Shop Holmes

[GoatFarmRC]

I'm really glad I purchased your products even more now. I had not seen this thread, good luck with all things!

[JohnRobHolmes]

Many thanks! I'm just doing what I love, and luckily make a living for myself and 8 employees now.

A vid of today's action for folks that like a good visual.

https://youtu.be/Wc1fCC_R6cU

[BigSki]

Been a while since you've posted, I hope that all is well with you and HH.

PS- did the hobby house get finished?

[JohnRobHolmes]

Been one helluva year, that's for sure! Mostly rearrangement for efficiency and fine tuning the inventory cycles at the shop. I'm watching my daughter 3 days a week right now as well, so time is a little tighter than normal.

It's funny that my last post stated the 8 employees. Castle's entrance into the crawling market affected sales enough that I just had to lay off two. Put a damper on the pace ,which is to be expected with the largest company entering into the crawling market. Officially my first downturn in 12 years of business, so that wasn't too bad of a run going up! Just a hump in the road, although really a bummer to have to lay off people. It's the first time I've really felt like an adult.



Hobby house is pretty much done. Floors all laid, walls all painted, trim down, bathroom done. Just needs a little kitchen work and some drywall patching at this point. Got the yard squared away to make the city happy, because somebody didn't like all that rock being dumped.

Last hobby house vid.
https://youtu.be/GGtUjTL2kRc




Now the hobby house is being utilized fully as a studio
https://youtu.be/BcuhdkCucGA

[BigSki]

someones been busy, looks great ! "landscaping" courses

[84yoda]

Dang, that really sucks you had to lay off 2 employees. Thanks castle, LOL. That cheaper slate motor is the reasoning!! Boo.

[JohnRobHolmes]

I can track the sales kink to the week the slate was released. Good thing it's pretty meh of a motor, my two pole crawls as good. It's almost like they don't crawl and simply reduced the detent torque as much as possible. I wonder who gave them that idea Money talks though, most folks will go for cheap.

[JatoTheRipper]

It's a bummer, for sure, that you had to lay off people. That would also make me feel like an adult. Not fun.

Castle did an awesome job with the X series of ESCs. The Auxiliary Wire is fantastic. Any plans to add the X series to your lineup? I'm not sure if Castle would be so keen on giving you their latest and greatest.

The motors, on the other hand, seem just like a me-too. It's funny to listen to the Castle diehards spew about how great Castle motors are when you know damn well they haven't tried anything else. They aren't the most popular because they are the best. They are the most popular because they are cheap and offer a decent value.

[CM9000]

yeah, people do for cheap. what they wont realize is that there isn't enough comm on their tater, and will end up spending more on replacing the slate more so than often.

yeah, I watch your youtube videos.

[svt923]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Castle did an awesome job with the X series of ESCs. The Auxiliary Wire is fantastic. Any plans to add the X series to your lineup? I'm not sure if Castle would be so keen on giving you their latest and greatest.

I remembered this from another thread:

Originally Posted by JohnRobHolmes

Maybe you weren't at the meeting, but I asked for the AUX channel switch during my first OEM meeting with castle in 2008. The micro that was used in the sidewinder (was in proto) , BRXL (to be developed), and mamba max didn't have enough pins I was told. This was also when I was shown the original Sensored X proto that was 4 boards stacked in a little brick. It has been on all submitted product requests from Holmes Hobbies, and denied every single time. Even denied after the X line was released. Of course y'all just got back to me this month about offering the feature in an OEM product. I forget if you were there for the conference call a few months back. I mostly talked with Linda and Patrick.

Super happy customer here, really fantastic service. Glad to know y'all have been paying attention.

[JohnRobHolmes]

There have been some communication issues with Castle that strained our OEM relationship, but we have redefined things and are back to good communication now. Might be getting an Aux wire function on a future ESC, who knows



Just wanted to pop in for a random update though. I have 7 3d printers now, three of them work pretty hard. Need to clean off the mill for some custom motor work in the aerospace community. The motor production equipment has been holding up well the past year, although I did some work to the resistance brazer that made it operate a lot smoother. Have two motor winding stations now too. One for my full time winder and one for me to make Magnums on.



Today is winding magnum armatures, 38 turn three slots. The extra diameter really gives them a lot of punch.



Business has been holding up. This year will be another reduction of sales, but only because the first 4 months of 2017 were balling hard. We have been steady state since I cut down employees.

[durok]

That's good news!

Wanted to let you know that my 2-years-in-the-making Bomber build hit the trails yesterday with a Revolver 540 1800kv on 4S and it was kickin' ass and takin' names...

Just prior to the build completion I contacted your shop with my settings for the Mamba X attached to the email, asking for input...

Justin pointed me to your "Low-speed control" YouTube vid and that allowed me to make the best of the motor/ESC combo.

Absolutely lovin' the outrunner, it's SO smooth, and the Aux Wire feature is working perfectly with a click of CH3 on my FlySky GT3-C radio...

...I tested it with a reverse climb up a large river-rock boulder and when it was nose-down on the side of it I let go of the throttle and the rig just stuck there.

Tried it again with another click of the switch and it just coasted down to the bottom.

[JohnRobHolmes]

Nice. I run my revolver at 20% drag most of the time. It's almost mind boggling how good it works sensorless.

[JohnRobHolmes]

Fired up the mill for a custom aerospace job. Needed to modify some shafts, so I turned the mill into a grinder. Been a while since I used the mill, feels good to do some machining after being without the big lathe for 18 months.

[JohnRobHolmes]

I hit the dims on the nose, the second attempt The motor keys into a planetary gear reduction.


Might have to convert a taig into a grinder for good. Super handy.

[JohnRobHolmes]

Whilst on the road of working on my smaller machines, I've decided to convert one of the Taig's to ER32 collets. I didn't get rid of a lot of my tooling from the big lathe, and everything was ER32. Since I have 30 of them collets from 2mm to 20mm plus a lot of imperial sizes, might as well use them!


It's been really nice firing up the little machines again. Got me hot on making some testing equipment again. I do need a full function servo dyno and motor dyno still. Since most of it will be custom made at first, I'll be well served to spend some time cleaning up and updating my machines.



Not my machine, but an ER32 kit that is offered:

[Rekreant]

Originally Posted by JohnRobHolmes

There have been some communication issues with Castle that strained our OEM relationship, but we have redefined things and are back to good communication now. Might be getting an Aux wire function on a future ESC, who knows



Just wanted to pop in for a random update though. I have 7 3d printers now, three of them work pretty hard. Need to clean off the mill for some custom motor work in the aerospace community. The motor production equipment has been holding up well the past year, although I did some work to the resistance brazer that made it operate a lot smoother. Have two motor winding stations now too. One for my full time winder and one for me to make Magnums on.



Today is winding magnum armatures, 38 turn three slots. The extra diameter really gives them a lot of punch.



Business has been holding up. This year will be another reduction of sales, but only because the first 4 months of 2017 were balling hard. We have been steady state since I cut down employees.

Is the one on the right machine wound?

[JohnRobHolmes]

Hand wound, but 5 slot so it isn’t as pretty pattern.

[JohnRobHolmes]

Got the ER32 headstock in, so the little taig bed needed cleaning! She's been sitting in the corner for a while now collecting dust while the bigger machines got the attention.

I think I'll try to build one up to lathe armatures. It's a lot tricker than one would imagine! I've tried before and it's tough to equal the utility of purpose built armature lathes.

[JohnRobHolmes]

After renting for 7 years, the owners of the shop have decided to sell it to me. Huzzah!! Industrial zoned!! 500 amp 3 phase service! Two miles from home! And I’ll double my floor space without much increase to overhead since the owners are moving their stuff out of the far side bays and the sale price is affordable. What to do with another 1200sq feet of open space? Bike shop? Move the fab shop over? Build myself an office?

Pretty damn good news. I was ready to move out and buy another spot if they weren’t budging. I don’t like renting when I could be building equity.