Medical Tests, New Jobs, and CNC Pumpkins!

Damn, I already started screwing up my content generation schedule!  I had this theory that each Friday I'd put out a new blog post, but that got blown to heck when I took a 1-week job on the Safari Quest running a trip as Captain up in British Columbia.  And then I got into job-hunting and playing at the local makerspace, and a 2nd week flew by!

But now it is time to report in!  

(not my actual lungs)

Working in reverse, Today I had my chest X-ray'd, Urine sampled (yum), Prostate Checked (cough-cough) and my blood drawn (to apparently baseline my beryllium oxide levels).  What does this all mean?  It means I got a job!

(my contracting employer until Saturday)

Actually, I got another job.  This past week I've been working for a staffing agency called Aerotek, and they placed me at a company called LapMaster Wolters assembling machines that do secret things in the creation of new wigits that ryhme with "piephone.."  So in our funny economic world, I'm building American machines out of Chinese parts to produce Chinese products for the American (and world) markets.  FYI, and totally not related to the work I'm doing, Apple (as of 2015) is the 3rd highest-ranked company on the Forbes 500 list, just a tidbit behind Exxon Mobile at 233,700,000,000 (that is $233.7 Billion).  Of that pie, I'm making $25/hr and working 7am-6pm, Monday-Saturday with no health benefits.  I will probably make a post sometime about our personal finance and the quackery (a blogger spell-check suggestion for the word "fuckery") that comprises our education and finance systems, but I'll hold off for now.

(my new employer)

All that behind me, the big news is that I was offered a job on the spot (and I accepted on the spot) at an Injection Molding Tool company named A1 Tool Corporation, located a mere 15 minutes away in Melrose Park, Illinois.  They build molds (or "moulds" if you prefer that spelling) out of super-strong metals that are CNC machined to super-high tolerances and fit together to allow for high-pressure molten plastic to be injected into intentional voids between the (typically) two pieces that comprise the mold.  Once injected, the plastic cools and is then ejected from the mold and out pops a piece of Tupperware(TM), a car bumper, a peanut butter jar, a storage tote, or one of the thousands of different shapes that plastic comes in.  I'm contributing to the manufacturing of the products the will help choke out life on this planet!  Yay!

(Example of a Kuraki Horizontal Boring Machine )

But in all seriousness, it's freaking awesome.  Imagine being a teenager, pining to get their hands all over Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Farah Faucet, or Burt Reynolds...and then actually end up fulfilling those fantasy's....well, I'm in a similar situation here, and I'm going to get frisky with all sorts of freaking awesome CNC equipment! (with consent, of course)  The first machine they hope to start me on is a Kuraki Horizontal Boring Machine, which is a MONSTER 3+1 axis CNC machine.  As in, 8000lb capacity, 8' Z-axis travel, cut a block the size of a small car, MONSTER.  If you're confused by my use of 3+1 (as opposed to saying "4-axis", it is because the 4th axis is a rotary axis on the XY plane that doesn't move silmiltaniously with the XYY axis.  The cutting operations on XYZ stop, the rotational 4th axis rotates the part to a new orientation, then cutting resumes.  I'll be doing roughing and boring operations on the raw blocks of material that arrive at the shop via truck, and then the parts I make will be sent to other machines for further machining.  It is my personal goal to learn ALL of the machines that are at A1 (which include a 5-Axis DMG-Mori, CNC lathes, EDM's, and a slew of different controllers including a range of Fanuc's), in addition to the tooling and software that support their full operation.  Along the way, if the opportunity presents itself, I'd love to get involved with training/onboarding of new employees.

(local carbide cutter and tool-holder manufacturer)

Secondly, I made my first CNC tool purchase last week: 4 carbide end mills from a local Illinois company, Maritool.  I wanted some locally-sourced, home-grown, made-in-USA carbide tooling for CNC work, and there were some strong contenders!  There are actually a number of tool makers in the USA that use USA carbide, but I have yet to determine who makes quality tools and who I should avoid.  There is a great youtube channel I've been following called NYC CNC, and while they mostly promote a company named Lakeshore Carbide in NY, there was mention at one point of Maritool, so when I was doing my search and found that Maritool was in Illinois AND was competitive in price, it made my purchase a no-brainer.  They also allow for local pickup with no shipping cost, which put them ahead of the pack from NY.  Last week we obtained a comparitor at PS1 and I'll hopefully be able to use that machine to record the tiny differences in the grind quality of these end mills, and compare the images to future purchases from other vendors.  

CNC Pumpkin Carving with the ShapeOko1 at PS1

Next up is the CNC work at PS1.  I finished installing limit switches on each axis of a 3-axis CNC router (a Shapeoko 2, by Inventables, if you must know), but since these switches use a hi/low voltage value to indicate a status change, they can be susceptible to voltage spikes/noise from other nearby electronics throwing out EMI (electromagnetic interference).  So to help out I installed 330ohm "pull-up" resistors to ensure that the signal voltage was at a full 5V when not tripped, then also installed some .22uf (micro-farad) capacitors to absorb any voltage spikes that may be induced by the surrounding electronics (mainly a 48VDC spindle, and lots of 4-wire stepper motors).  

After all of the electronics bugs were worked out, I trammed (aligned) the spindle and gantry (the moving parts of the machine that position the spindle/cutter) and finished cleaning up the wiring. Now the machine is mostly straight, clean looking, and ready to get back to operational status.  I still want to document the "tool-chain" (which is a fancy way of saying which software systems you use in producing parts) so that other people can use whatever software best suits their needs and abilities.  But hey, there are only so many hours in a day.

Ok, so that just about catches things up.

Thanks for reading/viewing!

Danny

IMTS 2016, Fusion 360 CAD/CAM, and plans to go play on the Safari Quest in British Columbia

So what is IMTS?  Irritable male tummy sensations?  

Nope.  It stands for International Manufacturing Technology Show, and it's the second largest manufacturing convention in the world (but I only found out about it through a very timely text from a friend who works at Cascade Designs in Seattle).  Its soooooo big and obnoxious that they only do it every two years, and it makes sense.  There are hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars of manufacturing robots, tools, and CNC machines displayed there, in addition to smaller vendors who supply measurement, software, and support systems for the manufacturing industry.  The logistics to hook up thousands of 3-phase robotic machines in 1-million+ square feet of convention center must be a pain, not to mention that these machines are being shipped here from all four corners of the earth.  

I went there because I'm pursuing employment in the manufacturing industry, and I figured it would be a good way to network and learn more about the industry....and I got all of that and more.  In the first of the two days I visited (it's huge: I literally could not see all the booths between 10am and 5pm) I met someone who has since assisted in scheduling one job interview, and on the second day I met in person with the North American Service Manager for the largest CNC machine producer in Japan (and they are one, if not the, biggest in the world) and discussed work in their maintenance/service department.  I'm really a nobody at this place, but I was surprised when later that same service manager walked up to me and addressed me by Danny, and gave me back a card he saw me drop on the floor while walking around the convention.  Pretty cool fella to remember one unimportant name in a sea of millionaire tool buyers.

Anywho, I learned TONS just seeing 5-axis mills, robotic part scanning and organizing systems, SLA production printers, high-pressure coolant systems, hall-effect positional sensors, 6-degree-of-freedom CAD controllers, large-scale 3D printers (think garages and structures), advanced cutting tools, and piles more stuff that I'm just plain forgetting about.  Plus meeting lots of people in the industry who were bored to death with their booths and were willing to share their personal stories and opinions on the manufacturing industry, global and local politics, and the elements that have (and continue to) effect our manufacturing economy.

Fun Fact: Hass Automation, a California-based, "Merican" company produced it's first 3-axis CNC vertical mill in 1988, and is today the largest CNC manufacturer in the United States.  

In other news, I've started using a Computer-Aided-Drafting and Computer-Aided-Manufacturing software (CAD/CAM for short) called Fusion 360 by AutoDesk.  It's rather revolutionary for me, in that it is free for non-commercial users (and only $300/year if you are commercial), has a seemingly well-developed CAD side, and a really cool CAM side that allows you too do cutting-operation simulations of your toolpaths.  This program essentially integrates two pieces of the machining "toolchain" into one software, and the developing team is looking to push the system even further.  I attended a post-IMTS "Fusion 360 Meetup, and tour" on Tuesday night at the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII), and it was very eye-opening.  I talked briefly with a youtube celebrity (John Saunders of NYC-CNC, a channel about learning CNC), and got to experience what it's like to have a bunch of CNC nerds all in one room, at one time.  It was great! 

In other news, I installed limit and homing switches on the Shapeoko2 at the makerspace, but I've hit a couple roadbumps and am working on debugging some issues with the control software/firmware, so that critter isn't quite ready for tool-changing just yet.  The goal is to have a machine that can return to the same zero (XY coordinates) position at the start of every cutting operation, or even mid-operation.  But without homing switches to tell it when the cutting head reaches said zero position, you'll be cutting the same pattern in slightly different places every time you start a cut.

In hobby world, I received my DPDT switches for the ROV and sucessfully tested them with 25' of Cat5 ethernet cable, and the results are encouraging. So far I've designed and printed a control switch enclosure on the Printrbot 3D printer, so now I just need to design a frame for the motors, decide on a bouyency system that is somewhat tune-able, and put it all together.

Job-wise, I have interviews next week at a commercial prop-shop that creates large-scale marketing/misc works, and a marketing company that designs and produces it's own product displays.  Lastly, I have hopes to hear back from a Chicago-based company called Inventables, who just happens to manufacture the Shapeoko2 (well, the ShapeOko 3 and other, newer products) CNC router that I've been working on for the past few weeks.  

Lastly, I agreed to fly out to Seattle to run a week-long trip as Captain on the 120' Safari Quest, as my sister Denee needed some time off and wasn't able to find anyone local to fill the position.  It's a bit of a bitter-sweet though, since choosing to run the trip means I'll be missing the Un-Cruise 20th anniversary shin-dig on the 30th, and seeing old friends.  Maybe I'll catch some of them on Saturday night or Sunday before I fly home?

Anywho, it's been a great week, and I'm excited for what is to come next!