Vacuum part holding: in-house work holding design
Our Kern Pyramid Nano was a custom built machine: the vacuum holding was added on as a special 'watchmaking' accessory. And, until now, we simply had no need to use it. However, for the past couple of months Josh has been 'secretly' working on a vacuum fixture prototype which he showed me today. I got a lesson on air/oil separation, a Kern custom built compressor and pump, the new 9 mainplate holder - down to asymmetric seal. The first prototype is working fine, and he is now ready to scale it up.
I've learned a lot – and, once again, it was obvious that neither a watchmaker nor a machinist can make a watch. It is a collaboration and collective effort of two completely different trades and tradesmen that creates a little miracle of mechanical engineering.
Life is not fair: it is always the watchmaker who takes the credit for it all; it is his name on the dial - where a great deal of credit should really go to the clever, hard-working CNC machinist behind the scene.
Congrats to all machinists - be proud and keep working hard- you are priceless!
