First batch of Ti and Alu caps are done!
almost 11 years ago – Mon, Jun 03, 2013 at 03:59:36 PM

Hi folks,

I'm happy to say that things have been moving along! I'm not sure yet whether I'm on schedule or not, but there is some chance that I'll have the EarlyBird pens ready to ship by the end of the month :) 

As usual, the ramp up for manufacturing is moving a little slower than I had hoped, but I'm doing my best to keep up the furious pace. The caps are dialed in, but this was the easiest part. The titanium has been quite a challenge drill, and the next part (pen bodies) are going to be more difficult. The aluminum shouldn't be a big problem, so like the caps, I'll start cutting that material and get the program written. The potential problem is that I'm (probably) going to need custom drills made and that takes 4 weeks, which will put me behind schedule on the Ti pens. I've held off on that order because the drills are $360 each and I'm going to need 26 of them to do all 700 titanium pens. That's over $10K with sales tax. But enough whining, let's get to the good news :) 

Finished parts! 

Each tray holds about 250 finished caps, titanium on the left and aluminum on the right. I only need 100 each for June, but I went ahead and ran as many parts as I had drills to use up. One drill can do about 200 holes in aluminum, but only about 60 in titanium. 

After the cap comes off the lathe, each one has to go into the mill to get countersunk and tapped (threaded) for the pocket clip screw. A video of this is at the end up the update. This "second operation" also required me to machine two sets of custom "soft jaws" to hold the parts. I have two vises on my mill, and each one holds 7 parts, so I can load 14 at one time. 

For the large volume of parts next month I'll contract a finishing company to do all of the tumbling; however, the EarlyBird parts will be tumbled in-house so I don't have to deal with the lag time from the vendor. I have a small tumbler, and hence can't do very many at once. This process (on the first 100 of each cap) will begin on Tuesday. 

Tapping the screws threads for the pocket clip screw: 

Taps come in a variety of styles, but the typical choices for machine tapping (as opposed to hand tapping) are "spiral flute" and "spiral point." (Image courtesy of Mari Tool) The spiral flute tap (left) pulls the chips up and out of the hole, but it's more fragile. I used this type of tap on the aluminum.

Broke the tap! 

I tried the same type of tap for the titanium, but I broke the tap on the 10th hole. You can see the remnants (and $35) stuck in the hole. So, I switched to a spiral point tap and finished the remaining 200+ with one tap. The spiral point tap requires less cutting torque, but the drawback is that it pushes the chips down into the hole instead of out of the hole. This means I have to clean out the little curls on every batch. You also have to run it about twice as deep into the hole, so it takes twice as long to cut each thread. 

Mailers have arrived

Each box holds 250 padded mailers that I'll be using to ship the pens. They are made from 100% recycled paper and can also be recycled. In all of my manufacturing processes, I strive to reduce waste and minimize the impact of my efforts. 

Packing tubes have also arrived!

These tubes were custom made by Armbrust Paper Tubes Inc. out of Chicago, Illinois. This is the same vendor I use for all of my flashlight packaging. Armbrust is a family owned company established in 1938. I like to use US vendors whenever I can. These tubes are also fully recyclable, unbleached, and undyed. I know a lot of people expect fancy packaging when they buy something fancy. Don't get me wrong, I like fancy packaging too, but then it makes me sad when I'm throwing that fancy packaging in the trash...and then I wonder what I'm paying for, the product or the package. 

Just so this doesn't start looking easy, this is a photo of a machine "crash." I have no idea what happened. It only occurred once and hasn't (thankfully) happened again. I'm also incredibly lucky the machine is (apparently) unscathed. When a finished part is cut off, the barfeed advances the stock 2" . Sometimes the machine pushes a "little" too far, maybe 1/6th of an inch at MOST. However, this time, the part was about 1/2" long and the tool holder slammed into the end of the stock at a full "rapid" speed of 1200 inches per minute. Fortunately I was close by and dove for the emergency stop button before the accident turned into a full fledged disaster. 

You can see the edge of the tool is at a steep angle...it should be parallel to the holder that it's clamped into. This takes a gigantic amount of force. After checking things out I unclamped the tool set it back to the correct position. You can see the two caps I set on the turret. The normal length is on the right. The short part is on the left. I have no idea why it came out short, but it meant the next part was that much too long. Whew. 

Countersink and Tap (Pen Cap: second operation)

This video is of the full cycle of 14 caps. I would have edited it down, but I think my time is better spent at the shop instead of in front of my computer :) 

Also, I've been considering posting very short, very rough videos with more frequency. They might me machining related, or some commentary I have at the moment. However, I don't want to blast too many updates, so please subscribe to my youtube channel for more Behind the Scenes (BtS) videos, they will not be posted here. And please comment if you actually want to see more BtS videos!  Otherwise, I probably won't do them because I'm so time constrained. 

Stay tuned! 

Jason

Getting Under Way!
almost 11 years ago – Wed, May 22, 2013 at 09:06:29 PM

It has begun...

Just a heads up, my Mom told me never to talk about how much things cost, but I think you'll think it's interesting to get a handle on the real cost of manufacturing everyday things. So, I'm going to show you where the money goes (more or less). The bulk of it...not in my pocket...but I do have some VERY happy local vendors that are my new friends :) 

It's also my son's one year birthday today, so that's pretty great as well! Happy Birthday buddy! Look at that, immortalized on the internet ;) 

It might not look like much but that's 500 feet of titanium and 500 feet of aluminum. Street value, about $7,000. The shot kind of hides the volume, but those buckets are 12" square and pretty much full. Not the most elegant way to store metal stock, but it's right behind the bar feed and that's where I'll need it the most.  

The turret holds all of the tools. This is the setup for running the pen caps, 9 tools in all. Everything attached to the face of the turret runs about $5,000. The large drill is a very fancy piece of work and costs $297. It's designed to have a useful lifetime of 10 minutes in "difficult" materials like titanium. Yes, you read that correctly...10 minutes. That's time "in-cut" as machinists like to say...time in contact with the material. It takes about 5 seconds to drill the main bore of the cap. If you do the math, the drill will last for around 120 parts. That means each hole costs $2.50 to drill, and I need to make about 700 titanium pens. Sweating yet? I am. 

This is a Hardinge Collet Chuck that replaces the standard 3 jaw chuck that came with the machine. It's an immensely precise piece of hardware and manufactured by the same company that makes the old manual lathe I talked about in my video. This is a good time to say "thank you" again to all of you dear backers. If the campaign had raised much less money, I would have purchased something much cheaper that doesn't work as well. This is basically the Ferrari of work-holding devices. It's also pretty and you can get one just like it for about $3,200.

If anyone tells you CNC machining is easy, they don't know much about it. All of these parts are scrap; test pieces that helped me get all of the settings like spindle RPM, depth of cut, feed rate (how fast the tool moves), and tweaking the machine to cut the parts "on dimension."  Notice that programming the actual tool path and position is a separate part of the equation. I'll save you the trouble of counting, that's roughly 75 parts and about 4 days of work to write the program and get it dialed in. Oh, and this is the "easy" part out of the 3 that I need to make. Oh, and this is just for the aluminum parts. On titanium, the tool path is the same, but all of the feeds and speeds are totally different. 

Never the less, we press on! This is about 150 (semi) finished aluminum caps! This is awesome, but this is just the hike into basecamp. We still have to summit :) All of these parts still need to be tapped for the 1/4x28 screw that holds the clip on. This will be covered in another update, but every cap will go into the CNC mill for the "second operations." Stick with me and you'll be full of machinist lingo before this is over! 

Just in case you were getting overly worried, here are 50 titanium caps. At this point I'm seriously doubting my drill will actually make it to 120 parts. I'm feeling like it will be 80-100. Don't do the math on dollars per hole, your wallet will get a cramp. All of the parts in the left bin are scrap. The machine "drifted" over a portion of the run and they are all oversize and nothing can be done about that. 

What you say? Drifted? Don't all the parts come out the same; it's CNC?! Oh heck no. A machine tool is a living breathing thing and it knows when you are not paying attention. CNC is good at one thing, repeating the same motion over and over. However, everything else that is part of the equation is constantly changing. The main factors are tool wear, material uniformity, coolant concentration, and temperature. Don't worry, I won't explain all of those things, but take temperature as an example. As the machine heats up, all of the parts expand and contract, and there are a lot of parts. Shutting down the machine, going to get lunch, and coming back means that things will have moved while you were away. Parts you cut in the AM will be a different dimension when you cut them in the PM, because the air temperature is different. Whew, I think I need a nap. 

Okay, so your reward for getting all the way to the end is a video! This is not a good video. I shot it with my phone. I'll try and do some wham zoomy vids in the future but I thought this was better than nothing :) 

Last call for BackerKit order updates!
about 11 years ago – Mon, May 13, 2013 at 10:06:29 AM

Hey everyone!

I "hope" this is the very last "order info" related update!

A few people have asked for a couple more days to "lock down" their orders through BackerKit. You may make changes until this Wednesday, May 15. If you opted for any "add-on" pens through BackerKit, your order will be "locked down"  and your card will be charged on Wednesday (this is ONLY if you ordered extra pens through BackerKit).  

If you sign up for "add-ons" in BackerKit after Wednesday, we will still receive your information, but your shipment may be delayed.

For backers who have not confirmed yet:

1. If you HAVE NOT completed your Kickstarter Survey:
There are a few of you that have not completed your survey yet, so UNTIL you do, you will not receive a BackerKit invite email to take any further actions.

2. If you did not see the Kickstarter Survey email:
To find your survey, just log into your Kickstarter account, go to the pledge tier you donated to, and you will see a link to fill out your survey! Kickstarter only allows all project creators to send out surveys ONCE, so I cannot resend it, but it is ok since you can always just log into Kickstarter and find it there.

3. If you HAVE completed your Kickstarter Survey:
You should have received a BackerKit invite email. Please click on your special invite link to confirm your order and shipping address. This will help me out tremendously!

If you are having any trouble, please email [email protected].

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for being so responsive to filling out my Kickstarter survey and helping me keep updated with your orders through BackerKit—even though it may not seem like much as an individual backer, you have no idea how tremendously helpful this has been for me when trying to keep track of ALL of my backers!

Thanks everyone for your support!

Jason

Tools, tools, and tools
about 11 years ago – Sat, May 11, 2013 at 10:43:33 PM

Hi Folks,

Despite the quiet, things have been full steam ahead on this end...but first: 

My Usual Nagging: 

48 people have not completed their KS survey. You won't get your reward, because I don't have your shipping address.

218 people have not signed up for BackerKit: You will eventually get your reward, but there might be a delay because each order must be manually tracked...like with a spread sheet and a highlighter. This makes my head hurt. Please sign up :) 

Production Status: 

Has it really been a month already?! At this stage I hope to be getting a lot more work done and a lot less time dealing with sign-up-this and sign-up-that kind of stuff. Production is about ready to begin. 

Delivery for EarlyBird Rewards: I'm still shooting for June, but it will definitely be towards the end of June. Right now the pocket clips and the brass cap screws might be the delivery bottleneck. I started orders for both items weeks ago, but things take time. I'm hoping for a substantial update every week or two (depending on what is going on) so stick around and you'll get a good idea of what is happening when. 

• 95% of my tools have arrived...total bill: ~$18,000 ... in case you are wondering where the money goes. I'll have more photos and details soon. 
• About 1.5 weeks was spent just getting the bar-feed setup properly: learning to operate it, programming, and then tuning everything to run without error. 
• Last week a Selway "Application Engineer" spent the entire day in the shop helping me understand some of the whiz-bang features of this new lathe and talk about different strategies on how to machine my 3 parts. This was included as part of the purchase, but normally someone pays him about $175 an hour to make their problems go away. Unfortunately that usually take a week or two :) 
• I've run some sample parts just to get familiar with the machine and get started on some programming, and try to "dial in" the appropriate cutting speeds for the type of material and size of the part. (Future update)
• 1000 feet of .5" stock will be delivered on Tuesday. 
• I had 18 thread taps custom manufactured, and they should also arrive next week.  Those are the last tools I need and then production on the aluminum caps will begin. I have the cap program written, tested and ready to run.
• I'm also waiting on some very specialized drills before any work can begin on the titanium parts. These drill bits run between $150-$300 EACH and I need seven different sizes, and I'm buying at least two of each in case I break one. I won't do the math because I might faint. 

Now for some photos! 

(Above) The first shipment of tools I'll be using. Unfortunately I couldn't wait until everything arrived and to a nice "layout" shot like this. It's about 1/3 of the stuff I had to purchase. 

(Above) These are ID (Inside Diameter) tool holders used for holding things like drills and boring bars...any tool that runs on the centerline of the part. The six "thingys" in back are just plastic plugs to fill empty tool positions so coolant and metal chips don't get inside the mechanicals of the turret. 

(Above) These are OD (Outside Diameter) holders for "stick" type tools, which are used for turning the face and outside of the part. 

(Above) Each tool holder mounts to the "turret" which hold all of the tools. The turret rotates to position each tool to the ready position. On a new machine like this, tool changes are blindingly fast...roughly 1 second to rotate 180 degrees from tool one to tool 6. (the turret holds 12 tools) That's not fast until you think about this: the turret weighs several hundred pounds, it's loaded up with a few $K in tools, and when you tell it to move, there is nothing to stop that gigantic/expensive mass of metal from smashing into other things inside the machine. Lathes are terrifying. On a mill you might break a drill bit if you screw up, on a lathe, you risk destroying the thing. 

(Above) A close shot of the High Pressure Coolant fitting with a "stick" tool mounted in an OD tool holder. The holder then receives a tiny silicon carbide "insert" that actually does the cutting. I probably should have mounted one here for clarity, but you'll get the idea later on :) The coolant runs through the hose, inside the tool holder, and out a tiny little hole just on top of the insert. It basically directs a laser beam of coolant right at the cutting edge. Most lathes will spray coolant (in your general direction) out of the brass ball fitting you see just below the hose. Pffft. 

(Above) This is a typical example of a problem that any fabrication/manufacturing project will face. There have already been a ton. This is a high-pressure fitting for the coolant hose in the previous photo. This stud screws into the side of the turret. However, this turret design is new. The "hex" part on these fittings will NOT screw down into the recessed hole in the turret. So, after figuring out the problem, I had to put these on my Hardinge HLV manual lathe and turn down the hex (fitting on the right). The trick was machining away enough material to get the o-ring seated (and sealed) while leaving enough hex to screw the fitting into the turret. It was very close, but it worked. How long was the delay? Probably a full day. The machining only took about 5 minutes to do each part, but recognizing the problem, diagnosing it, testing alternative, determining several possible solutions, choosing one, measuring (twice) and then assuming the risk of destroying some expensive parts that require shipping (and money) to replace...that took some time. :) 

Stay tuned! 

Jason

BackerKit invite emails are on the way!
about 11 years ago – Mon, May 06, 2013 at 01:33:04 PM

Thanks everyone for completing the Kickstarter Surveys so quickly! I really appreciate it :)

*** Please read this message carefully. It should answer "most" of your questions about BackerKit. Time that I spend answering questions over email (already answered here) means I'm at the computer and not in the shop. Please help me help you :) *** 

BackerKit invites will be sent TODAY, but only to backers who have filled out their KS survey! 

Roughly 60 people HAVE NOT completed their KS surveys. I say it below, but I'll say it again here. You will not receive your reward if you don't fill out the survey, because that's the only way I can get your shipping address...details below. 

Roughly 20 people did not successfully complete their payment with Amazon, and your pledge has been automatically canceled by Kickstarter. If you still want to participate, please email me: [email protected] and we'll work something out. I cannot see your email address, so I have no way to contact you. 

• If you have completed your Kickstarter Survey: I will now send you a BackerKit invite email! *** Once you sign up for BackerKit, you can sign up for extra items and make changes to your shipping address information. ***
• If you HAVE NOT completed your Kickstarter Survey: You will not receive your reward...because I don't know where to send it. So, until you complete your KS survey, you will not receive the BackerKit invite, nor will you receive your reward.
• If you have not received the Kickstarter Survey email: It's probably in your spam folder. However, you can log into Kickstarter, go to the project page, scroll down to the pledge tier you selected, and you will see a link to fill out your survey! 
• Kickstarter only allows project creators to send out surveys ONCE, so I cannot resend it, but you can log into Kickstarter and find it there. Please don't email me and ask to have your survey sent again :) 
• If you are having any trouble, please email: [email protected]!