The new baby arrived this morning at 6:30am weighing in at 8,000 lbs and measuring 109" tall. The Rigging stork delivered her wrapped in her swaddling blanket and riding comfortably on her wooden pram. Little Haas joins her brothers Big Haas and MiniMill Haas who arrived last summer. We're so proud.
LOL I've got aluminum wrenches scheduled to start first thing for Baby Haas. Aluminum mounts are zipping through the little Sparky (our nickname for the little Kitimura VMC Pallet machine.) All of our machines get nicknames; Big Red for the Matsuura 450, RoboCop for the Drill and Tap RoboDrill, Big Sparky for the newer, faster Kiti Pallet VMC, "E" for the Mitsuura Enclosed and "OH" for the Matsuura open, MiniMe for the Haas MiniMill, Big Haas for the last VX2 we got etc. you get the idea. We also nickname customer parts like one that has a plastic housing that looks like an open coffin so that's what we call them - coffins. tell our guys we're making Lap Sensor Covers and they would have no idea what we needed but tell them we're running coffins and they know right away.
LOL I'll have to pass that one on - they'll love it. Believe it or not, those are our two top guys. The one on the left is our manufacturing manager and the one on the right came to us a our tool room lead man and now is manager of the lathe shop. Dan, the mfg mgr, came to us at about age 19, piercings all over his body, snot nosed kid attitude, but with an aptitude. Here we are, almost 6 years later, and he has not only grown up but he has taken his natural ability and combined it with his intense desire to constantly improve the process until he rose above other who were his seniors. Both great kids who are the backbone of our shops
Those pictures bring back memories... I've electrically hooked up several of those, some smaller, most larger. After the machinist gets it fully operational, watching it run is hypnotic. I love the rotary tool changers, like cylinders of a revolver I used to say. Good for you guys, you seem to be about the only ones expanding that I can see.
We are growing! In the past year we have bought 3 new milling machines, 2 new swiss screw machines, bought another company and branched into a new industry, entered into a strategic partnership with a third company in yet another industry, expanded our facilities by 6,000 sq ft, obtained ITAR registration/compliance and ISO compliance. We're up to about 40 employees. The nut keeps getting bigger and harder to push though.