tom's job

I did a milling job for Tom over the weekend. I had been meaning to get to this for a while, but just hadn't had the time to do so. I was feeling guilty with Eric up here and thinking about Tom's piece, so I threw a bit of time at it and banged it out. I probably would have made this a bit differently if I understand it's function correctly. After studying the design a bit more, I think I would have made this from thick walled aluminum square tube and then made an insert for the tip part so all I had to cut was the insert section with the mill (and then pin or plug weld the insert in place). That's the problem with just cutting the models that get sent to me.  I don't always have the opportunity to see the whole design. Reminds me of sitting on an assembly line and just seeing one parts of an objects assembly. Makes you miss out on the possibilities of what something could be. Just another reason to understand how to create something from start to finish and to have knowledge of several different processes. Anyway, now that I have the piece cut I can think of ways to make it more quickly if I were still cutting it on the mill if Tom so desires; such is life. Sorry for taking so long on this, Tom (let me know if I need to take this down from the blog too; wasn't sure if it was top secret or not)!