Shop profile: The art of parts

By CNC Software Inc.

One of the laments of machinists is that part designers don’t always consider whether their creations actually can be made. Brian Ross, founder of Form Factory Inc. in Portland, Oregon, embraced that thought and turned it on its head. He created his company to cater to clients in a variety of industries that all need one thing: high-precision prototypes.

“People who are developing new products come to us, and we help them prototype and invent their ideas,” he said. “Largely, we’re just working as a piece of the puzzle to help get a product out into the real world — out of somebody’s brain.”

To achieve this, Ross tries to channel the thinking process of a part designer and then marry it to the thinking process of a machinist. In doing so, he has carved a unique niche for his company.

Becoming a fixture in the prototyping market wasn’t originally part of his plan. When he accepted a position at a job shop before his junior year of college, he thought that it would be only a summer job that he easily could forget about come fall. Four years later, he was still at the same shop and had worked his way up to running its first CNC machine.

Brian Ross founded Form Factory in 2004. Image courtesy of CNC Software

“After about four years, I started realizing there’s more than just cutting pockets and holes out of a sheet,” Ross said. “At that time, I had never flipped a piece of stock over and machined the other side or done multiple operations or setups from different orientations. I wanted to know more, so I put myself through night school for the Mastercam certification courses.”

Mastercam certification helped him land jobs at multiple prototyping companies.

“I worked at four different really strong prototyping firms very similar to Form Factory,” Ross said, “and I think I got enough from each of them to put together my own place after about 10 years.”

The decade he had spent learning terminology, processes, marketing and funding made his transition to business owner that much easier. When he founded his company in 2004, he bought a new, built-to-order Haas machine tool and a seat of Mastercam, and he’s been growing his business ever since.

“We pride ourselves on always being on time and always having happy customers,” Ross said, “but sometimes that comes at the cost of making a part for the third time or working excessive overtime or even pulling an occasional all-nighter.”

A Creative Approach

Seventeen years later, he has built a respectable reputation for Form Factory and expanded his team to include a model-maker, a maintenance helper, a bookkeeper and three CNC machines. His approach to serving customers focuses on quality and ingenuity, not necessarily speed.

“A lot of shops really are geared toward pallet changers and automation and ripping through material as fast as possible,” Ross said. “We really specialize in low volume and creativity.”

Brian Ross holding one of his creations. Image courtesy of CNC Software

From 80% to 95% of Form Factory’s jobs involve machining one to five copies of a prototype. Attention to detail is vital in these situations; tolerances are often within 0.0254 mm (0.001″).

“Some projects, we’re doing iteration after iteration trying to get a product to market,” Ross said. “Sometimes we’re only doing one little mechanical detail, but we’ll do it again and again to get some functionality to work just right. Then that’s incorporated into the design, and ultimately we can make a hard model that looks just like the real thing.”

Early in design exploration, a basic form factor model frequently is machined out of high-density urethane foam or tooling board, which can be fragile and difficult to work with. Every aspect of prototyping calls for great accuracy, so he has organized his own collection of resources to enable this. For example, Rowley, Massachusetts-based Harvey Performance Co. LLC’s Harvey Tool and Helical Solutions brands provide carbide endmills and other cutting tools that allow him to turn his products into art.