Blackstone Swiss Engineering

?? ?? Attention Massachusetts machine shops!! ?? ?? Blackstone Swiss Engineering is officially a registered training vendor with the Commonwealth Corporation (https://commcorp.org/) Why is this a big deal? Because the Commonwealth Corporation offers grants that fully reimburse Massachusetts employers for training classes for their employees. These classes can be on any topic related to workforce development, such as (drumroll, please) Partmaker Swiss programming. That's right! Massachusetts machine shops can now get a four-day long, onsite Intro to Partmaker Swiss class from Blackstone Swiss Engineering and be fully reimbursed for the cost by the Commonwealth Corporation. Fully. Reimbursed. I'd say that's kind of a big deal! ?? Send me a dm or an email to get your shop scheduled for an onsite Intro to Partmaker Swiss class! And check our website (www.blackstoneswiss.com) soon for announcements about trainings for Partmaker Turn-Mill, Advanced Partmaker concepts, and manual programming for Swiss.

This one's for my Partmaker peeps.... We all know that researching new tools and defining them in Partmaker can be a little time consuming. Especially when we are dealing with the large tool catalogs from our favorite vendors like Horn USA. Their large selection of boring bars and ID grooving tools in particular can be daunting to search through sometimes. So I decided to do a thing... Over this past weekend I created a couple of handy-dandy Tool Databases that I'm going to hand out to anyone who asks. ?? One TDB file contains 175 Horn mini boring bars, and the other has 182 Horn ID grooving tools. Both databases are sorted by tool size and include the tool geometry, Horn catalog number, and Tool Shifts. I basically went ahead and did all of the grunt work of entering all of the tool catalog data into Partmaker for you! Over 350 tool definitions are complete and all you have to do is download the files! Both TDB files are available for download from my website. Simply go to the Resource page on www.blackstoneswiss.com (https://lnkd.in/ePWiV7UV), create a free account, and download the TDB you want. You can then import whichever tools you want (or all of them) into your own existing Tools Database by using the Manage Tools Files feature in Partmaker. I'd love to hear feedback on this from you guys. Drop me a DM here or an email through the website and let me know what you think. Are these useful tools for you? What other manufacturers or tool types would you like to see?

Still not convinced that using remote contractors for engineering and CNC programming is viable?? Consider this: Troy Innovative Industries (www.troyinnovative.com) is a nationally recognized precision machine shop with facilities in Middlefield, Ohio. Since 1995 they have been providing the highest quality components to industry leaders in the medical, dental, aerospace, and defense fields. In early 2022, the leadership at Troy began to prepare for some upcoming personnel changes. Finding manufacturing talent can be difficult and the role of CNC Swiss programmer was proving especially challenging to fill. Troy reached out to some of their vendors and partners for advice and they were directed to Blackstone Swiss Engineering. Deadlines were fast approaching and Troy needed a solution. A quick video meeting showed that Blackstone’s capabilities and expertise matched very well with Troy’s needs. Our experience machining medical instruments and implants would be called on for several of their upcoming projects. Additionally, Troy Innovative had implemented Partmaker programming software several years prior so a seamless transition was expected. The move was even more successful than anticipated. From day 1 we provided Troy with new CNC programs and setup sheets, cycle time estimates for quoting, and even process improvements on legacy jobs. Rather than wasting time and energy on fruitless employee searches, Troy Innovative was able to continue to focus on what they do best: delivering quality machined components to their aerospace and medical customers. Aside from the skill and responsiveness of our programming, Troy quickly recognized that Blackstone’s pay-by-the-project billing makes us extremely cost competitive with full-time employees. A short-term fix was quickly turned into a long term solution for Troy. To this day Troy Innovative continues to take advantage of Blackstone’s technical skill, ease of integration, and competitive pricing.? Visit our website www.blackstoneswiss.com for more Customer Success Stories and find out what Blackstone Swiss Engineering can do for you!

Let’s talk about post processors for a minute. “What the actual f*** is a post processor?” Simply put, the post processor is the tool that takes all of the “stuff” that we do inside of our CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) software and turns it into G-code for our CNC mills and lathes to run. CAM software is used to make the CNC programming process easier.? Toward that end there are several functions that most CAM software packages perform - cutting tool definition, toolpath calculation, process simulation, tool crash detection.? Every CAM software has a slightly different way of going about these tasks, and they each have their pros and cons. Depending on your preferences, you can usually make an argument to justify choosing any one of three or four CAM packages. But, it’s the post processor that you really need to be looking at.? The post processor is what creates the final product, which is the G-code that we are going to use to run our CNC machines.? It doesn’t matter how slick the CAM simulation looks, or how comprehensive the tool database is, if the resulting G-code is no good. And it’s the post processors that really differentiate one CAM software from another. Trust me, not all post processors are created equally. ?? ? Some are way better than others. For Swiss machines, Partmaker from Autodesk is the clear and obvious choice for CAM software because of their post processors.? Partmaker Swiss posts were designed from the ground up to be optimized for Swiss machines.? From their patented spindle synchronization strategy to the open architecture for ease of revision, everything about the Partmaker post processors has been engineered to provide the most consistently error-free, robust G-code in the industry. What’s more, with a library of over 1000 different posts, the odds are pretty good there’s a post for your specific machine platform and configuration.? And that’s where Blackstone Swiss Engineering comes in.? We can provide you with the post processor you need to get the most reliable G-code for your Swiss machine. And we have the expertise to customize each post so that it will output G-code in your preferred format. Contact Blackstone Swiss Engineering (www.blackstoneswiss.com) to find out how you can get reliable, error-free, customizable code for your CNC Swiss machines today.?????

This seems legit, right? I see no issues here.

The feeling you get when you're the reason for green lights on the machine 1000 miles away... Just wrapped up a Swiss programming project for one of our favorite shops in the Midwest: - Eight different parts programmed - Three different machine platforms - Four different machine operators - All necessary communication accomplished through Zoom and email - Total project time : 6 days (Fun fact: I have now successfully provided more than 60 Swiss programs for this shop over the last 18 months or so, and have never set foot on their shop floor). Tell me again why your Swiss CNC programmer "has to be in the building"??? Just askin'... ?? #dowhatyagottado www.blackstoneswiss.com