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32 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST August/September 2018 T wo machinists from Hughes Aircraft founded As- tro Machine Co in 1965 at the height of the space race. Everything Astro related was cool, from Astro the cartoon dog to Astronauts. Apollo 11 was still a few years off, but the space industry was booming in So-Cal, so Jim Vel- lonakis and Bill Skintauy set up shop in Hawthorne, Ca. Fifty years later Astro Machine is still in Hawthorne and is in the second generation of ownership. Jim’s son Stas Vellonakis grew up in the shop and took over running Astro in 1985. Astro’s core focus has remained the same over the years, but recently the precision machine shop has added the value of wire EDM into the mix. As their name implies Astro Machine Co does quite a bit of work for the space industry. They specialize in the satellite, defense and medical industries. “We are 100% a job shop,” tells Astro’s plant manager Allen Boothe. “We quote the order and if we win the bid find a way to make money manufacturing it. Astro has never had a product of our own, we are a contract machining company and always have been.” Allen began work- ing at Astro while he was still in school and 30 years later he is head of manufacturing. His decades of experience make him a key player when it comes time to buy new equipment. Up until 4 years ago Astro Machine Co was a milling focused production facility. They got their first Fadal tool changing CNC mill in the late 80’s and have stuck with the Fadal brand through the years. “We have 11 spindles of milling,” details Allen. “All our mills are Fadal 3 axis machines some with 4th and 5th axes trunnion ta- bles. Sizes vary from machine to machine but our largest is 80” x 30” and can hold 30 tools. Having all the same brand machin- ing centers makes things a lot easier. We keep machines for a long time so when we began our search for a wire EDM longev- ity and a respected brand were right at the top of our wish list.” Astro Machine Co purchased their first Fanuc Robocut A- C400ib iMed wire EDM back in 2014 from Methods Machine Tool and recently added a second machine to their production line. “We did our due diligence,” describes Allen. “I was familiar with the Fanuc Robocut because an outside EDM vendor we used had one. By familiar I mean I knew the brand and some of the capabilities, but by no means did we know much about EDM machining. Number one for us is having coverage and the Fanuc EDM machines offer us a wide set of capabilities to support the mills. The wire EDM lends itself to very small radii and high aspect ratios. Rather than continuing to send EDM work out we decided to buy one. We used it so much that we relocated our lunch table to find space for a second machine.” With no EDM experience Allen went to Method’s week long training program and figured it out from there. The train- ing Methods offered was a valuable tool and gave him a solid ASTRO MACHINE TAKES OFF WITH ROBOCUT EDM’S ASTRO MACHINE Article & Photos by Sean Buur Shop manager Allen Boothe and his two sons Justin and Conrad