Apply heat first

Yeah you only do the restart crash once....then you realize it's not worth it lol....I only ever restart from a tool change.....makes it easy to find a restart point as well, and you know exactly what's going to happen....even if it wastes a little time cutting air....

Great job. Thank you 😊

Hi Adam thank you for sharing your work , I know nothing of cnc - looks complicated . I’m amazed at how many of the viewers are complaining about the videos it’s incredible . You know if they don’t like it just don’t watch it , no need to be rude . Hey I just started watching your channel and as a self taught hillbilly at machining appreciate what you teach . You are very talented and precise . Thanks for sharing whatever you do . All the best from New Zealand

Great work,Adam.Thank you.

So impressed with her enthusiasm!

I freely admit that I probably have no clue what I am talking about but if the CNC mill comes to a halt and crashes because someone got in the way of the laser safety detectors then why on earth doesn't the programme default to (say) withdraw the tool by 100 thou from the workpiece and then go all stop?

My first career was as a machinist in the 1970's. All my tools were Starret! When I left that field I gave all my tools to a very good friend that was racing and rebuilding engines. After I retired I decide to get back into hobby machining. I made sure all the tools I gathered were once again Starret. As was said the problem for the company is that the tools they make are indestructible and impervious to wear. Good for the user but no planned obsolescence. Thanks for the insight of a company that truly "Built America"!!

Very nice work sir

Chào bạn. Tôi đến từ Việt Nam. Tôi đã xem bạn rất lâu. Từ lúc bạn chưa mở cửa hàng mới. Giờ bạn đã có nhiều máy cnc mới. Nhưng tôi vẫn thích bạn làm việc với những chiếc máy lúc trước. Thật tuyệt vời.

I love the way you organize your videos, well thought out in step by step order. I just saw the crash when the machine stopped when motion in that area was triggered. That was not your fault. As an engineer, I think the machine stop Event (Red Light) should have added a Z movement up so the cutter stops clear of workpiece, BEFORE shutting down the cutter. I'm sure this could be a program change. Shame on Flex CNC!

I've always loved you working in the new shop. Kinda like I was standing there with you. The new shop feels abit strange. maybe pushing buttons is not as relaxing as watching you center a work piece in a chuck and spin it up. Just me penny.

3/4" plate to make the brackets is way overkill imo. Rather than torch the radius, cut the corners with the band saw and grind the little bit to take it to your line.

If any of my cnc machines stops mid operation I have the option to either start from the point it stopped or return to start of program. They will never start ahead of the point they stopped unless I was to advance the restart point. I can only assume this was an operator error and nothing to do with the safety stop system.

abby you do a great job!

Thank you for posting this video. We just purchased a Lift yesterday and THIS is something that I was thinking about. Glad to find your video!!

I hope this isn't taken poorly. Although I appreciate all the work and effort it takes to make these vids for us. I really do miss the home shop projects. Not just because of the location. Just the style of content. It was machining. Almost like a couple friends working on a project, or more like one friend teaching another how to do things. If that makes sense? These type of vids are more like Infomercials, for lack of a better term. I can appreciate them, but have a hard time getting "into" them, or getting excited about them. I dunno, it's hard to explain. Anyway, I thank you Adam for your time and effort. As well as for reading this, if you happen to. But if you do, PLEASE don't take it negativity!!! It's just my opinion, which means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Y'all be safe out there!!

Too many steps for roughing and finish of your two rails.

There are two types of CNC professionals, those that have crashed their CNC system, and liars. Welcome to becoming a Professional.

Interesting.

Adam, Those laser systems like on the gantry protecting the front of the machine are programmable and generally have aux outputs for both the warning and the e-stop. You might ask if there is a way you could add an audible alarm (like a vehicle backup alarm) to for the orange warning area. I would ask your contacts if this can be added or which terminals in the control box are for these aux outputs. It would give a warning if your leg or something else entered the warning area for some reason and when you got out of the warning area, the audible alarm would silence. I have worked at 6 different manufacturers and all had these exact laser setups on everything from Amada turret presses to moving robotic tuggers traveling through production areas. If someone randomly steps in front of, or something blocks the path of the equipment being protected, the orange zone will sound an alarm and/or stop (the robotic tuggers) for a short period of time. If the person or object comes into the red zone at any time during operation, it will e-stop the equipment until maintenance or the equipment operator can reset the machine and/or properly restart it on the tool path.

How did the "safety feature" cause a crash?

there is an old saying, attributed to many different people, " He who does not make mistakes, usually does not make much of anything"

now, im wondering, if the CNC industry could add in a type of camera feedback system that could visually observe the work area and the work piece, and use some sort of program that can recognize when a crash may happen or if anything like the slipping of a tool is occurring and it could automatically stop the machine before damage occurred. also, as perhaps a means to quantify the location of parts without using or in conjunction to a probe tool, and at the same time use some sort of automatic laser scan technique to help in the precision aspect. anyways, just a thought.

CNC is old testament computing, lots of rules and NO mercy. scrapped a coffee can size lump of bronze over 1 missed detail in post, 1 lead vs 2 lead acme. Okuma is a great machine, but holy hell is it trying to crash on you. For the drills check out Dormer ADX series drills they are remarkable for a hss drill, no pecking, crazy feed and they last. we are currently running a 1" deep #7 (5.1 or 5.2mm) for a 1/4-20 hole in 1018, no issues at all. we run other sizes too, never need to bother with a spot drill even on an 11/16, things just eat.

The world's most precise lightning rod! Just kidding, looks great.

Adam, on the face of the cnc chuck, what is yhe yellow X that looks hand drawn???

Another great video!

Abbys (sp?) childlike wonder about everything she saw in the train shed, just brings a smile to MY face! To have a partner that enjoys the things YOU enjoy is priceless!

Luv these Machine shop tours! Awesome 👌

This CNC adventure can be moved along a little faster if you would go through all 10 Titan's of CNC Building Blocks. Each Building Block project is shown using Solidworks with MasterCAM and also using Fusion 360. Hire a local experienced CNC operator to conduct the demo to inspire a little confidence in the machine.

Thank you for showing us this Adam. Appreciate seeing your journey.

I respect that you're still learning CNC and that these parts are demo pieces for the Flex. I mean no offense when I say that this demonstration wouldn't give me confidence in buying one. The safety features alone would make me cautious, knowing that simply standing in the wrong spot for too long could cause a crash. From what I see, it looks like the Flex isn't handling high-speed machining well, which might be causing the stuttering. I've seen similar issues with Haas machines when high-speed machining isn't enabled, so it seems like the controller can't keep up with the code for adaptive strategies. It also appears that the Flex is designed for very specific applications and might be overkill for the parts in this demo. These and similar parts would probably be best made on your Milltronics mill if you're focused on optimization, while the Flex might be better for larger parts that take advantage of its size. Those tool change times alone can undermine any programming optimizations. On the note of parallelism, you could always bolt the plates to the rails and then face them to ensure they're parallel with your spindle and both parts are of equal height. Anyway, keep at it! We all started somewhere!

Just a question, not trying to trigger anyone, but has anyone ever seen Adam respond or reply to anyone in these comments ? I’ve never actually seen a reply. Just curious.

Was the lathe turning a taper ? cheers

focus on safety heights rather than optimizing .. you can't run high-speed milling on that machine .. no matter what the person who sold the machine says, It's good for long pipes and holes and small milling. it's not a Mazak,,Heller,, okuma machine..

Great video Adam. Love the cnc content. Thanks.

you gonna make shafts again?

Why does the machine crash when it shuts off due yo a safety trigger?

I was stationed in Nevada for four years in the 80s. I used to go to Ely and Mule Deer hunt every year. It's a cool place.

we can clearly see that you are not good at cnc ,, that cycle is intended for full depth end mill and not for face milling .. that machine is not designed for heavy milling .. run it as a manual mill and it won't happen.. if you runs in the sercutity system

I bet that line shaft was powered by a steam engine at one point back in the day.

I wouldn't focus too much on trying to optimize programs at this stage in your learning. "Walk before you run," you know? Optimizing is something more important for shops that are doing a lot of volume, where every second is money. Since you're still learning, and doing one-off jobs where it doesn't appear that there's a push to shave off seconds from the runtime, it'd probably be best to just continue getting familiar with the normal operation, and once you're feeling really comfortable, then you can move on to optimizations.

I would be trying to bypass those pesky safety features. We run machinery. We are accountable for our selves. We don’t need a nanny machine we need a cnc machine.

How the hell does that thing crash like that when the E-Stop is triggered? I'm confus.

Should do op1 in the vice and op2 bolted in place on the table. This will remove variance in vice hold and give you a better shot at parallelism.

Keep it up Adam, watching you grow is a huge inspiration ❤

Adam, Great video on the Flex. I want to preface my question here by saying I am not a CNC guy, "back in the day" I ran manual machines ( mills, lathes, Bullard, Horz. boring mills, ) @ 40.20 you begin the chamfer on one end of the part and then go to the opposite end and then move around the part. Wouldn't it be better to begin on one hole and then progress in either a Clockwise or Counterclockwise direction rather than moving from one end to the other and then progressing ?

I agree with @kawazukisoddbits2717. Very strange indeed. I do large size 3d printing, and to eliminate cooling of the filament onto the product we reverse the last Z-instruction during an EPO. This if the last Z-feed was down 0.18mm, then during an EPO, we move back up 0.18mm and shut down. No X or Y movement. Maybe something to consider adding to this machine.