The Lone Machinists

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, we're experimenting with workholding, tumbling media, and how to make manufacturing a little less painful. Curt's been testing different tumbling media on titanium pen bodies, discovering some surprisingly good finishes along the way. Apparently, tumbling is just witchcraft with extra steps. He's also moved pen-body drilling from the lathe to the mill and cut the cycle time from nearly six minutes to under two, with a few ideas for improving coolant delivery still in the works. Jamie has been working on new workholding inserts, discussing Joshua's new Firmworks vice, and speed-running replacement Anchor Point bodies after discovering a fixture orientation mistake. There's also a look at minimum stock levels, unattended machining, and making production less of a constant emergency. Elsewhere, we discuss using AI to manage customer orders, thermal printers, software companies making questionable decisions, and a certain giveaway involving a Freddy MicroPlus. Plus, there's experimental 3D printing, more shop projects, and a discussion about why you probably shouldn't give away every last keel clamp you own. It's another week of making parts, solving problems, and occasionally creating entirely new ones. Links Discussed: * Payton Modarra Monday: https://www.youtube.com/@payton_dean The Lone Machinist: * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/ * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/ Jamie: * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering * https://www.jspeceng.com/ * https://www.noughticalwh.com/ Curt: * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/ * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, we're back from IMTS and apparently nobody came home with fewer projects. Curt has managed to create a rather serious problem for himself after launching a one-minute presale for his pens. The idea was simple, keep the sales window short so he wouldn't end up with more orders than he could handle. Unfortunately, everyone who got the pens into their carts during that minute could take their sweet time checking out. The result? Curt sold more pens than he's ever sold before and now has hundreds of pens to make. Rookie move. Jamie has his own growing list of projects, including new products, customer work, a lathe project, more Anchor Point pallets, and plans for a bigger 3D printer because apparently the existing printer has started taking up valuable desk space. We also spend plenty of time talking about the recent IMTS trip, including Paper Kurt's adventures, meeting patrons and machinists, Chicago, New York, and the truly ridiculous amount of walking involved. Jamie averaged around 16,000 steps a day, and somehow still came home wanting to do it all again. There's also plenty of CNC automation, pneumatic systems, tooling, printers, production planning, and the usual discussion about buying more equipment because clearly that's the solution. Hundreds of pens, thousands of steps, and absolutely no spare time. The Lone Machinist: * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/ * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/ Jamie: * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering * https://www.jspeceng.com/ * https://www.noughticalwh.com/ Curt: * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/ * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Day two of IMTS, and Jamie is somehow fitting even more machines, people, questionable decisions, and engineering ideas into an already packed schedule. The day ends with Oktoberfest, late nights, escalator shenanigans, and a trip back to the Airbnb to talk shit until midnight. And starts straight back into IMTS, with Jamie working his way through tooling, workholding, abrasives, automation, and an increasingly ridiculous collection of machines. There's discussion about Index's wild multi-spindle Swiss setup, Siemens PLCs and integrating a probe, a tiny CNC project for grinding serrations into inserts, and why apparently a pneumatic vise is now something Jamie needs to build. They also discover that the steel shelf was actually aluminium, leading to Tall Jacob being sent in because nobody knows who he is. Meanwhile, Curt continues experiencing IMTS through messages and social media, while Jamie keeps getting recognized by his voice and discovering that seemingly everyone is at the show. Add in giant machines, questionable prototypes, FOMO, meetups, karaoke, and a water bottle that is becoming increasingly thick, chunky, and girthy, and Tuesday at IMTS is shaping up nicely. Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/ The Lone Machinist: * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/ * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists Jamie: * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering * https://www.jspeceng.com/ Curt: * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/ * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, the machines are starting to outproduce the humans, which sounds great right up until you realize somebody still has to finish all those damn parts. Curt is running huge production batches ahead of a pre-sale, discovering just how much his machines can actually produce, and realizing that hand finishing is rapidly becoming the bottleneck. We get into pocket clips, blasting, tumbling, sanding, scotch-briting, abrasive brushes, custom tooling, and increasingly questionable ideas for automating the finishing process. Jamie is getting ready to head to IMTS, trying to prove out programs before leaving, considering whether a Swiss machine might actually make sense, and dealing with a workshop back door that has apparently decided it wants to become a water feature. There's also plenty of discussion about Instagram posts versus reels, ultrasonics, production mistakes, traveling to the US, and the increasingly chaotic schedule surrounding IMTS and the following weeks. The machines are doing their jobs. Now apparently the humans need to catch up. The Lone Machinist: * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/ * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/ Jamie: * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering * https://www.jspeceng.com/ * https://www.noughticalwh.com/ Curt: * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/ * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/