Another New Machine Day—it's not ALL doom and gloom...

Haas #9 arrived this morning. The riggers spent only one hour getting it off the truck and bringing it in. Air lifts, articulated skates—pretty good crew. The changer holds 30 tools (not that we've ever made anything requiring that many tools but that's how they come now). HFO's installation guy comes next Thursday to wipe of the cosmo, level it, etc. The "In place" pic shows it across the aisle from a VF-0 installed in 1998 which is still in daily use, a good adverstisement for Haas mills, if they wanted you to keep old ones running—which of course they do not because that doesn't fund Gene's F1 team...

On the well-worn subject of our economy: I just can't see any effects of the Wu Flu on our market segment, which is motorsport (I guess when people can't go out and race they employ their creativity building new race cars). Since September we have installed three new CNCs and four conventional gear hobbers, which rivals our most acquisitive year. Making stuff would seem to be a more secure occupation than many would've predicted.

That's a lot of similar machines!

Are any of your mills pallet changing? Why not make the small step to a HMC?

Man I love that electrical setup! I know it is pricey but I saw it in several buildings I looked at before I found my new shop.

Yeah we're getting the same doom and gloom thing here down under.

A good, well run crew makes all the difference... no matter what the racket is.

As long as your custs still have the green to keep paying and the confidence to proceed with "busin as usual" - happy days.

Me- after a couple of weeks earlier on in the year when enquiries dropped a bit when this crap first hit....gave me a chance to almost catch up... it really hasnt stopped. Just had one of my busiest Julys and doesnt look like stopping from as far as I can see. Govt here seems to keep constantly changing the rules, but apart from getting interstate jobs back to their owners, been able to cope ok thus far.

Garwood said:

That's a lot of similar machines!

Are any of your mills pallet changing? Why not make the small step to a HMC?

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Parallel processing. First op goes in one machine, second op in another. After the first part is finished the TOTAL elapsed time is reduced to that of the longer of the two ops plus the transfer time between them. If you have six vise cavities the cycle time allows transfer, blowoff, in-process inspection, etc. at a non-sweating operator pace. In some cases we'll have a train of four or five machines running different steps on one part simultaneously with one operator, which cuts the actual elapsed time to a third or a quarter of what can be done by the one-and-done method.

Rick Finsta said:

Man I love that electrical setup! I know it is pricey but I saw it in several buildings I looked at before I found my new shop.

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We got unbelievably lucky. The building had been a welding school during the 1970s oil boom and it had the Square D 480V busways with a total of 38 100A disconnect boxes. At that time the electric system was probably worth more than the building. I got it written into the contract that the busways etc were to stay. Otherwise it would've been many hours up on ladders running conduit.

If you were referring to the LED lamps, they are finally competitive pricewise with fluorescents, and you can reuse your fixtures and eliminate the ballasts.

Yup, talking about the bus bars!

I've got LEDs going in here - I can't imagine putting anything else in these days.

Congrats on the new machine! Nice shop!

Oldwrench said:

We got unbelievably lucky. The building had been a welding school during the 1970s oil boom and it had the Square D 480V busways with a total of 38 100A disconnect boxes. At that time the electric system was probably worth more than the building. I got it written into the contract that the busways etc were to stay. Otherwise it would've been many hours up on ladders running conduit.

If you were referring to the LED lamps, they are finally competitive pricewise with fluorescents, and you can reuse your fixtures and eliminate the ballasts.

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Are the bus bars expensive? I have 2 x 208v/100amp 3 phase in my shop. Had them since I was a kid. I may need another one in the future but never priced one. I cant imagine my dad paid much for it. He is a cheapo.

DanASM said:

Are the bus bars expensive?

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Google "Used Electrical Equipment." In many cases companies who sell used or reconditioned transformers and circuit breakers also obtain busway sections when they buy up somebody's inventory. Get the details off the nameplate first, as there are some subtle differences within brands such as amperage, copper or aluminum, and dimensions of the duct itself. Most of the time one manufacturer's disconnect boxes will fit more than one cross section of duct. I think I have paid around $15/foot for used but that has been awhile. Fittings like ells, tees, splices, end caps, and the main connection box for a new run are where the cost mounts up.

DanASM said:

Are the bus bars expensive?

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Yes.

Bus bars are not busway.