Ep. 88: Scaling Without Losing Your Shit

This week on the Lone Machinist, Curt finally fixes his titanium anodizing problems—and discovers that the secret was apparently replacing the Multi-Etch he’d been using for years. Suddenly the anodizing behaves, the fades work, and he can leave batches running without turning everything into expensive scrap.Meanwhile, Jamie has gone completely off the rails with production. A 4,800-piece aluminium order has the machines running practically around the clock, with spindle gripping cranking through parts while Jamie swaps trays, programs jobs and generally becomes the pallet-changing robot himself. There’s also bar pulling, proper spindle liners, 15,000 upcoming parts, a fourth axis hacked into the PLC, and four completely inappropriate pressure switches.The conversation eventually turns to the real problem with scaling: machining more parts is easy. Finishing, cleaning, anodizing, packing and shipping the damn things is where everything starts falling apart.Also: Millbilly manoeuvres, questionable purchasing decisions, and the ongoing discovery that Jamie is, apparently, illiterate.Links Discussed: IMTS Meet Up RSVP Form: https://forms.gle/CQXMmFsTZEytb8gD7The Lone Machinist: Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/ Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinistsNeed 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/