How it's made

I had a few people ask about seeing more of the process, so I thought I'd post some random photos from time to time. I also had someone ask what the "chips" were that I referred to in my last post. Chips are what machinist's call the little bits that get shaved off by the actual machining. While sawing isn't really machining (or is it?) the shot below is the best "chip shot" that I had on hand. This is after cutting off a batch of raw stock to length. That's a lot of chips in case you were wondering.

The deck of my chop saw..the lip on the pan is about 2" deep. 

 After all of the parts get cut to length they get piled into boxes and it's on to the next step. The saw cut edges are quite sharp and have "burrs" on them. I need to debur one end before it goes into the CNC mill so the parts sit nice and square. Otherwise, the burrs would make them tip one way or the other.

Cutting the stock to length is not my favorite job. Earplugs and annoyed neighbors required