Enough fluff.. Lets highlight a few machined projects currently on Kickstarter.
The Spin Case – A Refined Raspberry Pi Case

Precision Machined Spinning Tops

Metal Comb Works: Machine Age inspired metal pocket combs

Helado: a cool, sweet topping for the Raspberry Pi!

New Sleeper Designs Billet iPhone Wallets and Cases

DON’T

I suppose I should qualify my words word.  You are an owner/machinist and the reason you hold that title is because you are not a graphic designer/web developer.  Sure you’d probably save yourself a few grand by going the DIY route, but a bad website will risk losing tens of thousands of dollars of potential new work because it can portray the wrong image about your company.  This is especially true if you’re part of an online community like MFG.com.

For that reason, make sure you have three professionals in your corner – a programmer, a graphic designer and a professional photographer.  Let me repeat that last one – a PROFESSIONAL photographer.  Yes, hiring a pro shooter will have the biggest impact on your website.  Great websites don’t exist without great photos.

Don’t get tempted to go with a single person that does both the designing and programming.  Look for a company with these two specialists under the same roof.  It is rare to find an individual that has creative vision that can also thrive in the structured environment of website coding.

Ok, stop reading and instead check out how Sohacki Industries got it right by hiring Snakebird Studios to create their great company website.

In our consumer/entertainment driven society our brains are slowly being trained to see things and well, not think about it. Take Jersey Shore for example – once it became a national obsession we knew a shift had occurred that told us we were taking everything in without outputting any useful action – with the exception of those of us who learned to weld from watching American Chopper.

So, watch this video and please do the opposite of society… THINK about your safety and the safety of others around you. Get everyone together and have a chat.  Thinking about safety never made anything more dangerous.

As many of us know in the manufacturing sector, the trickle down effect of military sector spending, as opposed to the banking sector, puts money in the pockets of every company in the supply chain.  Military suppliers make real products, not paper, and a paycheck in the hands of military personnel goes to someone who earned it as opposed to sitting back and collecting government aid.  We’re weeks away from choosing a new president as well as other elected officials.  So the question is, does the track record of our current elected officials put us on the right track if they were to continue?  Sound off with your comments below.

It used to be that 20 years ago was a significant amount. Not so much now. Haul someone from 1992 to 2012 and there wouldn’t be the same amount of future shock that bringing someone forward from 1930 to 1950 would have. Maybe we’ve become more sophisticated, more technically savvy. But, a 20 year span isn’t as shocking as it once was.

Take things back 35 years and the details of life were much different. Cable TV was strictly for rural folks who couldn’t get broadcast signals. Computers were room-sized hulks that only big businesses could afford. There were still pay phones, and they only cost a dime.

Technically things changed, but in the political / economic life, things haven’t changed that much. We still don’t know how to effectively control inflation, avoid recessions, or the complex relationships between economic growth and interest rates.

Back when Gerald Ford was president, the US was going through an inflationary period. Banks CDs were paying 10 percent and home mortgage rates were in the 13 and 14 percent range. Ford, and his administration, had no idea how to address inflation. In a move that only politicians could call “brilliant,” the president started wearing “WIN” buttons: Whip Inflation Now. As if the normal shop guy could go to a vendor and tell him to drop his price.

That kind of ineffectual blah-blah was called jaw-boning. If those in power would only say that the economic hard times were over, then through some magic fairy-dust, the hard times would disappear. Things haven’t changed much.

The current administration and it’s sycophants in the press keep trying to tell us that the Great Recession is over and that we’re on the road to recovery. It’s jawboning from down here in the trenches. Unemployment figures released in mid-May are up again, and that’s just those applying for unemployment benefits. There are millions of us out here who have burned through those benefits and are still jobless. And, it is jobs that make the economy roll.

We’re a consumer culture. The old saying “Nothing gets done until someone sells something,” is an economic fact. Without jobs and incomes, nothing gets sold because nothing can be bought.

Pumping printing-press money into the economy, in the guise of “economic stimulus” isn’t going to bring us out of recession. All it does is mortgage the future to higher taxes to pay off the loans the government is incurring.

If governments at all levels really want to get the economy back on its feet, it’s time they stopped making it harder for the small- and medium-sized business to get back to business. Lower taxes, less senseless regulation, and fewer “entitlements” will allow the guys with small businesses to get back to making things rather than filling out forms.

Pete Nofel

Torchmate Before Christmas

by Rachel Miller (CNC enthusiast and marketing director for Torchmate)

Twas the night before cutting, and all through the house
Not a fabricator was working, not even their spouse.
The sheet metal was laid out everywhere,
In hopes that a Torchmate soon would be there.
The plasma cutters were nestled all snug in their sheds,
While visions of sparks danced in their heads.

When out on the driveway there arose such a clatter
I sprang from my bed to see if Santa needed a ladder.
Away to the garage I flew like a flash.
Tore open the door and made all my tools crash.

The moon on the breast of my new air filtration
Gave the luster of mid-day to my CNC fixation.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear
But 380 oz. in. stepper motors on some black and red gear.

With CAD software so lively and quick
I knew for sure it was finally St Nick.
More rapid than eagles the Torchmate cut out my name,
As St Nick he laughed, and I did the same.

“Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the shop! To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”

As the metal melts like butter when the sparks fly,
And I’m so happy I want to cry
Up on the shop roof the reindeer flew,
With a sleigh full of Torchmate stuff, and St Nick too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I put on my safety glasses and welding gloves
Down the chimney St Nick came after some shoves.

He was dressed all in red from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished from plasma cutting soot;
A bundle of steel he had flung over his back,
And he looked like dollar signs just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled like a plasma torch igniting!
His cheeks were…who cares! This is so exiting!
He sweated and giggled with my machine in tow,
I would’ve kissed him if I had some mistletoe.

My CAD software he held in his teeth
And the cables encircled his head like a wreath
He had a broad face and smelled of petroleum jelly,
But I didn’t care whether or not he was smelly.

My Torchmate machine, he set up by the tree,
And I laughed so hard I tripped and fell on my knees.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know there was more in his sled.

He spoke not a word and hooked up the computer,
Before I knew it he fabricated a motor scooter.
And laying his finger aside his nose,
He handed me an AVHC, and up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his sleigh, with an empty red sack,
And I shouted “Santa, you don’t need ever come back.”
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Torchmate keeps upgrading. So I think I just might!”

Reuters/Brian Nguyen

What’s interesting about the Wall Street movement is that it erupted about the same time as an annual talent shortage survey by the ManpowerGroup, which found that 52% of U. S. employers are having trouble filling positions. But unfortunately for the Occupy Wallstreeter interviewed, a background in history was not on the list of sought-after skills. Topping the list of jobs difficult to fill were technicians, sales reps, and skilled trades workers, followed by engineers and laborers.

The point: Consider finding a community college that can teach you how to weld or operate a CNC machine.

The article: http://machinedesign.com/article/advice-for-occupy-wall-streeters-1117

The author: Leland E. Teschler

Image courtesy of FabAtHome.org - An open source-personal fabricator project

Anytime industrial equipment or technology initially used by industry giants seeps into the private sector, it evolves in unusual ways. Ten years ago, you could only find the regular use of CNC machines and other types of robotics in the governmental or high-end fabrication shops and factories around the world. We saw this with the initial use of the Internet by the military. Yet, once the technology hit personal computers, it exploded into a medium of seemingly unlimited uses and capabilities. When the people of the world get a hold of new technology, they often squeeze out every last unimaginable use possible and end up changing the world as we know it.

Soon we will see CNC technology evolve in the same way as the internet did. It has expanded into the hands of millions of people and given them the ability to actually do things that we might have only seen in science fiction movies. As the cost of CNC technology drops, we are starting to see a variety of uses that the original designers of the technology could have never envisioned. Small companies are now able to tinker with technology that would have been too cost prohibitive to even consider five years ago. Now that people play with this technology, it will most likely result in an evolved form of CNC that will not only increase the speed at which people personally manufacture objects in their homes, but will also give new rise to a world of convenience, efficiency, and precision with automated processes that were previously done by hand.

Following here is my list of predictions for the future uses of CNC we can expect in the next ten years. These predictions are not guaranteed to come true but will ultimately help you better understand the potential of this technology and the significance of its impact on our future.

1 – 3D Printing will allow the instant creation of practically anything: Three dimension printing using resins, plastics, and even metal alloys are being born out of small shops around the world, and while still in its infancy, these technologies are paving the way to new businesses, and changing industries. Today we are only seeing the early stages of this with on-demand 3D printing, ordinary people can have objects created for them simply be sending a company a computer file.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg, nylon printing has recently been shown by a few companies to be able to create articles of clothing, ten years from now we may simply be printing the clothes we wear.

2 – Precision mechanics will be used for everyday convenience: CNC applications will not necessarily create new objects but rather automate processes that were once done by hand.  CNC paint sprayers, or etching devices that can be moved with more precision that any human is able to muster.  Industries have sprung up around these applications. It is now possible to draw a design with a pen and paper and have it etched or painted on a laptop, or cut out of vinyl to stick on the window of your car.  These technologies are coming to the home too.  While seemingly silly, the last few years have seen CNC cake decorators that squirt icing on a cake, or egg printers that use food safe inks that can create works of art on egg shells with a cost that allows the process to be done every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The fact is that this technology will lead to us having the ability to automate, and mechanically control even the most basic of tasks including, but not limited to, making food, cleaning the house, and doing your hair all with the simple push of a button.

3 – Fully mobile CNC machines will be used by the general public: Like the internet, CNC technology will continue to evolve to the point at which it will be fully mobile. There are already affordable home CNC machines that can cut metal, wood, and plastics that can fit on a coffee table and moved around by a single person.  Soon you will be able to carry around a CNC machine in your pocket for writing or drawing as well as tackling massive projects with thousands of them working in concert, like ants. We are already seeing this concept in fully automated factories, and like basic CNC, it won’t be long before this technology makes it to the everyday user. Creating or doing anything mechanical on the go will become easier and more efficient. In fact, it is probably safe to say that mobile CNC machines will even be able to make other CNC machines that can perform completely different tasks.

Considering these predictions will ultimately help anybody understand the possibilities of this amazing technology. The evolution of CNC capabilities will eventually bring us into a world of instantaneous object creation and service robotics that will forever change how we think and feel about mechanical labor in our everyday lives.  As these machines develop, being on the cutting edge will be more important than ever and will determine the leaders of the industries of the future.

Jack Douglass is an R&D Engineer at Torchmate

Image courtesy of Fab@Home – An open-source personal fabricator project.

I’m know there are a lot of other engineers that are far smarter than me that have developed these products but there’s just something about dual contact holders that doesn’t sit right with me. I really don’t see how supporting the toolholder’s flange is going to increase rigidity. I also imagine that any chips or grime between the flange and spindle nose will interfere with the tool seating properly in the taper and vice versa. Are regular toolholders really that unstable that I need dual contact? Is the toolholder really the problem and not the 1″ tool that it’s holding? Does anyone else have these thoughts? Is this a case of good marketing over good product? It reminds me of a story that happened to me a long while back.

Was the Stem flexing or was it the rubber tire?

I once worked with a company developing a new line of handlebar stems for mountain bikes. The stem is the part of the bike that connects the steering tube to the handlebars. We developed a stem that was lightweight yet rigid thanks to the large diameter of the body. When we did rider testing, I found myself frustrated with what they perceived to be true. Since it was lightweight, they immediately imagined it would also be weak and/or flexible. Sure enough, one rider after another said they were experiencing too much “flex”. Bull! We built a test rig and measured that our design was among the stiffest and lightest on the market and definitely stiffer than any of the stems these test riders were currently using! The conversation with one test rider went something like this:

Me – So you really think it’s flexing too much?
Rider – Dude, totally!
Me – So let me get this straight, you’re wearing padded gloves while holding on to foam padded handlebar grips that are attached to 24″ wide hollow handlebars and you think the 3″ long aluminum stem is the part that’s flexing?
Rider – Yup.
Me – Ok let’s go over this… The stem is connected to a 4″ travel suspension fork that uses 0.050″ diameter spokes that connect with a thin aluminum rim that holds a rubber tire that rolls on unstable dirt. Are you sure what you’re feeling is the stem flexing and not one of the other components?
Rider – Dude, I know my bike. The stem has too much flex. I’M POSITIVE!
Me – Ok. Thanks for the feedback.
Rider – Don’t I get a T-shirt or something?

We ran a second round of tests but this time we hyped up the product beforehand by showing charts, graphs and fancy engineering terms. Guess what… the results were phenomenal. We took it a step further. We brought back the original group of test riders and took them through the same presentation. We told them their feedback was instrumental in improving the design. We used the exact same stems from the original test and once again the feedback was 100% positive. I specifically spoke to my original tester (Dude) to see what he had to say – “Dude, you guys really rocked it with this new design. Now do I get a T-shirt?”

This is a long story to get to my point – perception is reality. Are Dual Contact Toolholders really better or are we buying into better marketing? Hopefully I haven’t made any enemies, but I’ve definitely opened a can of worms. Let’s hear your comments below.

One prominent company is skipping the ever-present injection molding process and embracing a full CNC enclosure for their product lines.  Apple.

The good machining stuff starts at 2:29.  Though he is a designer, Mr. Ive understands the issue that every machinist already knows… It’s not about how to make the part, it’s about how to hold it (4:10).