How This Small Shop Broke Into Aerospace in 2 Years | Motor Control Technology Machine Shop Tour

How This Small Shop Broke Into Aerospace in 2 Years | Motor Control Technology Machine Shop Tour

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hey guys Sean from SV soloo and today on  Practical Machinist we're going to do a shop tour my very first one I'm hosting it um behind me  is motor control Technologies and they are a small Aerospace company and they're kind of new they  already have their as9100 and their itar registry under two years in business so it's going to be  pretty interesting you guys are going to learn a lot and uh he had some trials and tribulations  that he went through and hopefully you'll discuss that with us so let's hop inside and check it  out what's up guys hey how's it going good good all right yeah got to sign in oh I got to sign in  cuz you guys are like all compliant so I don't go to prison you guys got your big boy pants on okay  what I see I cannot tell you ready for the shop tour how hard could it be how hard could it be all  right let's go Hans how did you get into Machining in the first place basically was a bike mechanic  when I was in like high school and into college and you know got super frustrated with the nomatic  like career path and decided did like my parents or M I should say uh communicated like you should  really check out the Machine Tool program at Danza Community College and uh basically enrolled  and hopped in the first class saw the lab and I you know pretty much like fell in love with it  ever since you're thinking like maybe I can make a lot of mountain bike parts yes cuz like when  when I was a bike mechanic like seing all like the stems cassettes and derailers and you know  pedals and I'm like good Lord like how the heck does like someone do this you know pretty much  rest is history yeah rest is history and then you give your own shop and you realize that it's just  easier to buy parts instead of make them yourself because it takes too long I I I do have to agree  with that yeah so at what point did you decide that you're going to go on your own what was the  what would it look like from leaving College jobs and then getting into your your own shop because  it's a pretty big feed everybody knows it's really hard and it's the dream to be your own Shop  but how' you what was the path tell me about it uh well what start at Square One B basically  when uh you know I was you know doing night classes at danan and Community College and then  also working at like various job shops and like you know tech companies that as like an assembler  uh quality person and like you know operator but that's where I pretty much cut my teeth and  I I worked with a lot of um socially awkward people that I fit in really well there you go  um and B basically worked on like cutting all like a kazillion different types of materials like  copper foam Plastics phenolic yeah a big company like that is like the best to get into especially  right out of college cuz you learned so much the stuff that you'll never learn in college you know  just having that Real World experience it came to a point when uh we moved up here to Oregon uh my  wife and I because we had a kid on the way and um I was like oh man like you know I just want to  make this successful and how many square feet is this uh a little over 2,000 square F feet how how  long have you been in business for uh like 2021 uh but when I actually took ownership of motor  control technology um I I want to say about like two years but like you know when I first got my  you know three AIS I had to scramble to you know make an LLC for you know the Haw financing company  to right um so I was like kler tool machine yeah and uh and B basically just kind of like morphed  into you know eventually taking full ownership of MCT what do you call your first machine I know  you have names for your machines Gina Gina let's go look at Gina okay I know you have a great story  of when you purchased this and how it got to this shop I was in my brother-in-law's uh garage and  they're out in Hood River and uh their uh driveway is a fire Road when I first bought the machine I  you know the salesperson's like oh yeah riggin's like you know $2,000 or something like that  and I was like oh like okay like not that bad you know I communicated the salesperson I was  like well like there is the driveway is a fireo they're like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa the rigging  company came out and uh looked at you know where where they going to be taking the machine up and  they're like it's going to be more than $2,000 and that's when I got the quote for like 6,500 oh  and uh no and they're like yeah we need to rent a four-wheel drive uh for Clift cuz they're there  was like a bunch of switchbacks I didn't even know they made a four-wheel drive forlift actually so  when you got it up there you I remember you were actually Moonlighting up there yeah and how many  miles away from from your house was that machine you know your brother's garage it it was about an  hour and a half away so you're driving an hour and a half after you're going to your day job yeah to  do that and staying like like sometimes super late and driving right back into work weren't you it  it was not sustainable it was not no it was not no you know there was no like ventilation no uh  uh insulation so if it was like 10° outside it's 10° in the shop so the cool intake was frozen oh I  love a frozen cool intake I would uh go and sleep in their living room um on a couch leather couch  and uh basically I would get up you know 4:00 a.m. and uh you know Drive back to um can be I remember  you doing that I remember you had some pretty I remember you Downing probably five rock stars  or Red Bulls a day just trying to survive please don't tell my wife that okay we'll cut that out  so then at that point you uh decided to go fully on your own and then you had to move it in here  so what people don't know is Hans and I actually tried to get a a building together yes and we were  trying to share you know the load a little bit cuz we were both uh starting out and doing that and it  just you know we went with a gut feeling where it just wasn't working out like not between him and  I but just places that worked you know center- Wise and just the leasing agreements and uh you  ended up finding this place and you called me up and you're like I found this place I know we were  going to get one together I'm like dude just do it because I don't think you can find a better  place and honestly it's been great for you I think it's honestly pretty darn stressful trying  to find a commercial space cuz uh like one like you know if you don't have um like a bunch of like  you know business history um that's when you know I kind of got stuck in a corner they're like you  know all the you know property like landlords or whatever um they're like can you please Supply a  a business plan MH they usually want three years of established business you know especially  in Insurance stuff like that so it was quite difficult to do but you had a pretty good um  you found this place on Facebook right uh or was it Craigslist Craigslist so I kind of wanted  to mention for people looking for shops that you don't just look at all the corporate um you know  Pages you know that sell all the corporate leasing but if you go actually Craig's List and look  I think you can find better deals and you'll actually work with the you don't have to  work with a broker you go right to the the Ley so yeah like B basically on Craigslist the  listing like I I got a call from my my friend uh you know past coworker his uh Padre was helping  me out finding uh some commercial space he was just doing doing a good deed and he gave me a call  and he's like hey this listing just came up like 20 minutes like we should really jump on this and  go take a look and it was this space and here you are so then once you got the space and we got you  got this moved in here then it was like I really want to be an aerospace shop I really want to new  high-end contracts and stuff like that well I've always had that at as like a plan like since the  beginning it was just like you know where the heck do you start on you know making those progresses  uh progressions and from everyone that I talked to they're like don't get as9100 right out of the  gate wait until you're more established and like the more I thought about it I think it would  be the best time to do it you know now since you're small you know you have low low overhead  not as many like uh employees or whatever so like just just get it over with and um and then  also with um dealing with like the registar and Consultants since I have like out you know just  a oneman show my uh you know Consulting costs and like audit costs are like exponentially lower  than like an established you know know 50 man you know 100 man and if you if someone wanted to get  their as9100 do you have any tips on how to even start basically the the big components of like  a qms system is like having um a basic barebones template of all the forms and procedures and is  there a way is someone there to help you can you help get someone to help you yes you can um but  like you know I I would recommend you know finding a consultant person and then um figuring out which  registar that you want to go with and I would highly recommend trying to go with the registar  that all the you know your customers are used to so a lot of people with their as9100 they get that  and they think well I want to get my itar could but it could be difficult but honestly the as9100  is much more difficult to get than the the itar registry there's a a thing to be said like you  know I want to say like five or 10 years ago like itar registration is like basically here's all  the defs like Federal like regulations compliance that like you read are you uh fulfilling like all  these different uh like regulations because like if you ever get in trouble you need to prove that  like you were compliant with all these different Clauses so after you purchased Gina and you wanted  to be an aerospace supplier what was the next purchase you had to do big purchase to make sure  that happens a CMM yeah it kind of a necessity so so this is the CMM the Contour G2 that's a  five AIS CMM looks like yeah it has a RDS like indexing head when you have a fixed head you get  like star uh styly eye um but you know having an indexing head really makes it a little bit easier  yeah different angles and different holes I mean this is this has got to be probably I would say  what two or three times more than that Gina out there you know it's purchase wise so I imagine  this one was a stressful purchase but it's one of those purchases that you're like you had to  have this is this kind of make or break type of Machinery yes it was definitely expensive and and  also uh you know mindboggling because they like okay like more money going out outdo um but it  was something that I always wanted to get my main goal as a business was to you know have a closed  loop you know have a you know Machining out there quality so any part that goes out the door um is  you know pristine I know you have a certain way how your documents are uh reported out and I know  that some of your customers have been pretty happy with the way you do that yeah so like B basically  when we got the CMM and installed and up and running I learned like literally like that day um  proving out um getting getting everything together was when I was having to you know bubble the  own you know literally using Microsoft Paint and you know bubbling all the the you know features on  all the prints and then you know taking all that information and making all the characteristics  on the as9102 forms and it was just like crazy because I was like up until like 3:00 or 4 in the  morning like control C control v contrl c control V and that's when I like looked for um inspection  planning software the only thing that we had to do in house was to create the handshake from uh how  we program the CMS to spit out the uh data into a spreadsheet that neatly organizes everything  and then Imports into um the our inspection plan planning software what do you think that saved you  in time wise I'm able to do first articles like relatively fast within like an hour if the draw  drawing is already automated ballooned everything makes sense and all that together but yes it has  saved like you know hundreds of hours yeah so why did you get this since you have a CMM what's this  going to do for you well like Optical comparators are really great for I I don't know if you guys  do a lot of like Helo coils like champer diameters and and then also like you know getting Form Tools  and key Cutters like if you ever get like a custom ground one there was a point where it was before  I had this I got a um a port tool and I got it in and I went to go prove out the first part in incel  620 2 and the port tool that I was using like all right touched off everything programmed it used  the model and I was like all right I checked all the boxes ran it and then all of a sudden it just  like engaged a lot and it totally like fried the whole Port tool oh no so you didn't check the one  box which is inspect your Port tool yes they're also really handy to have like you and o-ring  grooves or anything that you can't like measure internally like you have over there I saw it over  there you have like the D damn stuff where it's the epoxy a lot of companies will use that will'll  squirt it into a shape and then maybe slice it right in half and put it on the comparator it's  also really helpful when when you're working on customer Parts where they put like a like one th  Tolerance on a engraving oh and so then we have your your final purchase there's different avenues  that you can go if you need help as a start out uh manufacturer within every state there's uh you you  know community colleges where they have like you know State business like resource and advisor  programs and and then also the state itself they have like Economic Development managers so  it's like basically reaching out to them um and say like hey like I'm a small shop like you know  trying to make things happen are there any like funding opportunities like for example business  Oregon had a uh small business uh sustainability fund you're like you're a perfect candidate for  this program you should apply and that's where I had to really uh make sure like go over my whole  business plan again and make sure everything was like all accounted for and easily communicated  applied for it and you know hoped for the best yeah and um and then also applied to you know  County grants like they're they're out there they're like everywhere but it's like you need to  have your like ducks in a row so it looks like we have a five AIS for the newest purchase oh and  we have an employee what's up Ryan hey Sean I used to work with this guy along with the Hans we  used to spit him out bad programs he had to run it you hired him on and you bought this at the same  time that's a big that's a big jump oh yeah it was nerve-wracking basically it just came down to when  I like realized that I had like huge mountains of you know I had to program the CMM I had to do  program a bunch of parts I have to run run the machine I have to make fixtures I have to ship  I need to figure out a way to afford one to get another machine to and and uh H hire a full-time  employee so Hans gave you the call to come here and I know you worked at a a bigger bigger  companies a lot more employees more established and like it's going into a small shop like this  it must have been kind of scary but like what are the pros and cons of coming to a shop like this  the main reason I wanted to leave was uh I felt like my skill set wasn't fully being realized you  know with the whenever a larger shop is running it's hard to step out of your lane uh coming here  was that being able to step out of my lane and uh improve the process if there's any issues that  we run into we can fix them right then and there and learn from the mistake without having to  change this massive process that's already been established and now that you know since we're  learning so much we're building that process if we get a part that we have never done before and  we need to figure out how to cut that material you know there's no one to really rely on like  oh this person they've cut Titanium on a regular basis they know the feeds and speeds the amount  it's going to warp but here you know we're smaller and it's it's like oh we're figuring that out all  all all you guys have your collective experience whever it limit you're like we a friend or having  like good relationships with like past people that you worked with and because you know even when  I was like first starting out um I probably you know spammed your phone a kazillion times it was  pretty it was pretty bad you it said solicitor on it you know did it really no no so I noticed you  guys have some zero point clamping vices and uh you have it registered on your your five AIS and  on your three AIS yeah it's within tents and the ability to go from a base plate and then onto your  fourth axis and knowing it locates perfectly is is extremely crucial we are planning on getting like  a little raster plate for the CMM for the 96 and 52 mm uh like L stud pattern um but yeah that that  is something that we want to do when we do more involv D um more complex projects looks like you  have a few fixtures here yes so looks like you're using a little couple Mighty Bites and uh custom  stuff these are pretty nice kind of hope you got paid for that extra stitching if a customer were  able to you know come on site you know I'd rather them see Shiny Parts than like hack together  things little what is that uh it is from a resin 3D printer you did like a manual stop and  insert this and then use um you know B basically a u UV the UV oh you're using blue Photon yeah so  you're actually utilizing some um higher Tech you know fixturing stuff nice thing about using UV  cured epoxy is uh you know we're not in you know we're not clamping uh distorting material you can  utilize the the the epoxy um in other areas and and not have to invest insane amount for all the  the different components like a shop could pretty much make their own Photon fix you know uh us  like a sapphire or whatever or yeah sappire the sapphire is the number is the main you can get  Sapphire and use that and then use the ultraviolet light to cure however you want to if you can cut  Sapphire yeah I'd rather spend the time make the fixture because it's all about like process  reliability for me what's important in in my you know business and just career is like a green  CMM report imagine the five AIS helps you a ton as far as like limit your fixturing you know versus  going on the three axis right oh yeah definitely and but but also that's where we started utilizing  you know blue photon with our you know in process uh Machining we're using it more and more through  each project especially since everything nowadays is like super thin wall so you have this rofix um  system so what made you decide to get this system in general versus other systems if you were to  take a gander around the shop and seeing all the uh the tool holders there like one main brand  we use and it they always have like killer runout like within a couple tens we eventually want to  get into more heat shrink tooling but we decided to go with the power grip system it was a little  bit less of a a rough entry cost okay I noticed that you guys have um hsk so you're actually  running hsk on your UMC hos like that's kind of interesting choice not a lot of people run hsk  we kind of see the UMC as a um you know stepping stone in our business to you know prove to our  customer base like you know we could do more and more complex like five AIS parts and then when the  you know cash flow is there invest in a you know more uh substantial uh five AIS machine and the  trail that I want to go down to is they're all hsk so start investing in that tooling now so when  we get that new machine it's not like spending $100,000 on a crap ton of uh tool holders exactly  and I've I've always loved hsk these are hsk 63s we've been really stoked on it we decided to  do it um just for you know the investment in the long term so I see you have some parts in  here that uh honestly I was hoping there was going to be Donuts or something in here but  they're just parts that you can't show can't can't do it so how do you get work is there any  way you can like elaborate on how you get work or you want to keep your secrets basically you  know there are some online job boards and that I originally you know slowly chipped away  at doing projects at and you know building up the war chest even when I moved over here it  is like you you just have to like put yourself out there and I I use LinkedIn like mainly to you know  establish the my my business the way the way it is finding um you know all the different companies  the different positions just reaching out like I know there's a point where you don't want to spam  people there's a fine line there there there's a fine fine line you know I was getting maybe like  3% 4% probability of someone like responding back going through all the like you know supplier on  boarding um especially with like you know Big O O OMS is it it takes years to get your foot in  the door with them and and there's like small business liaison Representatives that you know  you have to like kind of talk to and uh figure out like what they look for or in a supplier like  what like what infrastructures do in capabilities that that they want their vendors to be do you  feel that as9100 once you got that um and itar really got you more work or is it just just you  had to get it because you already had the work in in order to be able to work with uh companies  with things that you know either get lobbed up into space or or uh you know defense companies  that's like minimum urance requirement mhm and uh yes it did help but like it's not like you just  get as9100 and then like they're they're going to work with you it's like you got to have like  the infrastructure the capabilities there there's a lot of things in a lot of Clauses you have to  be compliant with but with the the new rules and regulations with uh cmmc you got to be like nist  8171 compliance so that's like the bare minimum for like it security um and then after that it's  like you need to have it basically it's like another as9100 but for like it and information  security um cuz like all all the customers that like I'm going after all their data is you know  they care about it a lot it's a really big deal and um you know my my my dad you know he's he's  a retired like it networking uh Securities person um and I am forever grateful our current you know  it infrastructure is you know of course we have a firewall encrypted drives you know the computers  are are configured in a way where everything's like you know bit locked and so on and so forth  but like you know not getting too much in depth right but you know that's it for me that that's  like really important that's the one thing about being a owner being a machinist is so fun like  I want to be a machinist I want serve my own business so I can just make parts and you realize  like okay I don't know how to do 80% of what I need to do to run a business you have to learn  it all as you're growing there's spend so many times like through all this where I'm like man  all I want to do is make a cup holder for some jet or submarine like I don't care like how much  money it generates like I just want to make that like cup holder to that that uh you know DOD  generals like desk you're in the background trying to figure out it stuff and now you have  to hire someone else to do all the fun stuff exactly well Hans I appreciate the tour of the  shop I'm sure everybody else did um if anybody can find you where can they find you at uh go  to motocontrol technology.com that that's just like the main website and then LinkedIn um same  thing or my personal LinkedIn Hans kler and uh yeah awesome man I it's been a year since I've  been here and uh I love to see how it's already grown so yeah hope you guys enjoyed that and  we'll see you guys on the next one those later

2025-01-12 04:09

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