ShopSolutions Case Histories of Manufacturing Problem Solving Wolcott Design Pitches a Competitive Shutout A
sk Bob Wolcott what matters, and he’ll excitedly talk about his passion for doing jobs he finds interesting, challenging and rewarding; he has always followed that credo in his work. As the president and owner of Wolcott Design Services (Newburg, OR), he oversees the design, analysis and fabrication that his shop provides for racing, technology, outdoor equipment and other industries. From concept to creation, this small shop prides itself on having all of these capabili- ties under one roof, creating a fluid transi- tion between design and production while offering increased part quality at a reduced cost and lead time. This is Wolcott’s second time at bat in what has been a doubleheader career. He started out as a Major League pitcher for the Seattle Mariners. After retiring from base- ball, he studied mechanical engineering at Oregon State while working an internship at Intel. Running a milling machine initially began as a hobby for Wolcott, but he soon learned that the work he enjoyed doing on his manual machine could be the start of a lucrative business opportunity. He opened Wolcott Design Services while handling contract work for Intel. As the business began to grow, he found himself manufacturing the very parts he was designing for customers like Gerber, PCC Structurals, Bridge City Tool Works and Rothsport Racing. Today the company has hit its stride making prototype and production parts using both vertical and horizontal machin- ing centers and competing easily with larger shops. “For a small-size company like us to offer the kind of robust manu- facturing capabilities and high-performance horizontal and vertical machining centers that you may not even see in some mid-size manufacturing facilities, it shows our dedication in emphasizing quality,” said Wolcott. Wolcott operates his shop on his own land, which means he has low overhead and routinely passes that cost sav- ing along to his customers. The company had been using
three vertical machining centers to produce its parts, but as business grew, Wolcott found himself in a situation where he needed to add more capacity and flexibility without adding more floor space.
Bob Wolcott knows what it takes to be a Major Leaguer and has built his company on high-performance Makino vertical and horizontal machining centers, first for precision prototype work and now for production.
“We needed more speed than our vertical machining centers could provide—faster processing, quicker change- overs and improved workflow management,” said Wolcott. “It was too time-consuming to take down a big production job in order to squeeze in a smaller prototype job. We knew that a horizontal machining center could offer more parts per fixture, offline setups, higher-volume tool magazines and consolidated operations with multiface machining. By em- ploying these capabilities, we would be able to run produc- tion parts and prototypes in the same setup while preventing spindle downtime.” Wolcott chose the a51nx horizontal machining center from Makino Inc. (Mason, OH) for his operation. “The 40-taper spindle is extremely rigid and robust and has allowed us to expand our versatility and the variety of parts that we produce. The 14,000-rpm spindle gives us the range of speed neces- sary to machine a variety of materials and features. Whether we are hogging out material or producing a pristine finish, the
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