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Business of Machining

John Grimsmo of Grimsmo Knives and John Saunders of NYC CNC discuss their success, struggles, goals and more as machinists, business owners and entrepreneurs.
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Business of Machining
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All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: October, 2018
Oct 26, 2018

Shootin' the Breeze
Grimsmo and his son, Leif, pay Saunders a quick visit.
TURNS out, machining isn't the only thing he's precise about.
Saunders digs into his quality engineering obsession.

How to Win Friends & Influence People is a life-changing read. Do yourself a favor and get a copy by clicking HERE!

Family Heirlooms
Everyone says they look AND act like brothers,
so when Grimsmo becomes the owner of a sentimental
Kennedy toolbox, it just feels right.



TUFF STUFF
Jack Roman from Tuff Writer Pens features GK
in his EDC (Every Day Carry) + Micro Manufacturing Documentary.
Tuff Writer Pens <<<<Click Here to Check Out Their Site!

Zeroing In
Grimsmo conducts interviews and narrows it down to 2 awesome candidates.

"Be careful the story you tell yourself" - Grimsmo
When a group of manufacturing class students visits GK,
his goal is to open minds. Believing in broad and stereotypical job titles could prevent you from finding your passion!

The End is Nigh
With the end of the year drawing closer, Saunders
embarks on restructuring the website.

We're Out of Potato Chips
Saunders receives a beta Smart Supply logistics locker and with it, the ERP mindset is back. This Allting "Vending Machine" won't be putting out snacks, but it will be a huge first step in the ERP direction.

Speaking of ERP...
Grimsmo admits he needs to involve his team
more when it comes to Pro Shop but the benefits
are already obvious.

Airpods: Lifestyle Creep or Lifestyle Keep?
Saunders FINALLY tries Airpods and they
live up to the hype. Now that his hands are free,
he gives a BIG thumbs up.

Click HERE to get a pair!

Machine Tool Design Fundamentals
Saunders wants to know more about machine tool design. Other than piecemeal conversations and venturing into the rabbit hole, he's not sure where he can get a comprehensive overview.

UGH. STRAP CLAMPS.
Pocket NC Tombstone project inspires a workholding solution: a lathe chuck SUBPLATE!
Stay tuned for the upcoming Wednesday Widget.

 


The United States of Steele
Alec Steele is selling everything and moving to the states
to start a shop!
"The future will be kind to him." - Saunders

Phenomenal Feedback
The shop tour videos are always fun for Saunders
but since he's considering a direction for the business and the channel, he's not sure how they fit in the grand scheme.
Grimsmo chimes in with a great suggestion.

Stay tuned for the video where we follow a crucial C-17 part
from Forging to finished AND the full length tour of Vahl, Inc!

AUTODESK UNIVERSITY LAS VEGAS, NV
Saunders has his AU bag packed with
Leif's hat and a Sandvik Boring Bar for Laurens.

Click HERE for AU Las Vegas Registration!

Oct 19, 2018

Grimsmo is putting pens write back into the game! He and Angelo had a nice long meeting where they made A TON of changes to the internal workings of the pens.

Curious about what changed? Watch out for new Saga Saturday videos coming again soon on Grimsmo’s YouTube channel!

Learning is great, and it’s even better if knowledge can be used right away! Saunders learns what a “living hinge” is (keep listening to find out), and he bought a Skyhook crane (which is also new territory for him).

Which would YOU choose? Red or Blue? And no, we’re not talking about pills.

“Welcome to the Loctite Episode!” - Grimsmo

The Johns discuss loctite, different variations you can get, and how its versatility makes it so AMAZING!

What does loctite do? Fills in all the gaps and gives you 100 percent thread. It prevents the start of the reverse rotation.

The Balance of Risk and Reward

There’s always a risk when you sit down with a mentor or someone in the field, but from Saunders’ experience, the good always outweighs the bad.

Saunders talks about his trip to New York. He did SO MUCH in the two days he was there, but especially enjoyed his tour of the VAHL shop. There will be a video of that, so keep an eye out on Saunders’ YouTube channel for the shop tour!

Take away from the trip? Saunders says it’s always great to get a little out of his comfort zone, but he has to reflect a little more before he knows exactly what lessons he's learned.

How do you measure lean?

Saunders and Grimsmo discuss what goals that have when they implement lean strategies into their workflow.

“Better results at the end of the day is all the matters” - Grimsmo

The machines Saunders has makes him: “parts , money and happy”

Workflow improvements?

Grimsmo uses UpWork a lot to get results, and now the shop is also considering a fine grinding machine that would cut down on lapping time.

Grimsmo is going to visit Saunders this weekend! It’s a great time for them to just hang out, and be dads together.

Oct 12, 2018

:: Solving a toolpath mystery ::

:: The John Saunders Turkey Machine ::

:: Don't judge a fish by how it climbs trees ::

DEFINING BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
Saunders asks himself, "What the heck ARE we?"
Does having multiple areas of specialty dilute
the business? After some revelatory conversations,
he's "zeroing" in on what it means to be SMW.

"Daddy, I'm trying to find John Saunders Turkey Machine Shop."
While enjoying the Canadian Thanksgiving festivities,
Grimsmo's daughter, Claire, is on the hunt for a hilarious
and totally under-rated video. Click The Image to Watch!

MACHINE SHOP LINGUISTICS
Often, words lose their meaning and need
updated to accurately reflect our ever-changing world.
By changing the suffix, the word "Marketing" gets new life.

TOOLPATH MYSTERY SOLVED!
The gradual arc on a GK knife handle goes from 1 line of G-code to 50, leaving behind noticeable facets that the guys have to buff out. Luckily, in this digital age, we can turn to the machining
community to ask for help!
Thanks to @laurenswijnschenk, the proverbial thorn in Grimsmo's side is gone. Check out his Instagram HERE!

BUST OUT THE FUSION 360

First, pull over and open your laptop!
Have you ever used the "View Toolpath" feature in Fusion?
If you haven't, you aren't alone!

IMTS 2018 - GET YOUR FIX
The NYC CNC full length IMTS video hasn't been published yet but here are some
shorter IMTS videos to tie you over!

Grimsmo Knives IMTS 2018 Day 1 - Becoming Swissish

Grimsmo Knives IMTS 2018 Day 2 - Small Booths

IMTS 2018 Top 10 CNC Machines

GRIMSMO KNIVES is HIRING
Their "We're Hiring" video has been released to the interwebs but
in order to be seriously considered, you MUST make a short video
about yourself! A deep conversation ensues about the art of hiring employees that you don't want to miss!

Click the Image to Watch!

THERE MUST BE A FULL MOON
Saunders is back in NYC, looking at a Mori Seiki SL-1A with FANUC control...but will the forklift have enough capacity to handle the instruction manuals?

Finally Got Some Green Tops!
Grimsmo gears up to try out Helical tools for the first time.

Oct 5, 2018

What processes work best for your shop?

Sometimes it’s as simple as wrapping green tape around material you’re not using or using google sheets more often, and other times it’s necessary to get creative with a new tool! BTW the Grimsmo shop has a band saw now.

“It all depends on your goals”- Grimsmo

If quantity is your goal, you focus on materials that make products faster. If your goal is quality, you have to invest in materials to make them top notch, but you should make sure it’s not taking any longer than it needs to.

Tiny Tolerances

Grimsmo and Saunders discuss tolerances. They are a crazy important consideration, maybe even more important than we realize. How do you make sure your perfect parts are actually perfect?

Saunders asks himself questions like “What tolerances do I need?” as he plans his trip to NYC to look at a used FANUC 2-axis lathe.

The Journey: it never ends.

Saunders is inspired by Tony Robbins too! As the Johns discuss realistic goals from the next year, to the next TEN years, Saunders reminds Grimsmo of a Tony Robbins quote:

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year, and they underestimate what they can do in a decade”

Everyone puts so much pressure on themselves over the course of a day, or a week or a month, but those little steps will lead to huge results. It just takes time.

“It has to grow organically for it to work, and it has to take ten years, and it has to be a struggle” - Grimsmo

Ask yourself: Where were YOU last year? It might make you feel pretty good.  

As a side note: Grimsmo’s hiring!

The official announcement was out on their YouTube channel Thursday Oct 3.

Hmmm...What should we buy next?

The Johns get Swissish (again) as they talk about how a Swiss Lathe works.

With the lapping machine being overused, a fine grinding machine is starting to look like a more real part of the future for the Grimsmo Shop.  

Fine grinding machine by Supfina:

https://www.supfina.com/home/

Model that Grimsmo is considering:

Supfina Spiro F5

Keep an eye out!

Saunders is going to releasing a new product by the end of this year!

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