Progress Report Addendum

A couple of other things in the manufacturing section...

We've gotten a number of other new tools. These include a shop air
compressor, a 4x6 horizontal/vertical bandsaw, and a 40" 3-in-1 sheet
metal machine (roll, press brake, and shear). Dave Masten has been
showing Dave Weinshanker and myself how to use it and how to get along
with sheet metal. Along with the shop air, we've gotten a number of very
tasty air tools, including a die grinder, a drill, a nibbler, and a body
saw. 

Also, the milling machine appears to have a problem with responding
correctly to a spindle stop command in a program. Basically, when the
controller issues a command like spindle stop, it waits until it gets
confirmation before proceeding to the next line of the program. However,
the rpm sensor on the spindle, while it normally reports correctly, does
not report a spindle stop correctly. Therefore, when a spindle stop
command is included in a program (in order to, for example, change
tools), the spindle stops and the program hangs. I have developed a work
around using the programming interface, but it is not a happy thing.