Recent content by gkoenig

It wasn't done locally - the PVD supplier is back east and mostly deals in quite large volumes. This was a run of about 200 holders and they just tacked it onto a production run batch and had the color changed.

You send the Brother holders out to a shop that will PVD coat them Speedio Blue, so you never mix them between machines: https://www.instagram.com/p/BuSCrKFgSGa/ (From a shop with an older fleet of Robodrills and a new fleet of Speedios, to prevent pull-stud confusion. You can also just have...

Incredible!

My mistake! I had a Lang bolted onto my model and started thinking it was a 400mm platter. In the end, it is going to be a heck of a machine, especially given that the pricing will come out to be about $10k less than a UMC500SS with equivalent spindle and options (the U comes with Big+, the 28...

It is the same set of challenges you have with a robot. You can do flip stations, creative transfers with spindle orientation, etc etc. Or you can leg go of the impulse to do it all done-in-one and just run batches of Op1 and Op2 and make your life much simpler because the process reliability...

Couple of reasons: 1- I can get more parts in the machine and a higher walkaway time. 2- *Good* pallets are expensive in both time/materials. I can have a new gripper setup running, from scratch, in half a day and about the same as the aluminum cost for one pallet (some 4140 for Op2 jaws, $30...

Schunk and PHD both make adaptors with shanks to put their standard pneumatic gripper modules in a tool holder, and actuate them with TSC or through-spindle air. Combine it with a tray of parts and a pneumatic vise (also from Schunk), and you basically do what a big, complex, external robot does...

Not ideal, but everything is a set of trade-offs… and the above package is proven in enough shops that the B Axis centerline issues are workable. The productivity here is so high, the machine nerd arguments evaporate. Lots of interest in the U500 so far. Full 5 axis simultaneous motion is...

And for the price of a KSP Vise and a $1000 spindle gripper from Schunk, that S700 with the TNT100 can run hours of unattended production. And you still have 20" of free table space. And the tradeoff there is that you step down even further to 18+1 on the tools. In all my discussions with...

That configuration makes very little sense to me. So you get a 100mm platter... and nothing more. That seems like very small table space given the machine travels, so there is a bunch of dead air. Put a 5 axis trunnion on a 3 axis table and you can use the extra table space for a whole bunch...

I didn't know those existed until I saw one in a shop a couple of weeks ago, and I was impressed! How do you like yours?

If we are going to cook up unique, corner-case scenarios (I have 4 shifts and different programmers on each shift who hot seat a single license!), then perform Talmudic readings of software licenses... How about we acknowledge the elephant in the room vis-a-vis the perpetual license? You have...

I use NX because it is de-facto the best CAD in the world. Do I need it? Nope! Do I enjoy using it? Absolutely. It makes it very easy for my low-skill ass to do incredible things. My particular case is unique in that I had 2 jobs in quick succession that paid the absurd price for it and NX was...

As far as I can tell, only 3 things are keeping MC/SW afloat: - ITAR compliance. - Full 5 axis/complex turning/etc. - Momentum. MasterCAM and SolidWorks are boned in the long-term. Fusion is absolutely capable of any 3+2 axis part or turning you can throw at it, and the rest is in very active...

Firing all the people involved isn't good enough for you?