My life is in 5th gear.... WFO... hold on....

 I don't even really know what to say and how thankful for the great people in my life that are making sure everything is happening and lending a hand!  I have been having the time of my life building for the greater good and enjoying everyday of life to the fullest.

I want to share the last months in photos because I could talk all day about whats happening in my life but we will save that for another day.. so here it goes.

Welcome to the new home of Monkey Likes Shiny

I teamed up with Carl Bass the CEO of Autodesk to build and share one of the most badass concept development shops on the west coast!

I can't believe I get to share a shop with such a rad dude, plus hes a very skilled craftsman and a great business man that runs Autodesk the amazing company that's changing the future of builders alike by stepping deeply in to the manufacturing side of things with powerful computer software.

First it took a lot of cleaning....

10,000 square feet of craziness in the heart of the Bay area.

Alexis, Gabe, Betz, Johnathan and I wire wheeling the walls clean to ready for paint!

 

The move started and behind the wheel leading the show was none other then 20 year old Gabe.

Hes been with me 4 years and hes taking over!

He drives the forklift and I strap up the machines, we work well together moving.

While all the madness of moving was happening I kept on building and moving. It was a race to finish jobs on machines so they could be loaded.

I was doing some second operations milling work on an aerospace flight part using the Autodesk Fusion 360. I have been able to work with the Autodesk development crew since the start of the machining program and I have been stoked to see my improvement get added all the time.

Christian even made a swing thru to help finish up concept projects for a software company.

He helped putting the finishing touches on prototype wiring before they had to be shipped.

As soon as that order went out we broke this room down and hauled it out.  

Without my crew of friends I don't know where I would be.

Jesse, Matt, Alexis, Liam, Austin, Gabe, Steve, Carl, Betz, Al, Anthony  and the many more...

My dog Mr. Poe isn't so stoked on the madness....

 

As machines started to arrive the pressure started to turn up to make sure the layout I planned was perfect.

This is a little 1991 Mori Seki SL-0h CNC lathe, the smallest Mori lathe ever made. It can run 24 hours a day and make near perfect parts, I got it for the Gabe and Austin to learn CNC on.

Louise is not only my best friend but an amazing painter that turned a concept we had in to an amazing colorful wall all freehand in 1 day, you will see below why she is so amazing.

 

Everyday we hauled more over..

 

Fuck it... why wouldn't I do a burnout in front of my old shop...

its like a dog marking its territory

Louise Chen also painted my wall in my old shop with the Bees if you remember from older post.

I called her and told her... I want Airplanes and Flower!!!

I said lets make it a Boeing 787 and I want it amazing...

With that she made magic

MLS02 was born....

As soon as some of the machines were put in the new building we did temp power to them and started making parts to keep the customers happy. Gabe running parts for Boosted Skateboards.

 

To all the pretty ladies out there... Hes Single and can be booked for dates! Call him!

17 year old Austin has joined the MLS team a few months ago.

If he isn't at High School learning, at the science museum, at MythBusters TV show then you will find him at my shop building madness with all of us. Hes got a bright future ahead as a very skilled prototype machinist as long as he cuts that rats nest off his head.

I flew out to Chicago and Detroit to see some amazing history being made.

The first 3d Printed drivable car happened before my eyes in this Cincinnati machine behind me.

So amazing... So much for clay... the future is NOW!!

You will see more action from Cincinnati at our shop in the next months as our big sheet metal press brake shows up.

 

I was so stoked to get to drink beers with the crew from Deckel DMG and Porsche beside the 919 that raced at Le Mans. Such an amazing piece of engineering.

I was shocked to load up the new Autodesk Fusion 360 and to my surprise was the leg that Bill and I designed for Catherin who was injured in war is the load screen putting MLS on the map for madness. Some amazing hydraulic mastermining inside that little ankle... damping, rebound and travel adjustments all with the turn of knobs !!! 

 

A pallet showed up - Surprise !!!

Wilton Tools - makers of the USA built Bullet Vise and other great tools like C clamps and F clamps for welding, decided I needed some fresh tools to make the madness happen. So stoked to be working with them and the R&D team to make more amazing products in the future.

 

Photo shootin with the High Speed track bike.

This bike has been a project between my brother and I for a while now, every time I start working on it I get the idea to make it crazier and crazier. I got the front steering all machined out of titanium you will see in my older blog post.  

 

Then the beast showed up from Omax Waterjet up in Kent,WA !!

Lawson rigging making the move happen safely.

 

The 6 axis Omax is in !

The crew from Omax is as excited about the madness as I am.

This bad boy can cut almost 10 inches thick aluminum using 50,000psi of water pressure and sand.

Now we just gotta wait for it got get set up.

Fresh in from Baileigh tools is a tube roller and bender to make some tubing madness!

I am hooked on Easy Cheese again...

I love it as much as Mt. Dew....

 

When Red Bull heard that we were working hard... they made sure we were well refreshed with cold drinks.

 

Gabe working on parts for the Childrens Hospital and Austin working on parts for the Exploratorium Science center in San Francisco. A good shot of the Boeing 787 on the wall that Louise painted.

While all this madness was happening I had to go to Italy to work on stuff for Red Bull.

Because they treaded me like gold while I was there I freestyle built them a chair using all the left over steel from building the BMX starting gate pictured below.

I could get use to this Italy thing.... Coffee and Pizza everyday...

 

Having Greg Minnaar for a next door neighbor is complete comedy...

Gabe and Greg trying to weld together...

Gabe running the torch and Greg feeding in filler to the weld.

Keys to the city...

The two place I love in San Francisco with some of the most amazing people and amazing tools and skills.

Every few weeks I mentor groups of High School kids around to local machine shops to show them where their parts come from and how the journey of simple things can be complex.

Here they are learning about Dremel tools that are produced then shipped all around the USA.

So amazing the people that open their shops to the next generations, I want to help in any way I can and I don't mind being the messenger.

Testing some of the Autodesk's Fusion 360 stuff for machining.

I am virtually Machining the small black plastic part to see if its going to cut the part correctly.

I have been traveling non stop...

Europe a few times this year...

Detroit..

Chicago...

The list keeps going

I haven't even had much time to enjoy time with my lady and my little Scout truck.

We had to take it out for a cruz a while back.

Thanks everyone for allowing me to eat donuts everyday, make amazing projects and meet rad people... I hope it continues and everyone can be inspired to build madness themselves.

 

Enjoy

JT

MLS in the news

A few months ago I teamed up with Bill working on that custom prosthetic leg and Autodesk was pretty stoked about us using new software they have out so they did a write up on the project. Check it out.

Autodesk - In the fold - Newsletter

 

This talks about the new Autodesk Fusion I am using - pretty rad.... Plus if your not making money using it and want it for personal projects... IT FREE !!!!

Autodesk Fusion 360 download

On the right hand side you can see its free for Hobbyist  

Autodesk University - MLS style....

Over the last year I have been getting more and more involved with advance machining, the more I get involved the more I fall in love with it... A true brain twister, one of the big companies out there noticed my love and they took me under the wing, they are the next generation of CAM ( aka - Computer Aided Manufacturing or Machining)... The company is called HSMworks, which is now owned by Autodesk. ( HSM in the machining world mean = High Speed Machining )

To give you a quick background of what CAM does and how important it is, you have to go a few steps backwards.

CAD or Computer Aided Design/Drawing software is all set up to draw in 3D now days right out of the box... but with all this crazy software you still have to somehow make real stuff and thats where CAM comes in.

CAM is the step that turns just a 3D drawing in to a crazy amount of numeric lines for a machine to understand where to move to make cuts and do operations, its also tells the machine what cutter tools to use and how to use them...

Without CAM we have to do it in our head and type it by hand, which by todays level of madness being drawn in 3D, its too complicated and time consuming to try to write out by hand but could be done, if you don't mind your life sucking for a lot of hours.

The really neat thing thats happening in the market currently is what all the hype is about... and that is the streamlined system between cam and cad which for all the years prior to the last one was something only thought about in CAD systems.

 The ablitiy to be able to do simple adjustments and fine tuning to a 3D model and have the system almost instantly correct the tool paths that CAM generated is such an amazing thing thats got everyone wondering why it took so long to get to this day.... Parts go from hours to minutes to get ready to cut on the machines, less mistakes, less transfers, less madness and possible errors due to so many normal day to day things.

This is a good photo example of what these thing do.

You have the part drawn in CAD - All 4 of these silver parts

But now we need to let the machine know what it needs to do to make these 4 parts

The blue means thats how the program recommends using a selected tool to cut the part.

The yellow lines mean thats where the tool is going go up and down to clear the part and the green shows that its not cutting anything but air because there is no material there so it can go a bit faster to save time. 

Its about time...

 I would say it was like, getting a amazing cake ( cad ) and getting a cup of frosting ( cam ) and some tools to put them together but they came separate for years... it took a lot of time and people made messes all the time but it just was the way it was done...

This is not a mess yet but it could be... Still a lot of work to be done...

Now with all these announcements the cake comes with the frosting already applied and no ones complaining plus extra things on top.... The only people complaining are making plain cakes and plain frosting still... No more messes, spilled frosting or wasted time!!!

I like this one better...

Same cake... just way easier !

Now I am hungry....

The coolest part is I have learned over the last 10 years as a machinist doing all the different styles...

1. Conventional - doing it the old way - by hand

2. Writing NC codes by hand and simple CAM systems to write basic CNC programs

3. The new Integrated CAD/CAM systems over the last year to design crazy complex projects.

I hope I look back at this post in a few years and laugh at how excited I am about this and how it took so long to get to this point.

So whats this post about?

Well its about me Partying of coarse.... What else do I really blog about !!!!

Well first things first.... The day I dragged that Bridgeport CNC back to the shop and got it all set up I knew I wanted to push it making stuff for me...

Every Red Bull trophy project I have done in the last year I have done mostly on the Bridgeport CNC...

I wish I had a Haas and maybe Mr. Haas will read this and feel like that lonely machine in the back of the Haas Oxnard factory needs a better home and MLS is the perfect place to send it too... but for some reason I feel like the Bridgeport is going to be the main machine in my shop for the next years but you never know...

I love my CNC Bridgeport.... Its got a fancy new brain now too with a touch screen. 

Your saying get to the point what are you rambling about....

Ok Ok ..... The last month around Halloween I was asked by some of the crew to team up and work on a cool project involving a prosthesis leg project for a girl that was hurt in live fire serving in the USA armed forces. This was a really neat project to give back to some of the people that make the USA such an amazing place so I had to do it... My dad is like 30 years military so its only more of an incentive to do it to make him proud.

My dad Casper Tiedeken with his tool of choice for 20+ years

The team at AMPd Gear lead by Bill near Santa Barbara, CA brought me in to help hammer on this project and Anthony from HSMworks made sure all the people were on board to make it happen. Heres a little video they did a year ago for HP computers showcasing both Bill and HSM

We decided that we would use Autodesk's new Fusion 360 program via the Cloud which is amazing for doing both CAM and CAD... We designed a really amazing leg for Catherine in a short time frame and it was very cool looking.

I did a lot of the design with Bill over web chatting services and bouncing files back and forth, we came up with some really fun designs but we were under the pressure to get it done quickly so we locked down on some designs that Bill and I had talked about using hydraulic dampening thats tune-able

These are some parts for the ankle I ran on the Bridgeport 

They are also adjuster knobs for the amount of movement. 

Anthony decided the best place to unveil this pilot project for both the Autodesk 360 software and the prosthesis leg project was at Autodesk University hosted in Las Vegas.

Autodesk throws its big yearly event in Las Vegas with over 10,000 Autodesk users showing up to learn about new products and take classes on the products. Its not free but worth the money if you decide to go, its truly a educational endurance test with like 400+ classes offered over a 5 day period.... How much you want to learn...???


Check out this video with Carl Bass CEO of Autodesk talking about the new products and he talks about the leg project as well as Monkey Likes Shiny !


If you have time watch it all because its really neat otherwise fast forward to about 9:00 to see the leg project. Its way easier to show you this because Carl does such a rad job talking about the project.

Carl is a buddy of mine and one of the most rad builder dudes, truly a very rare dude that runs a 2+ billion dollar company pushing his own product to the limits on his free time and when he catches a problem... He fixes it himself.... This is what a CEO should be like.... Take notes CEOs

Carl Bass the CEO of Autodesk is not only just a good friend ... but a frequent visitor to the MLS skunkworks shop where he picks up trade secrets, ha ha I wish I could take credit for that....

Limo ride from the airport - Fuck yeah 

Machinist don't get these cars dirty very often so I made sure to grease up the buttons and doors and let them know just a average Joe has been in the back....

let me tell you about how wild I can get in Las Vegas....

Me the morning after about 5 gallons of free drinks.... No comment....

I had to pull it together because it was show time!

Thanks to Bill for this memory.... trust me I didn't forget....

I do remember watching the tv show "how its made " in the high stakes room big screen and drinking shots of whiskey without playing any games... yep that got Bill and I kicked out of the high stakes for trying to learn about how they make frozen pizzas. 

Thats Bill from Amp'd Gear with the Leg project in the case

I had to get a rad photo of Bill walking in to the opening moment of the event..

there was well over 6,000 people in this hall that morning for Carls talk.

If you watch the video above you will see this in video but I was so stoked to see it I had to take a picture... then they turned the cameras on me and I wasn't ready....

Everyone knows I love a good laugh....

I had to make 3 of them the night I left for Autodesk University....

Carl got a kick out of the shirt and the fact I made a custom screen printed shirt just for him. 

MLS original that no one can get unless you run a 2+ billion dollar company and make it happen!

This was Antony talking from HSM/Autodesk and Carl Bass next to him.

This was the VIP CAM experience I got to be part off...

The whole week was filled with amazing stuff for all the guests...

Haas brought in 2 machines and like normal I was banned from the Haas area...

There was too much drool from me and they were tired of mopping it all up...  I just stood there and dreamed like normal...

After day 3 I was pissed... I had basically been banned from the Haas area because of trying to work too many deals...
Like my idea of financing a CNC mold milling machine for 106 years at $100 bucks a month with $0 down !

So we took it to the race track - Fuck it ..... I may have to buy a Haas with Cash due to my aggressive driving around the Haas big wigs but I can say I did win some races but did cause some ( non Intentional ) accidents with people I shouldn't pick on if I want to get a machine....

The HSM, Autodesk, and Haas boys... 

Thanks for the race... It was too rad!

My arms hurt for 2 days after that.

These are just some of the crew that makes amazing products, its so amazing to have these guys working on this big project of CAM integration, because they love machining and making as much as they like the computer side of things! The knowledge these guys have is so amazing, truly a great team Carl has at Autodesk and I only see really good stuff coming in the next years on the CAM side of the company. 

I had this 3 roomed kick ass penthouse pad over looking Vegas 35+ floors up

this was the living room overlooking Treasure Island 

Like normal ...

I got messy at a VIP party and almost got tossed but not after taking about

 50 sheet photos X 4 little photos per page = 200+ photos

Its true... 

Thats Jon ( orange cone on his head ) a reader of MLS blog and wind turbine mastermind from out by Boston, Mass. 

I guess I was easy to pick me out of a crowd as JT from MLS

As you can see on the name badge I was trying to drop the "A" word " MLS Aerospace" 

So I could hang with the big dogs and not get made fun. 

If you had about 30 beers and 5 pounds of fish you would be this happy when you meet a pretty girl.... Thanks Autodesk for the free beer.... The girl ran away long before the last beer was drank

catch and release program....

Don't think I didn't have to pull some weight around the event...

Well, If talking about what you love is called working... then I love my job...

I was so stoked to get to speak to a few classes about where the manufacturing industry is going and how its going there. 

Addressing some issues I see from a young maker view point.... I don't give my age away a lot but I felt pretty special to be 26 and be up there with some of the big names in the machining world and having them listen to a different point of view that they don't normally hear.

 I know I hit it when I get the perked up looks like " shit.... thats a good point.... I guess hes not just an Aerospace welder Party Animal, he actually cares about what he does and how its going to get there for everyone " . 

Over the whole week I had about 40 people come up to me and say they read the blog and follow me, even had a dude tell me that I made a difference in their life by opening their eyes to getting their hands dirty and cranking hand wheels on the milling machines. 

I love that and its the reason I wake up everyday.... I can't build everything but I can help get people to build everything by showing them how special it is to be able to transform your brains idea in to a physical object...

Working with your hands is for everyone.... we got them.... use them... 

Soon I will have a good video up about the leg project we built, its still not ready to show but it will give you a good idea about the madness that went in to building this thing. 

This is a link to more talks from Autodesk and one from Anthony about where CAM is going in the next years 

Autodesk University Talks

If you have solidworks or autodesk products you can download a 2.5D version of HSM which doesn't do the super wild 3D tool paths but is enough to do almost every thing most of the time.
Its a good way to try it out as well and find out how easy it really is...
Free download of HSMxpress

Thanks Again Autodesk for everything...

Giving me Cad and Cam has opened so many door for madness and kept me up even later making stuff then before.. 

which mean I don't sleep at all because I am so stoked to build !