2018cnc4-5.2

50 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST April/May 2018 Eddie Gonzalez is the production manager. Every job comes in to him. He cuts the material, stages the job with the fixture and tooling so it is ready to go on a machine. The job is handed off to the operator who completes the machining process. The part goes to finishing where it will be deburred before it goes to final inspection and on to shipping. When Tony bought the company in 2003 it came with five older style Fadal milling centers crammed randomly into the warehouse. He has reconfigured the layout multi- ple times since then, always looking for a leaner and cleaner way to manufacture. “We now have 8 machines and 20 em- ployees,” tells Tony. “Fitting all that into our building in an efficient way is daunting. We are in the process of build- ing out a new office area and expanding the manufacturing footprint for better workflow. We should be able to add one or two more Fadal mills once the construction is finished.” Adding machines is something Tony has become accustom to. “We’ve replaced or added five new Fadal mills all in the last three years,” tells Tony. “Our go to machines are the Fadal 4020 3 axis vertical mill. We also have a larger 6030, but what I like is that all my guys can run all the machines. All the programs work on all the machines. It simplifies things and gives me the flexibility to run what I need any- where in the shop.” The Fadal brand was retired for a number of years before recently being reintroduced to the industry. Tony loved how his older Fadals performed, but honestly was considering a different brand of machines to replace them. “I was still a few months away on pulling the trigger on a different brand machine,” tells Tony. “Then I heard they were coming out with a new and improved Fadal. So, I waited and spoke with the guys at All American Sales and Service. I’d bought a re- furbished machine from them before, so I was confident in what they were telling me. Well I bought one, then another and now have five.” The speed and accuracy are a big im- provement over the old machines. Tony is thrilled with his decision to stick with the brand that served him so well. “I always liked not having many issues with the older Fadal; they were a workhorse. My experience has been that the current evolution of Fadals has the same reliability that I count on. Walter Frank, Tim Consalvi and Mike Woodridge at All American have all been great to deal with on sales and service. We were one of the early adopters of the new machines and they were quick to address any issues we were having. The goal was to have a similar customer interface and they got it pretty close right off the bat. There were a few simple things like a knob turning a different direction than before, or a button that switched from left to right and now it is right to left. When your operator is used to it one way it having a change is sometimes counter productive. They addressed those type of items right away and we never really missed a beat.” One of the biggest selling points for Tony was the value. Fadals are not the most expensive nor are they the cheap- est but he feels they represent a good value for the machine