kerrazy
03-10-2009, 11:03 AM
Guys and Gals.... I implore you to turn off CNN!
Now take a second and look around you without that din of negativity surrounding you.
What do you see?
hopefully, all that you saw when you first purchased your ShopBot, and some of those other tools in your shops.
Remember the sleepless nights, when you first got your ShopBot, and you could hardly stop thinking of all the things you could do with it. Sleep, the money your borrowed and offered up to purchase you new CNC and defeat were the last things on your mind. So why should today be any different.
Oh don't get me wrong, I certainly can appreciate set backs. I have had my share. BUT.......
as a song my 2 and half year old recently brought to my attention from the famous Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie... Up from the ashes grow the roses of success.
And it is sitting right in front of you.
Ok enough banter, now time for the facts.
in 2002... I started sniffing around the world of CNC technology and stumbled across the ShopBot Company.
I was employed with a non-profit group called LiveWorkPlay, in Ottawa, Ontario, teaching young adults with intellectual disabilities how to become inclusive members of society, through a woodworking program. During this time I realized well, frankly these guys did not need bird houses, and frankly how would that allow them to become included members of society anyhow. They needed a product they could design manufacture and sell. so we set to work looking for such a thing. We stumbled across a simple little wooden clock, that we could produce for the tourist trade, and decided we should pursue manufacturing them.
During sorting out the logistics of this venture, I was very wary of injury, and felt having these folks using bandsaws was not really in my or their best interest and looked further into the ShopBot CNC tool to aid us in repetitive cutting.
Realizing the huge investment for such a tool that I was unfamiliar with, and the fact we were a grass roots non-profit... I really had to dig in and learn how to make this work.
One great advantage I had, and I understand it was a huge advantage over 99% of fellow forum members is I did not have to meet overheads and get a product out right away, so this afforded me a lot of opportunity to play with our new tool.
After I would say a good 9 months of playing, we had become fairly confident in this new tool, and with the support of ShopBot staff, and the folks right here on this forum, we had broken bits, crashed into other obstacles, ruined material and in the end ultimately succeeded.
Well, after 2 years, funding streams changed and that meant the focus had changed as well, so this would mean the demise of the woodworking program.
I foolishly thought, with little to no capital I could carry on and do what I always did, make signs and cut custom parts for other people. So I took over all of the assets of the woodworking program and was cock of the walk.
Mr. Man... my own shop and was proud to tell anyone who would listen how great I was....
To those of you who had to endure this, I am very sorry. To others who got swept up in my excitement, I am not sorry as I hope it was inspirational to you, and you could sift through it and take some kernels of knowledge.
Anyhow, like 60% of entrepreneurs, I eventually became a statistic, and closed my shop. I had a child on the way, and needed to get grounded and in a hurry. I took on full time work with a software company that created CADCAM software. This is a job, I would not have even been considered for had it not been for ShopBot. I have no formal training in software development, but what I did have was practical knowledge that no keyboard jockey could provide.
This was a 2 year contract, which ended last July and although I was little concerned, with it ending, it was not more then 24 hrs that opportunities started to arise.
Interestingly enough, the place I landed is a company that came to visit me while I was at LiveWorkPlay, to have a look at our ShopBot tool.
Upon my advice they purchased one themselves.
this past August they offered me a job, to come in as their fabrication manager, and get their shop in order, and their ShopBot, up to speed.
Well It took me a couple months to get my bearings and get my head wrapped around what they were producing.
as of the middle of january, we have been able to increase production on our main parts by a whopping 80%. all due to a little know how, and some unique fixturing.
before we would take 2-3 hours to produce less then perfect 6, 72" long pieces including setup times. Now we produce 9, 98" long parts with perfect accuracy in 12 minutes.
Now I can not take all the responsibility for this, as they already had the basics sorted out, I just needed to refine and tweak it to get it to maximum capacity.
Our shop is not as quiet as most, yet we do have some lags in production, and these give me opportunities to reflect on all the neat stuff we can make our CNC do. and I try at least 3 times a day to let those juices flow, to ensure I am always trying to push the bounds.
this has paid off, yesterday, I was informed that I am to receive a raise and a bonus. This to me is remarkable given such economic times.
In the end, I need to say thanks to ShopBot, and all the great contributors to the forum, who have allowed me to get paid for playing.
Now take a second and look around you without that din of negativity surrounding you.
What do you see?
hopefully, all that you saw when you first purchased your ShopBot, and some of those other tools in your shops.
Remember the sleepless nights, when you first got your ShopBot, and you could hardly stop thinking of all the things you could do with it. Sleep, the money your borrowed and offered up to purchase you new CNC and defeat were the last things on your mind. So why should today be any different.
Oh don't get me wrong, I certainly can appreciate set backs. I have had my share. BUT.......
as a song my 2 and half year old recently brought to my attention from the famous Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie... Up from the ashes grow the roses of success.
And it is sitting right in front of you.
Ok enough banter, now time for the facts.
in 2002... I started sniffing around the world of CNC technology and stumbled across the ShopBot Company.
I was employed with a non-profit group called LiveWorkPlay, in Ottawa, Ontario, teaching young adults with intellectual disabilities how to become inclusive members of society, through a woodworking program. During this time I realized well, frankly these guys did not need bird houses, and frankly how would that allow them to become included members of society anyhow. They needed a product they could design manufacture and sell. so we set to work looking for such a thing. We stumbled across a simple little wooden clock, that we could produce for the tourist trade, and decided we should pursue manufacturing them.
During sorting out the logistics of this venture, I was very wary of injury, and felt having these folks using bandsaws was not really in my or their best interest and looked further into the ShopBot CNC tool to aid us in repetitive cutting.
Realizing the huge investment for such a tool that I was unfamiliar with, and the fact we were a grass roots non-profit... I really had to dig in and learn how to make this work.
One great advantage I had, and I understand it was a huge advantage over 99% of fellow forum members is I did not have to meet overheads and get a product out right away, so this afforded me a lot of opportunity to play with our new tool.
After I would say a good 9 months of playing, we had become fairly confident in this new tool, and with the support of ShopBot staff, and the folks right here on this forum, we had broken bits, crashed into other obstacles, ruined material and in the end ultimately succeeded.
Well, after 2 years, funding streams changed and that meant the focus had changed as well, so this would mean the demise of the woodworking program.
I foolishly thought, with little to no capital I could carry on and do what I always did, make signs and cut custom parts for other people. So I took over all of the assets of the woodworking program and was cock of the walk.
Mr. Man... my own shop and was proud to tell anyone who would listen how great I was....
To those of you who had to endure this, I am very sorry. To others who got swept up in my excitement, I am not sorry as I hope it was inspirational to you, and you could sift through it and take some kernels of knowledge.
Anyhow, like 60% of entrepreneurs, I eventually became a statistic, and closed my shop. I had a child on the way, and needed to get grounded and in a hurry. I took on full time work with a software company that created CADCAM software. This is a job, I would not have even been considered for had it not been for ShopBot. I have no formal training in software development, but what I did have was practical knowledge that no keyboard jockey could provide.
This was a 2 year contract, which ended last July and although I was little concerned, with it ending, it was not more then 24 hrs that opportunities started to arise.
Interestingly enough, the place I landed is a company that came to visit me while I was at LiveWorkPlay, to have a look at our ShopBot tool.
Upon my advice they purchased one themselves.
this past August they offered me a job, to come in as their fabrication manager, and get their shop in order, and their ShopBot, up to speed.
Well It took me a couple months to get my bearings and get my head wrapped around what they were producing.
as of the middle of january, we have been able to increase production on our main parts by a whopping 80%. all due to a little know how, and some unique fixturing.
before we would take 2-3 hours to produce less then perfect 6, 72" long pieces including setup times. Now we produce 9, 98" long parts with perfect accuracy in 12 minutes.
Now I can not take all the responsibility for this, as they already had the basics sorted out, I just needed to refine and tweak it to get it to maximum capacity.
Our shop is not as quiet as most, yet we do have some lags in production, and these give me opportunities to reflect on all the neat stuff we can make our CNC do. and I try at least 3 times a day to let those juices flow, to ensure I am always trying to push the bounds.
this has paid off, yesterday, I was informed that I am to receive a raise and a bonus. This to me is remarkable given such economic times.
In the end, I need to say thanks to ShopBot, and all the great contributors to the forum, who have allowed me to get paid for playing.