Walter, I lean toward the saying, "Yes, you can fix stupid, but it's gonna hurt". Sometimes it's a financial hurt, sometimes it's means a do-over, sometimes it runs to the physical hurt. Sometimes it takes longer for certain kinds of "stupid" to get fixed. Sometimes it's a Darwin Award qualifying event. Which category would you put the guys who are compelled to make the comment "first" as their only claim to intelligent dialogue? I mean, c'mon man, it's so meaningful.😆 Mommy is proud of them.

Now that you have a machine that is designed for real world coolant use you will probably come to love it. No recutting of chips, no build up on cutting edges, better surface finishes. One bad part while still getting settled into a serious CNC machine after years of hobby grade / prosumer machines is a heck of a fine day. When you're ready for a real mind blower have a look into hard milling. Thanks for so many fine videos, I enjoy them even though I'm a model maker sort of guy rather than a knife maker. Always admired well made knives, enough to have really enjoyed Blade Show a few years back, hope to get there this year.

Great looking machine, the only thing wrong, is people won't be able to say Walter Sorrels hand made this, he only partly did. I actually like the small mistakes humans make (I make big ones), at least you know someone probably put their all into making it, but then, if your livelihood depends on selling knives, saving time and improving productivity comes first. With all the CNC made knives around now, even making money using one, is probably not that easy, especially when a lot are made in China, where wages are very low.

Need a playlist for this project!

Hell of a machine. Congrats on the upgrade!

Congratulations on the new machine Walter. Would love to see a video on it sometime. Ciao, Marco.

Walter as always a very entertaining and informative video!

thx for the behind the scenes look Walter!

❤ I love seeing where my subscription goes and the plans 😊

Enjoyed video. Thanks for sharing

Wow this CNC machine would be a dream come true for me! Im excited to see what you'll do with it (i expected roughly the same but more and better and everything) Super awesome

Walter, This is right up your alley. It’s called a “Poka-Yoke”. The origin in the Japanese language means “idiot proof”. “Stupid proof” isn’t to far off. You basically add a feature(unusually a pin) to the fixture block that prevents a blade from being installed backward. Helps a ton in production work when you may not run a tool/fixture for months or even years. It also can help protect your tooling and machine by preventing a crash from happening. I’ve used them a bunch in robotic welding fixture to prevent operators from loading left hand parts into right hand fixtures and vise versa. I’ve had robot crashes shut down entire $1M+ production lines, the fix was a $5 poke-yoke pin. Do you run one knife/operation in the mill at a time or do you load each station and do one full set of operations. iE cut the out side, drill, chafer, bevel. Then take one finish knife out, advance each blank to the next step and load one fresh? Best of luck with your new machine!!

Hi Walter, Love what you're doing. I'd like to suggest you maybe contact a machinist because your machining can be optimized very easily and your grinding minimized. Best of luck!

Congratulations on the new machine.

Pretty amazing machine. Congratulations, I bet you'll love that!

Great video 😊😊

Great video

I don't know if the newer machines are like this, but our Haases' auto-brakes on the spindles don't work when you hit the E-Stop. The spindle coasts to a stop. Hitting the Reset button shuts everything off immediately and turns the brake on for the spindle.

Great first kick at the can. This looks like a huge boost to productivity. Spend less on belts and carbide bit expenses step in to pick up the savings!

Nice shop setup

Walter, add about 2 feet on top, and about 4 feet in length. Add 3 full 6ft tall x 8ft long computer banks and a CRT with a loop tape. That was the irst CNC I RAN TO MAKE CASINGS FOR AN ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY ...IN 1980.....😂

Thank you

Congrstz on ur haas , I do maintance vf4 n a vf4ss st work awesome machines , thx for sharing peace

Have you considered altering the clamp at the tip so you can't clamp them in backwards? try to mitigate that possibly for error

Hey Walter, thanks for the video and congrats on your new machine! Did you demo the first knife one step at a time for the sake of the video, or is this your typical workflow? Because once the first operation is done on the first blank you can basically make a program where you make the first operation on a second blank, then continue to the second operation on the first blank, then add a third blank etc. The time saving is not significant in small runs, but you start to feel it on longer ones.

Excellent!!!!!!!! Set up a tool path to run 4 blanks at a time. You could smoke production.

Excited for the nightfall

Very nice 👍.

I really expected a glass of scotch and a cigar with that label😂😂😂. Great job Walter, it will get better and better as you get used to the new Haas. I agree with someone above that with time you can have several blades on that fixture and do each process together, then just rotate each blank to the next step. Will definitely be a time saver

I love the channel. I'm just not sure it would be faster for me. I'm sure I'd lose my mind fooling with the cnc😂

Coolant is more for evacuating chips to add life to your end mill.

I would see some scientific( very accurate) testing with this approach vs forged. Might be counter intuitive to you products but I don’t think it will. Lots of people claim forging makes blades strong because it makes them more homogenous. I Understand the reasoning, but with that said everything has to be done very precisely with temperature and technique. Cold stock removal with a precisely dialed heat treatment makes for a better blade that’s perfectly replicated. That goes especially for stainless steel blades.

Does it make sense to bolt blanks into each station and run all of the programs at once, then shift each blank to the next station?

Hey Walter. CNC machinist here. I could help reduce your cycle times big time in your programming. This would boost how many knives you could do a day. I'm not looking for anything monetary. I have started blacksmithing as a hobby, so just being able to ask you questions would be enough. Let me know if you would be interested.

I wonder if it could make sense to offset one of your fixturing holes so the parts only fit one way.

For the laser cut blanks, do you find it hardens metals on the edges? Dose it effect machining?

Will your laser cut blanks have a heat affected zone(HAZ) on the cut edge that will require annealing like plasma cut edges? If it does the hardened edge could decrease tool life in the mill.

14 years, where does the time go

HI! Great Video! Make a colab with the titans of cnc, he would probably speed up the production cycle about 3 times :-) Tanks for sharing. Greets

I would imagine the HAAS gives you perfect repeatable bevels and shapes 99.9% of the time and makes for great quality control

You should try to make a knife out of the messed up blank. An exercise in creativity

take your "modified" aka mess up blank and make a knife. It will be a 1-off knife. i will buy it!!!!!!

Why not just laser to size?

Coolant will extend the life of your tooling a lot, but you already know this Walter but some don’t. That’s why it’s used for folks unfamiliar with it. And coolant makes clean up a lot more fun too. I see you have the new model polish chip conveyor installed, lol. That’s a joke friends. Not a dig on Polish folks. I really dislike the new “woke” bs. Anyway Walter, you have a very nice machine there and of course you should be proud of what you have achieved for yourself and your family. I’ve watched for many years and you always teach something, even if I didn’t know I was learning.

Taking the human element almost completely out of knife making... I'm getting to an age that's hard swinging a hammer but it's the only way I'll do it

Knife maker?

Thats what my dad always said, you can educate ignorance but you cant fix stupid. 😂 He was a D.I.

Like for coffee))

Long way from a forge, hammer and anvil……

meh... ive thought about going this route with my knife and sword making... but machine lack the heart and soul... you make a bunch cookie cutter blades... anyone can be a push buttom blacksmith... but i know before i started making knives and just bought knives... i loved finding unique knives... 1 of a kinds... TRULY made by hand... hammers and files... id rather pay a craftsman $2000 for a knife thats not exactly the same as any other... but thats well made... by someone who took the time to make their bevels perfect with a file... than to pay $500 for the same knife made by a machine... and thats the attitude ive taken into my knifemaking... it can be done... ill throw a knife in the garbage before i send it out less than PERFECT... its all a matter of how much you enjoy the art... and how willing you are to shoot for perfection... vrs a quick profit...

I'm so ANGRY!! Everyone is going the milling route now. Takes out completely the whole idea of handmade tools..sellout!! What happens when you can't get parts for that fancy machine?? Glad you know how to do it because we will be going backwards..

First

Production knives have no soul and are complete crap imo. I forge my own so I can respect myself in the morning. Forge On!!!

Dude doesn't even grind the bevels...