Supporting Our Customers Is A Key Priority.
IMTS2012 update
There is a familiar question looming around Royal Master last week. It is the very basic “where are we at with …..” This could be anything from a sub assembly for a feeder for the show to the status of our new booth. Regardless of what the topic is, the answer is typically, “pretty good, but we are waiting on X”
X is usually a singular part for a feeder, a vendor who took a few extra days of vacation or we have everything and are just waiting for it to be put together. When we return in full force next week from vacation, we will have most everyone at Royal putting something together for the show or preparing a small but important task.
Many of you may remember Brianne, our intern who made her blogging debut two years ago. Now going into her sophomore year of college, she is back for another summer with us. Her responsibilities have increased as now she is just not handling my budget and some pre-show promotions and database management, but she is now responsible for our leads that we get from the show.
Our Booth 6646.com will be back, and we are currently working with Creative Thunder Design (www.creativethunderdesign.com )to put the finishing touches on it before we go live with our 2012 version. It will have all of our details on the show, what we are doing in our booth as well as other projects that we have done this year, all updated for 2012. If you have anything that you want to see, let me know.
Also two years ago Arnold our Head programmer made his Arnolds World Debut. Last weekend he SUCCESSFULLY completed an Iron Man triathlon. 2 mile swim, 112 miles on a bike, and 26.2 mile run. I will be talking with him to make a blog posting of his experiences. Congratulations!
What I did on my Summer Vacation
Summer vacation this year came with a few unexpected surprises, twists and turns. My daughter and I drove out to visit a friend of ours in Kansas. Chris and I grew up together , restoring cars as we got older, and lucky he made a career out of teaching others to restore classic automobiles. This program at McPherson college ( www.Mcpherson.edu) boasts a world class restoration program with sponsors such as Jay Leno and Hagerty Insurance, as well as spots on ESPN and a few classic car programs on Cable.
As I went through their shop and Chris gave me a tour I noticed a Fadal, Bridgeports, lathes of various types, and other metal and wood working equipment. I was impressed with their program, and the quality of workmanship that they do on these cars. Currently they are working on a 1915 Pierce Arrow, 1908 Holsman, 1929 Stutz Blackhawk Phaeton, 1928 Franklin, 1966 Mustang Fastback, 1957 Cadillac, 1953 Studebaker, 1950 Mercury Convertible.
From there we visited a friend of his that had a number of older Mack Trucks from the 1920’s. He had a unrestored 7 ton Mack, and outside his shop he promised the next time we came he would fire up his oil well engine that has a 12″ bore and 18″ stroke for us.
From there My daughter and I traveled with our friend to Colorado Springs. The area was well under control with the fires subsiding, and we met other cars of the Pre 1915 vintage for a car tour. After about 400 miles in four days, on Friday 16 cars set to climb pikes peak in our cars. After 2 1/2 hours up, we found the summit in our 1912 Model T Ford and parked. Proud of ourselves to be able to climb the 19 mile highway with a 7000 vertical change in altitude, we had a lunch, and began our decent. 45 minutes later we were at the bottom safe and sound. Below is a video of the decent in various stages.
What does this have to do with Grinding and Royal Master? Not much. Why Did I write about it? It was fun to walk into others lives for a two week period, see the machines that we make in use in an educational setting, drive a car with parts that I have made in our machine shop up a really big hill, and ...
