Curtis Gress

My duties at KMM were to improve programs and efficiency, and move into a manager position. I programmed, setup, and ran Mori Sieki, and Yasda vertical mills. I then moved into the lathe department. Learning to program and setup CNC lathes and Mill Turn machines. My position placed me on the mill turns, programming, setting up, and running production parts. They are equipped with bar feeders and parts catchers. So unattended operations was a key goal of every part. Adjusting feeds, speeds, monitoring tool life, and attention to detail as parts come out for inspection. Keeping a clean and organized work area to prevent FOD.

This was a customer of Cycle Logic Motorsports, when they were shutting down their business, Roaring Toyz bought the machines and brought me on board. My duty was to setup and get the new machine shop up and running. So we had the two Fryer verticals, acquired a Mori horizontal with a pallet changer, and a new Mazak vertical machine. This is when I put myself through Mastercam University and got certified in Mastercam. So here I was managing, designing, programming, setting up, and running 4 machines, with one part time helper.

This was a small shop with 2 Fryer vertical mills. I started designing, and programming high performance motorcycle parts. Setup and ran parts meeting quality standards for production runs, and reducing cycle times, to get the most out of each day. The parts had to look good and be dimensionaly in tolerance.

Programmed with Mastercam, setup, and ran Mori Sieki vertical mills, 40 and 50 taper machines. Worked with others to ensure production was efficient, and monitored tool life. There was alot of plunge roughing, and insert drilling, tool life was very important to keep tool cost down.

Hired straight out of high school as a welder.

Progressed into running manual bridgports and lathes. Took the opertunity to go to CNC Training, and moved on to the CNC Dept.

Setup and operated vertical Mazak and Fadal machines. Started training on Surfcam to get more experience with the whole cycle of a part from print to finish part.