Talented Friends Behind the Scenes

[scdiveteam]

Hi,

With all the pics of the shop puppies and dogs posted recently, I thought it might be time to post some pics of the talented "Humans" behind the scenes in our shops who never get the credit or recognition within our industry.

Last week I was working on 2 cues that I have to get out in the next 2 weeks for a customer. Just as I was going to cut a wrap groove, the lathe made a noise and the travel stopped. Luckily Esoteric Cue has old reliable Jim Palm on premises who is our resident mechanical genius.

Within 10 minutes Jim had the entire planetary gear train inspected and diagnosed that all was in order. He then took off the head stock gear cover and diagnosed that the fiber engagement gear for the drive had failed.

Within 30 minutes Jim had the part ordered from Enco and we had it hot shipped to us. We were back in business in 2 days, no problem thanks to my good friend Jimmy who always seems to save the day when things go astray.

Jim is a permanent fixture in our shop and is responsible for all of our mechanical maintenance of our equipment. He has extensive experience in mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, HVAC, coating systems, machinery design and was a Pro Stock Drag Racer who doubled as his own race car mechanic on his 11 second Moper 1969 Dodge Super "B".

Jim is now honing his skills as a cue maker "in the making" and is on a fast track in that endeavor.

Thanks Jim Palm for all your efforts, it is appreciated very much.

Rick G

Jim shown here diagnosing and fixing the lathe pronto!

Jim tweaking the design of his new plexiglass dust catcher on the Atlas turning lathe.

Jim staying ahead of the production curve by glueing point veneers in his spare time.

Thanks Jim for all you do!

 

[pescadoman]

You are very lucky. I called an electrician to diagnose a problem on a lathe I bought. The person on the phone made it sound like they were knowledgeable with machines and the ad made it seem the same way.

The guy they sent out didn't even know how to work a lathe. 3 hours later he had it "hot wired" and working.

I guess I shouldn't complain, but after the fall I have a hard time putting effort into the thing and just wanted someone competent to fix it.

I've had the same sort of experience with machinery guys here in Ventura Ca. I haven't met anyone who has inspired confidence....... The last one was a referral from a machinist I knew who said "he is the best".

Well, "he" showed up with minimal tools(I knew the tailstock was off and may have not have been the original...I expected some scraping or whatever) and he shimmed it with a piece of cardboard....... Wanted it RIGHT not CHEAP.

If anyone around me knows of someone GOOD I really don't mind paying!!!!!!!!

 

[LGSM3]

Rick, not to get off the subject but i'm intrigued by the machine in the background of the first pic. spin index, mill table, and it appears there may be a router mounted above it?

 

[Mr Hoppe]

Rick, not to get off the subject but i'm intrigued by the machine in the background of the first pic. spin index, mill table, and it appears there may be a router mounted above it?

It's for cutting point grooves. Here is another pic of it. Now ask Rick why we call it "Lorena" as in Bobit . . .

 

[scdiveteam]

Rick, not to get off the subject but i'm intrigued by the machine in the background of the first pic. spin index, mill table, and it appears there may be a router mounted above it?

This was proto type point groove cutting machine built by Darrin Hill that was designed with a 45 degree router mount in the front. The router actually held a flat end mill and the grooves were cut at that 45 degree angle of attack to the work piece. It worked very well.

I bought it from Darrin and moved the router to the top and mounted a 90 degree wing cutter. This little machine is very accurate. I can cut a five point grooves is 21 minutes. I can get the grooves in 2 passes with no chattering leaving a perfect 90 with a very smooth finish to the wood. We have added and simple power feed to the process and it saves the wrist and arm strain from operating the hand wheels over and over.

I coat the forearms with one coat of G5 before I make the cut and there is no tear out with a conventional cutter rotation. Before the G5 it would take me 3 passes due to fear of tear out or splintering. The coat lets me hog the first cut about 4/5s of the depth. The second cut is a shallow clean up job.

As to Mr. Hoppie's Loraina Bobitt name for the unit, all I can say is the router is the most dangerous tool in the world. You don't want to get up close and personal with it with any part of you anatomy much less any private parts that may be hanging off your person.:nono::wave2:

 

[cuemaker03]

Sounds like a good guy to know!!!!!!!!!

Hi,

With all the pics of the shop puppies and dogs posted recently, I thought it might be time to post some pics of the talented "Humans" behind the scenes in our shops who never get the credit or recognition within our industry.

Last week I was working on 2 cues that I have to get out in the next 2 weeks for a customer. Just as I was going to cut a wrap groove, the lathe made a noise and the travel stopped. Luckily Esoteric Cue has old reliable Jim Palm on premises who is our resident mechanical genius.

Within 10 minutes Jim had the entire planetary gear train inspected and diagnosed that all was in order. He then took off the head stock gear cover and diagnosed that the fiber engagement gear for the drive had failed.

Within 30 minutes Jim had the part ordered from Enco and we had it hot shipped to us. We were back in business in 2 days, no problem thanks to my good friend Jimmy who always seems to save the day when things go astray.

Jim is a permanent fixture in our shop and is responsible for all of our mechanical maintenance of our equipment. He has extensive experience in mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, HVAC, coating systems, machinery design and was a Pro Stock Drag Racer who doubled as his own race car mechanic on his 11 second Moper 1969 Dodge Super "B".

Jim is now honing his skills as a cue maker "in the making" and is on a fast track in that endeavor.

Thanks Jim Palm for all your efforts, it is appreciated very much.

Rick G

Jim shown here diagnosing and fixing the lathe pronto!

Jim tweaking the design of his new plexiglass dust catcher on the Atlas turning lathe.

Jim staying ahead of the production curve by glueing point veneers in his spare time.

Thanks Jim for all you do!

 

[LGSM3]

This was proto type point groove cutting machine built by Darrin Hill that was designed with a 45 degree router mount in the front. The router actually held a flat end mill and the grooves were cut at that 45 degree angle of attack to the work piece. It worked very well.

I bought it from Darrin and moved the router to the top and mounted a 90 degree wing cutter. This little machine is very accurate. I can cut a five point grooves is 21 minutes. I can get the grooves in 2 passes with no chattering leaving a perfect 90 with a very smooth finish to the wood. We have added and simple power feed to the process and it saves the wrist and arm strain from operating the hand wheels over and over.

I coat the forearms with one coat of G5 before I make the cut and there is no tear out with a conventional cutter rotation. Before the G5 it would take me 3 passes due to fear of tear out or splintering. The coat lets me hog the first cut about 4/5s of the depth. The second cut is a shallow clean up job.

As to Mr. Hoppie's Loraina Bobitt name for the unit, all I can say is the router is the most dangerous tool in the world. You don't want to get up close and personal with it with any part of you anatomy much less any private parts that may be hanging off your person.:nono::wave2:

thanks rick, pretty cool. This confirmed my first thought but was confusing as the arbor was so long "apparently custom made". Seems kinda scary being so long, with possible runout at those speeds. Anyway, you do some nice point blanks so apparently it works very well. Thanks for sharing, i always like seeing custom machines.

 

[scdiveteam]

thanks rick, pretty cool. This confirmed my first thought but was confusing as the arbor was so long "apparently custom made". Seems kinda scary being so long, with possible runout at those speeds. Anyway, you do some nice point blanks so apparently it works very well. Thanks for sharing, i always like seeing custom machines.

Hi,

I intended to make a change and make the 1/2" shank much closer to the work by making an alteration to the top mounting plate elevation and shortening the shank.

After setting up the table for the cutting angle I was surprised to find that the Hitachi router has plenty of low end torque as I run it on very lowest speed. The 90 degree angle cut is perfect with a very clean RMS surface in the grooves. Just got lucky on that one.

Rick