed air is and how important it is to fix leaks as soon as possible.

 

[slodat]

When we package parts up for delivery to one of our customers, a tag is placed on the outside for easy identification. You can see them in this photo:



I print a 2x2 label that’s on a manila shipping tag. I’ve been looking for a way to efficiently print directly to the tags. I finally figured out something that looked like it would work the other day.. an 8” roll of 3x5 cards with a small hole on one end. From there it was a Zebra industrial label printer. Once I saw the cutter option I knew what to search for. I found one on eBay in good shape and got it all coming. These things are about $2500. I got the used printer for $700 shipped.



Here it is in action:

And the tag.


Cross this one off the list! While the guys are off on the two week holiday break, I’ve been tinkering on various infrastructure type things. Namely the shops network buildout. I switched to Ubiquiti stuff a couple years ago at the main shop and haven’t looked back. It has been great for my needs. I bought a new network rack months ago. I went with new so I’d have what I needed and not a 5’ deep full height that I’d never use just taking up space. Well.. I was finally able to take the time to get it loaded up.



Next up is a few switches out in the shop. There’s no need for home runs for every single thing. Distributing things felt like the way to go. Especially considering the backhaul is 10G between the main switch, NVR, NAS, and the remote switches. 2.5GB to anything that can use it, and 1GB everywhere else. And the zero effort mesh on the wireless is simply amazing.

These small cabinets are perfect and will help keep things tidy.





I have several cameras, lights, doorbells, chimes, and network drops to still get sorted out. It’s coming along nicely. And so much work!!

 

[Finallygotit]

I hope you get to take some downtime as well. I'm sure you could use it.

Great progress!

 

[slodat]

I hope you get to take some downtime as well. I'm sure you could use it.

Great progress!

Thank you!!

This is downtime for me. I don’t owe anyone anything for two solid weeks. I get to tinker on stuff that I want/need to do.. for whatever reason I don’t want to delegate or hire it out. I come and go, **** around, let the ADHD brain have fun in the shop. That’s what I’ve always enjoyed doing with my time. So, for me this is a wonderful break.

 

[Finallygotit]

I come and go, **** around, let the ADHD brain have fun in the shop. That’s what I’ve always enjoyed doing with my time. So, for me this is a wonderful break.

That's great. I do that myself occasionally to unwind when life gets me wound around the axle.

Enjoy!

 

[GirchyGirchy]

Nice! We use a ton of those Zebra printers at work, they're great.

 

[slodat]

Nice! We use a ton of those Zebra printers at work, they're great.

I started out with printers from mydpi. Small company that caters to small businesses. They have a label software that’s great. I now have several of their printers. They only work with the 1” core, 4” rolls. I needed the Zebra for the 8” rolls of labels. I dedicate a printer to one label. That way it’s ready to go.

The cool thing about the Zebra printers is they are truly industrial. Modular. Easy to get parts and replace things if and when needed. No turning back!

 

[slodat]

Another of the downtime projects is starting to take shape.. a Kanban type of system for literally everything we buy and use in the shop. Bins are 3d printed. The cards are produced by the platform I’m using- Arda.







Idea is we pull from the front. Once the front runs out, we pull the rear to the front and the card gets scanned. That puts it in the order queue and the card goes in a holder awaiting receiving. When item arrives, card is scanned to tell the system it’s here, stock goes in bin, card goes back in slot in bin.

I’ve wanted this for a long time. I’m happy to start implementing.

 

[loganb]

Arda cards look great! I've seen a lot of their Instagram stuff, thought about trying to implement it at work but haven't had the push yet. The Zebra printer should serve you well, had 5 to 6 on every assy line when I was in the factory and they were very reliable. Didn't live an easy life and weren't in nearly as clean of an environment as yours and rarely had issues and most of the time they did have a hiccup it was operator error on reloading material for them. Excited to see what other upgrades and improvements you have on tap!

 

[slodat]

I find their aggressive marketing to be off putting. The same goes for the others. Especially Vyper Chair. The non-stop social media, multiple emails a day bs make me think less of companies. When I went to buy Vyper stools for the shop I really hesitated because of it. The unfortunate part is their product is really great. We ended up with three of them in the shop for the guys running different processes. They are great and the guys love them.

I think I’ve settled on two card formats. Full and half 3x5 index. And, I’ve settled on a 3d printed bin design with a few variations. Getting the smallest sorted out felt important for Vidmar drawers. The designs use Fusion configurations. Add a new row to the configuration table for something that’s not a standard multiple of the length/width and send to the printer. This is an example:



They won’t typically be that precise fitting. This was when I was sorting out the process.



I think this is going to work well. Next up was some shelving. I bought a few sections of Home Depot’s heavier duty 24” deep stuff for bigger totes and stuff. They aren’t the right solution for the smaller plastic totes that I use a lot of. I went to the material handling outfit and settled on Rivitier shelving. It’s much better than the home center stuff that looks similar. It’s readily available, I can get what a want, and it seems like it’s going to work well. I started with three sections.



Now that I have it started, I’d like two more sections.



Plan to pick them up Friday. I think at that point I’ll have plenty for what we will need in here. Looks like this room is the storeroom.



There’s room for one more Vidmar in here. I plan on adding a good sized row in the shop as well at some point.

It looks like I’ll have enough of the Arda implementation started for next week that I can start introducing the guys to it all.

 

[zanyad]

I'm working on a manufacturing ERP implementation at work, and will need some sort of shop router/traveler. We're currently using 5.5x8.5 paper (print on half a letter size sheet & cut or fold). Are you paper-based in the shop or electronic?

 

[slodat]

What ERP system are you implementing. That's something I haven't even scratched the surface of. It's typically expensive and requires the vendor to build it out. Too much in flux for me to implement at this point. I think. With regard to shop router/traveler, it's all paper. We use a large tote with all the job stuff in it - BOM, templates, part ID stickers and tags, etc. This has worked well so far.

 

[zanyad]

Nice. We've been on Microsoft Dynamics GP for several years, switched from Sage Platinum for Windows when that went End of Life. Now Microsoft is discontinuing GP December 31, 2029 . We use bread pans to move parts between workcenters, which is why we use half sheets for travelers.

 

[slodat]

I’ve had large aisles of material in crates on the floor since July. Plan the whole time has been cantilever racking. I never came across anything used. The used at the material handling outfit wasn’t substantially less money than new in the configuration I needed. So..



This is structural steel cantilever. 3000 lb per arm. It’s heavy enough that I used carts and a hand truck to help manage unloading.




Once I got the parts in place the fun began.




It didn’t take too long and I had a section assembled.



Off to the left is about 3/4 of what will be going on the rack. Next up was loading the base. I use one size material a lot more than the others. I loaded the base four crates deep, three tall. That’s 12,000 pounds on the base. Should be nice and stable. Next up was mounting the arms. I muscle fucked the first in position. Then I realized I could use the forklift to get them in position and bolt together.





This worked well. It was still a lot of work.



Rinse and repeat for four layers. The end result:


This is one of the most physically exhausting things I’ve done in a very long time. I was truly depleted when it was said and done. I’m really happy with the results. Looks like I’ll need another for the other material (aluminum).

 

[tarbellb]

Subscribed! Got to talk to Slodat today on the phone, super nice guy who knows his ****. Really appreciate the advice on CNC and all things tools. Company growth looks amazing, keep up the good work and keep posting.

Cheers