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www.CNC-West.comCNC WEST October/November 2016
creative at the same time,” describes Jason. “I first bought a table top Roland
MDX20 in 2005. It could only take a 1/8th end mill but it taught me a lot about
CNC. I had no experience, I was self-taught out of necessity. Read a lot, watched
videos, talked to other people and just figured it out. It took 80 hours for it to
machine through a .5” x 2”x 8” piece of brass. I didn’t care because I knew I
would have the top brace just the way I wanted it.” Harrelson Trumpets wore
that Roland out and Jason kept moving up to larger and more sophisticated
machines. Six years ago he purchased his first VMC, a Republic Lagun. “I felt I
would put myself on the map with that machine,” jokes Jason. “What it really did
was teach me I needed to learn more about machining.”
Today, Harrelson Trumpets are 90% CNCmachined, getting closer each year
to Jason’s vision of a fully CNC’d instrument. “The only thing that isn’t machined
is the bell and the slide tubes,” elaborates Jason. “We have
well over 100 parts on each horn that are all machined on
our Hurco VM20 or our Intertech 42-9LSS brand lathe. All
other companies, both high and low end still use old school
practices and only the caps, finger buttons, and parts with
treads are CNC machined.” With only a five-person team at
Harrelson Trumpets, efficiency is a key part of their manu-
facturing process. Jason was quick to discover the value of
having a pallet system on his original VMC. Admittedly his
homebuilt pallet setup was not awesome and with daily use
it deteriorated quicker than it should have. “I was looking
for a company to sell me a pallet system that didn’t cost a
fortune,” tells Jason. I searched high and low until I was in-
troduced to Pierson Workholding out of California. I called
them up and said I need a pallet that is this size and does
this. Can you do that? They said yes and I ordered it. In the
back of my mind I knew that the next machine I bought
I wanted it to have three pallets instead of one. So once I
bought the new Hurco VM20, I had them work up a three
pallet system for the new machine.”
The Pierson Workholding three pallet system has been
in for just over a year and Jason couldn’t be happier. “The
size of the pallets are perfect, they are premade and in-
expensive to buy,” details Jason. “For under $200 bucks I
can get a pallet with the inserts all ready to go. Their quick
change system is fast, easy, repeatable and accurate. I have
limited down time between change overs now.” While the
parts are running Jason is loading the next batch of parts.
Once the machine shuts off he unloads the three pallets
and loads on the new preloaded ones. Simple as that, and
under five minutes he is cutting again. Harrelson Trumpets
has close to 200 part numbers they run on the Hurco, but
none of it is high volume. “We don’t run 1000’s of a single
part like a job shop would, but Pierson Workholding has
saved me a ton of valuable man hours. What really stood
out to me was their desire to work with us to design an
affordable work holding solution. Other companies didn’t
want anything to do with us because we are just a small
shop.” Harrelson Trumpets was able to run lights out over
the summer for the first time in the history of the com-
pany. Jason can load enough parts into the Hurco before
he leaves and he gets almost a full shift worth of work done
ready to be changed out in the morning. “A lot of the reason
we are catching up on our back log of orders is because of
more efficient use of technology. Our PiersonWorkholding
pallets are part of that technology that we can’t do without.”