Piranha Jaws | Building a Business with Eddie Casanueva
Oh, right. All right. All right. We’re back in the inbox today. Um, Jordan here, NACE is on my left. Sexy. Brandon is in front of me. Don’t break your teeth or your piranha jaws. And Donnie is all the way in Florida. And we have a special guest for you today. He’s a guy I met in 2018 in the Haas automation booth at IMTS. He’s got his own, his own shop and he’s started other businesses before his name is Eddie. Welcome. Hey, what’s going on, Eddie?
I got to say, this is my first podcast, so yeah.
Nice. So, so if there’s probably going to be very little listeners right now, um, but whenever it gets crazy popular, um, probably, uh, IMTS 20, 24 or something like that. Um, if we, if we were going on a speed date together and you had one minute to tell me all the important things about Eddie Casanova, what would they be in go,
Man? How, I don’t know, not a big fan of talking about myself. Yeah. I don’t know. I like to create, I like work with my hands. Uh, if I’m not doing that, I’m pretty much not happy. I’m miserable. So, uh, you know, I’ve wanted to, I guess, a larger business in the past and, uh, that business grew just kind of like the way you want it to. And, uh, it just got to the point where every day I go in and sit at a desk and, you know, tell people what to do. And I was really unhappy. So, uh, I guess, uh, what I’ve discovered in my life is I gotta be working. I gotta be working with my hands and piranha jaws. I got to be creating stuff. So now I’m in my garage and I got a few machining centers and, uh, I’m happy. I’m just guys speaking to me right now.
Dani. I don’t know if this is what you’re thinking, but this is what I’m thinking and probably your feeling, but Eddie, when he said he’s good with his hands. Oh, is that what you’re thinking?
My mind was telling me no, but my body was,
That’s why, that’s why I thought, yeah, I felt it.
No, I just, uh, he’s. He’s honestly, he’s living my dream, man. I left machining and I’m stuck behind a desk and it’s just killing me right now. It’s Oh, I can’t. I say I’m waiting for this Corona stuff to get over with so I can get the lays that’s I’m so cold. It’s like, Whoa, PG. I know. I’m sorry, guys.
That was machinist talk for, for, for turning. Yeah. Yep.
I want to turn some things. Not basically not my forte. It’ll be a new experience, but yeah.
So this last podcast, Eddie that we had with Donnie, he was like, literally, he said, exactly what you just said is that if I’m not machining, I’m happy.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s true, man. It’s, you know, you gotta, I dunno, feed the beast. It’s like, uh, my other business had grown to the point, you know, where you look around and it’s just, you, you know, you’re so grateful for everything, you know? And, and, uh, you’re so proud. I’ve gotten to that point, but coming into work every day, it’s just kinda like, it’s not fun, you know? And, uh, so I just discovered that a few years back, it’s kind of a hard deal. I walked away from that business 19 years. Uh, I was in it. I started it when I was in college and, uh, kind of my baby. And, but uh, now I just keep it simple. He, you know, I had the hand me prints. I make parts, you know, I try not to get in over my head and, uh, keep it fun.
So, so did you say that you, uh, co-founded a company? Yeah, I did. And so what was the name of that company
That was spider tracks incorporated before we had piranha jaws, yeah, we went by a spider tracks off roads.
Did you guys do, what did you specialize in? You know, early on,
We’re all over the place. We did some suspension stuff and drive train stuff. And then later on we found that, you know, our knack was like CNC machining, and, uh, that type of, uh, manufacturing was more conducive to the kind of the drive train side of the product line. We were really good at it. So we specialized in drive train components for off-road race trucks, you know, desert trucks by 1000 King of the hammers. So that kind of stuff. And it was just really specialty, really niche stuff, just high-end um, you know, as the sport evolved in all these sports evolve so fast, you know? And so your product line is constantly evolving. You’re consciously designing new things. And that, that side of it was real fun. But, uh, uh, you know, we got to the point where we’re running three shifts, you know, 24 hours a day, you know, and, uh, it’s such a beast at that point.
So, so did you already know machine in before you started that company or did you kind of learn as you guys grew or?
Um, it was interesting. I was going to school for mechanical engineering and, uh, ended up getting a job at a machine shop cause it was this kind of looked cool and kind of fell in love with that. And my degree went to the wayside after about seven years of trying to accomplish that, you know, going to school at night and machining during the day. I, uh, you know, once I started my business, it’s like something had to give, so I never quite got my mechanical engineering degree. Um, okay. And then I gave up my full-time machining job when my business had established to the point where I could go for it, you know? And so, uh, that was back East in New Jersey where I started it. That’s where I grew up and Colorado yeah. Moved to Colorado to give the business ago and, uh, moved out here and within a three or four months we had our first employee. And from there it was pretty cool. Yeah.
It says wise, man.
Yeah. Some poor, some poor young kid came to work for us. He actually worked for us for a few years. He’s a good dude. Okay.
So, so, so you said after you moved out to Colorado, then you started a new company. W whenever you were at, uh, spider tracks, what, what do you think was maybe one of the most valuable lessons that you learned there for yourself as a small business owner?
You know, I was never, I had, uh, my partner and I started this. We were both 50 50 partners and, uh, I was good at coming up with ideas and making stuff, and I was very creative. So I knew I had that down. So, uh, I knew if I needed to kind of give this a go, uh, that I needed to team up with somebody that knew the other side, the admin side of the business and all that. And so I partnered up with a college friend of mine named Tom Kingston, um, who, you know, he’s 4.0 student, just a super smart dude. And, uh, we kinda hit it off. And I brought him into this stuff. I was, I was, I was basically making products and selling them to companies and they would sell them as their products, like piranha jaws. You know, it’s just totally, just totally behind the scenes, just making a buck and kind of feeding my creativity and all that stuff.
So after that grew to a certain point, I’m like, dang, I, you know, I’d like to get credit for some of this, you know, and I teamed up with my partner, Tom. Um, and so he kind of handled the incorporating of the business, all the tax stuff, you know, whatever. And I’m like, great. You know, I got somebody on board to kind of handle all that stuff. And then, and as the business grew, that’s pretty much what we followed. I always handled kind of the manufacturing side of the business. We both did a lot of the design work together, but he handled more of the sales and the admin side of the business. And so, um, you know, I, I come to appreciate, you know, how much work there is on both sides of the business. It really is. You can’t just be good at machining and you can’t just be good at, uh, administrative stuff.
I mean, it’s really the whole package. And so I was always kinda, I don’t know, it was hard to go off on your own, not knowing that he could handle the whole deal, you know, but, uh, after being here doing this, you know, a small business, like this is pretty easy to manage the whole deal. But I think, uh, what I’ve learned is that, uh, I tried to get there’s people that look up and they try to do what I’m doing, and I don’t want to, I just want to be honest with them. It’s like, there’s a lot to it there there’s, you know, it’s not just one component. You can’t be just good at machining. You gotta not, you know, deal with people, talk to people, you know, please your customers, all that stuff. It’s just the whole package. So if there’s anything I learned is that you pretty much can’t fall short in, in any of those areas. You got to have the whole package.
So you’re saying that you’re the whole package. Ooh. Yeah.
So Eddie, I got a, uh, I kinda started following your Instagram page, which is a new wave of precision. It’s you guys following along? Um, I first started following you back when you made the, the sort of like the zombie green, uh, ER, 32. Oh yeah. Holder. Yup. Um, I presented that to my boss cause I was like, man, that thing is absolutely sick. And I’ve been kind of just
Following you along since back before, like the, um, master machine decided to like slide into your shop and, and, uh, Koresh your body and hand over some products, which I want to talk to you about here in a minute, but, uh, are you still programming with GibbsCAM? I am. Yeah. Are you programming that on the, the new five-axis on the new DMG Mori? Just, yeah.
Uh, it’s been a little bit of a process, but we’re getting it dialed in.
Yeah, I always have to say, so the, one of the shops I worked at, they programmed with five GibbsCAM and getting into some DMG, Mori mill turns. They noticed that they had, uh, the, the compatibility with the software had to have a lot of customization and personal tweaks to it to get it, to do what you needed it to do. Is that translate over to you as well?
Yeah. Unfortunately that’s kind of what I’m learning. It’s a pill it’s money expect to just get a product and kind of run with it. But, um, constantly, uh, on the, just every day we’re, we’re communicating with them and still to this point, just trying to get everything dialed in on the post. And I think, you know, cause the, the, the parts I’m working on right now in that DMG are rather simple, a lot of three plus two. And, uh, it’s fine. I’m not really testing the post, you know, like I should be, I guess, but, uh, at least the extended I’m machining right now. I think I’m about 95% there up a little things, but boy, it was, uh, he was pretty gruff. It was, yeah.
Okay. Uh, do you see yourself, um, kind of stepping out of the GibbsCAM world, which is honestly GibbsCAM was great for me on the mills, uh, the, uh, the three access mills. I loved it a lot in the late guys. Loved it too. But when you started getting into like simultaneous stuff, five-axis machining, it, it seemed to lack, do you see yourself jumping out of GibbsCAM going into something else?
You know, I I’m constantly questioning that decision right there. Um, but I kind of came to grips and piranha jaws probably. I think it was IMTS actually, when I was out there a couple of years ago that, you know, I was looking at some of the other products and everything’s just so different from what I’ve been doing. I’ve been running GibbsCAM since 1996, you know, so I think I came to the conclusion, I’m a lifer at that point and stick it out. And, uh, I’ll be honest though. Uh, I got, you know, when I send them a PO for the five-axis stuff, which was a couple of weeks before I got the machine, I, you know, I got the key, I installed it and I started playing around with the five-axis stuff. I was actually really impressed. So I’m looking forward to putting it to the test. I think it has some pretty good modules in there for the full five stuff.
But what I didn’t expect was to be sitting here kinda developing a post for the machine, you know, and that’s, what’s really rubbed me the wrong way, but I’m actually looking forward to using the software on the programming side, you know? Um, so it’s just a little frustrating and get this thing hits the floor, you know, DMG does, uh, we have awesome support and service out here in Denver. So that’s like the main reason I went with DMG Mori and, uh, they, they got me up and running, you know, their apps guys are here to support you and whatever you need, you know, they want to see you be successful. And I got this like, you know, pretty close to half a million dollar investment just sitting there because I don’t have a post, you know,
It’s looking really good though. Yeah.
Oh yeah. W you know, pile of material next to it and, uh, uh, holders and all this stuff. And I’m like, I can’t believe I’m sitting here, you know, going back and forth, developing a post. Like there’s not even a starting point here. Trust me, my friend. That is my dream machine. I was drilling with you when you posted it and said that this is what I got coming to the shop. I just sat back and it’s a little crazy, Oh, that thing is odd, but it’s a beautiful machine, man. Congratulations, by the way on that,
Hey, Eddie, I have a question for you. So right during this time, the world is experiencing the COVID 19 pandemic. And so we hear stuff in the background. We hear a lot of people. There’s unemployment rates, huge worldwide. Yeah. It’s probably they’re comparing it to, uh, the stock market crash of 1929, I believe. And then, um, so I hear the machine running in the background. What parts, or what arrow light field are you making those parts for? Is it, is it medical, aerospace oil field? Like, what’s still, who’s still buying parts right now during this time
I have three main customers and a small variety of smaller customers to my three,
Not name them, do not have a button on here.
My, uh, my three main customers, you know, I, I had my thoughts, but so far everything’s just status quo. So I got my guard up, but, uh, you know, one’s, uh, they build basically the drones UABs for mostly defense. Uh, the other is, uh, pharmaceuticals, but on the retail end, they build like these automation, automated pharmacies, if you will. Okay. Um, and another one is a company that does, uh, specializes in like vision for automation, like robots and stuff like that. So, so
He bought this machine piranha jaws, I believe you were probably just super like fulfilled and excited. And then, and then was there ever a point during this COVID-19 where you’re like, Oh, Oh yeah,
It’s pretty crazy. It’s just, it’s not like, it’s just another Haas either. It’s like, it’s a, he’s a German machinery sitting in your floor. Yeah. It was pretty crazy. Like, uh, it’s funny. I was on a road. I do a lot of hunting bird hunting with my dogs and stuff, and sometimes I’ll travel and kind of have fun with that’s my little, you know, this time, you know, during the winter months anyway, that’s kinda my, uh, my fun thing to do. And, uh, I was on a trip when I was kind of hashing the decision over and talk about my sales guy. They DMC was just having their open house out in front and in Germany during that week. And so kind of sales is pretty hot cause they, they like to a lot of the sales to like these open houses. So if there’s an estimate that’s open, they’ll kind of hustle and work hard to try to get those estimates closed out, you know, and make the sale. So I was actually on a, on a road trip and I was, you know, I had my bank approval and I kind of had all my research done. I was re I was just kind of waiting for the right moment. And, um, so I pulled the trigger on it and it was literally like two weeks. And I was like, Whoa, what the heck just happened? You know, it’s like, I lost sleep for the first time in a few years there a few nights, you know?
So did you make the trip out to Germany? Have you been out there yet? No.
No, I haven’t. I haven’t, uh, I guess, you know, looking, I I’ve been out to Japan. I visited the, uh, Japanese factories because for my previous business, we bought it, uh, horizontal machining center, DMG, Mori, and, uh, so they took us out to Japan and visited all those factories. But now I haven’t been to Germany yet.
A little birdie told me I’m not going to mention any names, but, uh, I know they’ve bought two machines in both machines. They’ve got, they, uh, was inclusive on them getting a trip to Germany. Gotcha. So you got that play there, sir. You have that flow, right?
Yeah. No, they take pretty good care of me over here.
I was, uh, but I do have to say that the, the service that I, that DMG provided, uh, down here in Florida, um, was exceptional. It was really good. Um, I actually am on another podcast quoted saying that they provided the best shops, wag that I’ve ever got. There you go. So how’s your, how’s your, how’s your swag from DMG Mori looking right?
No, not very good. I guess pause mug. I’m drinking out of it.
Wait, wait, you got a mug from Haas. Don’t tell, don’t tell Ben, don’t tell Ben on the fence that, that guy’s going to get really upset.
No, they, they take pretty good care of me, you know, it’s, you know, it’s funny cause I, I talked to a lot of people and Instagram’s obviously such an awesome tool to just reach out to people all over the world, you know, and get people’s opinions and insight and stuff. And it’s funny, you know, you hear people say, yeah, you know, the machine’s great, but you know, support is lacking or it’s terrible and this and that. And you know, but here it’s like in my area, I actually only considered two machine tools and there was, and that sorta and a DMG Mori. And it was because of the service that these guys offer here in town. It’s just phenomenal, you know? And uh, so honestly you could, uh, you know, put a machine in front of me that you could show me, you know, how it outperforms this machine, but you know, is that service just goes such a long way that I wouldn’t even consider it, you know?
So that, and, and I’ve been in front teaching for years and something about it, that’s just school, you know? And, uh, now are days when I’m the one standing, I’m not buying machines for somebody else’s stand in front of like, that’s the machine that I’m standing in front of. So a cool machine. I want to stand in front of it all day, you know, and make parts on it. And the service on top of that, they’re pretty awesome. But you hear, you know, that could make or break a lot of these decisions, you know, for a lot of folks. So I guess it’s hit or miss around the country. I hear Florida’s good though. I had, I had some people down there I’ve talked to that pretty happy with DMG down there. Yeah. DMG out of Tampa. They’re they’re really good guys. A really great service.
The techs, they are pretty awesome. So if you guys are in Florida looking for a DMG, I definitely recommend it. Eddie. I got a question real quick. Yup. How’d you get started on Instagram. If you can go back to what, what got you into Instagram and starting your page there, I guess, uh, you know, you’re just lonely in your garage and uh, you know, you don’t see people for days and you know, and, uh, no that’s, but honestly I, you know, it is a big part of it. If you feel like you’re part of a community, you know, you, you, you post stuff, you might, uh, get somebody to comment, you know, either positively or negatively or whatever, but it starts a conversation. And, uh, I feel like I always learn something, you know, just looking through comments or sometimes you just stumble across something. It’s like, gosh, look at the way, you know, this, guy’s holding this thing. It’s like, I, would’ve never thought of that. You know? And it’s like instantly filed in your brain. It’s a world of knowledge there. So I felt like I was getting a lot out of it and maybe I’d, you know, contribute something. And, uh, I just found that also to be, uh, just kind of a neat connection to a community, you know, since I don’t have many people to bounce stuff off of, you know, do you think
That it’s actually helped your business in any way? Has it, has it brought any buyers or any special attention you can recall
Up until recently? I’d say like none whatsoever. It was just literally a tool for me to maybe educate myself and, you know, but, uh, you know, recently there’s been a few little things here and there that have popped up, you know, and it maybe led to something or another. And miss, you know, that’s just a plus, obviously. Right.
So Eddie, I have a question for you, if you don’t mind asking or answering, um, how old are you? 45. Okay. 45.
Single, no married. Three kids. Okay. But not yet.
When did you start Instagram or when did you, when did you join?
Oh, I had, uh, I mean, I still do have my personal account, uh, back kind of when it got started, I don’t know. First came out.
Did you ever do like in my space or, um, any of those old platforms? No.
No. I was pretty, I was pretty late to Facebook. Uh, my partner was really, my old business partner has spider tracks off road. He was just awesome at taking advantage of all the social media. He saw the power of it, uh, so early on, and I do think it’s a much better tool for maybe a company that has a product to promote a product, you know? Uh, it’s just awesome. And so
I just always had my personal account and I let my business partner do the whole business thing. And so when I started this, I’m like, Oh, okay. You know, I, right away, I wanted to grab in the way of a precision, you know, as you know, and set up the account and it was just sitting there. So I’m like, well, I might as well post a few things, but yeah, it’s pretty, it’s pretty neat. You know, you get followers and, uh, you know, like really, I mean, just posting and the hard thing is, you know, there’s just so many things you can’t post, you know? So I’m like, well, how do I, I have so many followers. I don’t know how this happened. How do I, uh, keep it interesting for these folks? But you know, you can’t like 90% of the stuff I work on. I can’t show pictures of. So right. You know, some holders for me. I’ll go ahead. Go ahead, go ahead.
Uh, I think you’re gonna take it in a different direction. So you, you go with yours first.
Well, Instagram, I went into it thinking it was going to be a business tool and it ended up being a, more of a networking tool for me. I grew my machining network where I met so many people. Actually my relationship with massive machines and piranha jaws started through Instagram. Right. Um, I can commit it to that. And it blew up for me with just a simple video of a slow motion video. I posted that Haas re posted to get over, like it got over like a 10,000 views. It was an instant, like took off really quick. And then next thing you know, I went from having like 300 followers to, I had over, you know, I was up in the thousands just from, you know, it’s just a simple video. So it is crazy how it kind of takes off. You don’t even realize it. It is great. It’s pretty awesome.
I was, I was going to kind of talk about the whole business side of you. Uh, you went from one company to another company, um, and there, there’s probably some people that would say, even like Dani, I want to start my own company. I want my, I want to start my own machine shop because I’m not happy if I’m not making chips. I’m not happy if I’m not machine in or making stuff. Can you speak to some of these people out there that might be wanting to venture off and just start something? Um, like it, it must be, I mean, because people look at you now and think it must be nice. She’s got like two hunting dogs. He’s hunting every Friday on Instagram. Uh he’s he has, he has like a professional photographer taking pictures of him with his gun and his dog.
That’s my buddy, David. No, it’s just an iPhone. Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually some of these events do have a, you know, professional photographers that want to sell your photos and stuff, so. Okay, nice.
So maybe talk about like maybe what, what was something that was like the hardest thing you had to deal with? Um, talk about sacrifice, talk about, uh, it, you know, what, what it takes, talk about the things that maybe kind of you’re like, Oh, crap. I didn’t think about that.
Yeah. I guess I gotta admit like this venture right now was a pretty easy and safe one for me to get into just because I was another business.
I had some capital and I had some experience and stuff like that. Okay. But my, my other business, spider tracks off-road, I mean, I started that when I was, uh, gosh, I don’t know, at 22 or 23 and I was in college, uh, you know, trying to finish school, you know, at night and working as a machinist full-time during the day. And then, you know, here comes this idea to start a business, you know, and it’s so, you know, back then I had it a lot tougher and I, you just gotta, you know, I was young though, and, and got tons of energy, but you just got gotta, I remember it just wearing me out to the point where it was just like, you just, there’s just so much coming at you, you know, you’re grinding all day, barely sleeping and taking advantage of any opportunity that comes your way and stuff. But basically, you know, you just gotta be smart about it. You gotta keep your day job, you gotta pay your bills. And then you pour the rest of your heart and time and money, whatever you have available into to this idea you have. But, uh, you know, you can’t be silly about it. You can’t just jump into it without a plan or, you know,
So Jordan and I have a notable quotable. Yeah. And this is what it feels like, just everything he just said. And if a punch, okay. The harder you work that look, you, you get yeah. Does that feel like it? Yeah. How you say that? Yeah. Yeah. And he also said that he was the whole package before this I’m looking at Donnie right now. You can’t see me here, Donnie, can you see him now? But, but I felt like Eddie also had us at, when he said he just had a grind all night,
Man. Uh, no, no. It’s, you know, it’s like, I dunno, it’s hard to, it’s funny. Cause people reach out to me on Instagram and I love taking the time to, you know, answer a lot of this stuff. And some of these conversations, you know, cool places and you always learn something, you always get something out of it, but that’s probably the most common, you know, thing I have is people reach out to me to ask me, Hey, how could I start my own gig? Like what you got going on there, you know? And, uh, yeah, it’s a tough deal. I try to give everybody advice. You know, I, I kind of tell everybody the same deal, but you know, I, the other thing I’ve learned over the years, like the importance of making investments in relationships, you know, every little opportunity you have, uh, you know, any person you meet, you know, get the most out of that opportunity and that relationship and kind of nurture all those relationships.
And I’ve, I’ve had stuff come back around. Well, I’ll one of my main customers, uh, is a college buddy. You know, I hadn’t talked to him in 15 years and, uh, you know, we just, we were really close in college. Um, I remember he used to live up at the, at the, he didn’t live local, you know, I just, I commuted every day and, uh, they’d closed the dorm rooms for a month, every summer to do a bunch of maintenance. They’d kick everybody out, but he’d go, he’d take classes year round. And so he’d have no place to live for a month if I can bring them home. And I keep with family, you know, and he, you know, there’s this really close friend and Kim, you know, and, uh, anyway, he graduated and started his own company and I lost track of them. Things come back around 15 years later. Uh, I say, I sort of work out all the time. You know, I source I’m gonna get you in touch with my guys. And, uh, I’ve got stuff for you and relationships, you know, they’re awesome. Nurture them and keep them going.
You know, there, there are probably only honestly master machine, does it like source out a lot of, a lot of jobs. Um, but I would say that you, and maybe a, maybe a handful of other people, I would actually like consider sourcing outward to there. There’s probably because of all the quality of that, that I’ve seen from you and from other people. And it looks like similar to my stuff. They, whenever I do something like that looks like the same type of quality consistency. Yeah. I, I think, I think you do consistently with your machine in what maybe others only occasionally do, but yeah, I think like, like there, there’s probably some people out here that, yeah, one, they want to start their own business. They don’t know the first steps. Number two, after they start their business, they’re thinking, how do I get work now? Maybe they didn’t think about that before, before that happened. So did you already have like people that you knew contacts before you started your business?
No, this, this, no, the precision, you know, I, I basically, I knew I was unhappy and I wanted to sell my business. And that was just a really, it took like three years to come to that conclusion. Like, all right, I’m doing this, you know, I’m going to walk away from this thing. And money was not great, you know, selling the business. It wasn’t like I was going to get all this great money. And after being in it for 19 years, you know, you’d expect a lot more, but you know, when you, you know, it, it, it is what it is, you know, you get so emotionally attached to these things too. Uh, but you know, there was a buy, sell agreement if you will, in the corporation. And it was a very structured, you know, way to sell your shares. And it didn’t really favor the person who was showing, you know, selling those shares.
Usually those agreements, you know, favor, they try to protect the corporation, you know, and the shareholders that are staying, you know, so, you know, I could get out for X amount of money and, um, I did math. I’m like, yeah, whatever, you know, I could, I could set something up. And I, I basically under, you know, I believe he could buy whatever you could afford, if it’s a $20,000 mill, that mill will make you money. You know? Uh, so I kinda was too worried about that. I, we bought a house out here that’s, uh, out out of city limits and County it’s zoned agricultural. So I, my, my building, which is like a 2000 square foot garage, uh, and the building was actually here when we bought the house and just finish it. So I had a, you know, cash that we threw at the house.
And then I had a barely over six figures of cash that I was going to throw out, starting a shop. And so I had to figure out how I was going to utilize that, you know, and ups, you know, it’s tough to get a loan and all that stuff. So you really got to work with the cash. And so that’s not a whole lot when you think about, you know, compressors and saws and tooling and holders and workholding, and, you know, what’s, there’s not much left of the machine tool itself. So I ended up finding a place I was going out of business and, uh, pretty much got all of it for my bud with some budget, you know, but it was only, it was like a unit Haas, T L two. And he used Hoz VF two. And then I have a nice casual screw compressor and a knee mill and all the little, you know, in between stuff.
And, uh, it was nothing impressive by any means, but like, whatever, you know, let’s see if we can make, you know, and, uh, I remember sitting here, like I got everything situated and everything, and I’m like, you know, checking accounts, getting low. Uh I’m like, what am I going to do? And I’m like, so I ordered the cooling. I remember. I was like, Oh, I need to cool it. You know, I gotta charge my 10 X and I had all this tooling, like, you know, I, I acquired and I bought some other tooling and, uh, I basically reached out to one of my buddies and I said, Hey, man, I’m up and running. And, uh, just wanted to let you know, and he’s like, great, I got stuff for you. And I was like, Hey, he’s like, come on over. So I went over there and he’s like, this is what I pay you.
This is what I need. I’m like, sounds awesome. I can care less. You know, it was actually a turning job, big steel parts, you know, with piranha jaws and that deal too. And you know, it’s like, Oh gosh, but got through it, you know, made some cash. Then I, you know, I didn’t have to give it to anybody. I owned everything and went right in my pocket. And, uh, you see the benefits right away, you know, you’re like, Oh man, this is pretty cool. And so you put yourself out there, you do what you gotta do to make things right with certain people. And, uh, next thing, you know, one thing leads to another. What I found most effective is like, when I was early on, when I was looking for work is, uh, take a day, do the research locally. And I’ll try to find companies that are outsourcing and stuff. And then with business cards and try to make a good impression. And if you could get a PO, I feel like it’s pretty easy to sync the hooks, you know? And these people,
When you went into those places to make a good impression, were you wearing an M an American flag suit by chance?
Oh man. That’s awesome. You guys, uh, I didn’t expect that when I met you guys out there, I was out here I am, but kind of trying to look out for it, see if I can spot you. And then, you know, your whole crew comes around where that suits. It’s pretty awesome.
Yeah. So that was, that was, that was the very first time we met you. And I think we were at the, uh, IMTS, uh, or at, at the, uh, Haas automation booth.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re like, yeah, we’re headed over to her toss. So I headed that way. I’m like trying to look out for you guys.
Yeah. Yeah.
Eddie, I got a question. When you bought the house, did it come with a Unilog? Uh, no, uh, Nope. I have buddies into importing those things and, uh, he’s always wanted me to buy one. So he did, he talked me into it. It is insane. Yeah. If you guys don’t, if you don’t know what a unit MOG is, it’s, it’s a, it’s a, Mercedes-Benz like multi-purpose all wheel drive vehicle. Uh, and Eddy’s Unilog is, is basically all cammo’d out. It’s definitely military ready to go. It’s got like a forklift on the front. Uh it’s. It looks like it’s ready for battle.
They’re pretty neat. Pieces of equipment. I now I hope it doesn’t break down cause, uh, it doesn’t look like the funnest thing we’re gone, but it does not. I mean, so when the rigors showed up to drop your machine off, were you guys like, all right, you go ahead. Just keep your forklift. I’m just going to unload it with this thing, right? Yeah. I don’t know about that. 20,000 to 20,000 pounds is what that funnel walkways. So did they bring it, did they bring a crane to get it off the trailer? They should have, uh, they brought one of their big forklifts. They ended up, I have a, like a recycled asphalt driveway and they got stuck in that driveway. About three different times. They buried the forklift with the machine down in front of it. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. 11 hours to set the machine. Yeah. I haven’t gotten the bill yet.
So we talked about, uh, the platform Instagram earlier, and I’m just asking, so you post posted some photos where your shop is and it looks like you have neighbors, but not close neighbors. Is that correct?
Yeah. We’re like anywhere from two to five acre parcels out here, kind of nowhere.
So when they’re bringing in this awesome machine in was like, everybody just kind of like stepping out, walking down the road, just like, this is awesome. It’s like a spaceship
[inaudible]
But 11 hours. Yeah. I mean, that’s a lot of people watching that. Yeah.
It was cool. We sent out a text to the whole, we have awesome neighbors, all get along really well. And we sent out a group text, like, well, we’re going to provide entertainment on Monday. Uh, so, uh, yeah, a lot of them just kind of hung out with their lawn chairs and
Lost the whole day.
Did you charge a commission to recoup the, uh, the rigging costs? Oh man. I should have, I haven’t gotten the bill, like I said, but it was, uh, yeah, they ended up going back down to their yard and they brought up 16, uh, steel plates, the plates that they use to like
Basically plate my driveway so they could drive on. Yeah.
Do you get to keep those or did they take those home with them? Yeah,
Yeah. Yeah. And then they got stuck three times a Unum. I wasn’t able to pull them out, but uh, yeah, the, uh, that easily one of their 18 wheelers pull it out. So, uh, it was, it was a hassle, but you know, the machine was completely unaffected and got to its final home, you know? So I guess a job well done. They should’ve brought a crane. Well, if you’re in Eddie’s area, you definitely want to get in touch with him and find out what these rigors are, because for them not to, to toss a machine, that machine and an asphalt driveway, I’d say that’s a pretty successful job. Yeah. That’s pretty crazy that these guys got patients, uh, was hard to watch.
Did you just go inside and shut the door and put your head in there?
So I want to, that’s what I want to do. You know, it’s my, uh, my DMG Mori sales rep, which was who I’ve known for a really long time and we’ve gotten pretty close. He’s a great dude and he’s just awesome to work with. He was here and I just, I didn’t have to do anything. He just took charge, man. If he saw something goofy, he’d go out there and just stop them. And yeah, so it was pretty cool. I just kinda hung back. And the whole thing was pretty overwhelming to be honest, w with all this going on and everything, and I’m like, what did I, this is going to be the death of me, this, this machine, you know? And then until you turn it on, he powered up and you start, you know, running parts on it. And you’re like, this is amazing. So,
So, so you are currently making chips.
Oh yeah. We’ve been, uh, yeah, we, we are still about 80% through a purchase order of like, Oh, heck yeah. 50 50 part quantities, you know? So it’s kind of a nice one where I could take my time, you know, because this post, you know, take my time, you know, proofing everything out and then I could reap the benefits of having a good morning program for, you know, another 47 parts. So that PO is a, this is a repeat, these are all repeat parts. And I have these all programmed in my houses, uh, for four operations each. Okay. And so now it’s just a very basic three, three plus two parts, but it’s not something you’d probably go out and buy this machine for, but you have a machine and you’re like, heck yeah, I’m going to run these parts in there. And it’s like, I got the best scenario or best example I could think of is like, uh, I got a formula one car and I do not know how to drive it. And uh, so I’m going like 30 miles an hour on the track right now. Right. Needs three plus two parts, you know? Uh, it’s, it’s great to have that opportunity to run the machine on those parts. But so how many times I know you went from a Haas to a DMG Mori, how many times have you gone to open the door after a cycle ends to only find out that it’s locked and you got to push a button to unlock your door, man. Yeah. And lock it back to hit cycle start.
Yeah. For like two weeks straight after they got the NLX at the last shop I was at all, you would hear was the door close, hit the button to cycle star. They didn’t lock the door. So they’d hit the button to lock the door. Then the parts would start and then they’d go to open the door and you hear it like jam up three times before they realize they have to unlock it again. Oh man, it’s different, totally different. And you could get caught in that rut where I love houses. They’ve they’ve done so well for me over the years, you know, this business and my previous and they have their place, you know, and you get caught in that rut where like, it’s just so easy and you don’t want to change. You just keep going, you know, you just buy another one because you can move so fast and them, you know, everything is ingrained in your head and they’re pretty good about not changing things, you know? Um, so yeah, it’s kinda tough to break out and you might see something and be like, no, I’m just going to buy to the house. You know? So I, you know, I really gave the UMC some thought, but, uh, you know, I think for this one, I just wanted to not cut myself short and right. You know, it, the UMC would have been great to, you know,
Oh, so just, uh, I think it was last year. I think my, my memory is really bad, but last year I was going up to South Dakota cause I go up there every year and then I was like, I’m going to go make a swing over to Colorado Springs. And we were actually looking at getting some land up there for, uh, a new business. And I was like, you know what, the Eddy guys from here. Woo. And I was, I’m going to comment texting him or calling him or something. And so you called me and said, I’m going to go see Eddie. And I was like, dude, that’s like straight West. And like, when he hours out of your way home, I was like, do it. And so I was like, I’m going to go see this guy. He’s running our products. And uh, and so I, and so I texted him and it was kinda, it was kind of like an awkward bro moment for just a second.
I, I feel like, and then he said, yeah, come on over. And so I drove, I convinced my wife that I’m going to take, she said, I said, I’m just going to be gone for like 30 minutes. And, uh, she, she knew that was a complete lie cause I was over there for hours. And so I I’d drive up to your house. And it was down like a gravel driveway from miles. I feel as, as it feels like, and then I finally make it to his house and he pulled, he pulls out and he was wearing our shirt, Brandon. Oh yeah. He’s exporting our shirt. But I think, I think the coolest thing that I, that I wanted to talk about was when I walked into your shop, I felt like you had like, like the man cave of all machine shops on Instagram. Like, it just it’s just set up so beautiful. Like every, like every machine was spotless, super clean. Brandon who’d put you to shame. Oh, what color was he wearing? Was he wearing a black? I think it was, well, I don’t, I have a video of it somewhere, but he was, he was, he was wearing a shirt, one of ours, I’ll pull it up. And, um, yup. Everything is like perfectly organized Dani. Like the Tulane,
I get it. You don’t, you don’t have to, you don’t have to tell me. I stock his page, his shop the way his shop is, how it’s set up is if I could, I hate using this term. But if I could replicate, like someone’s set up out of anybody, whether it be like I rent a warehouse or I rent a place, I w I want it at my house. Cause I wanna, I wanna wake up. And if I could put a car in this room where I wanna put my lays, yeah. I would sleep here. This is where I would sleep at. So, Oh yeah. That thing, that turns things, don’t worry about it guys. Um, his setup I’ve already stocked it. I’ve I’ve drilled over it. I’ve, it’s, it’s, it’s a really sweet, sweet setup. And that’s honestly, that’s how I’d how I’d go.
So, so, so me and Eddie were just talking just the other week, whenever, um, I called him for some advice on a new product. We were releasing in the pricing. And, uh, I, I talked about the pricing and was it too much or whatever, but, and Eddie said something that was pretty, uh, profound to me that not a lot of people know. He said, I would rather pay this price and get the worth than to pay something less and be sorry afterwards, you know? But he, he said that he would even pay more like, so whenever he saw some of our products, I think I gave you the first two sets, correct? Yes. Yeah.
I think you got me going on. I had three vices and you were smart. You gave me three or you gave me two jaw sets.
That’s a no brainer.
I had a follow with that order and uh, no, right away. I was sold, man.
Yeah. And then he got some handles, some more jaws. He’s got some strips, but, um, I, I don’t, I’m, I’m going to ask you a question about some of our products in a second. But one thing I noticed was that you would rather pay more for quality tools because it’s gonna, you’re gonna be able to run faster. You’re gonna be able to save more money. It’s going to be better. So you talked about buying the new laying system, which was going to be more, it was going to be more quality for you. And that, that was a good investment. He’s got like the best holders I told holders, Rigo fix. Tell us about that. Mine, mine process, or thought that you have about when it comes to buying something, whether it’s called here, what did you ever have a bad experience, buying something cheap and then spent more money on clients and the chief over and over and since
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All the time. But you learned your lesson. Yeah. We like, I guess it’s pretty easy for me cause I’m like, I’m the one using this stuff. Right. I had a completely different outlook when my other business, when, you know, I had three shifts and I’m like 20 guys and I put stuff out there on the floor for it to just get absolutely destroyed, you know? And then at that point you try to find
Like the happy medium between, you know, something, but it’s not going to kill you every time you got to replace it, but it has decent value, you know, but here it’s just kind of a no-brainer it’s like, I want nice stuff, you know? And, but I, I, don’t just, you know, it’s, it’s just seems as of late, anytime I kind of go that route, I just go high, you know, with the high end products and pay a little bit more money. It just by far surpasses, any expectations I had and the performance is like far beyond what I thought and it’s just always works out. Great. And so this Lang system, for example, was like, man, this is like the, by the way, the fifth aspect stuff that I was been using on my rotaries and stuff, which I was going to kind of transition and use those products on this machine worked fine.
I have no, no issues, you know, but I stumbled across this Lang stuff. And they had a slightly different theory on, on there. You know, they don’t dovetail, they stamp their work pieces instead of, you know, cutting, uh, doing an observation and actually cutting a dovetail in the park. And I’m like, this is huge. You know, I just didn’t know how well it would work. You know? So you’re looking at it. You’re like, man, I could get the thing and it could all suck. And it’s like twice the price of what, you know, my existing work holding costs, you know? So it’s, it’s kind of a tough one, but I took the leap on that one and I’m sitting here like, this is amazing, you know? And, uh, so the same thing with my tool holders, Rigo fixed a lot of that high end stuff, you know, it’s just, you don’t need that stuff more than like maybe 5% of the time, but when you do need it, it’s just awesome. Right. On those wrinkles on the Rigo fake holders, when you got those holders, did you get the hand manual machine or did you get, yeah, I’ve got to go. If I had to go back, I kind of would like to have the button to push, you know? And, but yeah, the, um, yeah, the blood machine was great. The button is great.
Would you be jealous if I told you that I have the button machine button? Yeah. He wants that
Also Eddie insider tip. If you go to get the button machine, tell the sales rep that you want your logo on the side of it, they’ll do it. Oh, right.
And I’ve seen like some camera wall demos.
They’ve got a cammo button missing that. Cammo and I seen that one. Yes, sir.
Definitely. Hey, so, uh, just a little bit earlier, we, uh, had talked about, um, you using some of our products. Can you, I don’t even think that these guys have really heard from you exactly. But can you, can you tell us your opinion about some of our products that you use and maybe how they’ve helped you in the past?
Definitely. I mean, I use every day. It’s just awesome. I mean, a lot of, if you look at my Instagram feed, most of my pictures are jaws. We’re using them all the time, man. I just do op-eds on everything. I don’t do anything. Right.
So you would, would you say your, your machine and more aggressive, um, have you started using them in any ways that you didn’t necessarily about before?
It’s just right off the bat. I mean, just the, you know, the way they bite in the material. And I, I was, I was kind of doing what, like what Lang does with their fancy system, you know, where I would, you know, put a piece of stock and the vice and then I’d crank on it with the actual Kurt handle, you know, and then, uh, you know, back off and then I’d go in and just do a light tightening afterwards. So it was basically, you know, imprinting, those teeth marks into the workpiece. Right. Uh, you know, and right away, I’ve seen a huge benefit to where, you know, if, if you’re just using a standard hard jaw and you’re trying to be, you know, if you’re, if you’re aggressive on a part, it’s either going to lift the part or you gotta Chuck it or something.
And so you, you know, tighten the crap out of the piranha jaws. And then you get all this, you know, deflection in your part and we’re here instantly, you know, it’s like, I’d just crank on it and get a little bit of that imprint in there, back it off, get a little light tension. So it doesn’t distort the part and stay, they stayed put, you know, so, I mean, I seen the benefits right away. And so, uh, and honestly that’s what it kinda led me to go the slang route on the, with the five-axis stuff, knowing the benefit of, you know, just having those teeth on prints in the, in the stock, you know, uh, it goes a long way. So, but, uh, yeah, the jaws are awesome. The handles are on everything, you know, they, I never used those types of handles, you know, and again, I got away from running machines and later years of, uh, owning my other business, you know, so I wasn’t the guy sitting there loading parts and stuff, but we didn’t use any kind of handles like that. We just had the regular Curt handles, you know, awkward finish you go in there and, you know, move the handle over from bias device. Yeah.
Foot drop it on the way covers.
Yeah. When you sent that over, uh, I’m like, Oh yeah, this is awesome. So I got about a dozen of those times.
You might, you might have the most out of India, just individual shop owner.
Yeah. I saw, well, I sold that. I sold my one VF to my original one that I got in here and, uh, did it devices with it, but I kept the jaws and it kept the hand. Okay.
Okay. You said the handles. Okay. Nice. Hey, so
No, what I love though is when he takes a picture of like the handles and the gel sets together, he does exactly what I do all my handles. Like once I get the, the stock located in the machine correctly, where I want to all the handles go in the same order, o’clock two o’clock
It’s perfect.
Hmm. Yeah. We’re, we’re probably pretty crazy that way. My wife works with me, by the way. She, uh, she’s she was teaching for 16 years. She got a little jealous. I think of me just being home all the time. And, uh, two years ago she resign and she’s just a huge help here in the shop, you know, just a lot of the office stuff, but she goes, she runs the machines a lot too. And, uh, she calls me out and all my crazy stuff like that all the time.
[inaudible] me. Are you going to not really do that?
It’s not crazy because you know what, man, it’s consistency and consistency is everything. Is you do it. If you stay consistent with your work, I don’t care how long you take. If it fits 20 minutes to put the handles in the same position, if it makes you do your job more comfortable with it, then boom.
Hey, Hey. Hey. So a very serious question, Eddie. If, if, if I were to ask you, would you ever recommend our products? Mmm. Dash USA to a friend or a fellow coworker? Yeah. Okay.
So yeah.
So you have recommended it. Oh yeah. Nice. So if I, if I were to hire you as like my IMTS superstar and you had to sell one of our products very quickly, I’m going to give you 15 seconds to 30 seconds to, uh, to get them to sell it. Um, do you have the broad in mind? Do you have which product that you want to sell in mind?
The jaws that’s what the jaws, yeah, the handles like you, can’t, it’s a tough one to sell and you can’t really appreciate those until you, you get them, put them in the machine and you’re like, uh, yeah, this is easy. This is awesome. Uh, the jaws are awesome, man. You know, they just work. Uh, you know, it’s what I use. It’s, uh, you know, look my Instagram feed, I guess I call it, uh, I, I keep in touch with a couple of the guys at my old business, you know, I try not to, uh, you know, communicate too much with them guys because I don’t want to interfere with their business, you know, and stuff that they got their stuff going on. But there’s just some things that I’m sitting here at my shop and I come across some things that are just so awesome.
And I know they could benefit from so much that I’ll call, you know, like a couple of the guys and I’m like, dude, you have to buy this. You gotta use a sensor, uh, come across an insert that, you know, we’ve maybe fought with a stringy chips on this one part and this one operation for years and the lays, you know, and then all of a sudden I come across this dispenser and I’m like, I called them up. I’m like, you have to put the sensor on that part, on that finishing off, you know? And then, uh, so I, I told him pretty much immediately about the piranha jaws. I’m like, dude, you guys got to get these for all your first ops stuff. So I don’t know if they ever did or not, but you know, uh, it’s pretty easy to sell that stuff. It just works. It’s good stuff.
So notable
Quotable is a Gary Vaynerchuk. Your network is your net, net, your net worth your net worth your net worth.
Yeah. Your network is your networks. I believe that that’s a good one. Hey, Hey, Eddie, we, we really appreciate you, uh, being on with us. Is there a, is there any questions that you have for us new products coming out, maybe? Correct.
I actually got a fixture plate. That’s a, um, I’m going to be machining for the, for the new, for the DMG. Okay. Um, so I was thinking, I might pick some of the, uh, little Toronto pieces, you know, a little one inch guys. Yeah. What about one inch cams? Hmm. I seen that. Yeah. I’ll have to get with you guys on that, on that stuff. Cause you know, it’s, it’s with the thing with the five-axis is like, gosh, you could go broke. Just trying to have the workholding solution for everything that could come through the door. And I think I’ve just come to grips that I’m probably gonna bust out a few, you know, plates and stuff like that. And I, so I think that’s, stuff’s going to be coming in real handy, but yeah. Yeah. I’ll have to get with you guys on that, but uh, yeah, the eight inch jaws I saw you guys doing those. Those are great. Yeah. That’s, that’s a no brainer. I’m like, dang, I don’t know why. I didn’t think of that one.
Yeah. They they’ve been asking for a long time. We just haven’t had time and we’ve been so slammed. Just trying to keep up with our other stuff. Uh,
You guys should do the, the, the cat 40 little tool holder on the table. Yeah,
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We should. We should do that. Hey Donnie, do you have any more questions for, uh, for, okay.
Yeah, man. I’m scrolling through your Instagram here and I’ve got a question. There’s just, there’s a gun drill I’m looking at. Okay. How did that go? Oh, a little tiny one, like a very tiny gun drill. I think it was two millimeter. Yeah. Two millimeter, like a hundred and D yeah. Okay. 60 times D yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah. What was it for and how did it go? Uh, some kinda manifold or something. I had to bake like 600 of these manifolds out of a Ultem. And, uh, what happens is there’s like a, I don’t know, I forget how many, maybe like 16 solenoids that stack up in this manifold and these valves that they put into these, you know, uh, ports, you, they basically got the, they try to compromise between a good decent size hole diameter, you know, and what they came up with was a two millimeter hole, but it couldn’t deviate more than five now, otherwise you getting into the, the old rings onto the valve.
Right. So I didn’t even, I quoted basically doing like a test run is what I did. I said, I can’t, I don’t even want to quote the job. I don’t know if that’s, this is doable, but if you want to pay for like a test piece, you know, a first article. And so we went for it and I got, that was a grueling drill. So I got my guys to help me out sourcing that. And we got that in here and I couldn’t believe that thing was perfectly straight. And I mean, right on size is just awesome. So the only issue I had, uh, if you don’t get the speed and feed just right. I, you know, it was just running the 300 PSI TSC on the house. Right. So it wasn’t like crazy high pressure coolant, but, uh, and that’s such a tiny little orifice on that thing. So if you don’t get to feed speed, right. And if you do any kind of melting at the point there where you’re drilling, it’ll instantly clog up the hole and you know, it’s a $300 drill that you could just scrap, you know, get rid of this kissing. Goodbye. Last, the last thing for me. And I’ve been waiting to ask this one to the last yep. Last of the day, did your wife recommend the pantyhose for the coolant filter? No. No, but she does. She’s the one that buys them for me. I sent her,
Do you ever stay late and try try them on?
Yeah, it’s funny because I’ll open that one drawer every now and then where I have those, I have like 50 of them on hand at all times, you know? And I opened that one drawer in for a second. What’s that? Oh, it’s like, it’s this weird kink fetish that he’s got he’s yeah. He’s into Sophie queen size black. Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. They don’t even call them. They don’t even call an extra large they’re they’re queen size. Y’all that’s awesome. And he’s a queen. Yeah, that works good. By the way it looks like it has guys,
I’m going to have to try it out, like right, right now I’m I’m doing the, uh, like the washable, uh, air filter filters. Yeah. So I just cut them in well, it’s it’s like, uh, but yeah, but it’s the washable ones they’re like blue. Um, and then, so I put two of them together and that kind of clerks, but I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think it’s going to do as good as job as is. You’re saying
This is like a trash bag, you know? It’s like, you just scoop it up. Right. Have the trash can nearby. Cause it’s gonna be dripping. But you know, we just toss it and throw a new one on there. Does it catch the little fine guys? Like have you had, I mean, do you still get the nice, the really tight clump powder? Like the clumped up sludge at the bottom? Yeah. You still get the, like the real, real fines that’ll sludge up over time. But gosh, my sons, they go away easily a year. I mean, we pretty much like we’ll, we’ll usually do a vacation in the summer, so that’s kinda like my one time I drained everything before we go on vacation. And when I do that, like December when we did that, I was like, man, this, I almost felt bad rant and everything, but yeah, you still get that real, real fine stuff, you know? And whatever works. Yeah. This new DMT has got some crazy filtration system. So I don’t know. That’s sort of like a half million bucks gets you. It gets, but yeah. Well have some help have some help there when you got to go pull that tank out from underneath, but yeah. Oh man. Yeah. I’ve done that on our horizontal back in the day is yeah. It’s no fun. Yes, sir. Brandon, you had a question earlier and you didn’t. I, I heard you tied, dude.
Do you remember it? I do remember it. Okay. Well ask away here’s your time
Has using the cerated jaws made your life easier and has it saved your marriage?
[inaudible]
Yeah, it’s definitely made my life easier. As far as saving my marriage. I dunno.
We’re
At a good place. We we’ve been together for everywhere. Yeah. We’re we figure it out.
So you’re saying if maybe you weren’t in a good place, maybe there was a chance that it would have saved us.
Uh, my wife she’s pretty awesome. She’s kinda, it’s it’s pretty neat. I mean, she obviously sees, you know, w
W we’ve been pretty successful at this, so it’s kinda hard not to get motivated, you know, when, when things are going. Right. And so, uh, she definitely enjoys being a part of it. And she’s great. I tell you what I, you know, we’ll, we’ll set up the machine.
Well, she’d be at the next IMTS,
You know, we were looking forward to it. I don’t know what the heck’s going on. You know, I, I love exposing her to all of it. Cause she’s, she’s, she’s digging it, you know, it’s been pretty cool.
So, so this is what I heard. I heard, I heard from a very reliable source that DMG Mori is going to pull out of the future. Oh, you already knew it. Um, yeah. Wow. That’s a, that’s a pretty big move, but if it’s open, we will be there. Yeah. If it’s, if it’s there, I think we’re all going to be there. I think we’re going to bring Dani up with us. Yes.
I want to go. So I hope it is. I hope it’s going on. I hope it’s yeah,
It’s open. We’ll be there. Hey, if for some reason that we don’t get to do the IMTS, can we all like, uh, catch the, the, the most non COVID affected plane and you show us how to hunt. Sure. Yeah. So we come up, we come up to Colorado. Oh yeah.
Yeah. I have to say the only reason why I followed you is because of your dogs, man. So yeah, they were fun. It’s they got me into hunting. It’s a, it’s a cool deal. I know a hundred in my life before having them and then, Oh yeah. That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s really cool. I had always had guns and stuff. I just never really got into hunting. And then all of a sudden, you see these dogs, it’s just in their blood man. It’s kind of a shame not to hunt them. You know? How does it feel having DMG, Mori post your picture of the dog?
That’s pretty cool.
I saw that. Uh, I don’t know when it was recently, honestly. Um, but I saw them repost the picture. I’m like, yo, those that’s Eddie’s dogs. Holy crap. Yeah. That’s funny. That’s awesome. That was pretty cool. Did my buddy sent me that I didn’t even catch it when I release it. Same shame. They should have tagged, but yeah, hopefully I’m guesses on. I’d love. We’d love to make it out there.
So, so, so did you go for a week last time or just a couple of days or what?
Well, I just went by myself. I, I think I did a one night. That’s what I did last night. Oh man. It was kind of last minute, you know, it’s hard to miss that.
It’s hard to even like, if I’m there like four or five days, I can’t even see everything still. No,
I mean, I was there. I was there. I worked 10 days and I, I was there from the moment nothing was in the building till everything was in the building. I still, I still wasn’t able to see everything. It’s nuts. I was pretty hyper-focused on well software. We talked about that. And then tool holding, you know, uh, either shrink fit or this Rigo system, you know? Uh, and then beyond that, I just knew he just can’t see it at all. So you just, whatever. I feel like every guy has got their one thing. Like they plan for IMTS. There’s like that one boost and they like the product that they want to get in their shop. And that’s like the main reason why they go is for that one product. They’re pretty much set on, like, I’m gonna, I’m going to get it, but I want to see it.
Yup. Um, it’s a great opportunity. I remember I went to the DMG booth while I was working in 2018. I had a one day to do it and I just was blown away by the machines. And the mano block system has been like my, if I get a machine, if I’m going to spend money on getting machine, whether I have to work for it or not, it’s going to be one of those. I’m going to get it. It’s going to sit my shots. It’s everything I thought it would be. It’s pretty dang awesome. And it’s just amazing that the potential I have here, I just, uh, so eager, you know, to do stuff and work on stuff. And you know, I had, the reason I, I bought the machine is one of my main customers is got parts that are, they should be running a five-axis and I’ve been running a middle and a rotary the fourth.
And, uh, I’m pretty happy with the way it came out, but the volume is going to, supposed to be going up on that stuff. And I was like, well, you know, I can wait for the PO to come through. And then I scrambled by a machine and try to figure this stuff out. Or I go out and buy the machine and, you know, try to utilize it wherever I can and then I’m ready for it. So that’s kind of the Avenue I went. And so we’re hoping that it comes through because gosh, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve gone through a lot to get those parts to, to run on a rotary. Um, they’re just really nasty parts. Like it’s just hard to get to everything, especially piranha jaws. And then, so now it’s like, Oh gosh, she’s gonna be a piece of cake. And I’m thinking anyway, we’ll see. But yeah, I’m excited for you. I’m I, I love following the journey and um, I’m sure you’re going to take it to awesome. I’m looking forward to the future of it, man. Got to keep it fun.
Hey, so, uh, we, again, thank you for your time. And uh, we’re going to end in a boom, which means big, overwhelming, optimistic momentum. And I think that’s what we have to bring every day. I believe that’s what you bring every day, um, in order to be successful and you got to push through, um, so in a three, two, one