Has SK Grimes gone batty?

monochromatic51

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From what I am seeing in this post as a machinist with about 30 years expearnce to do 1 or 2 lens boards a cnc machine would be over kill the process when useing a cnc machine is
1 write the machineing programe
2 set the material in the chuck
3 Set the tools that are going to be used to machine the part (the tools have to be set to the center line of the machine and the face of the workpiece)
4 Single step machine through programe to test setup (dry run )
5 Machine part
Now as can be seen all these steps take time and at my estmate 15-20 mins to get the first one off the machine second one comes off aprox 45-60 seconds later then the parts have to be inspected to make shure that they are within SKG's limits

The other way is useing manual machine's to machine the parts on the operation list would be this.
1 mount material in machine
2 Drill hole
3 bore hole
4 bore counterbore (recess for flange nut) if neccasary
5 Deburr (remove sharp edges)
6 inspect
Total time for 1 piece aprox 15 min. So this means that unless SKG is machineing more than 20 parts in a batch run they are loseing money on them at $20-$30 a piece.In the Edmonton Alberta aera of Canada the going rate for cnc machine time is basic turning $200+ per hr and basic milling $250+ per hr and man mc time at $240+ per hr normal standard is 4-6x the skilled machineists wages

Ian
 

ineffablething

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I've used SK Grimes about 10 times, all after Steve died. Typically, I've used them to adapt Graflex SLR cameras with modern Graflok backs. They are expensive and slow sometimes, but I know for goddamn certain that camera will arrive at my doorstep ready to shoot. Their modifications are elegant and they test everything thoroughly, even bothering to shoot film through the camera to test focus. I know of one fella who does the Graflok modifications but doesn't do anything to adjust the ground glass so that focus is accurate. He did one of my cameras and I ended up shipping to SK Grimes anyway. I balked at one estimate that Adam gave me a few months ago and he called me up the next day and told me he had consulted with a coworker who had come up with an elegant, cheaper solution. That, along with the caliber of work I've seen come out of the shop (have you checked out the page on their website where you can see some of the crazy shit people have asked them to do?), sold me.

W.
 
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Bruce Osgood

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resummerfield said:
Elegant. I think this one word explains why I send work to SKG that could be done elsewhere. Their work is simply elegant.
Click to expand...

How elegant can a hole be? It's a hole, a void, it is empty space, all the material is removed.... it is gone! There's nothing left to be elegant.
 

ineffablething

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Bruce (Camclicker) said:
How elegant can a hole be? It's a hole, a void, it is empty space, all the material is removed.... it is gone! There's nothing left to be elegant.
Click to expand...

That's like a koan. Thanks for giving me something to think about tonight!

W.
 

ineffablething

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Bruce (Camclicker) said:
How elegant can a hole be? It's a hole, a void, it is empty space, all the material is removed.... it is gone! There's nothing left to be elegant.
Click to expand...

I've been up all night thinking about that question. How elegant can a hole be?

W.
 

resummerfield

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ineffablething said:
I've been up all night thinking about that question. How elegant can a hole be?...
Click to expand...
But a hole CAN be elegant. Perfect radius, perfectly perpendicular sides, no over cutting or tool marks anywhere, and no vise marks on the lensboard. Those were some problems I encountered when using other machine shops.

However, my comment about SKG work being elegant was in reference to their custom projects, like mounting large barrel lenses on small lensboards, etc. While I have no means to compare this custom work to other machine shops, I believe the custom work SKG did for me was truly elegant.
 

David A. Goldfarb

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Absolutely. Does it get any prettier than this?--

 

Peter De Smidt

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I've used them a few times. My feeling was that after Steve passed, responsiveness went down and prices considerably up. That said, it's outstanding to have a place available to do the custom work, as shown in David's picture. It's silly, though, to use them for putting a hole in a regular lensboard. I have about 10 lensboards for my Sinar, some factory made, some with a rabbit on the back, and some I used a hole saw on. All of them perform identically. Paying for a piece that needs high level machining is one thing. Paying their prices for putting a hole through a thin, flat piece of aluminum indicates that one has too much money.
 

George

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The real problem here is not the expensive SKG service but the fact that you are not "a terribly skilled operator". You can make a fully acceptable hole in the Technica lens board even with just a simple rounded file (provided you have the basic central hole on it). It's not so difficult to learn it with a few attempts. No money asked and you can leave the SKG in peace with all you lens boards.
 

jonw

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Alex Hawley

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epatsellis

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One of the things I'm going to be working on this fall/winter (once I get my cnc router put back together) is a few jigs that allow you to just clamp the lensboard in the holder, enter the dia and depth of hole, press start and watch it make nice round holes, want a recess, no prob, mount board upside down, mill the hole, then the shallower recess. It's really not that hard if you're willing to make a few fixtures.

erie
 

Paddy

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Alex Hawley said:
WOW, that was robbery!
Click to expand...

Naw, Alex,...I think you've got it backwards. (Caveat Emptor) But it certainly was some foolhardy buying. I guess they needed that item, like, yesterday!!!
 

smieglitz

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That auction piece went for over twice the price of a new reducing board currently made by Jack Deardorff and sold through mpex.com
 

Harry Lime

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Tough call.

Reminds me of camera shops in Hollywood.

There are only so many people in the world who can still work on a vintage 35mm Mitchell movie camera. These shops charge you an arm and a leg, but you can rest assured that the work will be done right. To be frank they got you by the tail, because no one else can do the job. So, you pay.

Then they turn around and try to charge you $200 dollars for a single brass gear the size of a quarter, so you can connect a pistol grip motor to your Arri IIc. You tell em' to go to hell and order the same gear for 79 cents from a catalog.

Choices, choices...
;-)
 
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