Other CMTS/SME Show
- Thread starter Former Member
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Former Member
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That video while great doesn't do it justice. Here are a few examples.
Got to see a blank used to make carbide drill bits with thru coolant. Was also explained how its done. You get an appreciation of why some cooling costs what it does. (Shown in the video).
Learning about what Coatings do to cutters, what you gain and what you lose when you have them or not.
Saw some of the new modular vises, small footprint, good capacity and great hold. Shade more expensive than a Kurt, smaller in size way more versitile.
CNC machines, OMG. Similar in price to HAAS CNC or Tormach, light years ahead.
The last big show I was at was just before COVID and the advancements in a few short years takes your breath away.
Got to see a blank used to make carbide drill bits with thru coolant. Was also explained how its done. You get an appreciation of why some cooling costs what it does. (Shown in the video).
Learning about what Coatings do to cutters, what you gain and what you lose when you have them or not.
Saw some of the new modular vises, small footprint, good capacity and great hold. Shade more expensive than a Kurt, smaller in size way more versitile.
CNC machines, OMG. Similar in price to HAAS CNC or Tormach, light years ahead.
The last big show I was at was just before COVID and the advancements in a few short years takes your breath away.
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
Seeing that stuff in person, and being able to have a conversation in real time would be the real benefit. Watching videos on the internet is pretty close though for those that can't travel or attend in person. Back When I was in inspection and design I got to travel more. I always loved going to our customers and seeing their operations, and new cool tools. Still remember the first time I saw white light scanners back in the day. I left there with my mind blown, and the whole drive home thinking my job (of building attribute checking fixtures) was going to be instantly obsolete. That was about 20 years ago and we're still building them. Just a bit different. Scanning technology changed the way we gauge things in a big way. Body panel fixtures have sure changed because of it. Structural stampings less, but there was a ripple effect. Much less full form body block style fixtures, and more open hybrid Holding/checking fixtures now. I haven't really been on the road in about 10 years, so my knowledge of newer tech and stuff is severely outdated.
I remember my first time holding a 3d printed part (powder stl). It was a door hinge model that I was designing a fixture for. It got handed to me and I was being told to be careful with it at about the exact time I broke in my cement hands......Apparently it took all night to print the thing, on a machine costing more than I made in a year. Now we have a customer that send us parts, better quality than that (and much more durable....) printed on an ender 3 lol. It's completely unnecessary to have a printed model of that part for what we're doing, and it's basically just engineers geeking out and wasting time with their office toy (they've told me that), but it's amazing to see the progress since then. My Elegoo mars at home can do much better than both of those printers and cost me $360. The trickle down to consumer technology has been incredible.
I do enjoy the forefront of technology. I get frustrated and defeated sometimes because I work in a shop in an industry that is so anti progress about everything. I need change.....Anyway, enough rambling.
I'll try and make the next one.
I remember my first time holding a 3d printed part (powder stl). It was a door hinge model that I was designing a fixture for. It got handed to me and I was being told to be careful with it at about the exact time I broke in my cement hands......Apparently it took all night to print the thing, on a machine costing more than I made in a year. Now we have a customer that send us parts, better quality than that (and much more durable....) printed on an ender 3 lol. It's completely unnecessary to have a printed model of that part for what we're doing, and it's basically just engineers geeking out and wasting time with their office toy (they've told me that), but it's amazing to see the progress since then. My Elegoo mars at home can do much better than both of those printers and cost me $360. The trickle down to consumer technology has been incredible.
I do enjoy the forefront of technology. I get frustrated and defeated sometimes because I work in a shop in an industry that is so anti progress about everything. I need change.....Anyway, enough rambling.
I'll try and make the next one.
historicalarms
Ultra Member
When I purchased my hobby Taiwanese lathe there was a ticket free to a Machinist trade show being held in Edmonton so off I went with just an interest in seeing the newest & bestest in action....what did I come away with, 1/2 a truckload of cut-offs & coupons & some shafting from all the machine demonstrations being held . The vendors were more than agreeable to me carrying their "ends and such " away for them , that was 20 yrs ago and I still have some of those cut-off rounds in my scrap pile that get re-purposed now and again.
I knew CMTS/CME was coming but wasn’t too interested. Fabtech is more in tune with my interest and I’ll certainly attend it again. Trade shows have dropped off of my radar. Before retiring, trade shows were a regular and an important thing for me. The bigger the better!! Some of the very best shows are only held every 4 years. Too bad that a lot of the really great shows are in Las Vegas. That’s not my kinda town, but I’ve been there over a dozen times for a show. One of North America’s biggest is CONEXPO/CON-AGG where manufacturers and distributors spend several million dollars on their display space.
True Show Story: (but first some background info - my Dad and his brother Wally both wanted to be in the Air Force but ended up in the Army for most of WW2, and also my Aunt and Uncle had 9 kids and lived a modest lifestyle)
My Aunt and Uncle were over visiting at my parents and Wally said he planned to go to the Car Show the next day. Aunt Frieda barked back (which was out of character for this gentle lady) “What the heck! - we can’t afford a new car!!”. Wally responded with “I go to the Air Show every year but not to buy an airplane”.
(hopefully Degen you didn’t find this too much of a thread drift)
PS: Fabtech Canada is every other year. Next is June 11-13, 2024 in Toronto
True Show Story: (but first some background info - my Dad and his brother Wally both wanted to be in the Air Force but ended up in the Army for most of WW2, and also my Aunt and Uncle had 9 kids and lived a modest lifestyle)
My Aunt and Uncle were over visiting at my parents and Wally said he planned to go to the Car Show the next day. Aunt Frieda barked back (which was out of character for this gentle lady) “What the heck! - we can’t afford a new car!!”. Wally responded with “I go to the Air Show every year but not to buy an airplane”.
(hopefully Degen you didn’t find this too much of a thread drift)
PS: Fabtech Canada is every other year. Next is June 11-13, 2024 in Toronto