Long story but here goes.
I give the utmost respect for the men and women who serve our country. With out them there is a good chance I would not live the life I have.
02/08/2017 3:30am
Not so awake or ready for this day but drinking my coffee and getting ready for work. 4:00am off to work dodge the deer and avoid the speed traps. 4:50am arrive at work and talk to friends while waiting on the clock to hit 5:00am.
7:00am break time a new guy was talking about his brother is getting to stop by Friday for about an hour before he heads out to get shipped off to who knows were. This guy is trying to figure out what kind of gift to get his brother and being a new guy he was pretty much broke. My name got brought up and so I was asked if I could make something I said sure and we could work out something at a later time and that I would start on it after work.
6:00pm
Got home and had dinner then out to the shop I go. Digging through the wood pile I locate what I will use and start this whole process. 9:00pm machine is set up and cad finished and gcode ready to upload. Ready to settle in for a long night. 10:30 face milling of both sides done and 3d file ready to run all going smooth nothing to do but play baby sitter.
02/09/2017 3:00am
About half done. Mind you this is gonna take some time .1mm 20deg vbit @150ipm. Some where between 5 and 6am I pass out in the shop with machine cranking away while I am face planted on the keyboard. 8:30am getting yelled at by the wife (hey stupid you got a problem wake up!). To my dismay the bit had broke I thought ok I can fix this then I look at my computer only to see a message saying I am sorry I made a mistake my brother will be here between noon and one. So with out thinking I replied ok I’ll be there as soon as I can. Then It hit me what I had said @%$#& What am I gonna do now.
No time and it is now 9:00am and out of 20deg vbits I grab a .125 ballnose redo the cam file to go with the new bit and away we go. To the limits this machine is gonna get pushed to. 175ipm and 175plunge all or nothing now. oh and I forgot to mention there will be his name and a image laser engraved on the back. 1:23pm I finish and he will leaving soon like around 2:00 and I am almost 38 miles away. I run out get in the truck and crank on the heat because the clear finish is still wet. So driving like a mad man (just a little faster than everyone else) and dying of heat exhaustion from the heater I arrive to my destination @2:04. I made alot of people very happy today and when we return to work I will not be accepting this mans money he needs it more than I do. I am not looking for a pat on the back just wanting to let people know that anything is possible when you put your mind to it.
And I would like to thank the people that made this day possible because with out them I could never have done this.
@PhilJohnson
@Zach_Kaplan and the staff
@LarryM
@picengravertoo
@JohnChamplain
@JTechPhotonics
I know I missing some names but you know who you are and thank you.
I hate that my bit broke and ran out of time there was so much more I wanted to do. But they were happy and loved it and in the end that is what matters.
Part of my practice is I do not show customers names so it is blocked in the photo