A Techno computer numeric controlled (CNC) router has increased sales at Josey Custom Cues by 50 percent by making it possible to create inlays in any design a customer wants. Previously, when inlays and pockets were created using manual methods, inlay designs were limited to relatively simple shapes. Now, Josey can draw any shape in the software that controls the CNC router, and the machine reproduces that shape in the wood, cutting to a far higher level of accuracy than is possible with manual methods. The Techno CNC machine has freed both Josey and his customers from creative limits and they can let their imaginations run wild. This new freedom in the design of inlays on the cues has attracted new customers and has increased sales significantly in only one year.


Keith Josey was inspired to start Josey Custom Cues after taking one of his own cues to a shop for repair and being displeased with the results. Josey had learned the art of custom woodworking from his father, and enjoyed playing pool with his father and brothers when he was growing up. In 1992, he combined the two avocations into a business that now draws customers from all over the world. Some of the leading professional pool players, including 1999 Viking Tour winner Shawn Putnam, use Josey cues. Teruki Kobayashi of Okayama, Japan, another tour professional, also plays with a Josey cue.

With the exception of the tips, bumpers, and screws, Josey makes every component of his cues in his one-man shop. All ferrules, collars, and butt caps thread on for more secure construction. Josey prefers a forward balanced cue with a solid stiff hit and each Josey cue is crafted to ensure superior playability. But it is the appearance of the cues that really makes them stand out. Rare, beautifully patterned woods gleam under a painstakingly applied, mirror-like finish. Inlays, using precious material such as mother of pearl, exotic woods, turquoise, and malachite, further decorate each Josey cue in intricate one-of-a-kind designs. One Josey cue, which was featured on the cover of The American Cueist magazine, features a bird’s eye maple front with three long ebony points and three short ebony points with ebony diamonds. It also has six mother-of-pearl shields. Ebony, micarta and silver dash rings run throughout cue. The wrap is bocote wood with six ivory diamonds and six turquoise diamonds inlaid inside two black phenolic rings. The butt sleeve is ebony with sixteen ivory points and eight turquoise diamond inlays. The buttcap is black phenolic with eight mother-of-pearl diamonds. This cue is priced at $3,100. Josey's least expensive cue sells for $200 while some of the more elaborate ones are priced at more than $10,000.

Depending on the intricacy of the design, it could take several hours to put all the inlays into a cue. Before he even starts that process, however, Josey goes through a number of preliminary steps. First he must find the wood. He looks for highly figured woods and buys them from all over the world. Next he turns his shafts on a lathe six times over a six-month period, dipping them in a wood stabilizer after each turning to season the wood so it won't warp. Next comes the process of splicing the front to the handle, and gluing the two pieces together. Josey then lets the cue sit for a few more months to give the wood a chance to move and breathe. He turns it again, and then adds the ring work, the precision metals or wood rings that go around the cue. After that, he turns the cue one final time.

Producing inlays by hand

The next steps in making a cue involve carving the pockets for the inlays and cutting the inlays themselves. In the past, Josey performed these steps manually using an Exacto knife and a Dremel tool. A Dremel has a number of different cutting tools, making it possible to cut diamonds and other simple shapes. If Josey didn't have a Dremel tool for a certain shape, he worked freehand using the Exacto knife. Both methods were time consuming, and they limited inlays to fairly simple shapes. Later Josey started using a small pantograph machine to trace more complex shapes onto the wood and then cut them out by hand. This approach gave him a somewhat broader range of inlay shapes that he could produce, but it still limited him in terms of designs. If a customer wanted an inlay in a certain pattern that Josey didn't have, for example, he either had to turn down the job or hire somebody to make the pattern for him. Another drawback to the pantograph he was using was that, although it was fairly accurate, it was still not up to the standards of Josey, who strives for perfection on every cue.

At a woodworking trade show, Josey investigated CNC routers that could cut wood according to patterns stored in a computer. Although there were quite a few such routers on display, the Techno Series III PC-driven CNC wood router from Techno Isel appealed to him for several reasons. This machine is designed for production routing and drilling on a wide variety of materials including wood, plastic, MDF, solid surfacing materials, and nonferrous metals. The price includes the Mastercam CNC programming software, which was originally designed for metalworking but is also well suited for woodworking because of its ability to generate the most complex contours with little programming effort. One of the things Josey liked about this system was that all the components--software, controller, router, and table--came from one vendor. Another plus was that this was a turnkey system, suitable for people such as Josey with no computer experience. Also, Techno's booth featured a pool cue with inlay work that had been produced by a Techno customer also manufacturing pool cues. This convinced Josey that this system was right for his needs. He purchased a three-axis Techno router with a 21-inch by 39-inch cutting area. The cost of the entire system was approximately $22,000.

New inlay process

Now, when it comes time to cut the pockets for inlays, the inlay designs are drawn in Mastercam. The software automatically creates the router toolpaths that will cut these shapes. After attaching the cue to the machine, he gives the command to start cutting and the machine takes over. One of the benefits of this system is that it can run unattended, cutting all the pockets on a cue before stopping. It does this by means of an indexing system that cuts the first set of inlays, then indexes and cuts the second set of inlays, and so on until the job is complete. Once the pockets have been cut, Josey cuts the inlay pieces on the router as well. The shapes of the pieces are already in Mastercam since they were used to program the cutting of the pockets. Josey has equipped the Techno table with a vacuum device that holds the inlay material. After the machine cuts the inlays, Josey cleans out the pockets, and assembles the inlays into the cue.

Josey has prepared a brochure that shows many of his popular inlay designs. Sometimes customers ask for variations on these designs. Since the shapes have already been drawn in Mastercam, Josey just modifies the computer model to match the customer's idea and he is ready to cut the inlay. The main advantage to cutting pockets and inlay pieces on the router, however, is that Josey can make inlays of any design that he or his customers can envision. The only requirement is drawing the design in Mastercam. No matter how complex a design is, once it has been drawn in the software, the router can cut it with a level of accuracy that satisfies even Josey. The Techno machine features a positioning accuracy of ± .1 mm in 300 mm. Its use of anti-backlash ball screws ensures play-free motion and makes it possible to produce extremely accurate inlay cavities in the wooden parts as well as the inlays themselves.

Josey is currently working on new cues for Shawn Putnam as well as Tommy Kennedy, both professional players who will showcase the abilities of his new technology. This cue, like all pool cues made by Josey Custom Cues, will be both highly functional and a work of art. Now that Josey has added a CNC router to his operation, the cue-making process is still a labor of love by a master craftsman. But now the range of design possibilities has expanded to include inlays that were previously impossible to create by hand.


http://www.techno-isel.com

Superior Toot Service, Inc., Wichita, Kansas, has recently installed its fourth ANCA CNC grinding machine and is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The firm specializes in industrial tool and cutter grinding, manufacturing and resharpening.

Founded in 1987 by Steve and Ellen Shofler, Superior Tool Service was started in the family's garage at the request of a customer.

Today, the company is in a custom built 6000-sq.-ft. facility (with a drive-up window) and features the new 11-axis ANCA CNC grinder with a CLX pallet loader ( the second one in the nation) as well as three other ANCA CNC grinding machines with 7 to 10 axis capabilities.

The new ANCA features upgraded software and new capabilities that will help Superior Tool Service serve a customer working with composites.

The shop also includes a wide variety of conventional grinders (22), a surface grinder, Starrett comparator and assorted support equipment. Tolerances can be maintained and measured to 0.0001.

"We are successful because of our great customers and our dedicated staff," noted Steve Shofler, a 32-year industry veteran. "We enjoy taking on the customers' challenges."

Ellen Shofler commented "Its been a fast 20 years. Our talents complement each other quite well ... he is the tooling expert and I have the ac count] counting/finance background. Hiring good people has also been key to our success."

Ellen is also 2nd VP of the Wichita Manufacturers Association, a 90-year-old group dedicated to supporting area manufacturing.

The company can modify, sharpen, size and radius a wide range of Hi speed and Carbide cutting tools including: end mills, mill cutters, comer rounding tools, gear hobbs, breaches, taps, reamers, piloted reamers, drills, step drills, countersinks, lathe tools and form tools.

Superior Tool Services' manufacturing capabilities include Hi Speed and Carbide end mills, line reamers, broaches, chamfer tools, porting tools, lathe tools and combination tools that do 2 or more operations at once, thereby saving the customer time and money. The company also produces prototypes.

The company's 14 staff has a broad knowledge of materials that customers use, everything from acrylic to Hastelloy and they modify clearance angles on their tools to match the material for longer tool life. The company motto is "Our tools are so sharp you can cut your costs with them!"

Coatings for tools (for longer life and higher productivity) are also offered. They include: TiN, TiCN, TiAlN, ZrN, CrN and AlTN.

Based on single-piece frame cast from polymer composite material, Genesis(TM) 130H can be installed and re-located with no special lifting equipment. Direct-drive spindle motors eliminate need for mechanical adjustments, while cam-driven double gripper loader enables part load/unload times of 2 sec. Work area is isolated from machine frame to minimize thermal expansion from contact with hot chips. Stainless steel cutting chamber with steep inclination ensures that chips fall clear of work area.

Rochester, New York, February 16, 2006-- Gleason's new Genesis(TM) 130H CNC Vertical Hobbing Machine features a revolutionary new design that optimizes dry machining, significantly reduces floor space requirements and greatly improves cycle times.

The 130H Hobber is the first in a new family of gear production equipment from Gleason called Genesis(TM). All of the Genesis machines share a common platform: a single-piece frame cast from an advanced polymer composite material, which can be made faster, more accurately and with inherently more rigidity than conventional cast-iron assemblies. This common platform design also ensures a small, compact machine footprint and enables the user to install and re-locate the machine with no special lifting equipment or special foundations.

While the 130H Hobber can accommodate wet cutting processes, it is particularly well-suited for dry machining. The work area is completely isolated from the machine frame to minimize thermal expansion from contact with hot chips, and a stainless steel cutting chamber with steep inclination ensures that chips fall completely clear of the work area.

The 130H Hobber is equipped with an innovative new mechanical cam-driven double gripper loader fully integrated into the machine. As a result, costly non-productive time can be cut to a minimum, with part load/unload times as short as two seconds.

Unlike conventional hobbing machines, the Genesis 130H utilizes a new, patent-pending hob drive system to eliminate complicated mechanical and hydraulic clamping systems. Instead a simple "D-Drive" system enables the spindle to transmit more torque, with less runout, and at the same time accommodate the use of larger diameter hobs for greater performance and longer tool life.

The 130H also features direct-drive spindle motors, which further reduces setup and machining times by eliminating the need for mechanical adjustments and change gears. Higher acceleration/deceleration rates and increased torque, combined with faster axis motions reduce non-cutting time between cycles and increase overall productivity during machining.

CAD/CAM software for the design and CNC machining of mechanical parts in milling, turning and wire electroerosion is designed for use directly on the shop floor

GOelan, edited by Missler Software, is CAD/CAM software for the design and machining of mechanical parts in milling, turning and wire electroerosion. It is an easy to use software which enables programming of numerically controlled machines directly from the workshop floor. GOelan offers fast solutions with short turnaround times and an intuitive user interface allowing the solution to be used by manufacturing specialists who are not necessarily computer experts.

GOelan offers you the opportunity to maximise the capabilities of your machine tools, easily design and import all client files, reduce programming time per part, save time, avoid unecessary machine wear and be quickly operational.

A compact, multi-radius CNC machine - incorporating a multi-stack bending die - is capable of bending tubes of up to 20mm diameter in either a left-hand or right-hand configuration

A customer's recent request for a highly cost-effective tube forming solution, with a minimum footprint to reduce impact on the factory floor, was the inspiration behind the launch of a new machine from tube bending specialists, Addison-McKee. World-renowned for their tube bending technology, Lancashire, UK-based AddisonMcKee has long been recognised for the design and supply of precision tube forming machinery for highly complex automotive, industrial and heating and ventilation requirements.

In this application, a compact system was required for a multi-radius CNC machine capable of bending tubes of up to 20mm diameter in either a left-hand or right-hand configuration.

Taking their exceptionally versatile DB 20 EST model as the starting point (a machine offering the quite unique feature of both left and right-hand rotation of the bending heads as standard), Addison-McKee, set about creating an all-new solution: the Databend DB 20 ESR - a 5-axis, multi-radius, electrical / pneumatic powered bending machine.

It is capable of bending tubing of up to 20mm max.

dia.

and incorporates a multi-stack bending die.
* Space saving - traditionally, with Addison-McKee, electrics are cabinet-housed alongside the machine in question.

In the case of the new DB 20 ESR, however, all electrical components were incorporated beneath the operating bed.

For additional space saving - and enhanced operator safety - all moving parts of the bending system were contained within a completely integrated guard system, with two front-mounted laser safety scanners ensuring that no external guarding during operation was required.

The result is a system occupying total footprint of just 2.5m2.

Cost reduction of around 25% - commenting on the development of the new Databend DB 20 ESR, Addison-McKee sales and marketing director, Peter Chapman said: 'This new Databend model was a major achievement for our in-house design team.' 'Through innovative engineering, not only was a machine requiring an absolute minimum of floorspace designed, but an overall customer cost saving of some 25% was also achieved.' He said: 'With a novel approach to meeting required health and safety issues we have produced a compact, highly versatile model that fully meets CE requirements.' * Maximum clearance - to allow for maximum clearance of components during the bending cycle, as well as any ancillary fittings, flanges or brackets, a high tool location area was incorporated into the design.

Whilst to allow several bend dies to be accommodated, (from three to six dies depending upon tube diameter and movement possibilities) the DB 20 ESR was equipped with a fully programmable Z (vertical movement) axis.

For additional cost-saving, no mandrel assembly was required for the basic machine, but one could be easily fitted as an option.

Whilst the standard DB 20 ESR machine can be used in either the left or right-hand configuration, a variant has also been subsequently developed to permit either left or righthand bending in the same program configuration.

* Latest Mark V control system - the new Databend DB 20 ESR also benefits from the use of Addison-McKee's advanced Mk V control system, an extremely user-friendly model combining powerful technology with a vast range intelligent features.

Based around the latest F145 Siemens computer hardware and complete with integral touch screen, the system is simple to programme for any tube development application and - through a novel 'teach mode' facility - can 'learn' individual manufacturer configurations and then run each sequence on request.