Hey everyone, as you may have noticed, I've been pretty quiet lately, and I wanted to talk about that. The reason I've been so quiet is that I'm in the planning stages of some upgrades to the shop, and I didn't want to push any builds through just to suddenly have all of this new equipment at my disposal.
Friday, I ordered an Ultimaker 2 Extended. That's the highest resolution 3d printer available (consumer grade, not the $200,000 stratasys machines) and the build volume is not to shabby. This will help me be able to work on multiple things at once, meaning I can be printing chassis parts while I'm machining chamber parts, I can make switch holders and speaker mounts while I'm sleeping, etc.
The second part of the upgrade to the shop hasn't been ordered yet, but I'm going to be converting my mill to CNC complete with 4th axis capabilities. Again, this will increase productivity, quality, and also increase the amount of detailing that I can put into builds without winding up spending 200+ hours doing it all by hand. Again, I'll be able to work on multiple things at once. Part 1 can be on the mill while I'm lathing part 2 to prepare it for its milling operations. I expect to be up and running on this by the end of september. The only holdup will be the amount of time it takes for the CNC conversion kit to arrive.
I've always planned on getting a bigger machine, but I've had to keep putting it off because I just don't have the space (among other things). In the mean time, I still don't have cnc capabilities, and the cycle continues. So I'm finally taking the plunge for both myself and all of my clients. It won't be so simple that I can program it, set the tools, and walk away, but it will be faster and just as accurate as anything I do by hand. A 90 minute sound hole drilling operation would be reduced to maybe 10 minutes with a tool change.
I know I still owe some people some pm's, and don't worry, I haven't missed them. This has been a lot of planning to be sure that these upgrades fill the gaps in my shop, and they really do. It's going to be a big step for me, and shouldn't really have any learning curve. I built a 3d printer back in 2010, and am an expert with 3d CAD software, so the only learning curve with the printer will be the handling of the different kinds of material. For the CNC, I can do all of the toolpaths and am no newbie to using CNC machines, so it really shouldn't take much learning at all, especially since I already know the limitations of the machine I'll be using.
I appreciate everyone's patience, and I promise, it will be rewarded.