Even a fully-automated system that starts with raw castings dumped into a sorter-orienter that feeds a robotic arm placing the castings into pre-nested palletized clamping systems that are automatically routed through the mill and out to a fully automated - robotic picker and packer can be "sabotaged" by the simple expedient of pulling a finished part out of the box and putting in a raw casting. You cannot prevent deliberate acts (you might be able to catch them in the act - but you cannot stop it). The problem with this approach is cost - lots of $$$$$ and time to set it up. It also doesn't prevent an idiot from defeating the lockouts, opening the safety cage, walking into a cell to "clean", and getting smashed by the robot (it has happened). "Stacking" the parts on a template board could be a possibility - if the boss won't "stack" in the hole - it wasn't machined. The "template" boards could be set up to be stackable (if the castings all "fit" the template holes). The problem with this approach is the time and materials necessary to implement it. You would not want to ship the boards unless you can get the customer to recycle them back to you. It also increases the packing weight and associated shipping costs. Pulling each piece from the "template" boards to pack them is a "new" action - you get to handle every piece - twice (once to pull it off the fixture and once to pack it). Color marking the part as the last machine operation is an interesting idea that would make a visual scan of each "layer" a snap. This sounds like a simple and elegant solution if coolant is not an issue. Perhaps one of those "chip fans" would dry the boss off enough for a marker to "take". However, it won't prevent deliberate acts (i.e. someone taking a raw casting, marking it, and putting it in the out bin). It also adds to the machine cycle time. However, it sounds like you have a sufficient level of production and an inspection approach that virtually assures that "escapes" or unmachined parts will get through - humans are simply not very good at visually inspecting an array of things like this over the period of a shift - the mind will tend to "fill-in" missing or incorrrect details when they are a part of a lorger group. As it was noted earlier in the postings - after awhile you simply do not see that one bad part in the middle of all the good parts. The "checking" template could be as simple as a "fork" - a flat bar with a slot (with chamfered or rounded prongs that allows an operator to quickly slip in on and off the boss from the side). Sort of like the "pickle-fork" tie rod separating tools for popping the ball joints of your car's steering system apart. In other words, a real fast GO / NO-GO guage (someone has to pull the parts out of the basket - presumeably after the cleaning cycle). It would add 1-2 seconds per part to the process of pulling the part from the basket and stacking it on the flats for shipping. You don't even have to look at the part to do it. You have ONE person pick, guage, pack, and seal a box - they sign off on the BOX. If a box gets to the customer with a bad part - WHO PACKED THE BOX??? You know who to talk to. Solve the "split" box problem at hand-off by having the leaving operator sign off on x-layers. Again, this will not stop deliberate acts of sabotage, but a GO / NO-GO setup should eliminate unintentional escapes. We had a similar issue with a very simple part - there was not much difference between the "raw" part and finished part - a guage was our ultimate solution. Of course a guage will have to be inspected periodically.....

Salaried for 42 hours/week minimum. But! If you put in less than 40 hours - you get paid "hourly". No comp time and the average is around 50 hours/week. That is only my "day" job and does not include running my one-person job shop in the evenings and weekends (whatever I have left from the "day" job").

quote: you will crash your first heli at least a million times hehe +1000 to that also. I had my collective linkage work loose - heli went straight up, engine quit, came straight down about 1000 feet, only the tail rotor and main blades were above ground! Scratch one Shuttle! That Shuttle was tough though - prior to this last crash - it had been through 4 reincarnations and I was doing well with it.

What about chucking up one those impact "snapper" tools - the kind that you press so far and then it "snaps" the point into the base matal. Would something like that work and be "gentler" on the spindle?

I will also be keeping Steve and his family in prayer.

I really like FireFox. No problems since using it. With my last go-around with IE6, it took me three weeks to finally find the little "reloader" program and rip it out by the roots. I could exterminate all the adware files - but it kept coming back. The most recent update from Norton could find the files, but they were write-protected and Norton couldnt delete em - even in safe mode. I ended up using the threat list from Norton to track down and kill each one, one-by-one. I have now "unloaded" IE6 and MSN explorer (well - to the extent that XP will let you).

Congrats on the 2K posts Chris. Did you hook up one of those harmonic drives to churn out posts on the forum??? j/k

quote: So how many more years do you think you'll work, before retiring? just curious Retire Mackius? Can't afford to retire... Two girls in college right now, one son will be a Junior this fall in High School, and a wife going back to college. I will need to work until I am 97....or fall over - which ever comes first. Hi, Craig. Long time, no see (well not since WESTEC). Larry just gave me a "FLYAGRA" t-shirt and a bottle of "FLYAGRA" flyfishing fly floatant. Funny as heck...

quote: Damn, dude.. no wonder your reflexes are so slow! Refexes? I have REFLEXES? Darn it I know I left them around here somewhere.....

quote: Yeah I need more also. I am the Manager, Programmer, Machinist, Set-up guy, Operator, Do the quoting, Scheduling, Ordering for our Department, and Customer support, and Techinal Questions. Oh yeah I also do maintence and clean out the machines fill them with coolant. I am with you on this one Millman! I just need to add: accountant (why are there ALWAYS more checks going OUT than coming in....), assistant dog walker, and floor sweeper.

For myself, I can't abide smoking - it is literally a killer for me due to asthma that is really touchy with respect to smoke (even campfires). A forest fire in the local area sent me to the hospital last year. With regard to smoking in bars - it is fine by me - I don't frequent bars. Pisses me off to have smokers in a restaurant though.....

Way O/T - Today I have officially joined the 50 and up club. It is a little sobering to realize that I have made it past 1/2 century..... .

+1001 to kamman25. I use both ProE and Solidworks - ProE is definitely User-Hostile! Granted, you can do much more with ProE, but the cost of ownership is quite high.

I have been using the 1/8" EPDM Sponge Rubber Cord (P/N 31944622 from MSC). It even works nicely to "stop up" holes in the pieces so that you can maintain vacuum. It also works nicely in a "grid" arrangement - I have been getting very little "leakage" and the hold has been good. I was getting very marginal success with silicone tubing - it just wasn't soft enough.

You didn't hold it in the cut quite long enough to get the true "lollypop" shape...... Been there done that on an overnite run when the coolant pump died.......Hot Tool!!!!!

I loaded FireFox - it is quite a bit faster.....

If I install Firefox - how do I rip IE out by the roots from XP - don't think I can ....

I feel your pain - been fighting a browser hijacker now for a week. Kill all the files, clean out the registry, run all the SpyBot/Ad-aware/Shredder/..... Software. Think FINALLY - then it is right back...... seems to be connected to a prog called "Home Search Assistant" and "Shopping Wizard" - but the danged "remove" function won't... "not found" The program keep plugging in a "lmzam.dll" and redirecting all my default/search/home pages to that.... I am considering just "burning down the house" to get rid of the termites....

Can you hear me now? Still lurking around....

Welcome to the best board on the net!

Having just lost my own father, I can greatly sympathize. But I will have to agree with the others - get on over there. I was very happy to have had a few days with my dad before he passed away. I would have felt immensely guilty now if I had allowed work or other pressures to get in the way of being there.

Congrats, Code Breaker! I am doing my best to join you in that lofty environment.

I also like the MPMASTER_FADAL post - I modified it according to my own desires of course....

Congratulations!

It looks like I got some of Dad'd medals wrong - what I thought was a Bronze Star was Actually the Air Medal. Each Oak Leaf denotes an additional award of the same medal. - Distinguished Flying cross with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters - Silver Star - Air Medal with 16 Oak Leaf Clusters - Meritorious Service Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters - Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Device - Combat readiness Medal - Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm - Outstanding Unit Award