Met this past week with my new industrial designer Jon; with Harry, my amazing lead machinist; and an intermediary machinist (also John, who works with both the designer and with Harry, mostly on medical gear). We went over the designer’s drawings in detail. They discussed what machinery would be needed to do the fine/precision lathe and milling work that would be needed to make all the parts. The decision was “a 5-axis precision lathe with precision milling capability.” (!!) Well, ooookay! Harry called his rep for those types of machines (he has some of their machines, but not this one.)

Next day, Harry said the rep had referred him to a guy who is … amazingly … just 11 miles away!! (The intermediary guy said he knew a bunch of folks up in NJ with that machining capability, but we wanted someone we could actually go look over their shop and, as Harry phrased it: “see if they were flakes.” Harry also says his rep has never yet referred him to someone who was not excellent.)

Harry has spoken with the guy, who says his shop can do what Harry was describing, and he has the … push-off bar? I think the intermediary machinist said would be useful for making the retaining rings … that allows the part to be machined on the lathe, then automatically pushed to the edge and sawn off, sequentially – saving massive amounts of hand work!)

So, we’ve emailed the package of drawings for the custom scopes to this guy, and are planning to go up and meet him once he has had a chance to look over all the drawings.