Gray Gremlins.mov

YouTube via davidryle — June 02, 2010 — "Sometimes machinery have ghosts, other times the little buggers are more easily understood.

Synthesizers played are:
Arrick Robotics modular
Ensoniq FIZMO
Clavia Nord Lead 2X
Korg Kaossilator 3
GForce Mtron
XLN Audio Addictive Drums

Guitar is Gibson Les Paul Special.

Video editing and mangling done in Apple Final Cut Express. Music recorded into Steinberg Cubase 4. Robotic monkeys with cymbals are helpful drummers in case you need them.

The machinery is a Gray vertical turning systems (VTS) CNC lathe with a CamSoft custom control by Texagon Industries. A General Electric M1050 control with a punch tape reader and a General Numeric tape puncher/reader.

The tape punch technology is many decades old but still reliable. It is unique in that not many working CNC factories still use this out dated media. We still have it in case of a failure with the normal PC based part program storage and retrieval. Recently I had to use this as a backup method and I made a video of it for posterity.

The Gray machine was the last of a series of super heavy-duty massive turret lathes, built after Warner & Swasey bought them out. There are only a hand full of these giant lathes still in use. The one we have is currently in a state of rebuild and retrofit with newer drives and controls, but this video displays it at a time when the PC based control and older glitchy servo drives (HiAk) were running. The machine was entirely unpredictable and would do very unexpected things. A very dangerous and nerve racking enterprise if you consider a 2,000 pound steel part ejecting out of the glass door at a high velocity. Not many machinists are willing to operate such a hazardous machine. The operator is very skilled (and brave) to perform this on a daily basis. We are glad to be able to update this to a much safer machine tool.

Just a piece of history along with a few home videos of my grand daughter learning to patch a sound system. I have gremlins at home too!"