February 2012
3 posts
WatchPart II of our Nut Extraction Tutorial!
Jen is removing the wedge plunger nut. A total of 6 screws must be removed before pulling out the wedge plunger nut that contains the blank draw nut.
Remove 6 screws surrounding the wedge plunger nut.
Pull out the wedge plunger nut that contains the adapter nut.
Push the adapter nut out of the center of the wedge plunger nut.
Take caution with the nut...
WatchZen Jen on the warehouse floor demonstrating how to extract a draw nut adapter from a power chuck, also known as:
draw nut
adapter nut
lock nut
[fill in the blank]
The first step in the process is removing the adapter plate off the back of the chuck.
We hope you enjoy our very FIRST demo video.
Chief Chucker Annie is narrating and hopes that all our readers understand the work flow to...
Nut Extraction
Ever wonder how to remove a draw nut from a power chuck?
Inspiration for today’s blog post comes from a customer in Colombia who needed assistance removing the adapter nut.
Jen and I responded with a photo tutorial on removing a draw nut, using a smaller Strong N204 4”-diameter power chuck for reference.
Turn the power chuck body upside-down so that it’s sitting on its soft...
January 2012
1 post
Winter Wonderland
Adopting a small family business means adopting certain traditions.
Traditions I uphold from Hank’s tenure:
typewriter & facscimile machine: I feel like a dinosaur typing away on my electric typewriter, but I love the fact that it’s a lost art. I never charge friends for using my fax machine, but usually it’s just entertaining seeing what police reports get lost on their...
December 2011
1 post
Happy Holidays!
Back in 2008, I went full-time at Best Chuck and experienced one of the absolute worst recessions in history. Our phone almost stopped ringing, customers would call simply to chat and send test faxes around the country, to see if our fax machines had died…those were tough times. Needless to say, I had a lot of free time and hand-wrote 35 greeting cards to our “best” customers for...
November 2011
5 posts
Finito!
Done, done, and done. I am so proud of my two warehouse worker bees, Russ and Daniel, for hustling through the Gigantic Pancake Pile. In less than 2 days time, they tore apart the MESS that I decimated pancake-diving for a 20” adapter plate, and turned it into a happy pallet of adapter plates.
These adapter plates arrived from the factory in “boxes” cobbled together by smaller...
Dinosaur Surprise
This adorably melancholy dinosaur magically appeared on our shop window sometime this summer. I love how cheerful it is and how its green spots complement our Best Chuck/AutoStrong colors.
We are changing up the storefront display, keeping it fresh as always! I will unveil our brand new window display next week after we are done tweaking it. And yes, the dinosaur stays.
Pancake Pile...mmm!
Between juggling 3 employees and my own workload, I like to play with steel.
This week’s goal is to reorganize the pallet rack under my office loft, and that includes a pallet full of GIGANTIC pancakes. In “machinist-speak”, those are adapter plates that mount power chucks to machines.
Why pancakes? I started calling “adapter plates” pancakes after all my temp...
Epic fAIL
Everyone loves a good yarn (my favorite is Louisa Harding’s wool and alpaca yarn in Thistle) so here’s a tale about last week’s delivery of our ocean freight shipment.
Not only did our 2 pallets of 56 crates arrive unannounced and unscheduled, we had two shady truck drivers that did not appear to know what they were doing.
I don’t care what planet you’re from...
Forklift Monday
Forking 1,800 lbs of steel is a wonderful way to return to the office/warehouse after a fantastic weekend. I volunteered at the info booth at the 4th Annual SF Bicycle Expo, hosted by our awesome neighbors rideSFO.
Thank GOODNESS I had both Jen and Russ in-warehouse to help get this gargantuan monster out the door. We had to do a pallet swap and some ingenious wrapping to stabilize the load.
...
October 2011
2 posts
Details, Details
Whenever my phone or email starts hopping, I know it’s time to sort out details to secure purchase orders and please our customers.
I often liken my work to detective work. To prepare a quote, we need to figure out what machining needs and machine our customers are using. To specify adapter plate sizes, we need to know what the spindle mount is.
One thing my father and founder of Best...
September 2011
8 posts
EEEK A MOUSE!
What’s a better way of starting your morning than finding a mouse in your warehouse?
I’d rather sell 20 sets of Strong N224 24” 3-jaw power chucks.
This mouse was scurrying to and fro among the chuck crates and the cylinder crates. It eventually made its way to our kitchen where it said hi to Jen. It scuttled under the fridge and hid there until I started poking around with a...
Working Weekend
People always ask what it’s like running a small business. My hours are long but flexible. How does that work out logically?
I operate during standard business hours 7:00am to 4:00pm PST on weekdays. My vendors are on Asia time, which means when I’m closing shop in sunny West Oakland, they’re schlepping to work 15 hours ahead in Taiwan.
I’ve streamlined my workload so...
Everyone Needs a Role Model
Today’s post is dedicated to our Best Chuck website designer, and occasional warehouse pirate wench, Angie Chang.
As my big sister, I’ve always looked up to her. She was always the smart one, nose in a book, trying to figure out life and how things work. I like to take credit for her early web design days, when I forced her to learn how to code a website for our high school’s...
Mellow Mondays
Last week was a bit tiring returning to the office after 1.5 weeks of spectacular vacation time. This Monday was made easier by a wonderful weekend of yachting around the Sacramento river delta with new and old friends.
The captain gave me a chance to drive the yacht! Driving a majestic yacht upriver against a beautiful sunset backdrop was an exhilarating and rejuvenating experience. Sharing...
Staying Strong
“A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.”
A fantastic little ditty from my girl Eleanor Roosevelt. Ever since my teen years, this quote has powered me through any and all obstacles life has thrown me.
Today’s fun story about Chuckland, Oakland was our annual commercial fire inspection. The Oakland Fire Department sent a few...
Fork it out
Thrilling adventures in West Oakland = renting a forklift from Komatsu and driving it down the bike lane on Mandela Parkway.
Thankfully, the freight carrier was only an hour late past its pickup window. Jen was raging to drive the forklift. We already had it parked on the sidewalk as a lawn ornament.
Voila! Practically effortless and easy. And yes, the warehouse looks much bigger without a...
Back and on massive attack
After a whirlwind 1.5 weeks out-of-office, I have returned to the coop and am pleased as punch at how my employee and dear friend Jen has handled the business. As expected, she dealt with all shipments with grace and professionalism, and was super dextrous at getting over any speed bumps. Also, Henry handled all sales calls remotely from Los Angeles, so this was a wonderful joint effort to ensure...
August 2011
2 posts
Wrapping It Up
Apologies for the lack of posts going up this week. I have been inundated with some ridiculous drama involving taxes. Being cooped up in my loft upstairs while my merry worker bees chucks are slaving away makes me grumpy. Being embroiled in knee-deep paperwork and punching away at a calculator makes for a long week.
Beagle with bellpepper hat? Priceless. My mind is wiped clean and stress-free...
Taking Care of Nuts
Our nut polishing station has graduated to greasing and packaging. Nic is greasing, Jen is wrapping, and Herb is on quality control. Even Hue left her label-making station to help ensure all the parts are double-wrapped and air-tight to perfection.
I love how the warehouse is shaping up! The crates look beautiful aligned against the wall. The pallet rack is the tough part — getting...
July 2011
15 posts
Nut-valanche = Cat-astrophe
Still powering through Project Draw Nut. Digging the Harry Potter glasses on my weekly cute animal photo from I Can Has Cheezburger:
Dealing with solvents and grease all week, we’ve had quite a few “nut-valanches”.
Nut-valanche (noun) : nut/ve - lanch
Definition: Avalanche caused by over-stacking draw nuts.
Nut-valanches are loud, cause dings, and can be...
Halfway there
We are halfway through with the Draw Nut Cleaning Project. One pallet of threaded draw nuts, one bottle of solvent, two wire brushes, dozens of towels, two temp workers and many hours of nut scrubbing later, we are now moving on to polishing our overstock of blank nuts.
We also ordered 4 gallons of Starrett M1 Oil, thanks to Joel at Worldwide Chuck for the great tip. I can’t wait to have...
Hunting for the best nut grease
Looking for the best methods to preserve our stock of precision finished steel alloy parts.
Here are a few leads/recommendations that our friends and customers generated:
Electrolyte Nickel
Olive Oil
CRC SP350
Zinc plating
White Lithium Grease
Starrett M1 Oil
It’s going to be a fun week figuring out the bestest, greasiest, preservation method!
Zen Jen
It’s about time to reveal who my new hire is. :) Please meet Jen, my good friend and employee who will be working with me through September.
She started working for Best Chuck just last week and already, the office/warehouse has been turned upside down. Storefront windows — so clean you can see through ‘em. Kitchen — sparkling clean. Coffee — brewed fresh by 7a.m....
Team Draw Nut
Today’s adventure involved setting up an assembly line for polishing and cleaning my threaded draw nut stock.
As much as I love Bay Area weather, I suppose precision finished steel does not love it as much. There has been some light rust patches on some of our surplus stock and the time has come for spring summer cleaning.
From left to right, we have Nick washing nuts with a wire brush...
Inventory Day in Chuck Land
Brought in a few more hands to help receive and unload our latest ocean shipment.
The warehouse is brimming with chucks…and joy.
Shipping out chucks is always fun. Many thanks to today’s chuck team: JEN, Herb, Bama, and Nick! :) Thanks to these folks, I can relax and enjoy my weekend.
By popular demand...
More Molly photos, pending arrival of our upcoming ocean shipment delivery this Friday. Things have been heating up in West Oakland! A trip down memory lane with a photo of our former Santa Fe Springs warehouse.
Several customers who have visited the Best Chuck website have expressed concern about the dog’s “condition”. To put the rumor mill to rest:
The dog is fine.
The...
Custom Nut Job
Two bucks to the first person who can identify which chuck this custom draw nut belongs to.
The four dimples on the shoulder of the draw nut are completely unique and different from that of an AutoStrong draw nut. The slots for the chuck wrench handle are also questionably shaped. The question of the day…which chuck does this lonely nut belong to?
Master of the universe
On the lower level display of the Strong N204 power chuck resting on the 15” hard jaws, you will find a set of 5” master jaws displayed on its wedge plunger.
Master jaws are one of the most important components of a hydraulic power chuck assembly. Plus, they are shiny and pretty, like the rest of the steel we stock. I like master jaws because their look and feel is much different...
Hazards of the trade
Apologies for the gore but it’s always exciting when I sustain a work-related injury.
We are hustling and shuffling our warehouse around to make room for the inbound ocean shipment. I was storing some AutoStrong catalogs under the kitchen sink and sliced my forehead open on a stack of catalogs sitting on top of the sink.
There you go. Lesson learned?
Look before you squat. Look before...
Hiring now! Join Team Chuck.
Best Chuck is hiring a unique individual for a job that requires heavy lifting and light computer work. This ain’t a beauty contest, it’s a warehouse. You WILL get dirty on the job (machine grease), and there is no escaping paperwork.
This is initially a part-time position with full-time potential.
HEAVY LIFTING:
Organizing inventory, labeling, and general clean-up around the...
