My swan song

[Dan Dubeau]

I'm coming to the end of a 20 year career in automotive fixture and tooling design/building, and finishing up a couple jobs before I starting into a new trade as a Millwright on Monday. Kinda of bittersweet knowing these will be the last jobs like this I will most likely ever do. I'm going to miss certain aspects of it for sure. I always enjoyed the design/problem solving and fussy tight tolerance side of it, but have kind of been relegated to design/programming and running the CNC's the past 7-8 years as we've had trouble retaining good people due to circumstances beyond my control.... Anyway, not my problem anymore....

Here's the last "big" job I finished last week. A checking fixture for an under the hood cover for a new EV. Almost takes up the entire table of the VF6.









I did all the design/modeling/programming and all the blockup on that one, and then handed it off to another toolmaker to do all the pin work and final build out. I don't really get to do that part anymore, as there's too much CNC stuff to do, but I really enjoy and miss it. The only time I get to do that anymore is for revision work, where I just do it all.

I have one more job on the list, and it's a fairly straight forward one for a heat shield fixture. These get anodized red for this customer, and look really sharp when done, but I won't be around to see it get finished . Big 13x14x5 6061 block to start with, but will be a lot smaller (and much easier to lift) when it comes out.


Roughed overnight, and I have the semi finish/rest rough running right now and will take a few hours before I get the finisher on that will run about 8 hours.


I'll post up when i finish it tomorrow, there's a few undercuts and holes to put in. A few odds and ends to clean up on a bunch of other jobs so I don't stick my replacement with a bunch half finished projects, but should be able to wind it down tomorrow afternoon barring any hiccups......Will probably come in Friday to tie up some loose ends anyway, as I need to stop and get some steel from Kawartha for another project at home. Ducking out early today to get the first round of golf in for the year. Gotta enjoy that perk while I can, as my working life is about to get very different.....

Looking back I really wish I'd taken more pics along the way (we didn't always have cameras in our pockets....) I only really started doing so the last few years, but thinking back through a bunch of cool jobs over the years makes me wish I'd documented them more. Especially the kinematic ones, and oddball locating feature ones that were responsible for that bald spot on my head, a few assembly ones with electronics and pneumatics as we tried to branch out into new fields, also some cool welding fixtures, and various other types too.....It's been fun. It's time for a new adventure though.

 

[140mower]

Good luck with the new career path. I love changing hats from time to time, change being the spice of life and all....

 

[DPittman]

Cool and beyond my comprehension. Good luck in life's new adventure ( I doubt you will be bored).

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Good luck with the new career path. I love changing hats from time to time, change being the spice of life and all....

Thanks. I've moved around within the industry a few times at a few different companies over the years (all gone now). Started in design out of college, then into CMM/inspection, then CNC programming, and eventually out on the floor as a machinist, and now getting to do all the above. I've thought hard about starting my own shop and striking out on my own (came very close to starting a 3rd party inspection company about 7 years ago), but the changes in this industry, over the past 5-6 years specifically and competition from China make that a path that's a losing proposition imo. I always got the urge to get into something new about every 4-5 years. I'm long overdue for a change....I'm too damn curious about learning new things to stay planted for too long....

Had a good talk with the Owner yesterday, and we still have a good relationship. The door is open if the new career doesn't work out, and I offered my services to contract program and design to help out, or if work gets slow through the union come back on a part time/temp basis. He's open to that, but he no longer manages the day to day, so we'll see where that goes.....Very easily the best Boss I've ever, and will ever work for in my life. I have a ton of respect for him, and what's he's built here. It's tough to leave, but it's time.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Cool and beyond my comprehension. Good luck in life's new adventure ( I doubt you will be bored).

Thanks. Millwright is another vast trade description with a lot of different opportunities within. I won't get to choose for the first couple years, and am completely at the mercy of calls from the hall starting as a fresh first year. Good excuse to get back in shape and lose the desk job pounds packed on over the years.....

I don't think I'll ever get bored either. Tired and sore, yes .

 

[Susquatch]

I'm coming to the end of a 20 year career in automotive fixture and tooling design/building, and finishing up a couple jobs before I starting into a new trade as a Millwright on Monday. Kinda of bittersweet knowing these will be the last jobs like this I will most likely ever do. I'm going to miss certain aspects of it for sure. I always enjoyed the design/problem solving and fussy tight tolerance side of it, but have kind of been relegated to design/programming and running the CNC's the past 7-8 years as we've had trouble retaining good people due to circumstances beyond my control.... Anyway, not my problem anymore....

There is always the greatest best all species all sizes fishing lure ever Dan...... Not to mention spinning yarn for the better half.....

 

[Dan Dubeau]

There is always the greatest best all species all sizes fishing lure ever Dan...... Not to mention spinning yarn for the better half.....

Maybe now I'll have to spare time to finish a few projects like that that have been back burner'd to too long....I just need to continually fight off the other half and her ambitions of using me for cheap labour. That's what he have the kids for

 

[Hruul]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Best of luck with the new job/career.

 

[DavidR8]

Wow, new adventures await. Very cool work btw

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Digging through my pics.....will post a few more

Here's a cam mechanism I designed/machined to operate a locating feature on a muffler baffle fixture. Part of a package of jobs we got years ago. Pretty fun to figure out and make. There was another different style I did with a large flat cam plate with 4 locations, but I can't find that. I'll keep looking.
https://imgur.com/MKjyurA



I cannot find pics of the completed gauge. I used to just take pics of the interesting stuff i guess......

 

[Tomc938]

...her ambitions of using me for cheap labour. That's what he have the kids for

Best wishes for your new adventure. Things like this keep the brain young and that drags the rest of your body along with it.

Afraid you were sold a bill of goods as far as children. While production is fun, the maintenance over the years really starts to add up. (Going to my 25 year old daughter's place to install a wall heater and fix the drywall in an hour). And you cannot divide any number by my hourly wage.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

A few more....

A large engine cradle fixture. All the plates slide in and out on linear rails to be able to load the part. That one was a few days work....


This was a pneumatic welding fixture. A bit of a story with this one....A lot of work for nothing as it was a cluster f of misinformation back and forth with engineers, and in the end it was next to useless for what they actually needed (which was different than what they wanted when they ordered and signed off on it....)


That collet and mandrel were fun to make (4140 ph). Double taper so it expands parallel on both ends. Had to make a boring bar to do it, and was fun to "time" the taper. Still burns me the way that all went down..... It worked great though

More collets...


Some janky "5axis" work......Did a lot of this over the years. I miss having a 5 axis for stuff. I always found it MUCH easier to do this work, and with just a 3axis machine.


Looks pretty sketchy, but is actually pretty stable. The trick is blocking stuff in so it can't move, and adjusting your expectations and cutting parameters. You can see all the clamps and jacks I have in there. In op 1 for this block, I cut the reference for op2, then dialed up those references square to the machine to cut a pocket I needed on a compound angle. The references all get machined away in op3, and i'm left with a pocket for an insert on a very specific angle in position, I couldn't other wise get without an actual 5 axis machine. The steel datum inserts on this fixture were cut the same way. They were precut from O1 and hardened, then hardmilled in situation to finish within 0.001" positional tolerance to the main body. I'd often leave material on in a direction that was easy to remove and tweak them in when the job was on the CMM for final inspection. That was the fun stuff.

 

[Tomc938]

WOW WOW WOW!

A piece of art even if the engineers didn't know what they were talking about.

Wonder what the final price per pound was on that jig.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

WOW WOW WOW!

A piece of art even if the engineers didn't know what they were talking about.

Wonder what the final price per pound was on that jig.

I don't recall the price. I wasn't always privy to that for most things. If I had to guess it'd be around $15-20k for that? I do know the only ones that made money from it were the couriers though.....

The problem in a nutshell was they were trying to replace an aging fixture and change their manufacturing process at the same time. The existing fixture located off of a premachined reactor bore (welding equipment), and they now wanted to machine the reactor bore first and then locate off the finish machined diameter to weld on the mounting flange. That's what was communicated to me, and our salesman from the start by their engineer in charge during the reviews, and my tour of the place and talking with the staff. They signed off on the concept and design, with the diameter CLEARLY stated from the get go. When it was done and sent to them, they had a fit that the mandrel was too big, and wouldn't fit their pre machined parts.....We went back and forth on where things went wrong, but we agreed to remachine the collet to the new size....That was fun....trying to machine a spring, but I got it done, and it came out great. Except that it was TOO precise for their pre machined parts, and it locate them properly and didn't work the way they (the old hands on the floor) wanted. No kidding, If I knew that from the start I would have designed it totally different..... The engineer suddenly got amnesia about the whole changing of the process, and stuff...... Anyway, At that point is was essentially a worthless boat anchor, and source of contention between a few people here, and I took the brunt of the blame because I was the one that made it.... That's life I guess....can't win them all.....

I don't want to dox the customer, but the funny part is, we usually paint all the carts, and stuff like that blue. That was in the process of being painted, when I happened to go out in the shop to tell the guy painting to turn on the exhaust fan (my office is on the other side of the wall), when I noticed him painting it blue. I mentioned who the customer was, and said "don't you think we should paint it red?" After some back and forth the lightbulb went off, and we had a chuckle and he went out and bought some red tremclad. I don't think blue would have went over well.....Not that it would have mattered in the end though

 

[Dan Dubeau]

To explain what Susquatch said about fishing lures, Here's a lure I designed, and mold I made in pursuit of giant lake trout. I brought it for the show and tell at the recent meet, but thoughts I toss some pics up for the rest that weren't there to see it. I've caught many with it over the past few years, but no elusive big ones yet. I'll keep trying though (didn't get out at all this winter, and only once the previous one ).





A few iterations of the inner weights to get the action right, before I settled on a size and location and sand cast some aluminum molds to pour lead into and overmold the harness. It was a bit tough to find the right balance.




And here's the initial prototype with a hand dipped tube (same way they make jimmy hats) before I made the mold above. It was crude, and my tube cutting skills needs some work, but believe it or not, I caught a 20" laker on the first drop with it. I lost it at the hole though (poor hook design, needed to be bigger), but very satisfying feeling that tug after a lot of work.




And proof that child labour does work....


Made a bunch of these over the past few years, and a few of my buddies have raided me and had good success with them, but still no big one. They're in the lake, we've seen them, just can't get them. Might have to go back to the drawing board. I have a few new ideas, but the fun and motivating part of this project has set sail TBH, so it's tough to start fresh in a new direction on it. Maybe someday.....

 

[Dan Dubeau]

A couple balsa cranks too. Rainbow, and speckled trout. Propped up on a couple 3d printed putter prototypes I've yet to cast....


And a flatfish/beno copy that I went through the trouble of making molds for and pouring only to find out the action is horrible and it doesn't work.....at all



I have not done any lure stuff in a few years now. Back to work pics...

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Here's some collets made for holding a custom extrusion for a 4th axis fixture. I made a 4th axis nose with a cat 40 taper bore so I could also hold a cat 40 er holder and have a collet nose for the 4th. I also could make special cat40 stub fixtures like these for special jobs.




They held up great for the multi month long run of parts until a swoop of the pen made the things we were machining these parts for highly dangerous and illegal to buy anymore.....

Those located of a machined bore from another op. I doubled checked (with myself) before I went any further with that process.........

 

[Doggggboy]

They held up great for the multi month long run of parts until a swoop of the pen made the things we were machining these parts for highly dangerous and illegal to buy anymore.....

LAWN DARTS?
I bet it was lawn darts.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Busy day. It was nice to be greeted by a finished block this morning. (edit: this was yesterday morning I meant to post this last night)


I needed to setup the universal head for an undercut on the backside of the emboss in the middle. To deep to get with a Lolipop from the top.


Jog in in 0.001" to touch off, back off, and job in in 0.0001" until you get a couple very tiny witness marks. Set your work offset and move it over half the ball diameter. Repeat in other axis. Easy peasy...






Almost perfect blend. This Phone camera picks up some pretty crazy detail with those toolmarks and makes it look much rougher than it actually is. The cusp left from a 1/2"ball at a 0.01" stepover is about a micron (in theory). In practice the tool marks are obviously bigger, but this machine (haas vf5) is pretty tight and in good condition. They will disappear with some light scotchbrite action. It's also just a fixture, not shuttle parts....

Next was some trimline (outer profile of part at max and min material condition), and holes. There is one other hole in this block, but it on a compound angle will get a toolmaker button set for it in the CMM, then will be put in on a manual mill.





Today I have to make the base plate, and the riser block that holds this to the base on the correct angle to make sure the part is gauges "in Car" position. A pretty standard spec for fixtures, but something that makes them a giant pain to machine sometimes.

One more day...It'll be interesting to look back in a few years on this stuff to see if I really miss it or not. It's been fun.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Another busy day yesterday, but got everything wrapped up.

Riser block finished for the heat shield fixture.


And the middle flip block and other on done for the shroud fixture. the middle block flips down out of the way so they can get in there with a scanner and get some data when they want to.


This is what it looks like all spiffed up.

All current projects cleaned up. all unfinished projects on my desk and bench packed up too lol. Might finish them now that they're home. Also came to an arrangement for contract work for when work gets slow with the union. Should work out well for both of us I think. Left my tools for now, but packed up a few I may need at home/on the road.

Not looking forward to getting up at 4am to drive into the city.....16 years of flex hours are going to be a very hard thing to let go of.