We got the first clean cut in A2 today with the custom tool I made for this job.

That was the wall for a while. Harder material. Less forgiveness. More ways to expose a weak setup.

Today the stack finally lined up. Tool, machine, and process all did their part.

A lot of that traces back to Kevin.

He has spent months on the machine work that usually stays invisible. Alignment. Rigidity. Chasing small errors until they stop showing up in the cut.

Nothing flashy. Just changes that actually moved the process.

You could see that in the cut right away. Not just that the toolpath finished, but that the whole operation felt controlled. Less forcing it. More like the machine was finally telling the truth.

I struggled with how far away this kept feeling. Slow progress. Unclear causes. Then one run makes the stack visible.

This one belongs to the prep as much as the cut. The tool design mattered. Kevin’s machine work mattered. The patience mattered.

Kevin has been an awesome teammate through all of it 👍

What changed today was not luck. It was accumulated work paying off.

On paper, it is simple: first successful A2 cut with the fancy tool. On the bench, it is a real step forward.

Heres how the m=0.13 looks for the wheel and pinion, this is the mainspring barrel teeth