Who Are We?

[CNCAppsJames]

I'm James and also an asshole... to some people . I'm 55. Been in manufacturing since 1991/1992.

I was born and raised in Southern California. My wife and 3 of our kids moved to Utah in 2022 and 2023. I have 4 sons, 3 are married. One works at my company in the service department, one is a Sheriff Deputy, one manages safety and loss prevention at a Walmart Distribution facility, the youngest is a deburr guy at a machine shop.

I work for a CNC Machine tool dealer as an Applications Engineer that's HQ is in California. I spend most of my time training customers. When I'm nkt training I'm answering technical qustions via e-mail, DM on IG, eMC, and here. Tech support is pretry much my professional life. And the occasional Turn-Key to staynfresh. Been there since January 2007 IIRC. I spent a few years at Mori Seiki in the 1990's as well as some time at the local Mastercam Dealer in SoCal. My resume is pretty atrotious with the exception of my time at Cummins, Mori Seiki, CAD/CAM Consulting, 4/Flight Industries, NTMA Training Centers, my own gig and where I am now. Those places I spent between 2 and 3 years. There's probably 10 places I was at from months to weeks. Gotta find where you fit.

I began learning Mastercam in 1992 and have spent considerable time in SmartCAM, SurfCAM, CATIA V5, Inventor and PowerMill. I would only claim proficiency in Mastercam, CATIA, and Inventor. CAMplete is my Verification and Post Processing weapon of choice.

I lurked for years at alt.machines.cnc news group. I learned a lot reading the old timers stuff. I never posted.  A good friend... RIP, did and encouraged me to at least lurk. I joined eMC within a month or two of it's inception. I was either member 53 or member 58.

I'm a hardcore FANUC guy. I don't know everything, but I am trying. I've spent time on Siemens 840DI, Mazatrol M64, FADAL CNC88, Prototrak, Vickers A2100, Mitsubishi, and Big Blue Cincinnati.

I have 10 grandkids... 7 granddaughters and 3 grandsons.

For fun, my wife of 31 years tomorrow and I go to National Parks. We have 4 in our backyard. Zion, Bryce, Arches, and Capitol Reef. Yellowstone and Grand Tetons aren't too terribly far away. When I'm not doing all that,  I read.  I read ALOT. Anywhere from 10-20 hours a week.Mostly non-fiction and reference materials.

[mowens]

I am Mike. I'm 68. I'm from Wichita. Wichita's economy is primarily based on aviation. Beech, Cessna and Lear Jet were all founded here. Boeing took over Stearman Aircraft sometime before WW2

I told myself when I was growing up that I wasn't going to work in aircraft. My dad was a sheet metal mechanic at Boeing. The work was cyclical. Up until the 80s or there abouts, if Boeing was slow, the general aircraft companies were hiring so sometimes he was able to go to Cessna when Boeing was slow. My mom worked at Beech and Lear.

After a short stint in radio, when I was 20, I found myself in a position of needing to support a family so I went to Beech Aircraft and ran manual and pin routers. Boeing paid better so I went there working in "hand finish of machined parts" and heat treat. I hated it and 2nd shift so I went looking for a different job. Cessna was starting a training class for tool and die makers. Wasn't sure what it was but it was 1st shift and paid better. I stayed there about a year and then, on Oct. 10, 1979 went back to Boeing because they paid better. In 1986 I was sick of being on the shop floor and Boeing started an NC Programming class. You had to have calculus and pass a test to get in, which I did. Again, had virtually no idea what it was, I just knew it was air conditioned and paid okay. Programming was done in APT. Verification was done with a 3 view scaled sketch of your part and a light table.
I've contracted at several places, including Bombardier in Montreal; Boston, Detroit, and Chicago teaching Macro B and basic g-code for what was, at the time, GE Fanuc Automation. Then, Vought in Dallas. Vought is no more.
After that, jobs got scarce so I took a job as a sheet metal inspector and eventually moved to programming. with MC V8. That was in early 2000 and that's when I came in contact with the forum. Mastercam was completely different from Catia and APT and I never got very good at it. There is a a reason James hates Catia and I hate MC. I should note, they are much more similar now than they used to be.

I've been at Spirit Aerosystems since 2009 in defence composite prototypes. I use Vericut Composite Programming and Vericut Composite Simulation.

[CNCAppsJames]

... in early 2000 and that's when I came in contact with the forum. Mastercam was completely different from Catia and APT and I never got very good at it. There is a a reason James hates Catia and I hate MC. I should note, they are much more similar now than they used to be.

Yeah, you could do Calculus... I never saw past Pre-Algebra, and barely passed it. you is WAY smarter than me. 😁

Little did I know I would learn geometry and algebra installing car stereos then a few years later I would learn trig machining.

I grew to tolerate CATIA CAM... after I spent about 10 years on it.   reminded me a lot of PowerMill with all the entry/exit macros... A million different little ways to violate a part is what I saw there. . I learned to actually like CATIA CAD. That took about a year or two.

[mkd]

Single white female
40f low body count
Looking for serious relationship only.
No players.
If you're a 6/6/6 hit me up
 

[SuperHoneyBadger]

For fun, my wife of 31 years tomorrow

Happy anniversary, James, congratulations! There are very few things I have done for 31 years. And I know from how you speak about your family here that you are very fortunate, all the best to you!

[mowens]

Happy Anniversary, James!

I said I took calculus. I didn't really understand it. 

Me taking calculus, which led to the programming class and my career, are thanks to one college instructor. I was taking  pre-calculus while working full time. As with most things I started, I lost interest part way through and pretty much quit going. The instructor kept bugging me to come back, way beyond what I would expect. I actually think the class was over when I came in and finished up. I took calculus as an 8 week evening summer class. (Big mistake; like drinking from a fire hose.)
If she hadn't been as persistent as she was, I most likely wouldn't have the career I have.

[Del.]

Happy Anniversary, James!

I said I took calculus. I didn't really understand it. 

Me taking calculus, which led to the programming class and my career, are thanks to one college instructor. I was taking  pre-calculus while working full time. As with most things I started, I lost interest part way through and pretty much quit going. The instructor kept bugging me to come back, way beyond what I would expect. I actually think the class was over when I came in and finished up. I took calculus as an 8 week evening summer class. (Big mistake; like drinking from a fire hose.)
If she hadn't been as persistent as she was, I most likely wouldn't have the career I have.

I took Calculus 1 in college. Started with 25 in class. At finals there was 9. I passed with a D and was happy. Hardest class I ever took. Had to drop calculus 2. Way over my head.

[JParis]

Whatever you do, never drink and derive

[gcode]

Single white female
40f low body count
Looking for serious relationship only.

dang, we worked together in the same office,
you sure had me fooled 

I have to ask... does your wife know about this??

[Jim at Gentex]

Great idea for a thread!

I'm Jim.
As my screen name suggests I work at Gentex Corporation in Northeast PA, from which I will be retiring next week after working here for 34 years.
I will turn 64 in September of this year, so I was fortunate enough to be able to retire early.

I went to Vo-Tech in high school for Machine Shop and have stayed in this trade for my whole adult life.
I started as a manual machinist working in several different shops, running mostly Bridgeports, lathes, drill presses, surface grinders, etc., and I had one job as a Tool & Cutter Grinder for 10 years earlier in my career.

I started as a manual machinist in the R&D Shop here at Gentex in 1991, and shortly after that they purchased their first 2 Fadal CNC mills.
I learned Mastercam way back then, which was just getting started, and I believe I started with Version 2 or 3.
 (Not X2, but Version 2!)

In 2006 my employer bought a Deckel Maho DMU80T 5-axis mill, and I have been programming, setting up, and operating that machine ever since, doing both R&D projects, and production work, so that is the majority of my responsibility.
And YES, it is nice being both Programmer and Operator because I can't blame anyone but myself if I screw up. 

We also have one CNC Operator for 2 Haas 5-axis production machines that I was doing the programming for, but when I floated the idea of retiring about a year ago, they hired a young guy to replace me and gave me sufficient time to train him.
Edit: I also earned an Associate's Degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of Scranton in 2013, by taking night courses which my employer paid for.

Personal life, I married my high-school sweetheart in 1982, and we have been happily married ever since.
(42 years and counting.)
The Lord has blessed us with 3 great kids, a boy and 2 girls, and so far, 5 grandkids, 3 girls and 2 boys, ranging in age from the oldest @ 14, to the youngest, born just 6 months ago.

I also enlisted in the Army National Guard right out of high-school and served a 20-year career there in a Mech Infantry Battalion.
My 20 years ended in January 2001, and of course, 9/11 happened in September.
Fortunately, I was never deployed, but I did subsequently lose a couple of buddies I trained with who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For recreation I love playing golf in the summer, and my wife and I belong to a mixed bowling league through the winter.
We also enjoy camping in the summer with my sis and her husband at a campground where they own property.

I am totally looking forward to my retirement, and I'm sure I will never get bored because my Mrs. has a list of home remodeling projects that I have been wanting to get to but never had the time.   

[YoDoug]

To finish my EE degree I had to take Calc 1, Calc 2, and a diff eq class based on electronic circuits. That last one really sucked but luckily we had the use of MATLAB and NI Multisim.

I also had a frequency analysis class that was heavy in frequency domain and Fourier and Laplace transform functions. At the time I took that class I had the opportunity work on an Okuma that had their Navi-MI chatter control option. the option uses a vibration sensor to analyze milling chatter and automatically adjusts spindle speed to eliminate certain chatter frequencies. Similar to how noise cancelling headphones work. The option will allow to view chatter signals in both time and frequency domain. Pretty cool stuff. The customer was milling with .25 endmill sticking 1.5" out of a holder. They originally programmed it for 6000 rpm. Manually they had to slow it down to 3500 to get rid of the chatter. With the Okuma option it calculated 6013 was the sweet rpm and automatically adjusted. It was like the chatter had an on/off switch. Literally went from screaming to smooth as butter mid-cut. Recorded the change in the program and kept going.

IMO, calculus could be easily argued as the single greatest science/math discovery mankind has ever figured out. Our modern world would not exist as it does without calculus.

[mowens]

My wife says calculus was when math really started making sense.
I probably would have gotten more out of it but the classes were 3 hours long, 3 or 4 nights a week for 8 weeks plus homework. It was all I could do to keep my head above water.

[Brad St]

My junior year of HS we had just finished Algebra 2. The teacher showed us what we'd expect to be learning in Calc1 how 1+1=3. I had been taking all the advanced classes I could through HS so I could take a shop class my senior year. I ended up taking 2 shop classes and dropping Calc1 cause I never forgot what the teach showed us =)

BTW, my second shop class ended up being metals and that set my on my path. Never regretted that choice ever as I learned about machining and tool making which I've never stopped doing since.

[Jim at Gentex]

As far as math, I took Algebra 1 and 2, and Shop Math in HS.
Entering into the manual machining trade, as I became better at it, I had no choice but to learn geometry and trig on my own simply out of necessity.

Later in my AS Degree program, I was required to take Statistics, and Discrete Mathematical Structures, which deals with things like odds and probabilities as applied to Computer Science.

Statistics was fairly easy, and iirc I think I got an A or A-.

Discrete Structures on the other hand was a struggle for me, simply because I had a bad habit of applying the wrong formula, which we had to memorize.
I struggled to squeak by with a C in that course, and couldn't be happier when it was over.

Later I learned that the Professor who taught that course dropped the requirement for students to memorize the formulas, which would have made my life far less stressful if I could have peeked at my notes simply to be sure I was applying the correct formula.

If I decided to continue to pursue my BS I would have had to take Calculus 1 and 2, but at the time I chose to finish my AS and stop there. 

[Del.]

As far as math, I took Algebra 1 and 2, and Shop Math in HS.
Entering into the manual machining trade, as I became better at it, I had no choice but to learn geometry and trig on my own simply out of necessity.

Later in my AS Degree program, I was required to take Statistics, and Discrete Mathematical Structures, which deals with things like odds and probabilities as applied to Computer Science.

Statistics was fairly easy, and iirc I think I got an A or A-.

Discrete Structures on the other hand was a struggle for me, simply because I had a bad habit of applying the wrong formula, which we had to memorize.
I struggled to squeak by with a C in that course, and couldn't be happier when it was over.

Later I learned that the Professor who taught that course dropped the requirement for students to memorize the formulas, which would have made my life far less stressful if I could have peeked at my notes simply to be sure I was applying the correct formula.

If I decided to continue to pursue my BS I would have had to take Calculus 1 and 2, but at the time I chose to finish my AS and stop there. 

I never tried memorizing trig formulas. I just looked at the little orange book. 📕