It is great to make things! I find it very satisfying to spend time working and then be able to hold the finished work in my hands. We made it to work today in spite of the very slick roads. I took my oldest son, Austin, with me. After checking that everything in the shop was working we went back to Tool & Die to get started on the Kick Plate.

Steve had already spot faced the areas where the carriage bolts will go, so we set up and broached the holes.

Resulting in nice square holes for the carriage bolts to seat into:

Then we set-up the piece in the Wire EDM, here is Steve and Austin indicating the part in to make sure it is square:

The EDM uses high voltage delivered through a very tiny wire to actually vaporize the metal along the cutting path. Here is the wire threaded through the first start location:

Once the program was loaded and checked, we started cutting.

Here is the first section cut out:

And the second section removed:

And the piece (held by Steve) after all three cuts were complete;

A little aluminum wheel polish and we are ready to go to the platers:

Monday I will send it out to be hard color anodized orange. This will tone down the part a little, match the color scheme of the cab, and help keep it from getting scratched as easy.