The Goldenfab Story

[goldenfab]

The riggers pulled through. They were professional, competent and I have no complaints with the work done. Based on the times they were here plus travel it should have been around an 8 hour day for them.

Like I said some of the scheduling delay was due to trying to organize doubling up with other work in the area since there is so much cost in travel time where I am. What set me off was getting such a high estimate at 4:30 the day before. Felt like they were trying to take advantage of the situation, maybe not but rubbed me the wrong way. I've talked with several people who have used them and have never heard anything negative about them. Hopefully they charge me a fair price. It's water under the bridge now.

The day went really well. Turning around in my driveway was a little tight but not a problem. They brought a 15k cushion tire forklift to move the machines inside building and the 30k pneumatic tire forklift for the most of the loading/unloading.

 

[animal12]

Your instrument panel guy may be rethinking his China choice these days .
animal

 

[ducesrwld]

next time you need to hire the ol' rigger start with hey when can you come out to my place to get me a quote on moving my machines in so we can get something penciled in....any time you start with i'm not in a rush you always go to the back of the line. not sure what it is with riggers i try to give them as many details as possible but there is always a curveball usually on every visit. last couple machines that came in and a move on the vf-4 their forklift was picking up the rear tires and i get the question is this the forklift we used last time???....frick if i remember.

when we first started out we bought a big f'in forklift and a double axle trailer and moved most of our machines the first five years. twas some fun but times have gotten busier and now have the guys with all the toys do the moving....sometimes i wish we had the time so we don't have to rely on other people's schedules

 

[DavidScott]

I am curious what you will think of your Fadal having a Kitamura next to it.

 

[goldenfab]

Your instrument panel guy may be rethinking his China choice these days .
animal

I have not been keeping up with world events much lately. Something new going on other than tariffs that started a while back?

next time you need to hire the ol' rigger start with hey when can you come out to my place to get me a quote on moving my machines in so we can get something penciled in....any time you start with i'm not in a rush you always go to the back of the line. not sure what it is with riggers i try to give them as many details as possible but there is always a curveball usually on every visit. last couple machines that came in and a move on the vf-4 their forklift was picking up the rear tires and i get the question is this the forklift we used last time???....frick if i remember.

when we first started out we bought a big f'in forklift and a double axle trailer and moved most of our machines the first five years. twas some fun but times have gotten busier and now have the guys with all the toys do the moving....sometimes i wish we had the time so we don't have to rely on other people's schedules

For sure, starting out with not in a rush bites you sometimes. Thing is I was not in a hurry at the time... Several months later and it was time get going.

I got payment for the DM4500 so my first VMC never actually made it to my shop.

I am curious what you will think of your Fadal having a Kitamura next to it.

As far as initial impressions and looks go the Kit makes the Fadal look like a POS. The Kit is REALLY clean. But I'll get the Fadal cleaned up. Considering painting the sheet metal. Probably not worth the effort as its kinda polishing a turd. I just like to have clean and orderly stuff and want to keep that mindset going.

I have not done anything with either yet. I have a few things I need to finish up with my house before I really get started back in the shop. First thing will be to get a 3 phase panel and wire everything up with the RPC I got, run air, and level the machines. I've started to read the Kit's manual. Once thing that stuck out to me is it says "simultaneous controllable axes | 2 axes". From what I knew the sonic mill having the 15M Fanuc control was supposed to be an upgraded control over the standard My Center 3X. Will it really only simultaneously control 2 axis? So no 3 axis toolpaths? I know its older tech (1995) but with my harry homeshop kneemill conversion I did, I was doing complex 3 axis toolpaths with to make casting patterns.

 

[goldenfab]

Not much new here. I have still been working on my house a lot. I almost have the last bedroom finished out, just have a few things left. This week I'm transitioning more hours in the shop. This last week I bought a 3 phase panel and circuit breakers for the VMCs. Hard to find I might add. It's crazy there are still supply chain issues.

Here's a video of the machines getting moved.

I've been doing a few small jobs here and there in my knee mill and manual lathe. Here's a car emblem I made for a guy the other day. I'm excited get the VMCs going and get some real work. It's been such a long road.

 

[CBlair]

Never seen a Kit like that one before, very different cabinet. Thanks for sharing.

Charles