Rokmen - New Video, more smutt for you Gear Heads...

Wow-that was cool. I don't know why but this stuff just fascinates me. I've been out in the shop the last few days building some relatively simple body mounts. Without adequate power, each piece is flame cut-literally by hand with a torch. Once outlined, I hit them with the angle grinder to clean them up, then there's the drill-with multiple bits and changes, multiple changes on the press, more grinding and touch up. This is all before I even get anywhere near the rig for final fitment adjustments. I can't tell you how many hours I have into just the FIRST one to get it nailed down right. With the sawzall it would literally take almost 45 minutes to cut one out. Using the torch, that's knocked down to a few minutes. If I ever get the damn power to the shop, the plasma will cut that back to literally seconds and cleanup will be much easier/faster as well. No two pieces will ever be the same as being cut freehand with a torch, it is nearly impossible to duplicate something to the same exact size/shape and reproduce it identical to the next. For the guys who like to play with this stuff, they understand how this trial and error stuff goes and the work it takes to bring a piece of raw steel to finished form. I really like seeing you guys post up the videos of this stuff on the CNC machines-it is WAY cool to see how things are mass produced. For the little guy like me, starting from scratch with just the basics, we can dream and oogle about how cool those big machines are that do everything on their own and take most of the work out of it. I am still blown away at how somebody figured out how to make a machine do all that. Way cool. Again, Thanks for sharing. I could post up a vid of building a body mount, but I think most folks would fall asleep after the first hour of watching the grinder... :laugh: In about 6 minutes, you have a beautifully cut, polished aluminum fairlead. Sliders and tank skids didn't take much more than that. I hate to think how many hours you have into the original design/build work prior to the CNC equipment. Man, must have been a TON of work.

Thanks again,

Best of Luck,

Mike

Is that machine a Mori Seki?? Okuma??

I personally hate those style tool changers but they are crazy fast.
That's pretty good cycle time although I missed the part where they remove the bottom flashing on the 2nd setup.

Do they polish it afterward?? I know a high finish can achieved with a super speed spindle (sounded faster than 7500 RPM) and the right coolant, feeds, speeds, etc. etc. during machining, but many machines run things other than alum and the tooling is usually quite different. That's a real nice finish if it's a machine finish.


You should have them put Rokmen on it. Seriously. The "K" might kinda suck because it has sharp points but the other letters shouldn't be too bad, the one from your logo could be pretty sharp. Should be maybe 15-30 seconds more per cycle tops and if the shop has decent software (I'm sure they do) they should be able to read all kinds of digital file types. The actual logo is another story..you would need a very small tool to make decent points and they just take longer to run.

Cool stuff.

I'm actually in school right now learning CNC programming. We are learning the foundational stuff now, where we draw a design in AutoCAD, write the program in VQC, then learn how to read and edit the code. It's not very exciting stuff, just drilling and tapping holes in different patterns on the mill, and making some basic shapes on the lathe. I'm looking forward to getting into the MasterCam stuff, along with learning SolidWorks, and am constantly amazed at what these machines can do. We are using a Haas VF-2 Mill and TL-1 Lathe in the shop, along with the CNC Plasma to come later.

Theoretical question for you: If you guys were looking to hire someone to do the kind of work shown in your videos, what specific qualifications/experience would you be looking for? Colorado isn't really anywhere in my immediate future (sucks for me), but this is definitely the field I am looking to get into. Would you specifically look for someone with multiple years of CNC machining experience, or would a basic knowledge coupled with a knowledge and passion for the offroad industry be sufficient? I know it's pretty subjective, but I feel like you guys have a pretty good feel for what it would take to be successful in this field.