Sat down with our naval architects yesterday to talk about how we’ll build various “weird” micro-panels that occur in our (and most other) ship designs. It’s not just about automating assembly, though. The first question is always: “starting from raw plate, what operations are

One thing we'll never cheap out on at Valstad Shipworks: good monitors and good chairs. Tables, however...

And they say shipbuilding is a dirty business…

It may not be tomorrow, but I vow to beat this at Valstad Shipworks.

When you sneak into the office late at night to read textbooks.

“But isn’t hardware more capital intensive?”

Fun fact: magnets can screw up your weld. The weld on the left suffered "arc blow" because it was too close to our magnetic gripper.

Responses: “Of course magnets affect metals!” Scientists debate, engineers just try it and see what happens.

Just ordered our first part from sendcutsend: a mount for attaching a laser line scanner to our Fanuc M-900. Jim Belosic (SendCutSend) I’m expecting good things ;)

Who are the crane people on X? I want to talk to you.

Socialists perpetually claim that raising taxes will increase affordability, and perpetually the exact opposite happens. It’s like every generation needs to rediscover that “sounds good” and “actually works” are disjoint.

Weird fact: Messerschmitt, the German aircraft manufacturer responsible for the WWII-era Bf 109 fighter, dipped its toes into 3-wheeled bubble cars when it was barred from making aircraft. It later became part of Airbus. If you squint it *kinda* looks like an A320…

However fast we think we’re building, we need to build MUCH faster.

One of our goals at Valstad Shipworks: no traditional cranes. Overhead cranes are slow and difficult to automate. You need someone on the joystick, and one or more riggers to secure & guide material into position. Rigidity is the solution. Conveyors, robotic gantries with a rigid

You have to respect the crap out of family-owned German industrial companies like Schunk or Messer. They're the best at the world at one specific thing and refuse to sell out to private equity.

Which companies are America's "hidden champions"? Criteria: * Number one, two, or three in the global market, or number one on the company's continent, determined by market share * Revenue below $5 billion * Low level of public awareness