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.

Skip the mumbo-jumbo and start 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” (4:09).

So often, shops have no company website. Moreover, their email address is from any number of generic sources; machineshopperson@att.net, anothershop@yahoo.com, i-need-a-website@hotmail.com. There’s really nothing wrong with having such an address, but using an email that includes your company’s name is much more professional.

In today’s information age, the necessity of having a company website cannot be ignored. The first step in getting a website is buying a domain name that tells the world where your website can be found. As the popularity of the internet grows exponentially, it’s important to get your company’s domain name registered as soon as possible, even if the thought of a company website is a distant idea. We’re not the only ones that think so. In fact, all three- and four-letter combinations of letters have already been purchased as website domain names by people known as cyber squatters. A cyber squatter’s sole purpose is to purchase domain names with the hopes of companies becoming desperate enough to buy the name for thousands of times more than what it originally cost. If cyber squatters have bought up every combination of names from aaaa.com to zzz.com then stressing the importance of simply owning a domain name for future use goes without saying.

Getting Practical

For now, let’s start simple and take the first step in acquiring your piece of internet real estate. Let’s cover some basic principles. Every pioneer looks for land first before they ever build. Don’t assume that you need to buy a domain name and have a company website up in the next week. There’s nothing wrong with buying a name and waiting until the right time to put a site on it. Even free or low cost basic websites with your contact info is acceptable while you plan for something more extensive.

Now it’s time to think about what your company’s domain name should be. Many of you will luck out and be able to register the exact name of your company with no problems. Others will have to be a little more creative since the domain name might be taken. Let’s start with a few guidelines on how to choose a name:

• Try and keep your name as short as possible. There’s a reason Haas Automation uses www.haascnc.com as opposed to their full company name.
• Try and avoid dashes (-) and underscores (_) in your name. If these characters are not communicated properly, you risk pointing a customer to the wrong company.
• Always try and get the .com version and never the .org. A website ending in .org identifies you as a non-profit organization. Also, try and stay away from less popular website suffixes (technically known as a TLD) like .tv, .mobi, .us, .info, .biz. A .com suffix provides the strongest branding.
• Be descriptive. If your company name is simply “Smith”, try for smithmfg.com or smithmachining.com. Your domain name will be more memorable and will help people find you more easily through a web search.
• If you’re debating between two different names, buy both of them! You can always forward one name to another.

Now, once you’ve brainstormed and have a few domain name possibilities, see if they’re available. The fastest source for this is www.instantdomainsearch.com. As you type in domain names, you’ll instantly see if the .com, .net and .org names are available. From there you can visit any company that registers domain names (try www.1and1.com or www.godaddy.com) to purchase your name for less than $10 annually. Look for the terms “Search Domains” or “Register Domains” and they’ll walk you through the process.

Congratulations, you’ve now staked a claim in cyber space for your company’s future. You’re just a few simple steps away from setting up personalized email addresses and a basic info page. When the time comes to build a more detailed website, you’ll already have your perfect lakefront property to build on.

This year, because of the BP accident, President Obama has declared a drilling moritorium. Bang! A .44 magnum shot to the back of the head. Add to that the growing liabilities of the health-care bill which contained 2,000+ pages and is still being defined, and the threat of rising taxes and the future for business seems confusing and uncertain.

Businesses hate uncertainty. If they can’t make an educated guess as to what may happen in the next six months or year, most will hunker down and take a wait-and-see attitude. That’s not the way to keep an economy going.

Take for instance the proposed Small Business Jobs Act our Beloved President proposed. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The bill contains $12 billion in targeted tax cuts, such as a 100% exclusion of capital gains income for certain small start-ups, expensing for certain capital purchases, and new deductions for start-up expenses…”

As Yogi Bera is reputed as saying, “it’s deja vu all over again.” Some of its provisions sound almost Reaganesque in their aid to small business, but there are poison pills to go along with the candy. Some small businesses are delaying capital purchases in hopes of the bill’s passage. The bill may sound like a way to get the economy rolling again, businesses are putting off purchases now in the hope of a tax cut in the future. Actually, this “wait-for-the-break” purchasing strategy is unnecessary for most small businesses since they can currently expense 100% of machinery purchases up to $250,000 per year or opt to depreciate the amount over seven years… a policy the Bush administration put in place. Without this crucial piece of information, it may be a case of “jam yesterday and jam tomorrow, but never jam today.” With that attitude we can keep our fingers crossed for a “spring of recovery” since this summer seemed to be a bust.

It’s another case of uncertainty and doubt that’s keeping businesses in the bunkers. The administration offers these anemic carrots, but bundles them with a load of sticks: new 1099 reporting requirements for purchases of $600 or more; Executive Orders 13496 and 13502 which require compulsory unionism for government contractors and federal construction projects; a boost in the inheritance tax to 55 percent; the appointment of a consumer finance “czar” accountable not to the senate, but only to the president himself; and the list goes on.

Parenthetically, I heard of a case where the owner of shop died and left the business to his children. Sounds like something every parent would wish to bequeath. Then the government stepped in. Because the owner had spent more time developing the business instead of finding tax loopholes, the kids had to take out loans against the business in order to pay the inheritance tax. The alternative was to sell the business to pay the death tax. So, what was a debt-free, independent business is now partially owned by a bank. A fine way to keep the economy rolling.

Adding to the fear and loathing is the Beloved President’s constant campaigning. It seems that at every one of his whistle stops he takes a shot at business, banks, and Wall Street. Now, many of these organizations deserve some flogging, but the constant haraging projects a distinct anti-business attitude that drains confidence.

It’s not like any of this was unexpected. During his campaign, one of the president’s off-Teleprompter comments to “Joe the Plumber” was his goal to “share the wealth.” That’s a wonderful platitude, but in practicality it means taking away from those who have worked hard for their success and giving it to those who have not. I’m sure many shop owners out there are doing better than I. I expect that after you finish reading this, you’ll get out your checkbook and send me my “fair share” of your profits. Oh, wait, why don’t we just call that “taxes.”

Despite signing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February 2009, unemployment has remained high.

One of the basic tenants of a successful horror movie is to never let the audience get too good a look at the monster. People always imagine something worse than can be displayed on the screen. Take the original version of “The Thing from Outer Space.” It isn’t until the heroic humans fry the Thing — James Arness [Marshall Dillon] — that we get a long look at the monster.

A bit more recently, the alien in “Alien” is never fully seen until Ripley dumps him — it? — into space. That’s in the last 10 minutes of the film.

It’s the uncertainty of what is after people that makes the films so scary. That’s part of what is keeping the Great Recession going: uncertainty, especially in small businesses. Business owners are worried about not only what the economy may hold in store, but also how the government is going to stick it to them.

How will new EPA carbon emission regs affect a business? What will be the intended and unintended consequences of a 2,000+ page healthcare bill do to employee and employer costs? What will be the result of new taxes?

These, and other, uncertainties cause shop owners to take a look at their balance sheets and see a government-fueled Thing or Alien ready to kill the business. What owner, in his or her, right mind would step off that cliff of uncertainty without knowing if the fall is going to be six inches or sixty feet?

In the August 9, 2010, Wall Street Journal, a business owner writes about his uncertainty in “Why I’m Not Hiring” – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704017904575409733776372738.html.

This New Jersey business owner estimates that a 12-year employee with a nominal salary of $59,000 cost him $74,000 in taxes and benefits, yet she only nets $44,000. Where does the other 40.5 percent go? It goes to federal, state, and local taxes paid by both the employee and employer, along with each’s share of healthcare coverage.

Grossing 74k per year in pay and bennies means the employee is worth $6,166 per month. If taxes and benefits eats $30,000, that means she’s working almost five months of the year for nothing but support of governments and payments of benefits.

There’s also the confirmation that the uncertainty factor for employers is growing. The article’s author states that his healthcare provider jacked up rates by 28 percent for lesser coverage, where in the past, increases were less than 10 percent per year.

In this kind of economicly punishing environment it’s no wonder that small businesses aren’t hiring and that unemployment remains at a stubborn 9.5 percent.

The irony is that even sucking $18,000 away in taxes from both the employee and employer, cities and states are crying about how broke they are and the federal government has conveined a commission to figure out how to reduce the deficit [I'll be betting they'll be recommending new taxes rather than cutting expenses].

So, with an unknowable monster breathing down the neck of business, it’s little wonder there’s no hiring and not much prospect for a recovery. It’s time to shed some light on the hidden monster of government rapaciousness and let business know what’s in store by telling government to stop reaching into our pockets with both hands.

England used to be the world leader in manufacturing, beginning in the 1850s, thanks largely to the industrial revolution. It took the championship away from China due to Britain’s ability to automate production instead of producing goods by hand.

Then, along came that upstart United States in the late 1890s and took the crown away from the Brits. We’ve held it ever since. But, that’s coming to an end. According to a prediction by IHS Global Insight, a US-based economics consulting company, as reported by the Financial Times, the sun is going to set on US manufacturing leadership by 2011. Big surprise, huh?

For years, economist wonks have been prophesying the coming age of the service economy; we’re not going to be dirtying our hands anymore by making stuff, we’ll all get rich by the metaphysical equivalent of selling each other hamburgers or taking in each other’s laundry. I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine how well that’s worked out so far – I’ll just be keeping my fingers crossed that I find a paying gig before I run out of unemployment benefits and become a 99er*.

In 2009, the US created 19.9 percent of world manufacturing output, compared with 18.6 per cent for China, according to HIS as reported in the Financial times. We won’t maintain that lead. The reason is simple enough, according to the Times report, the US can’t compete with a country that has four times its population and pays a tenth of US wages.

Underlying this, too, to a certain extent is the idea that taking a job making stuff – what used to be called “blue-collar work” – is beneath us. We should all go to college and study obscure 12th Century French Poets and get fulfilling green jobs tending Delta Smelt** at high altitudes.

My mother’s relatives were from a small town in Kansas. I remember an aunt’s visit to Cleveland in the 1950s when it was the 11th largest city in the US. Driving over the Detroit-Superior bridge back then, across the city’s industrial heart, she saw the chimney’s from the steel mills pumping out smoke and she felt compelled to comment.

“That’s prosperity coming out of those smokestacks,” she said.

Today the mills are closed, the chimneys idle, the sky is clear, and the city ranked 33rd largest in the 2000 census. Delaying the Chinese leadership in manufacturing are the thousands of machine shops across the US. We’ve been able to stay ahead of the offshore manufacturers due to our better accuracy, tighter tolerances, and quality machines, but don’t expect that to last much longer.

As a child of the baby boom, I looked with bright eyes toward America’s future, never expecting to see the decline of the US during my lifetime. As author Jerry Pournelle said, “when I was a teen I expected to see America put the first man on the moon. I never expected to live to see the last one.”

*a 99er is someone unemployed who was dropped from the unemployment benefits roll because they used up all of their allotment.

** The Delta Smelt is a two-inch endangered fish that the government is using as an excuse to deny water to central California orchards and farms.

One of the authors who led this school of optimism in the future of technology was E.E. “Doc” Smith, an engineer by training and an author of “space opera” stories by avocation. His Skylark and Gray Lensman novels featured heroic protagonists who could whip up rays of the sixth order — whatever those were — that could drive space-ships [as he called them] at about a  million times the speed of light and burst planets like toy balloons.

In the Skylark series, super-genius man-of-action Dick Seaton, his wife, his buddy, and his buddy’s wife flit around the galaxy defending it from the monstrous Fenachrones bent on conquering the universe — nothing like having big plans after all — and defending themselves from their arch enemy Marc “Blackie” DuQuesne.

This is all very interesting, you might say — or might not, depending on your taste — but what has this to do with machining?

I’m setting the groundwork for a passage from Smith’s novel, “Skylark Three.” In the book, Seaton needs the help of the Osnomians, an advanced civilization of green humans, a million years old and composed of geniuses that make Brainiac seem like a slow learner.

Seaton enlists their aid in building a super-duper space-ship with which to defeat the Fenachrone.

“Building the generators,” Smith wrote back in 1930, “would have been a long and difficult task for a corps of Earthly mechanics and electricians, but to Seaton it was merely a job. The ‘shop’ had been enlarged and filled to capacity with Osnomian machinery; machine tools  that were capable of performing automatically and with the utmost precision and speed almost any conceivable mechanical operation. He put a dozen of them to work . . . ”

Automatic machine tools capable of performing by themselves to “utmost precision” were as pie-in-the-sky for an engineer in 1930 as were starships. This was an era straight out of “The Bull of the Woods” where some machine shop tools still were powered by leather belts from a central motor.

Yet, a mere 30 years later, NC and CNC machines were entering the shop environment. Today, 80 years after Doc Smith posited the need for a million-year-old culture to produce automated machining, metalworking machines that can create parts from electronic drawings are within the reach of almost any machinist willing to invest the price of a new automobile.

What’s even more remarkable is that we now have machining technologies even science fiction couldn’t have predicted: electrical discharge machines, laser cutters, waterjets, plasma cutters, stereolithography, and laser sintering. Not to mention technologies now only in development.

Despite the current economic woes, I believe we live in a time that will be seen as the golden age of machining.

-Pete Nofel-